Sticking with my summer vacation theme for this newsletter, and relating it to my current trip to the CompTIA conference and the D&H Distributing New England show, I can state that I found a secret way to save big money in lodging accommodations. And it’s not what you think.
You probably expect me to point you to the Trivago “big data” site or the Priceline auction site to efficiently solve this problem to find the lowest cost hotel room that still meets your quality needs. Nope. Perhaps you think I’d send you over to AirBNB to take a walk on the wild side and stay in someone’s Manhattan rental unit. Nope. And you likely didn’t expect me to recommend you walk-in and accept the rack rate for a room at a hotel. That would most likely be the most expensive option of all.
Instead, I want to share with you an old school experience that saved big bucks. At a rest stop, there was a newsstand. It had a free guide called “Hotel Coupons,” which was formerly known as Room Saver. You know the type – all sorts of little clip-out coupons for the region you are visiting (in my case, Northeast). So I thought, what the heck. I clipped out a coupon for Comfort Inn in Mystic CN and enjoyed a $60 room. The same room on the popular online hotel sites was north of $120.
So Hotel Coupons has a friend for life. The money I saved was real money – old school style.
PS – I found that AirBNB isn’t significantly cheaper than the online sites for comparable accommodations and there is something just a bit creepy staying in someone’s house for the same price as a hotel. Seriously.
