Strategies for Finding Affordable Hotels

[AirportRail]

What are your strategies for securing the best hotel deals when travelling?

I'm at the more budget sensitive end of the spectrum and find that hotel (or other accommodation) prices to be my biggest expense when travelling. I seem to be able to optimise using points to find cheep flights but I find it difficult to do the same with hotels.

Some of the things I do:

• Sorting hotels on aggregator websites from lowest price and selecting the cheapest acceptable hotel.
• Making refundable bookings as early in advance and monitoring for price drops.
• Using Departure Lounge membership that comes with my union membership (has had some good deals in the past).
• Use Qantas Hotels vouchers from Points Club+

Are there any great tactics I'm missing or do I just need to accept that hotels are costly?

 

[SYD]

AirBnB for longer stays - local and overseas. Book via QANTAS hotels to earn QFF points.

Hotel loyalty programs - points stays, or points and pay (plus upgrades etc if you have status).

In Asia/Pacific - Accor+ might pay for itself.

Home - Accor Plus Australia

Unlock exclusive travel benefits with Accor Plus membership. Enjoy discounted stays and dining at 1,100+ hotels in Asia Pacific. Join now!

www.accorplus.com

Sign up to relevant hotel mailing lists. TFE (Vibe, Travelodge, Adina etc) have regular promos/discounts. They also award QFF points directly if you link your account.

TFE Hotels | Official Site for A by Adina, Adina Hotels, Vibe Hotels, Quincy, Travelodge Hotels, Rendezvous, Collection by TFE Hotels

The official site for A by Adina, Adina Hotels, Vibe Hotels, Quincy, Travelodge Hotels, Rendezvous, Collection by TFE Hotels. Book direct for the best online rates guaranteed!

tfehotels.com

 

[JohnK]

We're lucky in that we travel to Thailand most trips. We stay in Pattaya and Chiang Mai but now have a house in Chiang Mai so no need for hotels there.

We don't stay in cheapest hotels but we're budget conscious. I'm happy staying in $35-$50/night hotels and with wife and daughter with me we stretch that to ~$75/night.

We have 6-7 hotels we're happy to stay in Pattaya and when I am planning trip I look to see which one is best value for that trip and then look to book through QF/JQ hotels with voucher or Agoda.

With Agoda I use hotelsCombined or Trivago as they can have some good deals.

Prices for the September 2023 trip were ridiculous so I played a waiting game and then last month prices dropped drastically. I booked a hotel we stayed before for $45/night which is a bargain. Nice rooms. Nice location. This same hotel for New Year is ~$135/night and close to being booked out.

For the Christmas 2023 trip I already have a cheap hotel booked for week before New Years for ~$45/night including breakfast. It's a tour bus hotel but I took the risk that tourist buses are not yet back in full swing.

For the week after New Year hotel prices are ridiculous. I'll try to book Holiday Inn express on points but running out of time waiting for Buddhist calendar to be released so we can plan house warming at the right time.

 

[AirportRail]

I'm signed onto Accor All but I'll have to look into Accor+ in a bit more detail, I'm sure there's some good content in the forum. It does look like Qantas is doubling down on their relationship with Accor. Keen to understand what the value of redemptions is like.

Hotel loyalty programs - points stays, or points and pay (plus upgrades etc if you have status).

In Asia/Pacific - Accor+ might pay for itself.

Home - Accor Plus Australia

Unlock exclusive travel benefits with Accor Plus membership. Enjoy discounted stays and dining at 1,100+ hotels in Asia Pacific. Join now!

www.accorplus.com

Always good when you find an affordable and decent quality property to stay at. How did you land on your roster of 6-7 hotels you like was it trial and error or anything particular in the listings?

We don't stay in cheapest hotels but we're budget conscious. I'm happy staying in $35-$50/night hotels and with wife and daughter with me we stretch that to ~$75/night.

We have 6-7 hotels we're happy to stay in Pattaya and when I am planning trip I look to see which one is best value for that trip and then look to book through QF/JQ hotels with voucher or Agoda.

With Agoda I use hotelsCombined or Trivago as they can have some good deals.

I just locked in my hotels for a February 2024 trip to Japan, booked via Agoda and felt like I got some great deals. Things that were listed on booking dot com for $80-$100 came down to $40-$60. Although iI'm not quite sure how the algorithm works had to click first on Trip Advisor before clicking on their link to Agoda for the special rate. If I went direct to Agoda it came up with a higher price. I've made refundable bookings so I'll keep looking out for any better deals too.

 

[kookaburra75]

I've been using Booking.com for a lot of years, so I get the 'Genius' discount (full marks to whoever came up with that terminology). I check out the different rates for hotels where we want to stay, looking for those with refundable bookings, as we like to chop and change a bit, once we start travelling.

Like others, if we're staying more than a few nights, we also check out AirBnB, as it's worth getting a kitchen/laundry/parking etc

 

[stryker]

I just locked in my hotels for a February 2024 trip to Japan, booked via Agoda and felt like I got some great deals. Things that were listed on booking dot com for $80-$100 came down to $40-$60. Although iI'm not quite sure how the algorithm works had to click first on Trip Advisor before clicking on their link to Agoda for the special rate. If I went direct to Agoda it came up with a higher price. I've made refundable bookings so I'll keep looking out for any better deals too.

I find that identifying a suitable hotel on google.maps and then clicking through to agoda does give you a price much cheaper than you can get by going to agoda directly (as you've found with tripadvisor). Not sure why this is, but it definitely works for select hotels (doesn't work for all hotels).

I guess it's to suck people into agoda.