Did you know that Motel 6 originally charged $6 a night? That’s how it got its name back in 1962; though they had coin-operated televisions back then as part of their “no-frills” strategy. Today it is hard to find a motel room under $50 a night, and the average hotel rate nationwide is well over $100. Budget travelers willing to do a little work can find hotel rooms below $40 a night (before taxes and fees) and save 50% or more off normal rates.
Finding cheap hotel rooms has been one of our goals during our three-month road trip this summer. We don’t care if the hotel has a pool, room service, or a gilded lobby; we just want a clean, quiet room where we are the only living beings in it. After all, when you are asleep, all hotels look the same. By paying as little as possible for hotels, we have more money to do fun things when we are awake.
While the major travel Web sites advertise plenty of discounts on rooms, their actual prices are much higher than their advertised claims. There are ways to get much lower prices. So far we have found rooms for less than $40 a night (not counting taxes and fees) 33 of the first 39 nights of our trip, and the other six nights were under $50 a night. Every room we have booked has been with a major national chain and every room has been clean, safe, and comfortable.
Here are two Web sites that I have been using and how you can find good hotel rooms for under $40.
Priceline
Priceline’s “name your own price” is one option. This is a subset of Priceline’s regular hotel offerings, and you have to select “Name your own price for hotels” to get to the good discounts; otherwise, Priceline’s hotel prices are just the same as every other travel Web site. When you are in the proper section of the site, enter your desired city and dates of your desired stay. Priceline then lets you select a smaller area within that metropolitan area and a star level (1 to 5 stars) to request a room at a certain rate. They will give you a median hotel rate for that star level that bears little resemblance to reality but is often a vague indicator of what you should bid (more on that in Strategy below). You put in the price you want to pay, fill in your payment information, and click submit; then you await an answer that will arrive in your browser window in 2 to 4 minutes.
It is like playing a casino game: you place a bet and you can win (get a room at your price) or lose (be rejected, though you don’t lose any money for trying). Like a casino, the odds are in favor of the house. You will lose more than you win, though you can better your odds if you know what hoops to jump through (see Strategy below). Winning is a mixed bag, though, because you do not know the identity of the hotel you will stay in unless your request is successful. Disappointment is possible. The game is not for people who need to know exactly what they are getting into. For those with a daring streak, it can save you a ton.
Pros:
You can indeed save money. Priceline claims you can get rooms for up to 50% off, and in my experience 50% is about what I have saved on average. You can get even more than that off (in one stay we got a $134 hotel room for only $35, a 74% savings), though not always. About 30%-40% off is more usual. The larger the city, the higher the discount tends to be, probably because there is more competition in larger metro areas.
Cons (and there are many):
1. You don’t get a say in what hotel you end up in. All you control in your request is the dates, a vague geographic area, and the “star level” of a hotel. Otherwise you are at the mercy of Priceline’s computer. You cannot search for specific amenities. You cannot limit your requests to certain hotel chains, though you can roughly guide what chains you are looking for by requesting a star level. However, sometimes Priceline will “upgrade” you to a higher star level. Being “upgraded at no additional cost” sounds like a nice thing, except that Priceline bases its “star level” classification on room price, not on actual quality or amenities, so you may get stuck in a worse hotel.
2. Reservations are nonchangeable and nonrefundable. If they stick you in a hotel you don’t like, too bad, you are stuck.
3. It is often a lot of work and hassle, and you can end up empty-handed. Priceline won’t give you much help and not surprisingly is eager to steer you into a higher priced hotel. You usually have to be patient and willing to try several times to get a combination that will be accepted. If your request is denied you can try your request again as long as you make changes in area or price, but at a certain point Priceline will suddenly tell you that you can’t try again for 24 hours. You never know when or why they suddenly cut you off, and it differs each time. When you reach this roadblock your only choice is to wait 24 hours, change your stay dates, or pay full price through Priceline’s normal service-no doubt what they are trying to get you to do. I have found that about one-fourth of the time I have tried to use “Name your own price” they lock me out after a few denied requests and I have to use another Web site to get a room. All of these hoops they make you jump through takes time. It can easily take 10 minutes or more to get a room, and double or triple that if you have to make multiple tries.
4. Any rooms rented this way are not eligible for any hotel rewards plan. That makes sense-if you want points, pay full price.
