Travel tip: how to find the lowest hotel price?

Friday newsletters always feature luxury travel contests, tips, series, or news.

Today (October 9, 2015): Travel Tip: where to find the cheapest rate for a hotel room?

If you are like me (and I think you are since you are following my blog), then you are passionate about luxury travel and the world’s most exclusive hotel properties (such as the Mandarin Oriental Bodrum Resort in Turkey, pictured below).

For most people, hotel stays account for the largest portion of their travel funds, as a couple of days in a 5-star hotel can easily set you back a few thousands dollars, if not more. I previously published the following travel tips to help you save money while traveling around the globe:

• Tips for getting the best deal at a luxury hotel
• Tips for staying for FREE at a luxury hotel

When I dream about staying at a particular luxury hotel without breaking my wallet, then I always start with an online search for the lowest room rate at that hotel. When I am convinced that I found the cheapest rate, then I proceed with booking a room at that price using a Best Rate Guarantee (to receive an additional discount). The question remains where you can find the lowest rate for a hotel room without spending too much of your precious time searching the worldwide web. Well, it turns out that this is not difficult at all, since two aggregator websites will do the job for you in just a few clicks!  

Hotelscombined and Trivago are two very helpful websites that check at once the price of a hotel room at hundreds of other sites (e.g. Booking.com,  Onhotels.com, Otel.com, Hotels.com, Expedia, Hotelopia.com, Ebookers, etc…) and then show you where you can book the cheapest rate. Try it out for yourself here (and find out how easy it is):

It makes sence to always check both Hotelcombined and Trivago, since somehow, they do not always display the same rates.

So stick to my advice, and book the cheapest rate at a hotel following the next steps:

• Step 1: Search for the cheapest hotel price on Hotelscombined and Trivago, but do not book your hotel yet.

• Step 2: If the hotel does not belong to a large hotel chain: book your hotel at that cheap rate on Hotels.com using a Best Rate Guarantee; this will enable you to collect free hotel nights (read here why I love Hotels.com so much)

• Step 3: If the hotel is part of a large hotel chain (Starwood, Hilton, Marriott, IHG,Hyatt): make the booking directly on the official hotel website using a Best Rate Guarantee programs; this will get you an additional 10-25% discount and enable you to collect loyalty points that you can redeem for free hotel nights.

Enjoy the weekend and stay tuned for Monday when we reveal a new top 10 travel list.

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