Timing isn’t everything — but it sure helps.
A new study released Thursday by travel research app Hopper reveals that there’s an art to booking your hotel stay. “A good rule of thumb: book hotels 1-2 weeks in advance if you’re traveling to a larger, more business-travel heavy city and you’re flexible about where you stay. For vacation getaway destinations, book 2-3 months in advance to get the best prices,” Hopper reveals.
Here’s the deal: In big cities like New York City, Boston and Chicago that have a high proportion of business travelers, “hotel prices only fluctuate slightly 3-6 months in advance of check-in, then begin to drop in the 12 weeks ahead of check-in,” Hopper reveals. In these cases you can find deals last-minute but there’s a big catch: “hotels are more likely to be booked, and travelers may not be able to get the exact room or hotel they are looking for.” The sweet spot then, is one to two weeks ahead of travel.
The opposite is true in smaller cities with a higher proportion of leisure travelers, like beach towns and popular weekend getaway spots. “In these cities, the best deals are available 3-4 months in advance of check-in and prices are likely to be higher for last-minute bookers,” the Hopper study showed.
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And that’s just one of the many ways you can score a better deal on your hotel. We asked experts to share tips that go far beyond joining hotel and hotel credit card loyalty programs. Here are six.
Try the app Pruvo
This free app and site tracks price drops for your existing hotel reservation and will notify you if it finds a better price for that hotel. Here’s how it works: You book your hotel room — ensuring it’s one with a free cancellation policy — and then forward that reservation to [email protected]. If they find a better price, they’ll email you and let you rebook the room at the lower rate. (The service is free for consumers and makes money in this way: When a customer rebooks, the hotel booking site pays Pruvo a commission; Pruvo also has deals with wholesale hotel room providers and makes commissions that way.)
Be smart about when you check in
Picking the right day to start your stay can save you between 15%-47% on rates, Hopper’s analysis revealed. “In general, Sunday is the least expensive day of the week to start your stay at a hotel, and checking in on a Sunday can save travelers 19% off peak prices. Tuesday, or the middle of the week, is generally the most expensive day to check into hotels. Higher middle-of-the-week prices are especially common in cities with a high proportion of weekday business traffic,” Hopper’s report found.
Use coupons
While you may be used to dropping coupons at the grocery store, you can also find them for hotels. Jenny Smith, founder of travel blog MoveToNewZealand.net, says “truck stops and interstate rest areas are great places to find hotel coupon books. These will usually cover an entire region of the country, and they will include hotels that are looking to sell rooms.” Along those lines, look for discounts through your workplace, AAA membership and more.
Pick up the phone
“One tried and tested trick is to simply try calling the hotel and asking for a lower rate,” says Matt Baer, the founder and CEO of travel rewards firm KeyoCoin.“You’ll be amazed how often hotels, especially independent ones, are willing to offer you a lower price over the phone than they are able to openly advertise on their website. If they can’t cut the price, they’ll often throw in free breakfast, parking, or use of the spa to help sweeten the deal.”
Freddie Julius, the CEO of Tourist England, a travel information site for visitors to Britain, says he approaches the call like this: “I normally like to check room prices on both booking.com and the individual hotel website. If the prices are the same, I phone the hotel, and explain that whilst I’m planning on making a reservation with booking.com, if they can offer a better price on the phone, I will book directly with them. This strategy is often very successful.”
Look for alternatives
Consider booking a hotel in a nearby suburb or town and see if that saves you money. You may also want to compare Airbnbs to hotels. One way to do that: travel site Hipmunk allows you to search both Airbnbs and hotels in the city you’re going to so you can easily compare options.
Use Roomer
This site is a marketplace where people sell their hotel reservations if they’ve had to cancel their trip. You can sometimes score deeply discounted rooms using this site. Roomer makes money by charging the seller a fee once the room sells.
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