I am someone who loves to save money when I can (especially on hotels or flights), but I am also someone who loathes checking 50 sites before deciding on which one has the best deal.
After booking a number of flights (from Canada to cities in Asia, and then Canada to cities in Europe), my strategy has been simplified.
I BOOK FLIGHTS FIRST…
You can’t really book hotels until you know when you’re leaving and arriving. I also find that sometimes it’s cheaper to fly on a Tuesday rather than a Wednesday, and if you book your hotel first, you may not get the best deal.
Generally, for Europe, we book with Air Transat most of the time.
For Asia, we used Air China and Singapore Airlines.
I use Expedia to check flight prices, the best dates and which airlines are the cheapest. Then I pick the cheapest and go to the actual airline’s website to re-check to see if it’s cheaper on their site.
(Side Note: I really hate Expedia’s layout but they’re the best starting point for finding flights)
Sometimes, instead of buying a direct flight, I will buy a flights with stopovers with two different airlines and build my own flight (I’ve noticed the combinations they give on Expedia aren’t the best deals at times).
For Asia, we flew to Vancouver with Air Canada before switching to Air China to get to Beijing. It was cheaper than a direct flight from Toronto to Beijing.
I prefer taking flights in off peak hours, but I hate red-eye flights (overnight). I like to arrive at around 7 p.m. or so to avoid rush hour.
(Ibis Singapore)
…THEN I BOOK THE HOTELS
I tend to prefer the Accor Group for hotels (Ibis is a great, low-cost brand), but if I wanted a kitchenette or an apartment-like hotel then I like Candlewood Suites, Marriott Residence Inn (fancy!) or Motel 6. 🙂
We like Ibis hotels for when we travel, because BF can remove the mattress and sleep on the hard wooden board that’s underneath. It isn’t a mattress spring or wood slats, so it’s the perfect travel bed without having to sleep on the floor!!! 🙂
I always use Hotels.com (no, they are not paying me to say this I actually like the site!).
I tried to use the same strategy of checking with Hotels.com and then booking with the actual hotel brand itself, but it turned into one big clusterf*uck when we tried to change some dates or something like that.
Now, I just use the site and forget about going to the actual site, unless the price per night seems unreasonably high based on past experiences.
I also really like the site for these reasons:
- It manages all my hotel reservations in one place
- Lets me earn free nights based on the average price of nights we paid through the site
- ..and you don’t need to stay with specific hotel brands each time you book*
So if you paid for 10 nights at $100 at a hotel, you get 1 night free at $100.
If you paid for 5 nights at $50 at a hotel, and another 5 nights at $100 at a hotel, you get 1 night free at an average of $75 a night.
*I mean that you can book with one hotel group like Marriott and then with the Accor group the next time (whichever hotel gave a better deal for your travel dates), and you still earn free nights based on the average price of your 10 night stays.
I used to hold 5-10 cards of different points with different hotel brands.
It’s annoying to know you ALMOST have one free night at each of them but you need to stay another week in each hotel.
(Macau)
LASTLY, I BUY TRAVEL INSURANCE
Seven Corners Travel Insurance works for us because it’s very easy to purchase and it goes for more than 2-3 weeks (we travel for months at a time). It was also available for Canadians!
You can read all about my experience with buying travel insurance here.
That’s it. That’s how I book my hotels and flights. It takes about half an hour if my internet connection is willing.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
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Surprised by your love of Hotels.com, I’ve had terrible experiences which have led me to this: I do not pre-pay for hotels in advance, as they can ‘bump’ you to another hotel of lesser quality. I only book directly through hotels, and if neccessary guarantee late arrival with my credit card, which does not get charged until I check out. This way, if the hotel overbooks and bumps me, I’m not hostage to my already-spent money: I can make free choices to abandon the reservation. This is also useful if the hotel room cleanliness or amenities are poorer than promised online: hotel-direct cancellation policies are almost always more lenient and easier to negotiate than hotels.com (or other prepaid) refund policies.
