Oh, the Places to Stay

Alot of people said that they believe the most expensive aspect of a vacation is the hotel room. People want to stay in a nice hotel but would prefer that the room was not so outrageously priced. Hotel prices can range from $50 a night to upwards of $500 a night. Now if you are like me, you would love to stay in the $500 a night hotel, but you know that that is just not possible.


Like most people, when I travel to a new city, I like to stay smack dab in the middle of downtown. Normally, I will research the city that I am traveling to and figure out which part of downtown is the fun entertainment district. Normally, the entertainment district of downtown cities has the most to offer. There are shops, restaurants, bars and clubs, everything a young college student would want.

Once I have found the area of town that I want to stay in, I visit my favorite websites which include Hotwire, Hotels.com, Priceline, Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz and Travelzoo. Each and everyone of these websites is great because they offer discount prices for hotels. The hotels on these websites range from one star Red Roof Inns to five star Ritz Carlton. When using these websites you get to compare the prices of the hotels, while looking a what the hotels offer when it comes to amenities.

My biggest advice when using these websites is to also look at the price on the hotels website. Sometimes on the hotel website you can get great packages that will help cut the costs. You can get a package that includes wifi and free parking. This can cut between $10 and $60. Alot of nice expensive hotels do not offer free internet and can charge $11 for 24 hours. There are also packages that include free breakfast. This is great because it will save you having to find a place to eat and possibly having to get a cab. Hotel breakfasts can be expensive, so having the option to get it free is one that you shouldn't pass up.

There are many other ways to go about getting a cheaper hotel room. In my next post I will explain how I get hotel rooms for free because I use my credit card to buy my school books.