Hotel rates in the U.S. hit an all-time high of $179.43 per night at the end of September - but don’t worry, there are simple hacks to find a discount.
For the tens of millions of people planning to travel in the coming months for holidays - even a two- or three-night hotel stay could be cost-prohibitive, especially if travelers have to pay for airfare, too.
But experts say there are multiple methods consumers can use to find affordable hotel rates even during the busiest seasons of the year.
That’s because hotel prices change constantly based on a few main factors, said Tim Gunstone, chief communications officer at travel tech firm HotelPlanner.
“Hotel pricing is highly dynamic and based entirely on supply and demand,” Gunstone said in an email to The Independent. “Rates fluctuate based on the time of year, the day of the week, and how busy the destination is expected to be.”
Flexibility is an important baseline, he said - if your dates aren’t set, you can increase your chances of booking cheaper hotel reservations.
Blind buying
Travel sites Priceline and Hotwire sell discounted rooms to travelers willing to pay for their stay without knowing the hotel name or location at checkout. Once the reservation is made and paid for, the site reveals the hotel.
While risky, the method can save travelers a considerable amount of cash - up to 31 percent for a four-night stay in New York City from November 25 to November 29:
- Priceline Express Deal: A four-star hotel in the World Trade Center-Wall Street area goes for 26 percent off its usual price
- Hotwire: A four-star hotel in the World Trade Center-Wall Street area goes for 31 percent off its usual price
Travelers should note that blind buys are often nonrefundable. If the traveler doesn’t like their hotel, they cannot get their money back if they cancel.
Sunday funday
Popular destinations often see a rush of travelers come in for the weekend, which means that Fridays and Saturdays can be expensive nights for hotel stays.
But once those travelers leave, demand usually dies down and hotels are more likely to offer better rates.
“Look at city center hotels on a Sunday night,” Gunstone said. “The weekend travelers have left, which often results in great rates.”
Travelers can save as much as 15 percent by checking-in on Sundays, according to Hotel.com’s 2026 Hotel Price Index study.
Google’s surprising travel tools
The average person spends about five hours researching flights and hotels and viewing 141 web pages in the 45 days before they book, according to a 2023 study by travel site Expedia.
Travelers looking for a hotel room can skip their five-hour search by typing the name of the destination and “hotels” into Google’s search bar, said travel site Nomadic Matt.
Google’s search results provide a comprehensive and easy-to-filter list of hotels it pulls from travel booking and hotel websites. It provides an interactive map with the hotel results, too.
The site provides three tabs across the top of the hotel results list:
- Where to stay: Provides a list of neighborhoods at the destination accompanied by a score based on visitor reviews, average hotel rates, a description of the neighborhood, and what it’s known for
- When to visit: Tells travelers the average weather, crowd sizes and average hotel prices for each month of the year
- What you’ll pay: Details average prices for hotel star levels from one to five.
Travelers get a quick overview of the destination and its hotel prices in a few seconds, making it easy to find the lowest rates.
“That’s why it’s the best booking site - because, rather than searching every website individually, you can just go to Google, find which website has the cheapest rate, and book there,” Nomadic Matt wrote.
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