Vacation season is upon us with Spring Break winding down and the opening of the traditional travel season for most. From May to September individuals and families alike will be searching for their perfect destination for travel and working hard to find those awesome deals online for accommodations. While July is the most heavily traveled month of the year, 51% of reported travel takes place in this month, August, June and September run neck in neck for monopolizing the majority of the remaining time off taken for annual travel.
Despite just over 5 million hotels in the US alone, sometimes overcrowding in highly commercial areas can force some tricky decision making. Price fluctuation in prime properties can quickly escalate while booking in advance can limit your headache as time ticks down closer and closer to the wire.
However you should always keep in mind that in high demand cities even with advanced booking you might find rates vary from weekends to weekdays and while booking on certain days might be convenient for your time management it might not always be as kind to your wallet.
It might seem common sense to think that as most are returning to the grind from a weekend away that hotels might lower rates, however if you assume that the entire week up to Friday and Saturday are lower in cost, you would be wrong in this estimation. You also might think that booking, like with airlines is less expensive if you do so on a Tuesday as this seems to be the gold standard for flight markdowns. But if you book based on this knowledge you would be paying well over value for your hotel. Perhaps knowing that many try to negotiate deals with airlines and thinking of bundling this is an intentional markup day instead.
So what are the best days? When can you book the best hotels? What are the tips that no one seems to want you to know?
Hotel Booking Travel Tips
Following these guidelines there is one additional Booking tip for those wanting to book in advance and save big. Take advantage of travel search engine which offer bundles, yes I know this sounds like a direct conflict of the above mentioned but in doing so, book a REFUNDABLE hotel.
If airlines intentionally mark down flights on Tuesdays this will be the prime day to take advantage, but since hotels mark up prices on the same day this might not seem like a good deal to purchase on Tuesday. And you would be right, if you booked a ticket that was not flexible! But if you are willing to strategize and book a hotel which is REFUNDABLE, you can with only a few steps revisit bookings on Friday or Saturday of the same week and reap your savings while also having locked in your initial airline savings.
So why do it this way instead of just purchasing each item separately?
Booking sites offer accommodation and flight discounts when packaged together. Adding a rental car only furthers these discounts, thus they are willing to negotiate for a bigger portion of your business. This is why the name your price feature initially became so popular when it originated and continues to thrive to some extent in the market.
What are you waiting for?? Go out and plan your next big vacation!!