I should also add that if you call direct and ask, hotels will almost always match or beat the price for online booking agents as they therefore do not pay commission to the online booking agency. This provides a negotiation point to get a lower price, or better room, by talking directly to the hotel.
Thanks for the tip Janice!
I have tried calling ahead of time to negotiate but they are less open to this overseas.
I also have never had anytrouble with Hotels.com. In fact, booking with them has saved me a headache on a number of occasions overseas with them wanting to add some arbitrary surcharge….
I’ve found hipmunk.com to be useful to compare different airlines and see which has the best prices. It lets you sort the flights by price, duration, agony, etc. It’s fun to play around with.
Another one to save! Thanks
I flew with Air China to China and I was quite impressed with their service. I hated their food but who actually loves airplane food, right? I usually start with Kayak and move on to airline websites for comparison purposes. I’ve heard good things about Hotel.com. Will use them next time! As far as flying with layovers, I am on a fence with this one. Sometimes it is worth to pay an additional $100 and save time.
Air China was far better than Air Transat, that’s for sure. And it was DIRT CHEAP which made me both excited but very.. very.. cautious (had a fear it was too cheap and we’d have to pay for fuel charges or something like with that recent India flight)
Their food was horribly greasy and overly sauced… BUT…it was better than what we actually ate in China, so we were eating it all up like ravenous pigs
It’s funny you say about checking 50 sites for travel. lol! I first was checking all the travel sites I usually use a while back, like Orbitz, Expedia, etc. (I hate Expedia’s site layout too!) But I started using Kayak.com. It’s the most helpful site for airline flights that I have found. Also, I usually use Hotels.com, but then I found Booking.com by Priceline. It’s not a ‘name your own price’ site. It works just like Hotels.com instead. Good deals on hotels there. Also, Tuesday is the BEST day for getting plane tickets! I found tickets to London $200 off what is was on the Monday before. But I think you have to look before 9am for the best deals on Tuesday. (That’s how I found mine.) 😀
Thank you for the recommendations!
Kayak and Booking.com 🙂
Hey I was wondering if you could tell me your opinion on air transat? They are one of the few airlines that flies directly to where I’m going in Portugal, and they seem to be known for good prices, but I have heard some bad things about them. How has your experience been?
Air Transat is a necessary evil because it is the only one that flies direct.
I do not love the airline and the last time I went I waited in line for 90 minutes just to check in and get my tickets!!!!! I was early but almost missed the plane and the flight was delayed by 2.5 hours
Any tips for getting an inexpensive flight from the States to Vancouver, or tips on where to stay? I have a conference there in mid-April and it looks like it’s going to be insanely expensive.
All flights to Vancouver are generally expensive. It was shocking how much it was to fly from Toronto to Vancouver.
I find U.S. flights to be cheaper than Canadian ones ANYWAY, so your best bet is to use Expedia and just find the lowest price.
hey, are you signed up to any airline reward programmes? I’m now getting into it and have been reading some great travel reward themed blogs (http://www.frugaltravelguy.com, http://millionmilesecrets.com, http://boardingarea.com). Some people get into credit card churning as a way to earn miles really quickly from the sign up bonuses but I’m also excited about the possibilities that exist for earning miles just simply through my regular credit card purchases (which are paid well before interest is due). There are also loads of other ways to earn miles/ points :shopping online, ( a good comparison site is http://www.evreward.com), car rentals, search bars, etc. . Keeping track of it all can get a bit consuming if you get really into lit ike I’m but it also doesn’t have to be, as racking up the miles is pretty easy just using your credit card. The key for you might be to sign up for the programmes at brands you frequent – you mentioned Accor and Marriott – and stick with those . A great way of tracking your miles /points is through the award wallet site (http://awardwallet.com). For someone you travels as much as you do, might be a good way of seeing the world for free.