Pay cash
Offer pounds rather than Visa, and sometimes you can get a slight discount
If you pay by credit card, the hotelier will charge you the posted, official rate and then has to tithe a certain percentage of that to the credit card company for the sake of your convenience.
If you pay cash, he gets to keep every last pound of it, so he's likely to knock a few bucks off the price to sweeten the deal.
Always ask, after the price is quoted, "Is that the price if I pay with a credit card? What if I pay with cash?" Often the rate will magically come down. Also—though you didn't hear this from me—if you pay cash, it leaves the hotel free to underreport their income to the tax man.
Hotels links
- Booking.com - We have done extensive testing, and Booking.com is hands-down the single best booking engine, with by far the largest number of hotels (and other lodging options) in all price ranges.Partner
- Agoda.com - This booking engine, once just an Asia specialist, has recently rocketed to second-best all around the world.Partner
- HotelsCombined.com - An aggregator looks at the results of all the booking engines and presents the prices it finds at each side-by-side. It's a great concept (and works well for airfares), however in our tests the actual booking engines themselves often offered better deals on more properties.Partner
- Hostelz.com - A booking engine that specailizes in hostels and cheap hotels.Partner
- Hotels.com - Since Hotels.com absorbed its Venere.com sibling, it has been performing much better in Europe than it once did.Partner
- Priceline.com - Priceline not only offers decent deals on standard hotel bookings, but also "Express Deals" in which you only get to know the hotel's star rating and neighborhood before you pay for it—but the savings can be substantial (usually 18%–20%, though occasionally much higher).Partner
- Hotwire.com - Like its competition Priceline, Hotwire offers both straightforward hotel bookings as well as "Hot Rate" deals that save you 25%–65% on hotels that you book blindly, knowing only the neighborhood and star rating before booking (and paying) for it.Partner
- Trivago.com - Depsite its aggressive advertising camapaigns, in our tests Trivago does not actually perform all that well as an aggregator (and it has gotten worse as time goes on). Still, it can be handy.Partner
Also in Top 12 hotel savings:
- Check the hotel website
- Bargain
- Avoid breakfast
- Share bathrooms
- Share a room
- Stay nearby
- Try a bidding site
- Sleep for free
- Consider alternative accommodations
- A warning about user reviews
