Never assume hotel or hostel prices are fixed. Book right and massive savings are possible on UK and worldwide rooms.
This step-by-step guide shows you how to save £100s with top hotel comparison sites, mystery mega-bargains, cheap-yet-clean hostels and much more.
In this guide
Top Tips
Pay less for the same hotel room
Never assume one price fits all for a hotel or room. Just like Beyonce CDs are sold at different prices in different shops, the same hotel or B&B; room is sold by different places at different prices. The impact can be huge. As an example, the same five-star Paris hotel for three nights was on sale between £726 and £2,330 on different sites.
Step 1. Need to find a good hotel?
The first aim's to find a top establishment, within your budget, then to try to get it as cheaply as possible. If you already know where you want to stay, jump to step two. If not, read below.
Don't trust the star system
Picking a cheap suite involves cutting through vast swathes of information, yet there's a golden rule to start with ...
Don't trust the star system. It's based on facilities not quality; there's no ranking standardisation whatsoever.
The hotel star system's a mess: there's limited standardisation within countries, never mind worldwide. Stars may be given by governments, review organisations or even the hotel itself. Package tour operators tend to be overly generous, often a star higher than independent reviews. See a full guide to what stars mean.
Use a comparison site
Start by putting details into a comparison site and sorting reviews by price; Trivago is a good one for this.
For more inspiration, check out travel brokers like Expedia*, Ebookers* or Travelocity, because they give a decent benchmark price at a legit hotel. Plus they sometimes have special offers on specific hotels, so you may get lucky at the off.
Check TripAdvisor
Fast becoming a worldwide institution, Tripadvisor* lists detailed reviews and customer ratings for hotels, and pictures taken by past guests. Search for different hotels to see whether they're palaces or pigsties. For more, read quick
tips for using Tripadvisor.
For UK hotels, the independent hotel guidebook Good Hotel Guide has a free website reviewing UK hotels. Entries in the guide are based on visits by undercover inspectors, and it's well worth a look.
Step 2. Check the hotel's own price
Once you know where you want to stay, always check what the hotel itself offers and whether it has any special deals. It may offer early booking promos or 3for2 night deals that comparison sites miss.
Step 3. Use a cheap hotel comparison site
Three sites compare prices on different cheap hotel websites:
Best for ease and speedTrivago
Newcomer Trivago takes just a few seconds to sift through 1,000s of hotels' prices, scraping 107 brokers and hotel chains. It's simple, fun to use and you can drill down your search by star, user rating or hotel facilities.
If you know which hotel you want, just plug the name into the box on the left and it quickly locates the cheapest price for that establishment.
The site displays potential 'savings' in red, although bear in mind discounts are against the most expensive broker's price, which could be abnormally high. (Travel geeks will be fascinated to see how big-name brokers profit by as much as doubling hotels' standard prices.)
Broad search but clumsyTravelsupermarket
Also with an impressive reach Travelsupermarket*, searches 46 hotel brokers and chains.
On the down side, results can be jumbled and slow. While you can search for specific hotel, bizarrely you need to know what star rating it is before searching. Yet its breadth can provide good results.
Limited range, but quickHotelscomparison.com
To be sure you've got the best deal, it's worth checking Hotelscomparison too. While it's not going to win any design awards, it does the job, searching around 20 brokers and accommodation chains.
If you know where you want to stay, it also lets you search by hotel name. Results to take a while to appear.
Compare & read reviewsTripadvisor
If you're using Tripadvisor*, you can also do quick comparisons while viewing hotels. The UK site shows prices in pounds.
Rather than showing a results page, Tripadvisor makes different brokers' pages pop up in new windows, so comparing's harder. It searches far fewer brokers than the others, usually only about four or five.
Look out for taxes!
There's one thing to check when you're searching for a hotel, which can mean some sites unfairly come up cheapest:
Many countries charge a c.£10/day room tax. Not all sites include this, so always check.
Also watch for sites which have rooms 'on request'. This only means it's being requested from the hotel, not that there's actually a room available. Be careful not to go for one of these and lose a firm cheap deal elsewhere.
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Unnamed hotel mega-bargains
If you want to stay in first-rate hotels but pay a lot less, go for an unnamed hotel at a super-hot discount price. All you do is specify the star level and your particulars and see what comes up.
