Traveling with family, friends or traveling alone one thing that everybody is excited about is their hotel stay. And finding a last-minute hotel deal could be quite a task for some people as price variation is common practice in the hotel industry. The effect of which is, one person might have to pay higher for the accommodation while another person may pay lesser for the same accommodation with the same services offered. That’s when everyone’s planning to find cheap last-minute hotel deals at ‘best prices‘ comes into existence.
After airfare, your hotel stay forms a major portion of your travel budget. Which sometimes standalone takes over the major chunk of your budget when you are traveling to nearby cities depending upon the number of days of your stay. And unlike souvenir shopping in your travels, which can be skipped with window shopping. Hotel stays are something that can not be skipped. Unless you are staying at your relative’s house to save money.
Since you are here on our page, I consider that you are also a money-saving freak and know the benefits of saving. Therefore, we are presenting you with
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Ways to find last-minute hotel deals cheap and quickly
Book hotels with accommodation aggregator sites
Accommodation-centric sites act as a one-stop solution for Hotel searchers. You can find all the hotels at your destination which can help you a lot if you are a first-time visitor. You can get a basic idea of what kind of hotels you will find there and the services associated with your bookings.
Try exploring different sites like trivago, MakeMyTrip, hotels.com, etc, and not just rely on one website to book a hotel. Compare prices offered by one website with that of others and book the cheapest hotel available.
Register yourself with travel booking sites
Generally, travel booking sites offer an instant discount for merely registering yourself on their site. You just have to enter some of the basic credentials like Name, Phone no. or your email address. That’s it! You are registered with the site. What it does for you is, the website identifies you as a potential customer. And tries to retain you by giving discounts and deals on hotels as a first-time user.
First-time user discounts can go up to a crazy 50%. On top of it, if you actually do end up booking a hotel, you can also earn reward points. Which can be availed for further discounts on your next bookings.
Apply coupon codes and find last-minute hotel deals
Coupon codes can be the last-minute savior on your every payment to save money. From buying cheap groceries to buying cheap flight tickets, coupons are the way to go if you want to save money. Even if it is last minute. You can search for these coupons online on coupon sites. These coupons can offer you discounts, cashbacks, gift cards, etc. on your purchases made.
All you need to do is search for coupons online on some of the best coupon sites and find a coupon on hotel booking that suits best to your criteria. Copy the code from that coupon and while checking out paste the coupon code in the “Apply Coupon” column. And Voila! You found yourself a good last-minute hotel deal.
Book rooms with zero cancellation and refund policies
Since you are booking a room at the last minute, you are already firm with your plans and not having double thoughts or any sudden change in plan. You can book hotel rooms with no cancellation and non-refund policies. How would this benefit you? People tend to book hotels with cancellation and refund facilities in their advance bookings if they have a change in plan, so they could get their amount back.
And what hotels do is, charge a premium for providing a cancellation and refund policy so that they do not end up in losses because of sudden cancellations. You can find cheap last-minute hotel deals quickly and save money by booking non-refundable hotel rooms.
Book hotels at “last-minute” to find deals on your booking
Now, this may have you end up in a crisis if you are deliberately waiting for the last minute to book hotel rooms. But if you a spontaneous traveler or have to travel urgently, you can try out your luck. Sometimes, hotels may have a larger number of rooms emptier than booked for the day. Which they would rather want to rent at lower prices than keeping empty. If you find such hotels, you can save a lot of money on your travel budget.
But all of this depends on certain factors like time of your stay, destination you are staying at, season at that time, the popularity of the hotel, and many more. Not to forget your luck is a deciding factor here as well! Speaking from my experience, I once found myself an accommodation at the last minute. And managed to save 500 bucks, probably because I was traveling during the off-seasons.
Try out all inclusive deals to find cheap hotels quickly
You can book your travel with travel booking sites and book an all-inclusive travel package for yourself. While finding a cheap flight ticket is highly unlikely at the last minute, you can still get yourself a comparatively cheap deal with your bookings. You can go for a full-fledged travel bundle that offers you both your travel and stay at a hotel. Sites like MakeMyTrip and goibibo offer both hotels stay booking and flight tickets as well.
If you search for both from the same website and apply coupon codes on your bookings, you may find some amazing last-minute hotel deals. If not with flight tickets you can try bundling your hotel stay with food, wi-fi, parking, or a rented car if you are staying for a longer period.
Avail hotel reward points to find a cheap hotel room
If you are a frequent traveler and a loyal customer of a specific hotel, you can sign up as a loyal member of their loyalty program. You can earn reward points every time you stay at their hotel. You can find cheaper rooms on your travel. On the other hand, if you are not a frequent traveler and still want to take benefit of reward points, you can do so by paying a nominal fee.
You can become their loyal or premium customer by paying a nominal subscription fee whose benefits can extend up to almost a year and even more. You can find cheap hotels deals at the last minute by becoming part of such loyalty programs.
Download apps to find last-minute hotel deals
Booking your stay from apps can land you with extra benefits. Sometimes, websites and hotels offer additional discounts for booking hotels from their respective apps than websites. You get exposed to some of the new offers and deals on their app. Which are otherwise not available on their website.
For instance, I generally used to book my hotel stays directly from websites. But this one time when I was booking a hotel for my vacation with family, I explored the website’s app. And guess what, I saved almost 700 bucks for using their app. These discounts are only available if you use their apps.
FAQs
You can find a cheap hotel last minute by using various comparing sites like Trivago, Expedia, Airbnb, etc. to compare prices of hotels worldwide and pick the cheapest available option. And try coupon codes on your online bookings. You can also book last-minute cheap hotels from an unpopular locality in your destination by keeping your search engines conservative.
Some of the cheapest hotel booking sites that can land you with cheap hotel rooms at the last minute are Trivago.com, Oyo rooms, Goibibo, Airbnb, Hotels.com, Makemytrip, etc. These are some of the famous travel booking sites where you can book cheap hotels for your next travel.
It is not advisable to book a hotel at the last minute as it may not always end up in your favor and you may even have to pay higher for the same room. If you wish to take the risk, you can also end up with cheap rooms with additional benefits. Hotels prefer to offer cheaper rooms at the last minute rather than keeping them empty because of un-occupancy.
Best time to book a hotel room is 3-4 days before your actual stay. These are the times when hotel rooms rates drop if they do not meet the targeted occupancy. You may not get the best deal if you book your accommodation a week or two before your stay as there is still much time left for the hotels and they can wait.
You can get the cheapest hotel room by calling the hotel, and directly booking from there if you have been a loyal customer. Hotels know how to retain their customers, and you can get discounts up to 10%-20%. But if you have not been a loyal customer, it is beneficial to book from intermediary websites as they also offer amazing deals and discounts.
