When's the Best Time to Book a Hotel for Travel

Booking a hotel seems pretty straightforward, correct? And most times it is: Pick a destination, choose your dates, enter payment info and voila, happy travels!

Even so, there are some big blunders you could be making when it comes to hotel reservations. From booking on the incorrect sites to forgetting to cheque some vital information, these mistakes could easily make or break your trip. Read on to observe out what you lot must avoid when booking that hotel room.

Always expecting the best room

I was recently chatting with a forepart-desk amanuensis about how her hotel chain distributes rooms at check-in. Curious, I asked what method her staff uses to determine who gets the best-located rooms. She revealed this surprising tidbit: Those who volume through the hotel website or are hotel loyalty members usually get get-go dibs on room assignments, with the amend views and quieter locations. Travelers who volume through online travel agencies (OTAs), similar Priceline, often receive "run of the house" rooms (what she called "ice-auto rooms," or basically whatever is left). The agent couldn't tell me just how many hotel chains do this, but she said it was a "fairly mutual practice" and that it sweetens the deal for travelers who book at regular rates.

The prepare: Joining hotel loyalty programs is oft free, and being a fellow member can guarantee meliorate room placement, free nights or helpful amenities similar complimentary breakfast or Wi-Fi.

If having the best possible room is key to happy travel, so book directly through the hotel'southward website. But when those depression, low OTA prices tin can't be trounce—we know the feeling—you can e'er make a request for a certain blazon of room or location.

Expecting requests to be guaranteed

King bed or two doubles? High flooring or depression? Non-smoking? Water views? Three single ruby-red M&Ms? When reserving your hotel, most booking engines volition allow you lot to brand requests or add comments regarding your stay. However, in the teeny-tiny fine print, well-nigh hotels also say that your requests aren't guaranteed.

The fix: The old adage "Await nothing and yous'll never be disappointed" holds true here, just it'southward cold comfort when you really wanted a certain amenity. First, know that hotels will mostly try to honor your requests. If, at bank check-in, you find your double beds have become one or you were placed in a smoking room, speak to the front-desk-bound amanuensis and request a modify—politely. Also, it'south well worth calling the hotel earlier you arrive to confirm your requests, especially if any were fabricated for medical reasons.

Using incorrect arrival and departure dates

Of this travel sin, I am guilty equally charged. On an overseas trip several years ago, I noted that my flying left on May 14th, so I booked my destination hotel starting the night of May 14th. Rookie mistake. I completely neglected to check that my flying was a crimson-heart that landed early in the morning of the 15th. This means I paid for an expensive (and nonrefundable) room that I didn't demand.

The fix: Dissimilar your hapless author, brand sure you have your flight itinerary on hand when booking, and double-bank check the dates of your arrival and departure. Also consider time zones. If you're crossing the International Date Line in transit, yes, your check-in dates could exist dissimilar than you expect. Information technology's too not a bad thought to have someone look over your booking earlier you lot hit "confirm" or "pay," but to ensure that the dates you have selected are correct.

Non using a credit card

When booking a hotel, credit cards are king. Not simply do credit cards offer rewards like airline miles, gratis nighttime stays or greenbacks-back bonuses, merely they also offer certain guarantees that debit cards and cash do not (such as fraud protection or immediate refunds for mischarges).

Some other tip that many travelers don't know? Nearly hotels will crave an incidental deposit if you use a debit card to protect themselves confronting overdraft fees if your account has insufficient funds. These boosted deposits can add together up: I once paid a $100 deposit in Las Vegas that wasn't refunded to my account for ii weeks.

The fix: If you are wise with coin direction and choose the right type of credit carte du jour, you lot could see plenty of benefits when booking accommodations. NerdWallet rounds upwards the top credit cards with travel benefits. Also make sure to scope out Tim Winship's Miles & Points cavalcade, which SmarterTravel runs each calendar week. In it, Winship lists current credit carte promotions.

Making reservations for the wrong hotel

Travelers, beware: A misleading hotel name or location description could pb you to book an airport hotel when you think you lot're getting centrally located accommodations. Yous would be surprised how often travelers meet the name of the hotel and reserve it quickly without checking to see if it's located in the right place. After all, some hotels may call themselves "located near the heart of downtown," but a quick search could reveal that it'south located at the airport … ii hours away.

The set: Check the mailing address and notice the hotel'south verbal location on Google Maps. Always enter the hotel's address and run into how far it is from popular attractions and restaurants past foot, by machine or by public send. Try entering the addresses of some attractions you'd like to see while in your destination and map the route. You may too want to explore the neighborhood with Google Maps Street View. And if there are multiple hotels past the same chain in that urban center, make sure you take booked yourself at the property in the correct neighborhood—the Hyatt Times Square and the Hyatt Flushing are very different indeed.

