Want to Find Luxury Hotels at 3 Star Prices? Here are Tips For Great Hotel Deals

It is always great to be able to find Champagne on a beer budget and the same thing applies to stays at luxury hotels. Sometimes, you get what you pay for. On the other hand, from time to time, there are some exceptional hotel deals. If you find them, you will have paid for a standard/moderate hotel and instead get a hotel that is really special. Doing so requires some time, knowledge and/or skill. Here are some tips we and our clients have used with success in the past:

Sort Out the Star Ratings-While any 4 or 5 star hotel should be reasonably comfortable, you need to sort out the star ratings to find the true deals.  While we know that a 5 star hotel is supposed to be exceptional, one cannot assume that a hotel that claims to have five stars will meet your expectations. To begin with, if you are looking at hotels say in Europe for example,  many European countries use a considerably more generous star system than the U.S. and may use a 7 star system. Some countries have no formal rating process.  Therefore check out the criteria used to determine the various star ratings. You also should see how recently the hotel has been rated/reviewed. Some hotels are allowed to rest on their laurels and have gone through ownership changes or have otherwise deteriorated since their star rating was received.

Sort Out the Good From the Exceptional-Once you know what the stars mean, you still need to do some more research to be able to evaluate how good a hotel actually is and whether it is for you. You have to have a sense of what the hotel did to earn its stars and will those qualities benefit you. There will often be several hotels in a city with the same number of stars, though they offer very different hotel experiences. Depending on what you are looking for, the hotel may not suit you. For example, would a hotel that caters to business travelers please you, or do you plan to travel with family members and need a hotel that is more family-friendly? Are you looking for a hotel that is close to the gay nightlife or at least goes out of its way to be gay-friendly? If so, then a nice but conservative luxury hotel on the other side of town, may not suit you.

Find Out What’s Included-In order to compare apples to apples, you need to see what is included in the hotel price. Does it include Breakfast? Parking?Will a resort fee be  tacked onto the rate? Are taxes included or in addition?

Don’t Always Go For the Cheapest Hotel-If you are too frugal and demand the cheapest hotel available, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. If the 5 star hotel of your dreams happens to be only $25 more per night, you should consider the upgrade unless your budget demands otherwise. What you are looking to do is get real value for the money you are paying, whatever amount that is.

Choose a Destination That Already Caters to Frugal Tourists-There are a number of destinations that because of their economies or because of the number of hotels they have, often have great hotel deals. Bankgkok Thailand for example is a city where you can find a top-notch hotel for far less than in many parts of Europe or the U.S. Same for Budapest, Hungary, Las Vegas, or Shanghai China. Others however, are not so well known. We know someone who just stayed on a business trip at a Four Seasons Hotel in a major U.S. Midwest City for $125 per night. Even if the hotel was a “Two Seasons” that is an incredible deal! You just need to do your research or use someone who knows how to find such deals.

Choose a Destination That Has New Competition-If a destinaton has a new luxury hotel that it is actively promoting to try to generate new customers, the other luxury hotels, may temporarily cut their prices to divert customers to your benefit.

Choose a Destination Out of Season-Not surprisingly, the luxury hotels offer their best rates out of season. Therefore if you wanted to stay at a Ritz or Four Seasons or Peninsula, consider going to their cities when they are in off-season. Note that the Off-Season is not the same World-wide.

Choose To Look Early or at the Last Minute-If you are willing to book a hotel early (say a year in advance) and pay a non-refundable rate, you may be able to get a hotel room for less than half what other guests will be paying when you are there. This happened to us when we booked a hotel room in Venice nearly a year early. The key is you need to know how good a deal that non-refundable rate is. That requires either research, experience, or both. Similarly if a luxury hotel happens to have a number of rooms available at the last minute, you may be able to snag one at a greatly reduced rate. Of course, waiting until the last minute is risky if you are definitely going to that destination and need a room.