THE BEST HOTEL HACKS TO SAVE MONEY IN 2024 (How To Get Your Accommodation Half Off)

Hotel rates are rising by 10% next year, with some cities as much as 20%. So here are some cheap hotel hacks to help you save money on travel. In this video we are going to cover how to save money on hotels, how to save money on airbnbs, then we will talk about some ways to find free accommodation. Starting with hotels. Let's start with where to book. I'm sure by now you have heard of booking websites such as booking.com, but one booking website that is often overlooked is simply google. Similar to google flights, they also have google hotels. Here they compare prices from all of these websites mentioned plus more. You also get a map view similar to airbnb, but when you click on an option different booking websites pop up for you to compare. So instead of having to go on all of these different websites separately, you could see everything in one place on google hotels. Once you find a property that you want to book, always check that property's website. Sometimes you could find a cheaper price directly on their website, but if not you could call them and ask if they would like to price match. A lot of times they will take you up on this because it will save them money because then they don't have to pay that third-party website that commission fee. Although this may save the hotel some money, it's not necessarily going to save you money by price matching. But instead of booking through that third-party website, booking directly with the hotel can have other perks. For example, better customer service. And if anything were to go wrong, you could reach out directly to that hotel. Also when you're browsing for flights, don't forget to also browse using your phone and browse using the app. Third-party websites such as booking.com for example, they want you to book through their mobile app. So a lot of times they'll have sales and discounts that's only available on the mobile app. And other times they may offer an incentive where if you download the app for the first time, then they're going to reward you with some type of discount. If you do book online, use Rakuten. It's an extension that will allow you to save money when you book through websites such as booking.com or Expedia. There is a Rakuten extension and it can be applied automatically on websites. You will then get cash back on your purchase, giving you an even bigger discount. The best part about Rakuten though is that you can combine it with your travel or hotel credit cards, giving you extra points if you have these cards. That brings me right into my next point, which is travel hacking. Travel hacking is using credit card points and miles to get free flights and hotels. Many of these credit cards will very literally give you free cash back if you book on their portals. For example, I have the VentureX Capital One card and they will literally give me $300 cash back for any purchases I have made through the travel portal. So let's say I was only going on one trip a year and I booked the hotel on that portal. I literally just got free hotel stays. Lore cards will do this as well. I also have the Chase Sapphire and I will get $50 cash back for any hotels I book using their portal. This is the first thing I do each year before I look into other methods of getting cheap accommodation. I first use this free money that I have in the portal. Since we are talking about travel hacking, it is worth mentioning hotel loyalty programs. They are free to sign up for and you could get perks for being a member. One perk is getting the member price, which is basically just a discount on the publicly listed price. You also get free stays each year and the opportunity to rack up points for even more free stays to get upgraded and so on. Okay, let's get into the juicy hotel hacks that will save you hundreds. The first major hack is a Priceline hack. So you're going to go to Priceline.com, type in your dates and where you're going and you're going to click on price breakers. This is going to give you major discounts and get you as much as 50% off sometimes. I think the later you wait to book, the better discounts you're going to get. The catch is you won't know what hotel they are sending you to until after you book. They will group together three hotels so you will get one of those three hotels. You just won't know exactly which one until after you book. I think this is a great tool, but since they are giving you the names of the hotels, don't forget to go onto other websites and look up those hotels and see how much those hotels actually are. That way you know if you're actually getting a good deal or not. I haven't tried this myself, but I did read that sometimes they give you a great hotel deal for one hotel, but the other hotel options may not be that great. They may even be more expensive than booking elsewhere. So it's almost like playing Russian roulette where you don't know if you're actually going to get a good deal until after you book. This is just a disclaimer to say that I am telling you about a strategy, but you need to do further research into just that strategy because this video is not just for one strategy. It's about a bunch of different hotel hacks. So do your research if you plan to try to use this method. This next hack is also a Priceline hack, but I read that it works a lot better than