Who holds the keys to your stay in a hotel? The staff, of course. They know the ins and outs, and if you befriend them, they will let you in on little hotel secrets that will make your life so much easier.
The Daily Beast shared a collection of such insider’s tips a while ago. Go have a look; some are clever, others much more worrisome. Here we will focus on the clever money-saving hotel secrets, so pay attention.
1. Pick up the phone…
Online travel sites are great for deals on reservation. We all rely on them and their search power when planning a trip. However, as useful as those tools can be, it pays to pick the phone and call the hotel desk for reservation. By doing so, you avoid commission fees, and other third-party charges. This hotel secret states that “if there are vacancies, they’re willing to bargain.” This trick is also valid for booking flights. Talk to a human being now and then; it pays off.
2. … Unless it is a late night call!
Do NOT pick up late night calls from the front desk. It shouldn’t be a hotel secret anymore since there has been in the last months plenty of write-ups about this hotel scam. Scammers call guests, pretending to be hotel personnel, to request your credit card information. Read Peter Greenberg’s detailed post on this, and the readers’ insightful comments.
3. Avoiding the hotel cancellation fee
For last, a simple yet powerful hack for avoiding late reservation cancellation fees. It is Erica Ho from Map Happy that brought this one to our attention. We found it ingenious enough to share with you. Most hotels have a time limit past which you will be charged for canceling a reservation. Often it is 24 hours in advance but some hotels require as much as a week. That can be cumbersome, but fear not. The trick to avoiding such charges is two-fold. First, call the hotel to push back your reservation forward a few weeks. Second, call back and cancel. Done! As easy as it is simple.
These 3 hotel secrets will save you money for sure and will give you reasons to pick up (or not) the phone and talk to a human. Do you also have a hotel secret you want to share with us?