How To Sleep Cheap

Hotels

Don't ever think that you have to pay full price for a hotel room.  The price is always negotiable, particularly when you call the hotel directly and talk to the manager instead of the central reservations number.  

If you are stopping at a hotel without advance reservations, you can usually get a few bucks off by just offering a business card and asking for the "business rate" or a student ID for the "student rate", etc.  An empty room isn't making a hotel any money and they'd much rather discount a room, than leave it empty.

If you plan a little, you can do a lot better by using the services described below:

Stay in Nice Hotels at over 50 Percent Off

HotelDiscount.com is a great place to start when looking for a room.  This rapidly expanding company has been in business since 1995 and is the Internet's leading provider of discount hotel accommodations worldwide.  They buy up blocks of rooms at over 1,500 hotels in approximately 50 major cities in North America and Western Europe and give discounts up to 70 percent.  (They can also get rooms for "sold out" dates, but you're not going to get the discounts on a sold out date so book early). They also occasionally offer on-line discount coupons.

We particularly like HotelDiscount.com for the following reasons:

1) The offer really good room prices along with an easy-to use low price guarantee.

2) They are expanding rapidly, so more cities are available all of the time.

If you can't find a room in the location that you need at HotelDiscount.com, try the Entertainment Book. These books can be purchased for under $50.  In the middle of each of these books is a list of U.S. and worldwide hotels that will give you 50 percent off a hotel room. The hotels vary from low end to high end.  Your savings on a one night stay will usually pay for the book.

The Entertainment Book is organized by destination city and there is a wide variation in prices, so try calling several hotels to get the best price.   If they are too full to give you the Passbook price, ask for the best price available - you'll be surprised at what kind of discounts you'll be offered, such as corporate discounts, off-season discounts, specials, etc.

Entertainment Books are sold for various cities around the U.S.  Ask for one covering the nearest major city to you so that you can also take advantage of the offers on local attractions and restaurants.

Hotel Consolidators 

It's pretty hard to beat the 50 percent discount from the Entertainment Books described above, however, you may want to stay in an area where the passbook rates are unavailable.  Consolidators are another option.  They offer discounts typically in the 20 - 30 percent range, although higher discounts are possible.  You can find a great list of hotel consolidators at the Frommer's Top Hotel Consolidators page.