10 Tips for the Travelling Bargain Hunter

May 25th, 2009

Nothing like a good Summer vacation to get your mind off the economy, crummy job, or whatever daily grind you must go through. If you haven’t guessed by now we are bargain hunters at Buxr and love to save our money whenever we have to spend our money. I’m going to share with you some common sense tips along with some bargain hunting secrets to help you save and get the most out of your summer vacation.

Travel Tip #1: Plan your trip early

Planning your trip early is probably the easiest way to save money on your summer vacation. Not only will you be able to get the hotel you want but you’ll also be able to book a lot of the restaurants and attractions that fill-up for last minute travelers. And of course there is nothing worse than waiting until the last minute for air travel. Chances are you will end up paying more for your flight tickets, and get some of the worst possible seats. So try to do your best and plan your vacation early… your wallet will thank you.

Travel Tip #2: Book your ticket on weak demand travel days

Because of low airline traffic volume you can usually get your ticket slightly cheaper if you fly on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday Afternoon. Also including a weekend in your travel plans can save you some additional cash.

Travel Tip #3: Book through a travel comparison site

There are tons of great travel sites on the web, so I’ll just go through a few of my favorite. I’ll start with Orbitz because I’m used to their interface, and I’ve had a reasonably good experience in the past. Orbitz will display offers from multiple airline and hotels in an easy to read matrix. Another great site is Kayak.com which offers tons of flights, and has an extra benefit of searching the airline’s websites too. Finally their is a similar site to Kayak called Mobissimo.com which also searches dozens of airlines and price comparison sites like Priceline, Orbitz, and Hotwire. Mobissimo and Kayak also offer nice comparison for hotels, cars, vacations and cruises.

Travel Tip #4: Call and haggle directly with the Hotel

This little trick worked during good economic times, and now with the downturn it should work even better. Pick up your phone the old fashioned way, and call the hotel and ask for a better price. Usually just asking nicely works wonders on getting a better price and even a better room. If that doesn’t work, call a few comparable hotels and write down the rates. Then call back your first choice, and mention that a similar hotel is offering an equivalent room at a lower rate. Tell the hotel agent that even though you are willing to stay at another hotel, you would love to get a similar rate at your “favorite” hotel. I’ve personally had some success with this system, and I’ve heard from friends that it’s worked for them as well. The system seems to work best on luxury hotels which are usually overpriced, and have more room to discount.

Travel Tip #5: Avoid internet and phone charges in your hotel

I often find that at least 50% of the hotels I visit do not have free internet access. To make matters worse I’m guilty of using the hotel internet connection when I travel. I do this simply because when you are running a couple of websites, you need a high speed connection or it takes forever to do your work. But if you are like most normal people on vacation you probably just want to check your email or catch up on the news. These days a lot of people carry around smartphones which allow you to do most of this directly on the phone. However if you decide to carry a laptop too, you can tether your smartphone to your laptop and harness your carrier’s broadband connection. Now a lot of wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T offer special internet tethering plans which aren’t bad. Additionally, if you have a little bit of hacker in your blood, you can tether your phone for free.. Here is how to do it for the iPhone and Andriod phones. One other tip, try to use your cell phone as much as possible and avoid the hotel phone. Using the hotel phone is very expensive and unnecessary when you can use your cell phone (just watch the roaming charges).

Travel Tip #6: Use a travel agent

Here is news for some people, some travel agents still have pretty good deals. We recently booked a vacation to Disney during a peak travel time. We initially tried calling Disney and tried booking through them, but they had no availability. We ended up using a travel agent, who got us a decent deal when there were no other openings.

Travel Tip #7: Sign up for a hotel and airfare loyalty program

If you are organized and show some loyalty love to your favorite hotels and airlines they will throw you a bone occasionally with some great deals. I mention being organized because I often find myself not properly capitalizing on rewards programs even though I frequent some of the same hotels every year. Do your homework and make sure you sign up to any program which you are bound to frequent.

Travel Tip #8: Rent a home from an owner

We’ve done this a few times with some success and you get a great place. Check out sites like vrbo.com or homeaway.com, and you can find a nice rental home with all the amenities. The best part about renting a place, is that you get a lot more space and usually a good kitchen to save on eating out expenses. One word of warning, call or email the owner and ask a lot of questions about the property. If they are not responsive, I wouldn’t book with them. Some of the rental sites have some reviews which is also useful.

Travel Tip #9: Check out some helpful travel deal sites

There are some industry travel deal site that are pretty popular. My favorite is Travelzoo.com which compiles some great deals every week. Some flights are as low as $50 each way. Additionally there are sites like site59.com and airefarewatchdog.com which are pretty good.

Travel Tip #10: Travel when no one else wants too

Flying off season is one of the easiest ways to save money when traveling. Try to avoid peak travel periods to your favorite locations. Doing so will help avoid the crowds and save a few bucks. Also if you have time you can book your flight with a couple of stops. I try to avoid these myself, but you can get some great prices for your suffering.

Hope you’ve enjoyed these tips, and even more so, I hope they save you a few bucks. Remember a vacation should be relaxing and enjoyable. So don’t stress too much about anything.

Would love to hear your tips too!

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