This week I went through all the hotels I’ve pre-booked for my upcoming motorcycle trip to Los Angeles. This is not something I usually do. Once a hotel is booked, I consider that part of the trip done, and move on to planning the rest of the trip.
But hotels (and airlines) make money by selling the same product (rooms or seats) at different prices. Rates go up, rates come down, and sometimes the same room appears a few weeks later at a price that’s very different from what you booked. This can work against you, but also in your favour if you’ve booked a flexible rate.
I took an hour to open every reservation and checked the current hotel rate. As expected, some of the hotels had increased since I booked them. That’s a small victory already. I had locked in a good rate and didn’t need to do anything. But a few others had dropped, sometimes a little, sometimes by a lot. And when I did the math, even small savings started to add up, especially for a longer trip like mine.
The Price Is Not Final Until You Stay
Two reservations I booked in US dollars dropped by a combined US$204.96. Based on the exchange rate I used, that worked out to be $287.33. Three Canadian-dollar reservations produced another $81.56 in savings.
My total savings? $368.89.
Almost $400 is not bad for an hour’s worth of “work”. It’s free money I recovered from a trip I had already booked, without changing hotels, downgrading rooms, or changing anything but the price I paid.
Once booked, a hotel reservation can feel like a done deal, but a refundable or flexible booking is more of a temporary agreement. They’re “flexible” rates for a reason. You have reserved the room at a certain price, but you have not necessarily agreed you’ll stay there. Having the option is what matters.
When I made my long list of original reservations, I was more or less comfortable with the rates I booked. I did my research and found places to stay that fit the itinerary and purpose of my trip. For most stops, I even found a place to sleep that seems fun to stay. And without exception, the cancellation terms gave me flexibility.
Why Hotel Prices Change
Hotel prices change all the time. Rooms stay unsold or empty, and other guests may change their mind. A rate that looked good several months before a trip may not be the rate available several weeks closer to departure. The trick is to make this work in your favour. As long as you didn’t book a non-refundable rate, you still have options. Freedom means having the option.
Meanwhile, constantly monitoring every booking would drive me crazy. But reviewing a long itinerary once or twice before departure may give you the competitive edge you’re looking for to make sure you’re paying less than average.
Book the New Rate Before Cancelling the Old One
The process is fairly simple, provided your existing reservation is cancellable. Double check that first, or you may end up with two rooms when you only needed one. When I find the same room is now available for less, I double check that I am comparing the same product. Hotel booking pages are very good at making two different rates look identical until the final screen.
This means all the details of your booking should be identical: the room type, cancellation deadline, taxes, resort fees, and any extras like parking, or breakfast. A lower price is not necessarily a better deal if those details change. For example, if the cheaper rate doesn’t include breakfast, you want to be aware of that before accepting.
Only when I have confirmed that the new rate is better, I book the new lower-priced reservation first. I wait until the confirmation has arrived and check once more to confirm that the dates, room, rate, and cancellation terms are all correct. Only after that I cancel the original booking. Especially with long or complex itineraries, it’s important to not mess up the dates or you may end up with a gap in your trip.
Get Into Action
Travel hacking can be as practical as keeping your options open, protecting a good rate, and having an extra $368.89 available for the road ahead.
If you’d like to dive deeper into my approach to travel hacking, I invite you to check out my Travel Revolution online program. It’s once again available as a full program in which I share all my “secrets”, using walk-throughs with my own accounts so you can exactly see how I book airfare and hotels for free, or deeply discounted. And most importantly, you’ll learn how to implement these strategies to your own travelling life to help get you to that one destination you’ve always wanted to visit, but never did (yet).
