How I Book Hotel Rooms, and Delaying Our Application Date

May 23, 2011 - Rick

Photography by Anne Cabo San Lucas

We made it to Kos, Greece without a hitch. Room is very nice and overlooks the ocean in the distance. Our stay is on points and my Gold status gets us free Internet and I think breakfast is included. I tried to tip the front desk for a better room but they didn’t understand since they said they had already upgraded us. Oh well, I tried to help the economy. Tomorrow’s post will give first impressions of the island and resort.

How I Book Hotel Rooms

Remember from yesterday’s post that I do not have the luxury of a business expense account. I pay for every room night out of my own pocket. The techniques for business travelers would be controlled by different factors:

1. Company contracts with hotel chains.
2. Price limits for employee-done bookings
3. The best promos at the time that result in free nights and other benefits that pass on to the traveling businessman.

For us “Pay from your pocket travelers”:

This is a reprint of a post I did earlier this year. Try the technique yourself for an upcoming real or phantom stay.

All seasoned “travel hackers” have their own method for getting the best deals we can with hotel room bookings. I’ll describe mine step by step as I try a phantom booking in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I’m choosing Indianapolis because I’ve never been there, I haven’t done any prior research, and because I want to see how long the process would take (35 minutes, as it turned out). My hotel location will be determined by the availability of public transportation and the cost. I tried this booking for the evening of April 11, 2011. (I’m telling you this because deals change all the time. This was what I found that night.) My phantom meeting is downtown the next morning, with an evening departure that night. I am a three-star hotel kind of guy, so no Econo Lodges for me.

I start at my computer by opening some browser windows:

Indianapolis Airport Official Website
Kayak.com
BiddingForTravel.com
TripAdvisor.com (for unbiased reviews of hotels)
SPG.com (Starwood Preferred Guest’s hotel offers and loyalty program)
PriorityClub.com

Step One is the airport website and ground transportation. I hate renting a car in a strange city for one meeting downtown, and I’ve found that I can get an Express Bus for $7 each way. This information not only helps me get downtown, but it also opens up airport hotels and their shuttle buses back to the airport to catch the Express Bus downtown. Airport hotels are quite often cheaper than downtown hotels. I have that covered. Now it’s time to check out some prices.

So I head over to Kayak (www.kayak.com/hotels) where I can compare hundreds of travel sites at once. Kayak shows me that the least expensive, well-known, three-star chain hotel in downtown Indianapolis is the Sheraton at $129 per night. The airport search shows rates of $89, $87, $110, and $119 for hotels with shuttles.

I now have retail prices so let’s find the deal. So it’s time to head over to BiddingForTravel.com where page one shows accepted Priceline bids of $45 and $61 for higher-rated downtown hotels and $40 for a Radisson airport hotel. I may just stay downtown if it’s only $5 more, go the night I arrive, and be downtown already in the morning for my phantom meeting.

Now I have more work to do. I’d better do a TripAdvisor search on those three hotels to see if any of them are lemons. Since I’m a month out, I have plenty of time to bid on Priceline in the range of accepted bids, but I’d better have a back-up plan.

The next step: http://www.priorityclub.com/. I’m looking for Priority Club Points Breaks hotels for 5000 rewards points per night, and I find one: The Crowne Plaza airport location is a Points Break hotel for that night. My search may be over. I could also check Hilton Point Stretchers and the Marriott’s discounted awards as well, but I find that the Priority Club Points Break is usually the best deal in town.

So I decide on the Priority Club hotel where I’ll redeem 5000 points (which costs me $30 to obtain). Remember: The lowest retail price I found was $87. The airport has a 24-hour shuttle to and from the airport and TripAdvisor gives the hotel a solid thumbs-up. I think I’m done and happy.This example is from this April but clearly shows the savings that can be had by a seasoned frugal traveler.

What if I hadn’t found the Points Break hotel? I could have gone with the Expedia Best Price match guarantee to take $50 off the retail rate of another hotel. The lowest retail rate was $87 for an airport hotel, so I could have gotten in for $87 minus $50 or $37. Or I could have bid in the high $30s to low $40s for a room downtown or at the airport on Priceline. And if those ideas hadn’t found results, I would have checked SPG.com (Starwood Preferred Guest) for cash-and-points or all-points redemption with Starwood. It’s tough to beat that Points Break deal, though, when you can find it.

