Tips for Finding Hotel Deals

Needs some tips for stretching your vacation budget to go further? This week we chat with dad and tech entrepreneur Nate Ritter, from RoomSteals and learn some new tricks for finding hotel deals.

About Nate Ritter

Nate is a travel expert, who first got started in 2007 when he was able to fly & stay in Paris for $300 (accommodation included). This first experience sparked his interest in all things travel hacking through miles/points/finding deals, etc.   Most recently, he founded RoomSteals, which is a chrome extension that lets you see wholesale hotel rates before booking. Most companies, like Expedia and Booking, make money by marking up the hotel price or getting a commission (between 7-18%). They don’t add margin or take commission, so the prices are at the rock bottom.

You can follow Nate on Twitter or you can follow RoomSteals.

Tips for Finding Hotel Deals

• One way to get cheap accommodations is to look for new home exchange start ups and sign up with them. Often they will offer points or credits just for listing your house, even if you don't want to actually swap your house. Sometimes those points are enough to get a free stay.
• One option is Love Home Swap which was later bought by HomeExchange.com.
• Hotels have wholesale inventory that they offer to online travel agencies but those prices aren't usually available to the public.
• RoomSteals allows anyone to become a member and lets you see those wholesale rates.
• RoomSteals is a Chrome browser extension that shows these secret deals once you are logged in and looking at hotel rates on Booking.com, Expedia, Travelocity, etc.
• You don't need to be a paid member to log in and see the wholesale rates but once you see the rates and want to book, you need a paid membership to RoomSteals.com.
• RoomSteals doesn't make a commission or transaction fee on bookings, only on a subscription of $59 per year (currently).
• Members often save enough on one trip to cover the cost of the annual membership.
• RoomSteals.com will show you the cheapest rate at that hotel, which may not be the exact room configuration that you are looking for. But you can compare once you look at RoomSteals booking engine and you can always select the room configuration that you want even if the price is slightly different.
• Members are saving an average of 25% across an entire year of bookings.
• You typically do not use points when you book wholesale rates, but you can always call the hotel in advance or give your number at check in to see if you can still get credit for your stay.
• Also look closely at the rate as often it is non-refundable or does not have some of the amenities like free breakfast or such.
• It is hard to find wholesale rates during peak travel seasons. It is easier to find rates when there is a bit of a lull in the market.
• Discounts can be as drastic as $300 for a $3000 penthouse suite.
• It often helps to call and talk to someone personally in advance as you will be more apt to get upgraded or special perks if you form a personal connection.
• Use coupon code VacationMavens to receive 20% off an annual membership to RoomSteals.com.

[00:00:00.000] - Kim Tate

Today we're talking about how to score a steal of a deal on your next hotel.

[00:00:16.200] - Announcer

Welcome to Vacation Mavens, the family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Hosts Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We3Travel.

[00:00:30.700] - Kim Tate

Well Tamara, when this episode airs you are going to be on the road off on an adventure with a teenager. So maybe we could talk before we start chatting about hotels. Let's talk a little bit about road trips road trip planning and in anything useful you think our listeners would like to know if there might be helpful for them cuz I have a feeling road trips are going to be pretty popular this spring break.

[00:00:53.300] - Tamara Gruber

We have done a lot of road trips and so this isn't our first rodeo as they say but this is time Glenn is coming along too. So I don't know if it will make it harder or or what, but it is a massive road trip. Like I'm almost embarrassed to tell people because they are like where you going and I said, well we're going to go look at colleges and they think that we're just going around the New England area and we have enough colleges here but we're actually making our way all the way out to Colorado, so I can't even imagine how many miles we are going to put on the car. Glenn asked if you want to bring the Tesla and I was like no way because I know that while its a great car, but we just don't want to have to like sit and charge all the time and she likes more space or whatever.

[00:01:45.500] - Tamara Gruber

Well by the time you hear this we will be I don't even know what state will be in like, Michigan or Wisconsin I think maybe Ohio but we are we're heading through Pennsylvania and looking at schools in Pennsylvania then we are going to Cleveland. We're going to Ann Arbor, Michigan; Madison, Wisconsin, we're going to go and stop a night in Nebraska and then make our way to Colorado and then we're going to spend a few nights.

[00:02:08.900] - Tamara Gruber

Then I set up a stay at a ranch which is going to be our relaxation portion of our trip and then book it all the way back to the east coast. Of course. We are stopping a couple of nights along the way because it is a lot of driving we get back and then we need a quarantine for a week and I'll be so happy to not have to drive Hannah to school. Our car is going to need another service by the time we get back.

[00:02:36.900] - Kim Tate

I'm sure it will be like when we did that Maine trip kind and I assume you're driving the Volvo then? It served us well it's going to tag along again

[00:02:48.400] - Tamara Gruber

Hey it went down to Florida and back in the summer. So, you know, it's got a lot of miles but yeah, it took I mean for us to this trip was really it was all about, you know, seeing colleges. We feel like there's quite a few to see she's interested in ones kind of all across the country. Even if we wanted to fly to them. We don't we have to be like hopping onto planes here and there if we really can't travel at all during school because of the quarantine requirements and so luckily the spring break works out where she is on a hybrid week when we get back. And so when we get back we can quarantine so do her virtual learning. The rules here are you have to test after 5 days quarantine for 7 and then she has to test again before she goes into school. So it all works out. You know, it's great. It's an opportunity for us to look at quite a few schools and hopefully we'll get a few more in over the summer and then she can decide where she wants to apply and if she wants to do early decision or any of those kind of things cuz fall's just crazy cuz we have soccer which is a very time-consuming thing and then she'll be you know, in her new classes and working on an application.

[00:03:57.400] - Tamara Gruber

So it's really not ideal time to go look at schools unless they're local and then of course you could wait until after you get acceptances or whatever, but I think she would like to just narrow down where she would like to apply so it'll be good, you know, obviously there's no tours happening, but it's just about going and like walking the campuses seeing the surrounding areas are some of them have a self-guided walking like Maps or apps are things that you can use. So yeah so are our route was very much dictated by okay, which schools are on her potential list that we could kind of wrap into this trip and how many hours in between and how much like when are we going to get there while we have at least like half a day to spend, you know in this area before we move on and the timing was very much dictated by that like, okay, we've got a six-hour drive. We're going to get in here at night and then leave the next morning and and then in the afternoon, we'll head to the next place or something like that. So it's it's very it's like it's not a relaxing trip.

[00:04:59.100] - Kim Tate

That sounds like it's a little different cuz I don't know. You have planned a lot of road trips and so have we. Do you have a plan of how far each day you want to drive and I know it makes a difference with that where you're saying you're more about getting to the destination. But you know for us we're headed out on a road trip down along the coast and so we're going to make Scenic stops. Like we want to be able to pull out and you know it admire the scenery take some photos. There's stops along the way. So do you guys have a plan normally when you're planning a road trip like we don't do more than this many hours per day.

[00:05:34.300] - Tamara Gruber

Yeah. I'm going to try to stick to that just cuz I know how exhausting it can be. We definitely are driving down to Florida and 21 hours with you know, something that we're not eager to do again, but we try to stick to somewhere between like a 7 to 9 hours a day and we have a couple of those are going to have to drive from Wisconsin to Colorado. I think it would be like a 14-hour drive in this just like a little too much.

[00:05:59.600] - Tamara Gruber

So we're stopping in Nebraska like along the way to break that up and then when we come back we're going from Steamboat Springs in Colorado, which is kind of in the central Colorado and then we not like Center