6 Top Tips for Finding Hotel and Flight Deals
As we are starting to make plans to travel again, it will be satisfying to discover great deals on flights and hotels. Today fellow travel enthusiast and CTO of Roomsteals, Nate Ritter, joins Lisa to share simple tips and ideas for saving money when booking flights and hotels.
Using Roomsteals is one way to save when booking hotel rooms. If you want to join Room steals for deeply discounted hotel rooms, use code TRIBE to get 20% off of your subscription price.
Flexibility and savvy planning will go a long way in helping you save while booking your next vacation. Listen in to discover creative ways to get the most of your dollars on your next vacation.
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“Travel changes our minds and gives us a new way of seeing things.”
How to Save Money When Booking Flights
Be flexible. Being available for a wide range of travel days helps you find better deals. Check flight sites for a variety of days since some days are significantly less expensive than others. Also, being ready to book a trip at a moment's notice can help you score great deals. Oftentimes these quick-book trips require that you book within a short amount of time but allow you to travel on the trip 6 months out.
Use credit card points and bonuses. Look for credit cards from your favorite travel companies and use the sign-up bonuses to score free flights. Always pay the credit card off each month. Otherwise, the interest payments will counteract any bonuses that you receive.
Search for flights on sites like Scott’s Cheap Flights or Fare Drop. These companies have systems in place that can search for great deals from your home airport. They have both free and paid versions. Google Flights is another favorite search engine for finding great prices on flights. We love that you can sign up to receive tracking alerts on flight itineraries and look at a calendar for the month and see which days are the least expensive to fly.
How to Save Money When Booking Hotels
Use a home swap site like Home Exchange. You may just need to list your house on the site to get enough credits to travel without actually hosting people in your home. If you want to learn more about the ins and outs of using Home Exchange, you can check out our podcast episode about Doing Home Exchanges to Help with Your Travel Budget.
Become credit card savvy. Yes, this not only applies to getting discounts on flights but also discounts on hotel stays. If you sign up for major hotel credit cards, there should be a nice bonus where you can earn free nights. Be sure to keep the card long enough that you are not penalized for canceling too soon. Also, use the card on a couple of small purchases and pay those off before canceling to show the credit card company that you are using the card. Be sure to cancel it before the annual fee becomes due and please pay it off in full every month so that you don’t pay fees that basically cancel out your free hotel nights.
Use RoomSteals to find your next hotel room. This site allows you to discover deeply discounted room rates that you will not find on other search sites. There is an annual subscription price to book through this site but it is free to look and see what is offered. If it makes sense to book with the discounted hotel rate then you can go ahead and book. If you save $400 on your hotel rate then it makes sense to pay the $59 annual fee. ***Use code TRIBE to save 20% on the annual fee!
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