Last Minute Hotel Rooms Booking Tips

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Why do cheap last minute hotel rooms make sense? The lesser you spend on a hotel the more you can spend on other things!

Most of us believe that you have to book your hotel in advance in order to get the best deals on room rates. In fact, according to a survey done by the American Travel Behaviour Survey, 70% of Americans believe that it would cost them more to book their accommodations at the last minute, compared to having it done weeks or months prior.

Cheap last minute hotel rooms make sense because the less you spend on your accommodation, the more you have to spend on other things. Let's face it, how much time are you really going to spend in your hotel room at your 11th hour travel anyway?

Here are 3 simple steps to help you secure any last minute hotel rooms.

Step 1. Thorough Hotel Price Comparison

Today, simply going online will lead you to a vast array of travel sites that offer these accommodations at discounted prices. It also allows you to compare hotel prices among different chains. Adding to that, hotels are also offering lower rates on their rooms for those who book online. You can save up to 20% compared to when you call over the phone or in calling the toll-free number.

Instead of physically comparing on all the major travel sites. I recommend you use the following sites find the best deal, compare prices and read what other travelers have to say about hotels. When you find the best last minute hotel deal for your destination, do not book just yet!

Last Minute Hotel Deals:	Ratings
Priceline
Hotwire
TripAdvisor
La Quinta

Step 2. Check Hotel Site
Once you have determined the hotel price of your choice. Do a check on the hotel site physically. Look out for any special promotional last minute hotel deals that are better than the hotel price from Tripadvisor & Kayak.

The Hotel chains are beginning to realise how much business they have been giving away to the travel sites and they are trying all they can to win us back to book at their own site. My personal list of favourite hotels are La Quinta, Hotels.com, Park Plaza properties, Accor Hotels, Hilton, HotelsCombined.com, Marriott, Starwood and Cendant Corp. (which runs Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada and other chains). Even though almost all hotel sites promise to post the lowest room rates on their websites. I would still go for step 3.

Step 3: Book Unsold Hotel Rooms Cheap

Finally, check with hotel consolidators and see if they can match or better the rate for the last minute hotel room that you got online. Hotels hate to see the sun go down with empty beds.

Capitalizing on unsold luxury hotel rooms is sometime better than staying in a cheap hotel. Just like there are airfare consolidators, there are hotel consolidators too. Hotel Consolidators pre-purchase lots of hotel rooms and then sell them to the public with a markup, they earn on volume. The hotels do this to minimize the number of hotel rooms that go unoccupied each day.

My favourite top hotel consolidator sites are Hotwire and Priceline. If you are new to this, read my Priceline Guide and Hotwire first before booking any last minute hotel rooms.

Secure a booking at Hotwire first, after this, head on to Priceline and bid for a lesser amount than what you see in Hotwire. These 3 steps should ensure that what you have is indeed a last minute hotel deal!