How to get great rates in a hotel room

Hotel costs are generally upwards. 2024 saw the most recorded average daily rates in the US for starters. But you can still find transactions and they are far beyond what you can get by converting your credit cards and loyalty points into discounts. Below are six ways to get the best prices at some of the top hotels.

Find “debut” discounts

If a hotel first opens or signs up on a new booking site, you may receive a significant discount on your room rate. A good starting point is Dis-Loyalty, a boutique and luxury hotel membership program run by Ennismore Lifestyle Collective. With a membership fee of $18 per month, you'll receive deals and perks at 10 hotel brands (Mondrian, SLS, Hoxton, etc.) that include a 50% discount on the site's new hotels within the first three months of the opening day. One of the current examples: Hoxton, Florence, Italy, opened in March, allows members to stay at a starting rate of $235 at a one-day starting rate, compared to the standard $470. Another membership-based hotel collection, Design Hotel offers free membership and a variety of discounts. Among them, it offers 50% “debut” savings on certain properties, including Xela Tulum, a 12-room hotel on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, which opened in late 2023.

Try front desk diplomacy

Roberto Cowan is the co-founder of a vintage desert boutique with a former post base in Tucson, Arizona. New York; and later this year, Paris has proposed calling the hotel directly for the best prices. You never know where you were politely asked. He says he'll lead. Among his greatest successes was a New Year's trip to Harmonino Sara, a Costa Rica luxury surfing and yoga retreat. After the website showed that there was no availability on the day he wanted to visit, he called the front desk and was told that the hotel could accommodate him if he was willing to change rooms during his stay. “I was in the most beautiful place. I didn't have to move (the room). They were willing to work with me due to inconvenience,” he says. Ultimately, he saved about 40% in rooms that normally earn around $1,000 per night at that time of year. Wendy Perrin, founder of the Travel Advice website, believes that front desk diplomacy may also benefit you in other scenarios. “It's close to the time when the value of the room will die down,” she says you could receive a discount.

Sign up for our newsletter

Many hospitality brands, marketing consortiums and booking sites have newsletters that allow you to sign up for a free membership. These dispatches are primarily intended as travel inspiration, but they also tend to direct subscribers towards a wide range of discounts. For example, the small, luxurious hotel offered up to 20% suites on around 168 properties, including the luxurious retreat of a farm that recently became a farm on the Spanish island of Minorca, and the Gaia River Lodge, a herd of bell-roofed cabanas in Belize. And the Smiths have promoted last-minute hotel stays of up to 35% over Easter weekends at destinations, including Denver and Buenos Aires. Memberships can also be awarded other money-saving perks, says Perrin: upgrades, late check-outs, free meals, and even the occasional free nights.

Please call the agent

Travel advisors and consultants with long-standing relationships with hotel brands (relationships that generate large quantities of sales) are often able to communicate “agent-only specials” to their clients. Even luxury properties that don't want publicly discounts can sometimes give a negotiated fee to their preferred travel agency, Perrin, who recommends destination-specific travel advisors on her website, points out.

Be flexible in your date

Shifting check-in and check-out dates by one day can lead to significantly lower indoor rates. “There are groups in the hotel who film 40-50% of the rooms and the event ends on Wednesday night,” says hospitality industry consultant Bjorn Hanson. “Everyone checks out on Thursday mornings and the hotel has a very low occupancy.” A similar thing can happen when blocks of rooms are about to come online after renovations. From one day until the next, hotels may be expensive due to low stock. Walker Hotel Tribeca in New York, converted to a boutique hotel with a rooftop bar, at the Ribbon and Button factory. The press conference began nighttime charges for the week of May 12th, ranging from $411 to $585. The price on the 18th was about $237 lower.

Protects against price drops

Booking site Hotelslash charges $50 a year to send subscriber properties at a discounted rate at the intended destination. A recent search for a long spring weekend in Paris showed that a fully refundable room in Paris in Lebaines (a famous nightclub became a cult hotel in Male) was three nights, with the hotel site showing a total of $1,720 for the same stay. Once booked, Hotelslash monitors further price reductions, so you can cancel and re-book at the same hotel as long as you choose a refundable option. Even if you book a refundable room on another site or hotel booking line, you can still forward a confirmation email to Hotelslash for rate monitoring. Magellan Luxury Hotels, another membership-based booking service that offers competitive rates for luxury brands (including Aman and Rosewood Hotels & Resorts), has a Ratecheck program that automatically rebooks when low rates become available. Tablet hotels will introduce a similar program in May when customers start to hear about price drops on reservations before the cancellation penalty begins. To qualify, you will need to have access to upgrades and daily breakfasts, including tablets worth $99 a year, plus extras at certain hotels.