5. Priceline charges a service fee of between $6 and $7 per reservation. They refuse to tell you the exact amount, and they itemize only a combination of all taxes and fees. If you reserve multiple nights, that fee becomes more affordable if you spread it out over a longer stay..
Hotwire
Hotwire is another option that offers discounted hotel rates through a very easy-to-use Web site. Just enter your city and dates and Hotwire will give you a list of available hotels ranked by price or star rating. By clicking on any hotel listing, you can see the approximate location of the hotel and the exact cost of your stay. You aren’t given the identity of the hotel until you make the reservation. Hotwire claims to only give you “2-star” and higher hotels, though some of their hotels are considered “1-star” hotels at other Web sites. Still, you can be sure that Hotwire only offers quality brand hotels; the lowest rung of national chains isn’t used by Hotwire. You don’t save as much money as you can through Priceline, but the process is so much easier.
Pros:
1. You can save 30%-50% on rooms, though around 30% is more likely.
2. Hotwire is very simple and doesn’t play the silly games that Priceline makes you play. With Hotwire, you can reserve a room in two minutes without guessing, bidding, or fretting.
3. Hotwire’s services do not include the lowest rung of national chains. While some of those hotels are perfectly fine, you can have more confidence you won’t be stuck in a bad property if you use Hotwire.
4. Some rewards programs will let you earn points on Hotwire reservations, but not all.
Cons:
1. You don’t get a say in what hotel you end up in. This is the same as with Priceline, but at least you aren’t “upgraded” (in other words hijacked) to something you didn’t ask for.
2. Reservations are nonchangeable and nonrefundable. If they stick you in a hotel you don’t like, too bad, you are stuck.
3. Hotwire charges a service fee of between $4 and $5 per reservation, though they refuse to tell you the exact amount. That is about $2 less than Priceline.
Strategies
So it is a trade-off. You can save more money on Priceline-maybe-but Hotwire is far easier to use, and in my opinion, more honest and direct. If your primary motivation is to pay as little as you can for a hotel room, here is what I recommend as a strategy for making a reservation.
First, look at Hotwire and search on the city and date you want to stay. You can sort on price and see the least expensive rooms available. This gives you an idea of what the market is for your date and location. With that information, you can then go to Priceline and try your luck. As a general rule, I take the lowest Hotwire rate and subtract 25% as my bid to try on Priceline. For example, if Hotwire’s lowest price is $41, I will try a $31 bid on Priceline. Sometimes an even lower bid can be successful on Priceline, but low-balling their service may also create a hassle and may even get you blocked from trying again. That’s my low range and I take as a high range about 10% below Hotwire’s price. In this example, if Priceline won’t accept a $36 or $37 bid, I will just go with Hotwire. Up to you whether or how you want to roll the dice.
When you bid on Priceline, enter your city and date (you can enter a suburb rather than the main city to get closer to the location you want to be). On the next screen, you are offered choices of specific areas and star levels. Select one area and then select 1 star-you can, of course, choose higher, but that means paying higher. On the screen it will show a median hotel rate for that star level and area. If you can be flexible about what exact area you stay in, keep selecting an area until you find the one with the lowest median rate. Then try your bid only on that area-do not select multiple areas; this will give you the greatest chance of success for your low bid.
If you are lucky, you get your first bid accepted. Congratulations. You will then learn the identity of your hotel. You now have your cheap hotel, but you can’t for any reason change or cancel. If your bid is denied, you can resubmit a bid according to the instructions on the screen. They will tell you that either you can resubmit if you raise your bid by $6 or you need to change your dates, area, or star level. If they give you the $6 option, if you are willing to pay that, you will almost certainly be accepted when you submit that bid. If you don’t get that option or aren’t willing to go that high, click on the link to change your area. Add only one additional area to your bid. You only get to try a new bid if you add additional areas, so add them only one at a time to maximize your chances. Raising your bid, even by only a dollar, increases your odds of success. Keep trying until you get the price you want, or you run out of options. When Priceline looks like it won’t accept a price significantly lower than Hotwire’s, just go with Hotwire. Or you may just want to avoid the hassle of Priceline and bid once or twice and failing there go to Hotwire. Because the discounts are bigger in larger cities than in smaller cities (probably because of the higher number of hotels competing for business), it seems you get a better deal on Hotwire than on Priceline if you are staying in a smaller city.
How you go about reserving your room is ultimately up to you. Play with it and figure out your own personal strategy. If you are willing to spend a few minutes, you can end up saving a lot of money. Good luck!