Not accounting for taxes and resort fees

Back in March, contributing editor Ed Perkins reported one of the most outrageous resort fees we'd seen withal. At a hotel in Colorado, the decent $170 room rate was artificially inflated with a $35 cleaning fee, a $forty resort fee, a $ten pool-and-spa fee, and a $5.ten processing fee. Ouch.

The fix: You may be able to fight some fees, such as housekeeping or newspaper commitment, if you don't wish to avail yourself of such services. Others, similar resort fees, are mandatory, and so you lot need to account for the boosted cost when you lot book that hotel. Hotels are expected to display resort fees clearly, but OTAs may not and instead include vague language like "additional fees may apply." And so call the resort and inquire signal-bare near additional resort fees before yous volume.

Every bit for taxes? Much like security lines, you aren't getting out of those.

Not checking reviews

If you lot've ever taken a spin on Oyster's Photo Fakeout feature, you know that hotels become to smashing lengths to make their properties seem perfect. Only upon arrival, that infinity pool could really be the size of a postage stamp, and those sumptuous linens could feel similar sandpaper. Accept anything a hotel says nigh itself with a grain of salt (or sand).

The fix: Do your enquiry. Reading user reviews is a tricky balancing human action. You desire to read as many reviews as you can without suffering from information overload. You lot too want reviews to be unbiased and recent. The best way to get an accurate picture of the resort is to cull your review sites wisely. TripAdvisor and Oyster (which, similar united states, is owned by TripAdvisor) offer pretty authentic previews of what your hotel has to offer; Oyster'due south room photos are a bully resource if yous wonder how your room stacks upward to the hotel's ain slick—and possibly Photoshopped—images. Exist suspicious of reviewers who accept overly effusive praise, and the converse holds true, too: If you run into that Bob Grump has given one measly star to every hotel he'southward ever checked in to, feel free to question Bob Grump'southward judgment.

Booking at the wrong time

As nearly procrastinators will readily admit, waiting until the last minute to make travel plans tin have dire consequences for your credit carte residue. Hotel rates can soar in the days leading up to a particular engagement, and you could be left without a room if everything books up (or if nothing left is inside your budget). On the other mitt, beingness an advanced planner can have its own disadvantages: Sure, y'all may want to have all of your travel ducks in a row equally soon as possible, just it can actually cost you lot money to book your hotel room too early on.

The fix: There are no like shooting fish in a barrel answers as to when, exactly, is the best fourth dimension to book a hotel room. Rates depend on many factors: location, seasonality, convention crowds, fifty-fifty conditions. Equally a general dominion of pollex, booking more than 21 days ahead of your inflow date is a no-no for the most popular destinations; yous'll be putting yourself at risk for jacked-up prices. Your best bet is to start checking prices at least 40 days in advance and monitor the trend. If prices seem to go up, book.

If yous want to make sure you become the lowest charge per unit, the hotel booking site Tingo (SmarterTravel'south sister company) will automatically monitor your hotel and rebook you at the new lower rate if prices drib. Of course, if you have waited until the 11th hour and hotel pickings seem slim, bank check out the Hotel Tonight app for truly terminal-infinitesimal deals.

Non comparing prices

Saw a hotel you lot loved advertised at a "dandy toll!" and immediately plunked down a credit card number and booked? Wrong: Without doing proper enquiry, you could be missing out on big savings.

The ready: When information technology comes to prices, compare, compare, compare. Utilize websites that take metasearch functionality (which means that they bear witness multiple prices from multiple booking sites in ane window). Compare the rates on the property's website to the rates y'all observe on Priceline, on Expedia, on Groupon Getaways or in travel brochures. Besides expect into the types of booking discounts that are bachelor and which ones tin save you the almost coin. (For example, y'all may go 10% off with a hotel concatenation'due south summertime sale, simply your AAA discount could be larger.) As a full general dominion of thumb, you lot should check at least three different sites for each hotel booking.

Booking nonrefundable rates

Every wondered why nonrefundable rates are cheaper than the regular rack rates, fifty-fifty if the room is the aforementioned? Information technology'due south because the hotelier benefits from the lower toll, too. Locking yous in at that low rate guarantees she or he won't have an empty room, which would cost the hotelier coin. Of course, trying to pinch a few pennies will end up costing you if you need to abolish.

The set: If there is whatever run a risk at all that you'll need to cancel your hotel reservation—bad weather, hard connection, gamble of disease—then forgo the nonrefundable rate. Yes, you'll pay more than upward front, but yous won't exist out much bigger bucks should yous need to put your trip on hold. And, if you book your hotel through a flash-sale site or online travel retailer (OTA), triple-confirm the site'southward cancellation policy; these depression prices are often non refundable, and no amount of begging will bring your coin back.

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