So there are A LOT of different ways to find hotel deals. Everything from using a discount travel site (like Hotels.com or Priceline) to something like BookVIP (which are awesome deals, but DO require you to go to a timeshare presentation). Groupon has hotel and travel deals as well (we got a great deal on Great Wolf lodge). In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m a huge fan of Groupon.
However, I wanted to throw out some other suggestions, too:
- Groupon – You saw this coming, right? If you don’t use Groupon, get on it. If you don’t use it for hotel deals, I highly recommend it. Make sure to read the fine print though. Sometimes the advertised price isn’t good on weekends or holidays.
- Hotel emails – If you have a hotel in mind, get signed up for their email offers. I get probably 3 emails a week from Great Wolf Lodge offering 30-40% off at various locations. I even get separate emails for the Kansas City and Bloomington locations.
- Hotel points – Use the hotel rewards programs! Sometimes you get points for signing up, too! All the ones that I have seen are FREE to sign up and you often get perks at the hotel (i.e. Marriott does free WiFi for members). There also aren’t usually any purchase minimums to keep your membership or anything, but a few nights a year will add up to FREE nights!
- Hotel credit cards – I’m one of those people that signs up for credit cards for the FREE stuff (shocking, right?). When we were looking to go to South Dakota and I was looking at hotels for the road trip part, I saw a pretty awesome offer to get a Wyndham (Days Inn, Ramada, etc) credit card and get enough points for 2 free nights. The card doesn’t have any fees and I could use it to purchase other items and get hotel points. So I applied and got immediate approval, using those initial points to book our room for FREE (Yay!) *Only do this if you are comfortable opening credit cards and PAY THEM OFF EVERY MONTH – do not rack up interest charges if you can help it*
- Mystery Shopping – Yes, you can mystery shop hotels (once you have some experience with smaller assignments like restaurants and retail stores). It is work to write the detailed reports on your experience, but if it’s worth it to you to get a free hotel stay (saving $100-300/night), go for it. I love it and am willing to spend a couple of hours writing the reports after check out. If you didn’t see my post about getting started with mystery shopping, you can check it out here: https://familytravelonabudget.net/2019/10/06/mystery-shopping-is-no-longer-a-mystery/
I hope you guys can use these hotel deals and save some $$! If you find an AWESOME deal please SHARE with us on social (tag me or use #familytravelonabudget):
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And if you have other hotel questions, I am happy to help! Message me on social or email me at familytravelonabudget@gmail.com