Hotels do this to get rid of unused rooms without cannibalising their usual customer base, who'd either get annoyed or book the super-cheap deals themselves.
Worldwide secret rooms. Lastminute.com
The secret hotel section at Lastminute.com* has bargains on three to five-star hotels worldwide (inc. London), because you only know the description and star rating before you pay. This means rock-bottom prices for classy establishments, as hotels then needn't worry it'll cannibalise their direct trade.
How to uncover them
There's a SNEAKY way to work out what the hotel really is and whether it's worth it. Simply copy and paste all or part of the hotel description into Google. Often, it just uses the hotels standard description text that also appears on its website.
If you've no luck, ask in the Top Secret Hotels Revealed discussion or, for the capital, the London Hotels Revealed thread. Secret-hotel pros on this site's chat forum can usually track them down in seconds. If you book, please do post the hotel name and description to help other MoneySavers (after you get the Lastminute.com email revealing the hotel).
It's also worth pasting the details into the specialist secret hotel website SecretHotelsRevealed. This is a new website and isn't perfect; only use it to corroborate what you've already found.
Ensure it's a bargain
Once you've pieced together the hotel's identity, use comparison sites such as Trivago and Travelsupermarket* to ensure it's a bargain.
Done right, this is a superb way to a classy hotel in your budget. Yet you can never be 100% sure which hotel it is, so it's not for those desperate to stay at a particular place.
How much can you save?
Here's a little inspiration ...
I booked the 5* Grange St. Paul's in Hotel London for £109 (rack rate £215). OH YEAH BABY. MoneySaver lukey2
I booked the Hilton London Paddington for £69 for a double room. I had a look on the Hilton website and the equivalent cost would be £205 - bargain! MoneySaver carolinehulse84
Priceline loophole: up to 70% off!
Giant US site Priceline flogs posh hotel rooms at colossal discounts, and it's especially strong for US hotels.
On Martin's own New York trip recently, he got a nice hotel for 63% of the comparison sites' cheapest price, though not as good as one MoneySaver who got the Times Square Sheraton for £55 a night rather than the listed £200.
It's all about Priceline's 'name your own' price function, where you pick a city area and star level, name your price and see if any hotels accept it. Of course the aim's to find the min. acceptable price, so start low, eg. £20, then keep raising your bid till it's accepted, but you can ONLY bid once-a-day.
Yet there are techniques to get more bids per day, either by bidding with a partner, or adding more areas of a city.
Read Priceline hotel bidding guide for a full step-by-step guide.
New worldwide secret hotels: Hotwire
Secret hotel booking website Hotwire* is well-established in the US, where MoneySavers have bagged Vegas's five-star Venetian hotel for £66 (rack rate £146), the Westin New Jersey for £50 (£153), Hilton Doubletree NYC for £79 (£172) and many more.
In 2011 Hotwire launched in the UK, flogging mystery rooms in London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Manchester, across Europe and worldwide. The hotels aren't as top-secret as they first appear; you can cheat by matching Hotwire's secret hotels to its non-secret rooms.
Read the step-by-step Hotwire system
While huge savings are possible, there's a golden rule to start with ...
Remember, this is never 100% guaranteed and can go wrong if two hotels have the same facilities.
Plus secret hotels may not feature in the 'normal hotels' list and vice versa. Only do this if you are flexible.
Step 1: Find secret hotels
Go to Hotwire*, search for a city and date and click the Hot Rates tab. It tells you the hotel's star rating, area of the city and amenities but not the name. The interactive map shows exactly which bits of the city the area covers.
Step 2: Match up normal hotels
Narrow the hotel down by matching it with Hotwire's normal, revealed hotels. Open a new browser window, search for the same dates, click 'standard rates' and select the number of stars on the left to narrow it down.
Zoom in on the standard hotel map until it matches the Hot Rate hotel's area map. Check which standard hotels in that area match the hot hotels' stars and amenities.
Step 3: Compare rates
Once you've a hotel or shortlist, see if you can find it/them cheaper via hotel comparison sites. Also read hotel review site Tripadvisor*, to see if you're happy to stay there.
