Hotel Hacks
Hotels are a typical thing in traveling. It’s easy, convenient, sometimes affordable, and traditional! But you can always make it more fun, and affordable. Here are some tips I have compiled to help with that:
As I stated in my Travel Tips, don’t book your hotel stay on travel/booking sites. I worked at a hotel and have a few friends that currently work in a hotel, and an uncommonly known thing is that most hotels simply just receive an email from that company and then the front desk receptionist has to review that and enter that information, and they may not have the availability, the information could get lost, or they may not see the email right away. Do go and look at the price those places offer and call to make the reservation, sometimes you can get the hotel room at that rate you saw on the booking/travel site.
Another thing to make sure of when booking a hotel stay is to remember that there are discounts. A very common one is the AAA discount. There are also business discounts, military discounts, government discounts, police discounts, and some places do senior discounts, or have AARP discounts. You do need to specifically ask for these discounts and I recommend, if your calling to book your stay, to ask about the discount when discussing the rooms. Receptionists are not trained to ask if you want a discount, or if the stay is for business or something that would be related to a discount when booking. Now if you forget you can always ask about it during check-in and they will adjust the costs, so it’s not that big of a deal, I just try to make sure I ask during booking. Also, ask for them to put that you requested the discount in the notes about your stay to ensure that the discount get’s honored. This is done all over the U.S., you might not find this in other parts of the world, so check on the hotel’s site ahead of time that you intend to stay at.
Now that I’ve covered booking your stay, lets cover the stay itself.
Most hotels have safes that you can put your valuables in, but if that still doesn’t sit well with you, simply leave the “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door at all times. This will keep housekeeping out of the room, you wont get your fresh towels, bed made, and the cute little toiletries refreshed in the room, but you keep your stuff safe. I also recommend that if you have something far more valuable with you when you travel, like your passport or expensive jewelry, you can ask to have it kept in the hotel’s safe in the front desk area. Now, before you say “I’ll risk it” keep in mind that you can just go to the front desk and ask for more toiletries and fresh towels, they won’t be added to the cost. This is a lot more common than you think, I would get asked quite a bit at the hotel for extra.
Another little helpful tip, if you forgot your toothbrush, toothpaste, or deodorant, you can always ask the front desk, many times they have some on hand for you free of charge.
Many rooms have a pull out couch. So when traveling with kids or a group consider staying in as few rooms as possible to help cut down on costs and keep everyone together! Most hotels too have cots or roll-away beds if you need an extra bed in a room. When I worked at the hotel, that was something we got asked for a lot and something I wasn’t even aware was an option until I worked there. If you have little tikes with you and you forget to bring the pack-n-play or you don’t want to bring it out of the car, most of the time hotels have them on hand for guests to use. Most places don’t charge extra for using the extra pack-n-plays/cots/roll-away beds but it is always smart to ask.
These are all tips that I, my friends, and family have compiled over the years. If you have any tips or insight, please leave a comment below! Happy travels!
