Bargain Hunt for Accommodation!

In my first blog, I wrote about how I like to find airfare bargains when planning a holiday. For this blog, I would like to pass on how I find a great bargain when it comes to the next big ticket item when traveling: accommodation. I do not believe that you have to stay in cheap and nasty to save on the accommodation bill.

Once we’ve decided on a holiday destination, the first thing I do is to go to a search engine like Google, and type in “accommodation” for our holiday destination. I then a go to the online accommodation booking agents to see what specials there may be for where we intend to stay. I usually get down to about three places which I think might be a nice place to stay. Trip Adviser is my next point of call just to gauge what people have to say about those places.

Once I get to that point, I go to the web sites of the individual properties to see what rates they themselves are charging. Now this is where the real savings start. I never book online even if the prices are within my budget. I trawl through the contacts section on their web site and find a phone number for reservations and make a phone call directly to them, no matter where in the world we intend to travel. Every time I have rung a hotel/motel direct I have always got a price much lower than the advertised price.

Harbour Plaza Metropolis

This is what happened when I rang the Harbour Plaza Metropolis in Hong Kong when I was booking a family holiday. (Review on hotel to follow). The advertised price was for a room only, with two king single beds in each room. (We required 2 rooms.) Upon ringing and talking to a very friendly and helpful staff member, we ended up with two rooms with balconies, complete with hot tubs on each (it was winter at the time and the hot tubs came in very handy after a day of sight seeing in Hong Kong) as well as full breakfast for all four of us for the seven night stay, for the same price as the basic room price advertised on their website. The price advertised for breakfast was $150.00 Hong Kong each so breakfast alone was a savings of $4,200 Hong Kong dollars. If you have ever travelled to Hong Kong you would know that basic rooms are not very large due to space constraints, so having a room with a balcony is quite a bonus.

I have also found that booking 3 to 4 months out from your trip helps with getting a really great price from most hotels/motels.

I usually use this method if we’re going to stay 3 nights or more in one place. If we’re going for a short stay, I find the online accommodation sites (Wotif, needitnow, to mention just a couple) are the best way to go. They have flaming deals or mystery deals if you want to have a surprise stay. We have used the mystery deal a few times and been very happy with the results.

Harbour Plaza Metropolis

Well, I hope this information has been helpful for you, and I hope that you also make some good savings on your planned holidays. Remember, when you’re tossing up the price of a brief international call against the savings of hundreds, or possibly thousands of dollars, the phone call is always the winner!

* written by guest writer Malcolme Rogers, who spends a lot of time under the ground as a mining technician, but also enjoys flying in the sky to his favourite holiday destinations.
He has also written the previous article "Bargain Hunt for Airfares!" posted on Saturday, 26 October 2013. Click on -
http://theholidayandtravelmagazine.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/bargain-hunt-for-airfares.html