MSE's secret hotel test
To test this system, we searched for a night away in Brussels and found a £53 four-star Hot Rate room in the Louise Avenue area. A search for standard hotels revealed that Hotwire had just one four-star hotel in that area, the Sheraton Four Points, and the amenities matched the secret hotels'.
We booked the Hot Rate room and the next screen revealed ... it was indeed the Sheraton Four Points. Comparison sites' next cheapest for the same room was £66.
Tell us your successes
While the forum's hopping with USA mystery room successes, this UK system's new. Please do share your tips and successes with others in the Hotwire hotels forum thread.
Secret U.S.A rooms: Travelocity
If you're planning a trip Stateside, broker Travelocity also offers ‘Top Secret Hotel' deals, covering the US, as well as Canada and parts of the Caribbean. It gives you the hotel's star rating, user review rating and very rough location, but not its name.
Again, with a little sleuthing, it's possible to narrow it down to a few hotels and thus eliminate some of the risk. Once you've searched for ‘secret hotels', open another window and search on Travelocity's normal hotels for the same date.
Sort the results by star rating and match up normal hotels which have the both the same star and user rating as the mystery hotel. It should be pretty straightforward to narrow it to two or three possibilities. Check out TripAdvisor to see if you'd be happy to stay at all the shortlisted boltholes.
We found a three-star New York mystery hotel for £79, with a four out of five user review score. We then searched again for 'normal' Travelocity hotels. The mystery hotel's scores matched four others ranging from £110 to £182. Even if the mystery hotel was the £110 place, it would still mean a £30 saving.
Tips to cut costs worldwide
If you're just looking for a nice place to stay without breaking the bank, there are heaps of ways to get super-cheap accommodation. While they may lack facilities, get it right and you get clean, functional rooms at a fraction of normal hotels' cost.
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Hostels: cheap but not dirty
Hostels can offer massive savings over hotel prices. While a few are squalid, many are clean and friendly, with free internet access and breakfast. In the UK Youth Hostel Association (YHA) properties include fabulous castles and mansions (including the one pictured here).
You're also more likely to strike up a conversation in a hostel than a Marriott. And don't think it's automatically a dorm bunk: many offer singles, twins and doubles.
To check out prices and availability, use Hostelbookers.com* and Hostelworld*, both of which give hostels a percentage rating, based on users' experiences. Though even if they say a hostel's full, always try emailing direct, in case there's a spare room that doesn't show up. To read more reviews from past hostel guests try hostelz.com.
When staying at Hostelling International hostels, you can get £3 a night off with £16 Youth Hostel Association membership (£14 by direct debit), so more than five nights away a year and you're winning. Under 26s can bag membership for £10 and couples for £23.
Update 29 July 2011: You can currently one-year Youth Hostel membership for £5 when you call and quote a special code. See the Hotel Sales deals note.
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Want a week or two in a traditional resort?
Don't ignore good old-fashioned package holidays. For holidays in traditional destinations, packages can undercut DIY online-booked separate flights and hotels, and give extra ATOL protection if something goes wrong. Read the full Cheap Package Holidays guide.
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Special opening rates
New hotels often offer special rates to drum up custom, typically 50% off or even complimentary stays. To find new hotel openings, scour industry publications such as HotelChatter, Hotelnewsresource and Hoteldesigns. Call up the hotel to ask about special rates (a bit of sweet-talk goes a long way).
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Stay on a Sunday
The day of rest is hotels' quietest booking day, thus you're most likely to get a bargain. Look out for Sunday special offers, eg, cut rates or thrown-in sweeteners such as a bottle of champers.
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Join the club
Many hotel chains have free-to-join loyalty schemes. The biggies are Hilton HHonors*, Marriott Rewards* and Starwood Preferred Guest. These loyalty schemes are worth joining, not so much for the free room nights, which can take ages to clock up, but for the special offers they send to members.
Plus if you call up the hotel and ask for a discount or ask for an upgrade when you check in, you're more likely to get one as a ‘preferred guest'.
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Other ways to cut accommodation costs
If you're feeling brave, there are a few other routes to cutting the cost of accommodation. Of course, always check out thoroughly and consider safety.
