Jyotsna Ramani
TripZillaAttention budget travelers – today we’ll share some travel hacks that are definite total game-changers for you. In fact, even luxury travellers might be tempted by these nifty tricks, especially the second one. Even better, both hacks are FREE!
Also read: 9 Heritage Hotels in Singapore With a Stunning Old-World Charm
#1 Hotwire | Hack the deal of the day
Hotwire.com is a discount travel website, and every day they offer great deals and rates. These are typically 50-60% off regular hotel prices. But there’s a catch. You don’t get to know what hotel you’re booking until after it’s booked. The only thing you get to know is the ratings of the hotel and the location it’s in. Now, this is where our hack comes in. . You can actually predict what hotel you’re exactly going to get!
Go on Hotwire, and fill in the destination and travel dates. OK. We always wanted to visit Maui, so we entered this destination and chose dates in June. Press Find a hotel and look what pops up.
Here’s the Deal of the day.
We understand you think this is kind of sketchy. Like you don’t know what you’ll get. What if it’s not that good? But… Now open that deal in a new tab. And take a quick look at the ratings.
You can see those ratings in detail. Next, you need to go back to the previous tab and look at all the hotels available (scroll down the list) and just match it to those specific ratings. And that’s how you find the exact hotel.
For starters, we’re just going to look at the ones with an overall score of 4.0. So for example, Maui Seaside Hotel has a rating of 4.0. And this is the only hotel from all 7 found depending on our dates.
See if the ratings on Maui Seaside Hotel match all those ratings of a Deal of the day hotel. And here you go: mystery solved. Congratulations, you got yourself a deal. And Hotwire doesn’t really need to know that…
#2 RatePunk | Browser extension
Even though it launched recently, this one has over 60k installs already. Because who wouldn’t like to save not only money but also time? RatePunk is a browser & mobile extension that scans all top booking sites and runs live price comparisons while you search for the hotel. It shows the lowest rate for exact dates in seconds!
Here’s a quick how-to tour. First up, either you use Chrome or Safari, go to the web store, and search for an extension named RatePunk. You can also install it on your iPhone. Click that magical Add to Chrome button, and that’s it. It’ll be on your device & only pop up when you need it.
Let’s see it in action now. We chose to search for a hotel on booking.com.
The next step – decide on the hotel or a resort you wish to stay at in the Maldives. Don’t pay too much attention to the price now. We selected Sun Island Resort & Spa. We knew this resort from people’s reviews, and that’s why we would love to stay there. Now, click to see more about the hotel. And see RatePunk extension showing you the results:
So, currently, you are browsing on booking.com, and here the resort would cost $1,478 for 6 nights. That’s a lot. But… You get an amazing deal – RatePunk shows that you can book the same hotel for the exact dates on Trip.com for only $667. The discount is even more than 50%!
Also read: Top 7 Life Changing TikTok Travel Hacks We Found Online
And there you have it: two free tricks to score better deals on your hotel bookings! Happy travels!
Featured image credit: Edvin Johansson | Unsplash
