8 ways to find a cheaper hotel room

Danica Nelson was shopping for hotels for her birthday trip recently – with stops in Budapest, Copenhagen and Malmö, Sweden – and found nothing to celebrate.

“Accommodations for those locations, and really just anywhere, have been wildly expensive,” said Nelson, a Toronto-based travel and personal finance educator and content creator who has been living in Spain for the past 10 months. “It is jarring and it doesn’t stop surprising me – unpleasantly surprising me.”

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She isn’t the only one feeling the pinch. Through the first eight months of the year, hotel prices in North America and most other parts of the world increased compared with the same period in 2023, when U.S. rates already were at record highs, according to the commercial real estate information company CoStar.

According to the travel app Hopper, prices in some U.S. markets have skyrocketed since 2019. Boston and New York have seen 20 percent increases, while Phoenix hotel prices shot up 28 percent and prices in San Diego and Chicago increased by 30 percent. Prices have been on the rise since travel demand surged in 2021 following a pandemic-era lull, the company said.

“While airfares and car rental rates have mostly returned to pre pandemic levels, accommodation prices remain sky high compared to what most travelers paid pre pandemic,” Hopper said in a statement.

Some relief may be in sight for travelers like Nelson: Inflation data shows lodging prices were down 3.7 percent year-over-year in September.

Still, travelers may be shuddering as they search for a place to stay in the coming months. We asked expert travelers their favorite tips for easing the blow.

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Comparison-shop

Phil Dengler, co-founder of travel deals site the Vacationer, said he always starts by searching Google Maps for hotels. After adding the filters you want, the list of hotels will show prices directly from the property and from other travel sites. If third-party rates are cheaper, he recommends calling the hotel and asking them to beat them.

Many hotels promise they will offer the best rate themselves and even give discounts if third-party sites undercut them – with some caveats. Stephen Pepper, a contributor to the site Frequent Miler who is in the seventh year of a 50-state road trip, has written about so-called “best rate guarantees” and their fine print.

“Everything has to match – dates, room types, cancellation periods, etc.,” he wrote in an email.

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Watch for price drops

If a hotel does not require payment upfront to hold the reservation, you can wait to pay until check-in. Then keep checking the price on the website, said Sally French, a travel expert at the personal finance site NerdWallet.

“You might actually see hotel prices drop; then you can go ahead and cancel your reservation and rebook,” she said.

Before trying this, just make sure the cancellation policy allows doing so without a charge.

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Know the right time to book

According to Hopper, inclusive resorts should be booked three months or more in advance, while popular leisure destinations might offer their best prices one to two months before the vacation date.

But waiting longer can pay off in big cities with plenty of hotel inventory. French said hotels often will be “more willing to sell a room at a cheap rate just to fill it.”

“I’m very comfortable booking an overnight in New York at the last minute,” said Hayley Berg, Hopper’s lead economist.

Madison Rolley, a travel content creator and digital nomad, wrote in an email that she likes to use the app HotelTonight for her last-minute bookings.

“This hack really saved me in a pinch when a flight got canceled on a layover after midnight due to poor weather,” she said.

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Be flexible with your dates

If a trip isn’t tied to an event, occasion or other specific date, travelers can find deals by picking the right days and months for their stay.

Hopper says January and February typically are cheaper than busy spring-break times, for example – and that goes for airfare as well as hotels. Weekend nights can cost significantly more than weeknights, too, so consider a midweek trip if possible.

Dengler recommends checking to make sure there’s no overlap with big events in a destination and playing with dates in Google Hotels to see how low rates can get.

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Use cash-back sites

Dengler recommends checking whether hotel companies or online travel agencies are part of cash-back portals such as Rakuten, BeFrugal or TopCashback. Booking through one of those sites or using their browser extensions can earn travelers money back for purchases they were already planning to make.

Paying with a credit card that offers cash back can sweeten the deal. In most cases, Dengler said, shoppers can expect 1 to 3 percent cash back from most hotel sites or a bigger return from online travel sites.

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Make points work for you

Not a points wiz or credit card maven? That’s okay. Dengler said the simplest way to assess whether it makes sense to book a hotel using credit card rewards is to look in your card’s travel portal and see how many points a hotel costs compared with the cash price. One cent per point is acceptable for most people, he said – though he likes to hold out for more value.

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Become loyal – even as a first-timer

Pepper said joining a hotel brand’s loyalty program can deliver lower prices, even for travelers who haven’t built up status. Plus, once you’re a member you’ll start earning points – which could eventually pay off.

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Consider a gamble

Have your heart set on a particular hotel? Want a flexible cancellation policy? Is control at all important to you? Then this option is not for you.

But if you truly are just interested in a discount and don’t mind a go-with-the-flow approach, consider using a surprise site. You’ll select the city of your choice, with varying amounts of information on location and ratings, and – surprise! – find out exactly what you got after you make your purchase. Hotwire offers Hot Rates, and Priceline has Express Deals and Pricebreakers, which shows a list of three options. None are refundable, so prepare accordingly.

Rolley posted on TikTok in March about her own Pricebreakers strategy, calling it her “FAVORITE cheap travel tip” for hotels.

“I always think this is a fun, cheap and spontaneous way to travel,” she wrote in her email. “And I end up staying in much nicer hotels than I could have afforded otherwise.”

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