How to Stay in Luxury Hotels on a Budget

Don’t we all like a nice, luxurious hotel to come back to after long days of sightseeing, exploring or relaxing on the beach? But if you are like me, you also don’t want to spend an arm and a leg for it either. I am here to tell you that there are ways to get those luxury accommodations on a budget.

I am the queen of looking for a deal and getting the most bang for my buck while I am on vacation. Here are some of my strategies that help me save a few extra dollars when booking my hotel.

1. Be Flexible

Now, when I say flexible, I mean be flexible with your travel dates AND with your ideal hotel. You may have a particular hotel in mind, but sometimes those resorts will just never get down low enough on price to fit your budget, so be open to other options. On most hotel booking sites, you can search 4 and 5 star hotels. This will show all of the options within that luxury category. Some hotels will run promos and have better deals than other hotels in the same category, so don’t just search one particular hotel.

Now being flexible doesn’t just mean being flexible on the hotel. It also means to be flexible with your dates. The Max Travel App has a great feature that allows you to see the different rates on different dates in one screenshot. It is super helpful to see this right in front of you and know if you back your trip up one day earlier, you could save a couple of hundred bucks.

2. Travel During Shoulder Season

Shoulder season is the period of time between a destination’s peak season and off season. Shoulder season is a great time to travel because you will get cheaper rates on accommodations, but still typically get to experience everything that you would get to experience during peak season. Off-season can sometimes be a bad time to travel to certain destinations because things may be shut down, and you won’t get the full experience of the location. So this is why I like to choose the shoulder season instead. For example, if a destination’s peak season is summer and off season is winter, then shoulder season would be spring and fall.. Each destination will have a different shoulder season, so be sure to do your research before booking.

3. Travel During the Week

If you are able, traveling during the week can save you tons of money on hotel stays. It is crazy how much hotel prices can go up on the weekends. I have even seen them double in price from a Thursday to a Saturday before. So if you have a flexible job or enough PTO then traveling during the week is a great way to save money on those 4 and 5 star hotels.

4. Use Hotel Rewards Apps

If you don’t have a hotel rewards app, then it is time to get one. There are hotel rewards apps that are hotel (or hotel chain) specific. Some of my favorite hotel rewards apps are Hilton Honors, Marriott Bon Voy, Loews VIP, and World of Hyatt. These are great for your luxury chain hotels and each hotel group offers so many hotels around the world.

There are also rewards apps that cover thousands of hotels all under one app. Some of my favorites are booking,com rewards and Max Travel rewards.

Booking.com has what they call rewards genius discounts. The more stays you book with booking.com, the higher you climb up the rewards chain. Level 1 happens when you sign up for Booking.com’s rewards and that gets you 10% off at participating hotels. After 5 bookings on booking.com, you move up to Level 2 and this gives you a 15% discount on hotels. Level 3 happens happens after 15 bookings and you get a 20% discount.

One amazing feature that I love about booking.com is they have a book now, pay later option with free cancellation. This is a great option if you are trying to save up the money for your trip, but you want to go ahead and get a nice hotel secured. On booking.com, there are a lot of hotels that offer this option – to book the room now and then pay at check-in. So this will allow you plenty of time to save the money if you book out months in advance.

Max Travel Rewards is a great app because you can book with your rewards points and still earn points. Most hotel rewards app don’t do this. On most apps, if you book with points, then you don’t receive points for that stay, but it is not that way with Max Travel.

Hotel rewards apps are a great way to help save money. They are free to sign up for and then you can start building up rewards with each hotel and hopefully save up enough to have a completely free stay somewhere in the future.

5. Research Different Hotel Booking Sites

One of my favorite hotel booking sites/app is Priceline. Priceline has the pricebreaker option which is an option within the Priceline website where Priceline gets to choose the hotel for you. You get a heavily discounted rate by letting them choose the hotel. You get to see the three options that they will be picking from, but you won’t know the final choice until Priceline chooses for you, but the savings is unreal. Just be sure you research the 3 options to make sure you would be happy at any of the 3.

Also, use Trivago to search hotels at a particular destination for the dates you want. You can see the same hotel across different booking sites. This allows you to easily price compare the best place to book the hotel. Trivago also allows you to filter 4 and 5 star hotels so you can easily search for the type of hotel you would to like to book.

6. Think Outside of Hotels

Hotels aren’t the only place to offer luxury accommodations. Short terms rentals are really stepping up in their game in the travel world. I have stayed at some AMAZING short term rentals. They are luxurious, have amazing amenities and some even have their own hot tubs and private pools.

Short term rentals are a great way to save money, especially if you are traveling with multiple people or families. If two families split the cost of the rental, it can sometimes be a lot cheaper than getting two luxury hotel rooms.

I like to use VRBO and AIRBNB to book my short term rentals. And sometimes these homes will have their own booking sites which is a nice option to have as well.

7. Don’t be Afraid to Negotiate

Whether it is a short term rental or hotel, don’t be afraid to negotiate. It never hurts to reach out and ask what the best deal they can offer is. I do this a lot in the short term rental space, especially if I am booking a last minute trip and I see that the space is not rented for the time I want, then I always reach out and offer them a price that is lower than asking. I mean the worst thing they can say is no, right?

I have had so much success doing this. If an owner doesn’t have the space booked for the next week and that’s when I need it, then he or she will likely want to get it rented, and they will be willing to negotiate a better price. Now, on that note, I am always respectful with my offer and never come in with something crazy low because that can be insulting.

You can also do this with hotels as well. Especially if you see a better price somewhere online, you can call the hotel directly, and they will usually price match or give you a better deal for booking through them.

Use these tips before your next vacation and get those luxury hotel accommodations on a budget.

Check out these related blog posts on luxurious accommodations.

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