Tips and tricks to get the best hotel values- good for interview season

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One of the biggest costs during interview season or anything that requires you to leave home for an extended period of time is Hotel. I can tell you for a fact that I have spent almost five thousand dollars in cost of hotels in the past year. This is because of the interview season and also the fact that I had to deal with the aftermath of hurricane katrina and move around so many times. For the final few months, I was living in a bed and breakfast and at the hilton garden inn in new orleans. Those were the days. Actually, after you lived in hotels for a while, it kinda sucks.

There are probably a few tricks that some money savy people use to save money on hotels which could probably apply to airfare also but that will be for another article. Here are the steps that you can take to save a little extra on those expensive stays and not find yourself end up paying almost a hundred dollars for a really really crappy hotel like the ones you see in the horror movies.

1. Take advantage of aggregate websites This includes Kayak, Orbitz, Sidestep. But remember that some hotels are not represented by these sites so remember that there can be better hunting available.

2. Also do a search on hotwire Hotwire.com is a site, as you all know already, that lets you search hotels based on star ratings and location but doesn’t tell you exactly what hotel you get. Sometimes, by using both the aggregates on number 1 and hotwire, you can figure out exactly what hotel hotwire mentions.

3. Remember that the star system is different for each website I didn’t realize this and ended up in a “3 star” which happened to be a day’s inn. It was such a bad hotel that I have no idea why hotwire ranked them with 3 stars. It is that reason why some websites have hotels that charge more based on what website you use.

4. Priceline is awesome Priceline is a great tool to use. By using the other websites, you can try to bid up to 25 percent lower and sometimes get an even cheaper deal. Remember though that by using priceline, you cannot get rewards points for the hotels that you are staying at.

5. use reward points you can qualify for free nights or extra amenities if you have a rewards account. Hilton rewards are not as good as the Starwood rewards because it is much easier to redeem starwood points and there is lower reward point redemption thresholds. You will rack up the points so remember to get them every time you check in.

6. Get a rewards credit card The best one everyone in various finance forums talk about is the starwood american express rewards card. You get 10,000 points which is good for staying up to 3 nights at a relatively good room after your first purchase and you rack up points really fast when you stay at starwood hotels. These include the sheraton.

7. remember all the hidden costs The big thing that you need to check and remember is that there are a lot of hidden costs that the websites fail to mention. The biggest thing is parking. Some places charge insane parking. To be safe, it is best to stay out of downtown in any location because parking is expensive in downtown hotels. Go to a place further out, maybe in the suburbs. Also remember that lower tier hotels tend to offer free internet while higher end hotels charge for that privilege.

8. it may be cheaper to buy reservations directly from the hotels This is true because they dont want to pay third parties for referrals so many hotels have a guarantee to offer the lowest rate than other sites. Take advantage of that by checking out their websites as well.

9. talk to a manager This is true if you are planning on staying for a long time in one particular place, you may be able to get a deal from the manager as he/she will have the authority to change prices and offer extra incentives to make sure their rooms are always booked.

10. take advantage of package deals This will be the hotel + flight + car things online, check it out, it may save you an extra 100 bucks or so. But also remember that buying things separately can be cheap also especially if you priceline for the car rental as well.

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