3 Hotel Booking Tips That You Should Know
Most of us stay at hotels at some point during our travels. Our family is on the road several weeks throughout the year and we spend many nights away from home at various hotels. We have experienced the best and the worst accommodations during our trips. I have learned three valuable tips that change the way I book my hotel stays. Use these hotel booking tips when choosing your home away from home.
Are You Really Getting The Best Price?
Travel sites have made it so easy to book hotels. It’s nice to compare rates and know that you are getting the best deal. But wait–are you getting the best deal? We ran into this problem on a trip we took to Tennessee. We booked our hotel through a popular travel site like we had always done in the past. We were proud of the money we saved–that was until we arrived at the hotel. When checking in, I asked how much a room would be if we had just booked it through the hotel. It ended up being $20 cheaper to book directly through the hotel!
This is not always the case but perhaps it’s worth remembering the next time your booking a room. You might call the hotel to double check their direct rates. If you like travel sites and apps to book hotels you should check out my favorite one. DOSH (referral link) is an easy way to save money while traveling. I book my hotels directly through the app and I get cash back with each purchase!
How Safe Are Your Belonging?
Why is it that the best life lessons are learned the hard way?! We travel with our expensive valuables–our phone, wallet, computer, tablet, camera and more. Keeping these items safe is a top priority for me. We use the safe in our hotel room to protect our valuables but what about the items left in our vehicle? During long road trips, we might bring in an overnight bag but we leave the bulk of items locked in our car. We learned the hard way that you should always ask the hotel ahead of time what type of security they have on their property. Let me explain.
Our family packed up our belongings and loaded them in our truck. We went inside to grab breakfast and to check out of our room. Just 15 minutes later we returned to find that someone had thrown a huge block of concrete through our passenger side window and stole my husband’s phone and wallet. This happened at 8:30 AM in broad daylight! The parking lot did NOT have cameras. The police told us that we were more than likely a target. Someone had watched us load our car and they knew there were no cameras. Avoid becoming a victim of theft by knowing ahead of time how serious the hotel is about security for their guests.
Late Night Reservation Mistakes
Late night road trips? Not sure when you’re going to stop for the night? Be careful when booking last minute reservations online. Double check the dates of your reservation. Hotels will tell you how common it is for people who are booking last minute reservations to accidentally book for the next night instead of the current night.
I once booked for the wrong country-it was Cambodia instead of Vietnam! It was a border town so a super easy to mistake on a site like Agoda that searches by distance.
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Oh no!! Who knew it would be easy to book a hotel in the wrong country?!
Hotels work with various companies to offer guests the chance to earn discounts, deals, and points.
That’s interesting that booking directly can be cheaper. I guess it pays to call a hotel. Also, it’s a good idea to ask hotels about being under-booked; hotels can give deals that they’d otherwise be unable to make public when under-booked.
Great article i would suggest everyone to download a app called Vtrigo Hotels and tours you can get alot off good deal using this hotel booking app, here is the link – Hotel App
I agree, booking sites make it so much easier to compare rates of stay for different hotels. I will make sure use a reputable search engine when looking into hotels on Monday. I am so happy that I found this advice, I feel so much better about this now! Thanks so much for taking the time to inform me about this.
Thank you for these hotel booking tips. I like that you suggested calling the hotel to double check their direct rates. My boyfriend and I are traveling soon, and we’ve thought about booking our hotel online. I think it would be best to call the hotel, as well, for further clarification about our booking just to avoid any mishaps.
Thanks for sharing the great article, I completely agree with your point travel sites make easy to book hotel with compare rates and gives best deal. I would like to travel soon and think about booking our hotel online.
I just wanted to thank you for these booking tips. I didn’t know that you can ask the hotel what kind of security they have. Knowing this, it sounds like it could be good to do some research about hotel security so that you can discuss it in an informative way.
I totally agree with you in that it is always a good idea to call the hotel you want to work with directly to know their rates. It is important to remember that doing some research and compare several professionals can help you find the best hotel room for your needs. We are planning on traveling to a neighboring state and need to make sure we find a good hotel room that is on the way there, so I’m glad I found your page.
Hi Marcus, thank you for your comment. We’ve learned a lot about booking hotels through the years and we are happy to share any tips or tricks we come across. Happy Travels!
Thank you for sharing this! Actually me and family have been planning for an out of the country trip. I’m thankful I saw this post before we go and search for hotels. Wishing you best!
It’s nice to know how to book a hotel room. I like how you said that booking directly through the hotel can be cheaper than anything else. We’ve never tried that, but it makes sense. Next time we travel, I’ll do that.
I’m planning on going on a vacation, so it makes sense that I would want to book a good hotel! Maybe it would be a good idea for me to ensure that I’m getting one that comes at the best possible price. I’ll be sure to look at many different hotels before I finally choose.
It sure was nice when you suggested calling the hotel to double check the price rate before booking a room. This is a tip that I will be sure to remember as we plan to go on a vacation soon. It will be nice if the hotel that my family will take interest in does charge the same price as they post on their site. Thanks!
I like how you mentioned that you will want to double check the date you are booking for, as it’s easy to book for the wrong day. My friend wants to go on a road trip this summer, so these tips will help her properly book for her hotel. I’ll be certain to share them with her.
It’s great to know this about booking a hotel. We’re wanting to travel more this year, so this will be helpful. I’ll be sure to compare a few different prices and call a few places directly, like you said.