the first Priceline hack. This one is the Priceline Express Deals. Priceline states that these are the lowest prices they are able to offer, but you won't know where you are staying. Unlike the first option which tells you the name of the hotels, Express Deals doesn't. Express Deals will give you the neighborhood and the rating, but they won't tell you exactly where you're staying. Now, if you don't like this uncertainty, there are ways of figuring out which hotel you're staying at by looking at the reviews. So you would check the exact ratings of the Priceline ratings and then go onto their actual website outside of Express Deals and look and match those ratings to the hotel. Since I have not used either of these hacks before, I really want to make a video trying both of them in a video to see which one is better and if they actually work. So if you think this is something you'd like to see and something that would be a useful video for you, please leave a comment down below and I will try to make it. Hotwire has this cheap hotel hack as well. It is called the Hotwire Mystery Deal. It basically works the same way as the Priceline deals I just mentioned. Now let's talk about a few more ways to save money on hotels. First is the app Hotels Tonight. If you're on a road trip or are a last-minute traveler, Hotels Tonight will list hotel deals. Hotels know that it's better to get a room booked as opposed to an empty room. So last-minute deals will be posted on this website. You can find great deals on luxury properties, but they do have cheaper options as well. Another website to check out that isn't talked about very much is Roamer. This is a website where people can sell their non-refundable hotel rooms that they booked but can no longer make. They have great deals here as well. Then lastly, if you have AAA, you could type in your AAA number sometimes when you're booking to get an additional discount. Another website that people forget about is Groupon. Groupon will list hotel deals to popular destinations such as Cancun, Vegas, and a ton of other destinations. Now let's talk Airbnbs. The first thing to know is that Airbnbs are usually listed on other websites as well, such as booking.com. And a lot of times they are cheaper on these other websites. So don't forget to check other websites. But you can also find great deals directly on the Airbnb website. This is especially true if you're going to stay for a longer duration. They have both week and month discounts. The month discounts are great if you're a digital nomad, but for most of us, the week discounts are also amazing. I have saved a few nights worth of money on Airbnb just by extending my stay a couple more days to hit that seven-day mark. You could also try to message Airbnb hosts and simply just ask for a cheaper stay. You could simply send a message just asking something like, I love your property, but it is a bit out of budget. Would you be willing to offer any discounts? You may be surprised. Sometimes they do say yes. You can increase your chances of them saying yes by making sure you are messaging a small business owner and not a huge corporation. The bigger companies are going to be less likely to give you a discount. A last-minute stay is also more likely to get you that discount because again, they're going to be more willing to put somebody in the room, even at a cheaper rate than having nobody in that room. You could also try requesting a discount if you're staying for a long period of time. So we already talked about if you're staying for seven days, you're going to get a discount, but maybe you're staying for five or six days. Just go ahead and message them and ask. Say, hi, I'm staying for over five days. Would it be possible to get a discount since I'm staying for such a long time? There may be occasions where you don't want to spend any money on accommodation at all and there's actually ways to do that too. The first way is by couchsurfing. You can go to couchsurfing.com and create a portfolio. You'll be able to browse through different hosts in the area who have an extra place to sleep and will allow you to stay with them for free. I've done this a few times and I always try to remember to bring a gift with me to give to the host. It could be something small such as a bottle of wine or a chocolate bar, but always make sure you're showing your gratitude in some way. Also, you'll usually have dinner with them and expect to engage with the host in some way. Remember that you're a guest and you're staying at somebody's house. You're going to have to engage with them. If you don't want to engage with anybody though, then you could also look into house sitting. This is another great way to get a free place to stay. You're also going to have to create a portfolio with references, but you'll be able to stay for free in exchange of taking care of someone's pets. Then if you're willing to volunteer, you could look into Worldpackers or Workaway. They have all kinds of volunteering opportunities to choose from. If you're interested in volunteering on our farm though, you could look into Woofing. And that is all of my cheap hotel tips and tricks. I hope you learned something that can save you some money on accommodation. I do really want to make some videos testing these accommodation hacks, so if that's something you think you'd be interested in, please let me know.