I posted information on the blog about Expedia Best Price Guarantee and Priceline / BiddingForTravel.com. Good luck with great deals!

Delaying Our Credit Card Application Date

After reviewing our credit reports and credit scores, we are delaying our application date until June 20, 2011. My misguided attempt to get the Citi 75K card and Capital One card a month after a successful six-card application in February leads me to this decision. Based on my on stupidity, greed, and Cap One’s triple inquiry, I have 12 inquiries between February 18 and March 17th. My inquiry total at present with Experian is 16 with one to fall off today. Katy has 15 inquiries on Experian with one to fall off on June 19th. Hence our new date.

The biggest mistake I see rookies make (and I made it myself this last time around) is trying to “get it all now.” There are indeed great offers out there for new credit card sign-ups but your credit is your most important asset. People are surprised by denials. You never should be surprised. You should receive all approvals if you play the game correctly. They want instant approvals, and that is just not always going to happen with every application.

By waiting an extra month to apply for cards again, I gain three things:

My mass of February and March inquiries will all be 90+ days old. There will be no discussion of “too many recent inquiries” when I apply for cards again.
I will realign myself with Katy’s schedule for applications and give her file a chance to shed that extra Experian inquiry.
It will line us both up for another batch of application again in early October just after our September 2009 inquiries fall off our report.

Be patient. Protect that credit file. Accept the fact that you won’t get every big offer. Some just won’t fit in your application cycle. Have a plan. Work your plan and, lastly, Don’t be Greedy. There are so many good offers. If you miss a nice one, there will be another right around the corner.

Anonymous

Do you get hotel points on priceline status?
FrugalTravelGuy

Anon: Typically you do not get points on hotel stays but I always ask at registration to have my account number added and buy at least one pack of gum from the gift shop and charge it to my room
Charles Clarke

Are you saying that the adding the account # to your registration and buying something charged to your room enable you to get points for the stay?

If so, that's a very handy trick. Thanks!
Vik

Similar to the points question, do you get credited with the stay?

Thanks for all the work you have clearly put into the site. I'm a new convert to the mileage / points game, ironically after completing years of frequent international long haul flights. As an English immigrant, I'm still working on trying to get my credit score up but managed to snag a British airways and Amex gold card – with a bump up from 10k to 50k and then 75k on the Amex. I was wondering what your take was on all these high credit card offers, do you think these promo offers will become the norm or are we in an unprecedented period in which we should maximise our participation, whilst it lasts. Thanks
tom

Do you always get elite privileges at hotels booked through Priceline?

Haven't some people who used the sites that bid for you been banned from Priceline?

On Priceline can you bid for a specific hotel, assuming it's not the only one so starred in the area listings?
Anonymous

Great post! I have been using Biddingfortravel.com and Priceline for years. I have never had a bad hotel room and some of the prices have been unreal. However, Priceline only guarantees double occupancy, so if you have a family of four, you will need to bid on two rooms.
Anonymous

How do you determine which zones don't have the star rating you want to use for rebidding?
CeCe

Can Priceline work when looking for a room for a family of four or five, or for friends traveling together who do not want to share a bed? I got the impression that you have no choice in type of beds so you might end up with one king, which obviously wouldn't work for a family or friends not wanting to share a bed.
guera

Did you book your tickets yourself, or did you use one the booking services?
Carl

Rick – I am eligible for govt rates, which are quite low and qualify for points and elite benefits, for which I am top tier. But they are still more expensive than a winning priceline bid.

So am torn between sticking with that and benefitting from the points and elite benefits, or going the priceline route and saving even more, but losing the points and elite benefits. I really like my suites, lounge access, free breakfast, and free internet and not sure the cost savings makes up for that, especially given my rock bottom govt rate.
FrugalTravelGuy

From Kos Greece, we made it just fine.

Charles: I'm saying sometimes it seems to work when you add your number and buy something. Not always..

Vik: typically NO you do not get stay credit but YMMV

Tom; Sometimes you get elite privileges. Usually not. You cannot choose your specific hotel.

Cece: not much good for a family of 4 or 5, unless you are bidding for multiple rooms. Double occupancy.

Gary Leff gave me a hand finding my award seats. He and Ben are the pros at that task.

How I Book Hotel Rooms, and Delaying Our Application Date

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