- Hey travel tribe, Kristen Sarah here
of Hopscotch the Globe.
And in this video we're gonna be talking
about accommodation hacks.
(light music)
If you haven't already seen my packing hacks video,
my solo travel hacks video and my airport and airplane
hacks video, be sure to check those out.
In this video we're gonna be talking about
the ways that I've learned over my years of travel
how to save and upgrade and get the best experience
when it comes to accommodations.
If you're checking into a hotel and don't have a reservation
and you wanna beat the line, but you also wanna get there
and have a room available for you,
it's good to get there between 4:45 and six o'clock,
right after the rooms have all been made up
and are ready for people to check in,
but also that's before the rush where everyone else
who's reserved is coming through.
When you're checking in or if you're at the hotel
making a reservation, ask to see all of the rooms available
'cause sometimes larger rooms,
rooms with a bigger bed with more amenities
are the same price as a room that's a little smaller
maybe has two double beds instead of one king size bed.
One of my favorite apps when it comes to booking hotels
last minute is Hotels Tonight.
How it works is you put in the city where you wanna stay
and it lists the hotels that have rooms still available
for that night.
Now the longer you wait that day before you have to check in
the better deal you'll get.
So what happens is any hotels who have rooms
that haven't been booked that night will list the rooms
that are still available and make them really cheap,
sometimes more than half the price as the normal rate
because they wanna fill those rooms.
Third party sites are great for booking hotels
because a lot of times you can get some deals, right?
But there is a way of even getting a better deal.
So how these third party sites work is the hotel pays
them a commission for advertising them on their site.
Say you find a hotel at the Hilton in New York let's say
for $350 on one of the third party sites.
Leave that window open and open up another window
and go to the official website for that hotel,
for that Hilton and check to see what the rates are
for that exact same room.
Now say on the official site that same room you found
on the third party site, is $400
so that's a $50 difference.
Now before you do anything, read the terms and conditions
for booking on the official site
and if there is like a certain time frame where
you can cancel after booking and get all your money back,
say 24 hours, 48 hours, book through the official website.
So pay that $400 and I'll tell you why.
Most hotels have a best rate guarantee
so they'll match the lower price that you found
on the third party site and they'll also give you
extra perks so you could even get free breakfast.
Sometimes you might even get an upgrade.
Now if it turns out that they don't have the best rate
guarantee then you can always just cancel,
get your money back
and then book through the third party site.
Where hotel prices seem to be set,
Airbnb prices are flexible.
You can actually contact the Airbnb owner
and offer a lower rate, you can negotiate with them.
Hosts wanna make money so if you're booking
the night before and their place is available,
they'll most likely give you a discount.
If you want a luxurious five star experience
but you don't have the budget to back it up,
stay at destinations where your money goes a longer way.
Places like Vietnam or Thailand, India, Belize
where you can stay at a five star hotel
for the same price as if you were staying in Paris, France
at a one star, two star hotel.
Vacation rentals are great, especially if you're a family
or you are on holidays with your friends.
Then getting a vacation rental you can sometimes save
50% of what you would pay at a hotel or resort.
A lot of the times these vacation rentals have pools
and they have full kitchens so you can cook
and save money that way.
And it feels like a home away from home,
which I always prefer when I'm traveling.
There are also ways to stay for free using websites
like Hospitality Club, Global Freeloaders and Couchsurfing.
Bring an HDMI cable with you so you can hook up
your computer to the TV in your hotel and get Netflix.
So you don't have to pay for any movies
through the hotel, you can just have access
to your Netflix account on the big screen.
Laundry in hotels costs a billion dollars.
Okay maybe not that much money, but paying $5 for one sock
to be washed, no.
So what I do is I wash my clothes in the tub or the shower
or if you have a jacuzzi, it's the best
because you just put all of your clothes in there
with some water, a little bit of soap,
turn on the jacuzzi and it works like
a washing machine, it's incredible.
And then if you have a heated towel rack,
you can use that to dry your clothes.
If you're staying in a hotel, hostel, guesthouse,
doesn't matter, and you're having a room party
and you wanna turn it up and you don't have
a bluetooth speaker, but you have a cell phone,
well get a glass or a vase or an empty water jug
and put your phone inside of it.
Turn on the music first of course,
and it will increase the phone's volume.
If you don't believe me, go try it right now
and you'll hear a difference.
Work for your stay.
Many hostels will allow you to stay there
if you are working there, and you can negotiate
the amount of hours, but it's a pretty sweet deal.
Housesitting, it's a great way to not just stay for free
but to really immerse yourself in the culture
because you'll be living in a neighborhood
surrounded by locals.
There are several different housesitting websites
and I'll leave a link to those in the description box below.
WWOOFING, you're working on a farm
in exchange for accommodations.
It's a great way to live and work and gain new skills
and there's so many different locations
you can do it around the world.
Get an AAA membership, even if you don't own a car
because it will give you discounts on hotels
all around the world as well as more flexibility
when booking and late cancellations.
There are hotel rewards cards, so you're basically spending
money as you normally would do on a daily basis
but you're racking up points that you can use
for hotel rooms.
If you're staying at any type of accommodation
for a long period of time, you can always negotiate
or try to negotiate a cheaper rate
because you're staying longer.
Even if the hotel won't give you an upgrade,
if you are celebrating a special occasion
like a honeymoon or a birthday or an anniversary,
let the hotel know because a lot of the times,
most of the times, they will have something special for you.
Some of the treats they may offer is decorating your room
and leaving you something special in there,
sometimes a bottle of champagne.
And they also offer sometimes dinner for two for free
at the hotel restaurant.
They might offer an hour massage at the spa.
There's a lot of perks just because you're celebrating
a special day and they want to help you
have the best day possible.
Dedicate yourself to one hotel chain
and you can get elite status which gives you
free upgrades, free stays, free breakfast
and a lot of other perks.
If the hotel is charging for WiFi which is very common,
tell them that you will give them a review,
a good review on Trip Advisor in exchange for free WiFi.
Sometimes you just gotta bribe and sometimes it works.
If you want an upgrade, ask for it.
Sometimes they will do it.
Check sites like Yelp and Foursquare for the hotel
you're staying in and many times other people
who have stayed there will leave the password
for the WiFi for you.
If you're in a new place and you're looking for
things to see, things to do, places to eat,
hostels are the place to find out all of this.
Not only are they great to stay in
'cause they're super fun and you meet lots of
other travelers, but there's also events always happening.
They have food tours, walking tours, parties, pub crawls.
So much that will allow you to really start
to experience the place you're in
and get to know the local hang outs.
When you're checking in, ask for a room on the top floor.
Not only will you get a better view,
but there's usually less people if it's not fully booked,
the hotel, and quieter.
And those are some of my favorite accommodation hacks.
I hope that you learned something
and that it helps you during your next trip
to get the best of your stay.
If you have an accommodation hack that I haven't mentioned,
I wanna hear, I always like learning new hacks
and I'm sure everyone else here would love to hear
from you as well.
Before you go anywhere, don't forget to check out
my other travel hacks videos.
I'll leave one here in this end slate
and you can check it out.
And also I've left a playlist in the video description
of way more travel hack videos, travel tip videos,
advice, everything that's gonna help you plan your trip
to save money, to become a better traveler
and just get an overall better experience.