Hotel rooms for less?

With the price of petrol going up, one way to make your vacation cost less is to cut the price of your hotel room. After all, that’s one of the major areas of vacation spending.

In America, a survey by the AAA reported that the average family of four people spends approximately $270 a day on food and lodging. Since the average family of four is unlikely to sit around all day doing nothing, the daily cost of their vacation is bound to sky rocket when admission fees to zoos, museums and theme parks is added in. Never the less, a large portion of that price is made up of the hotel room rate which is 8 per cent more costly than it was last year. An average hotel room costs $152 in America this summer.

If you’ve already got your heart set on a particular hotel, you may be interested to know that depending on who you buy the room through, the price may change slightly. A good way to get an idea for the price is to check the major search engines: Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia. Generally, these sites have pretty similar prices.

Two other websites can do a lot of the work for you and get the best price from a number of sources. Check out Kayak and Hotels.com to see if you can get a better price.

Don’t forget to look up the hotel’s website online and check the prices and deals offered there. Its also a good way to avoid paying service charges associated with some of the other websites.

The real secret is that nothing beats an in person phone call. A survey conducted by Consumer Reports found that 70 per cent of the 35,000 people surveyed who negotiated their hotel rate with the hotel staff were successful in getting a reduction in price on their room. The best way to approach the negotiation is to be well informed, and to have done your research online about prices available first. It doesn’t hurt to try and if you don’t ask for it, they certainly aren’t going to offer.