When you’re constantly travelling either for work or leisure, you’ll find that hotels can vary in prices, amenities, and features. There’s a reason the big names out there charge hundreds of dollars a night. Your stay is going to be exquisite, and you’ll relax as you’ve never relaxed before. But these hotels, of course, are expensive, so you have to be smart with your money and how you book your rooms.
Book Airport Hotels
If you are travelling to Singapore, a good airport hotel might be your smartest choice of accommodation. People often think that staying in airport hotels is much more expensive than the ones they find in the city. This is partially true. But if you are travelling to cities like Singapore where there’s a deluge of hotels, an airport hotel is cheaper and more practical than Mandarin or Shangri-La. Airport hotels also have great amenities such as free parking and free breakfast for a fraction of the price of regular hotels.
Do Direct Booking with the Hotel
Hotels are now offering the lowest price for their rooms to encourage direct booking instead of going through a third-party website such as Agoda and Expedia. If you see a lower price elsewhere, try to contact the hotel and see if they will honour it. Additionally, you can only earn loyalty or rewards points when you book directly with the hotel.
Rack up Points
You can rack up points by staying with one hotel or their partner hotels every time you need a staycation or you need to travel outside the country. You can use these points to book a room in the future. Some hotels even allow the conversion of these points to mileage points. This way, you can use them to book a flight to anywhere.
Book Early
There are two advantages to booking early. One, early bookings are usually cheaper because there are still lots of rooms available. Two, early bookings will allow you to sign up to apps such as Service, which will refund you if the cost of the room drops between the time of your booking and the time of your stay. Other apps notify you in case your room’s price has dropped. You can then cancel your original reservation and book the cheaper room.
Time Your Booking
Hotels in business areas are cheaper during weekends when the businessmen have cleared their premises. Homey bed-and-breakfasts are more expensive during weekends because these are when couples can get time off from their crazy work schedule and cosy up together. Know which market the hotel targets so that you’ll have a pretty good idea when business is slower than usual.
Sign up for a Membership
You don’t have to pay an upfront fee to be a member of a group of hotels. Signing up means that they get access to your email address that allows them to send you newsletters, promotions, and many more. In exchange for this, most hotels will offer a discount on top of their existing room rates and promotions. Take advantage of this. Open a new email address that you will use only for this purpose.
Staying in a nice hotel doesn’t need to be expensive. If you do your research well, you might even grab a free buffet breakfast or even a complimentary spa service. It’s all about knowing your strengths as a consumer.
