Cheap Hotels - Compare Discount Hotel Rates

You may have seen an ad boasting huge percentage discounts on hotel rooms. Maybe it got your attention, but it's unlikely to hold up when subject to scrutiny. Here's why:

• That percentage discount is likely to be "subtracted" from the room's rack rate (the highest price of the room on specific days during a peak booking period). Since it's unlikely that you'll ever be charged that rate, the discount isn't really a discount at all.
• Advertisers also like to add "extras" into the room rate to justify that "80% off" claim. This ‘value&lrquo; may also include daily breakfast, Internet access, and other surcharge-carrying services into the nightly rate. The discount, therefore, isn't based on just the room, but on all the related services that might not be of use to you.
• Hotel prices are constantly changing. If an event is coming to town, room rates will skyrocket as demand is at a premium. Conversely, if there are long periods of lower vacancy (hurricane season in the Caribbean), room prices will plummet. Trying to determine the value of a percentage savings off such volatile price points is, at best, an inexact science.

So, how do you know you're getting the best hotel deal? Here are our top tips!

• Don't just check one site and call it a day. By comparing prices across providers, major online travel agencies, and the website of your favorite hotel brand, you may find that one site undercuts the rest—or offers a little something extra for the same price.
• Go opaque. You can often find great savings by searching for hotel rooms on sites such as Hotwire or Priceline. You'll see the room class, neighborhood, amenities, price, and read reviews before you buy. If you're willing to take a chance with the brand, searching opaque sites is a great way to save.
• Compare apples to apples. Make sure you're checking the same offerings across providers. To ensure you're getting a good deal, you'll want to compare prices for similar rooms at all hotels.
• Check for discounts. Oftentimes, hotels offer additional savings for AAA and AARP members, students, military personnel, teachers, and other groups.
• Join a private sale site. Sign up for a luxury discount hotels site, such as SniqueAway, which offers exclusive, members-only discounts at four- and five-star properties around the world.

You may have seen low-price or best-price guarantees for hotel rooms on sites such as Hotels.com, Hilton Hotels, and Travelocity, among countless others. But what does this low-price guarantee for hotels really mean? The answer is a little complicated. These best-price guarantees for hotels appear to promise the following:

• The price you book for your hotel room is the lowest available. You won't find a cheaper price for your hotel room on your travel dates anywhere else.
• If you find a lower price for your hotel room after you book, you can get that cheaper price, a refund in the amount of the difference, or a fixed guarantee payout.

But how can competing hotel providers all promise to have the best price for the same hotel room, guaranteed? Here the answer is simple: They all have plenty of "out" built into their "guarantees" to get around their promises. For example:

• Most hotel providers will only honor identical "apples to apples" claims (e.g. same-class hotel room for the same night you're staying, etc.), with absolutely no room for deviation. Maybe you're staying two nights; someone else might get a better price for one night or three nights.
• The refund process for best hotel price guarantees is typically lengthy and confusing. You might be able to get a refund for your hotel room, but you'll have to work for it.

So, how do you know that you've truly found the lowest price for your hotel room? By comparing hotel prices across several providers. Shopping around is the closest thing there is to a fool-proof strategy for booking a hotel. Here are our top tips!

• Be flexible
• Know your destination
• Don't forget about seasonality
• Search often

Here are some hotel deals we've found recently advertised online:

• Book Now & Save up to 50% - Hotels.com: Deal of the day offered for three separate cities with savings up to 50% off
• Save up to 75% on your reservation - Booking.com: Flash deal sales provide large savings for subscribed members
• Save up to 60% on hotel rooms - Priceline.com: Name your own price functionality can save users up to 60%

The price point featured by this site is the average price of all hotels searched within this city by the site ’s users within the last two weeks for travel dates beginning on or after today ’s date and extending any number of nights. This price is reflective of the price offered on average by the travel websites featured on this site (such as Expedia.com, Hotels.com, and Booking.com). The actual price found by any user may differ from the price listed due to changes in pricing and inventory, but should be within a reasonable range of the price stated by this site.