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Try Camping
Good old camping's a fun way to explore the great outdoors and get away on the cheap. MoneySavers rate the website Ukcampsite, which lists sites by area and by facilities, plus includes user reviews.
Read the Great Camping Hunt for a full list of MoneySavers' top tips on safe, hassle-free camping.
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Stay in a local's home
Spare room brokers Airbnb and Crashpadder sell nights in locals' private apartments worldwide. These often beat hotel prices, athough, of course, take safety precautions
The Couchsurfing website allows you to sign up to stay on people's sofas around the world. It's a reciprocal deal, so be prepared to allow people to stay on your sofa in return.
Alternatively, Hospitalityclub links up like-minded folk from across the world, be it for a roof for the night or a guided tour through town.
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Exchange homes
There are a number of home swapping sites like Homebase-hols and Homelink, which allow you to switch your home with someone elsewhere in the world. Reports vary from a way to make lifelong friends to holidays from hell. See the Great Travel Swapping Hunt for tons more tips on this.
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Work for food and board
It's possible to bag free food and accommodation, in exchange for a few hours' work a day, usually on farms. Two of the biggest programmes are Helpx.net and WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms).
And just for fun, or if you're feeling really desperate, there's always Sleep in the airport!
Top Tips for Cheap UK Hotels
The first port of call for hotels in the UK are the same Cheap Hotel Finding websites as for anywhere in the world. Yet once you've done that, there are many more ways to keep down the cost in our Isles.
Current Hotel Deals
02 August 2011
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Hotels at a third (ish) of the price if you've got Tesco points
Regular Tesco shoppers who have collected up Tesco Clubcard points can trade them in for Reward Vouchers, which can then be spent at hotel chains such as Marriott, Novotel and Thistle.
The big advantage is that Clubcard points are worth 1p in-store, but their value's up to three times as much when converted to Rewards vouchers, so you could get a hotel for a third of the price (many hotel deals are worth less than this though). For more on the vouchers, read the Boost Your Loyalty Points guide.
Travelodge £10 sales
The hotel chain Travelodge* regularly offers £10 to £25 sale rooms. The ultra-cheap rooms are released in tranches; to bag serious bargains you need to know when a new batch's been released. Therefore if you try and get a room at the start of a genuine sale, there's widespread availability.
The regularly-updated Travelodge Sales deals note lets you know when the latest sale starts. You need to book more than three weeks ahead. Travelodge sales updates are always included in the free weekly MoneySaving e-mail.
Get Youth Hostels at a discount
For British breaks, the Youth Hostel Association is a decent bet. If you're planning to stay more than five nights a year, consider YHA membership, which saves you paying the non-member supplement of £3 per person per night. This costs £16 a year per person, £10 for under 26s and £23 for a family (less if you pay by direct debit)
If you've Tesco Reward tokens, you can use these towards annual memberships and overnight stays.
Update 29 July 2011: You can currently one-year Youth Hostel membership for £5 when you call and quote a special code. See the Hotel Sales deals note.
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University stays outside term time
Always thought you could have got into Oxford? Well now you can. The excellent website UniversityRooms rents halls-of-residence rooms left empty during the holidays in 20 UK cities, including London, Oxford and Cambridge. Singles start at £25 and doubles from £75.
While it's not the Ritz, many MoneySavers have been pleasantly surprised, plus surroundings at Oxford and Cambridge colleges can be stunning. The website Travelstay also lists cheap university rooms across the UK.
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No-frills hotels in London and Edinburgh from £17
As long as you've no aversion to orange, Easyhotels is another option. It has pads in London and Edinburgh, with simple rooms from £25 a night. Again the earlier you book, the better the chance of a lower price.
The no-frills Tune Hotel in London has rooms from £35 or sometimes less with special promos. It's run on the budget airline model: while it's clean and does the job, guests pay extra for towels (£1.50), TVs (£3) and housekeeping (£7.50). The Tune Hotel brand is already firmly established in Asia, and this is the first in the UK.
It charges a £1.95 credit or debit card fee per transaction, unless you pay with Visa Electron.
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Hoxton Hotels for £1
This is a chic hotel in London which occasionally runs £1 room promotions. Rooms sell out incredibly quickly, but, again, are always in the weekly e-mail so you get to know in advance when to go for it.
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