The Frugal Travel Guy Shares: "How I Book Hotel Rooms"

03-17-2011

 

Rick Ingersoll gives his step-by-step method for getting the best deal

March 17, 2011 (Hilton Head, SC) – Rick Ingersoll, better known to frequent travelers and travel hackers as “The Frugal Travel Guy” who writes a popular blog by the same name, is on a mission to teach others how to do the things he does so that they, too, can travel anywhere they want for free or nearly free. He teaches them how to accrue frequent flier miles through rewards programs and travel vouchers through such methods as “the bump” (intentionally getting “bumped” from your flight).

 

Recently, he sat down to share his particular method for getting the best deals at good hotels.

 

“We all have our own method,” he said, referring to other frequent travel hackers like him. “I'll describe mine step by step as I try a phantom booking in Indianapolis, Indiana, the night of April 13, 2011.”

 

He chose Indianapolis, he said, because he’s never been there, hasn't done any prior research, and because he wanted to see how long the process would take (35 minutes, as it turned out). His hotel location would be determined by the availability of public transportation and the cost.

 

“My phantom meeting is downtown the next morning, with an evening departure that night. I'll describe my methodology as I go. And remember,” he stresses, “I am a three-star kind of guy. No Econo Lodges for me.”

 

He starts at his computer by opening some browser windows:

 

• Indianapolis Airport Official Website
• Kayak.com
• BiddingForTravel.com
• TripAdvisor.com (for unbiased reviews of hotels)
• SPG.com (Starwood Preferred Guest’s hotel offers and loyalty program)
• PriorityClub.com

 

“Step One is the airport website and ground transportation,” he says. “I hate renting a car in a strange city for one meeting downtown, and I’ve found that I can get an Express Bus for $7 each way. This information not only helps me get downtown, but it also opens up airport hotels and their shuttle buses back to the airport to catch the Express Bus downtown. Airport hotels are quite often cheaper than downtown hotels. I have that covered. Now it's time to check out some prices.”

So he heads over to Kayak (www.kayak.com/hotels) where he can compare hundreds of travel sites at once. Kayak shows him that the least expensive, well-known, three-star chain hotel in downtown Indianapolis is the Sheraton at $129 per night. The airport search shows rates of $87, $90, $93, and $119 for hotels with shuttles.

 

“I now have retail prices so let's find the deal,” he says.

He heads over to BiddingForTravel.com where page one shows accepted bids of $48 and $49 for higher-rated downtown hotels and $39 for a Radisson airport hotel.

  

“I may just stay downtown if it's only $10 more, go the night I arrive, and be downtown already in the morning for my phantom meeting.”

Now he has more work to do. “I'd better do a TripAdvisor search on those three hotels to see if any of them are lemons,” he says. “Since I'm a month out, I have plenty of time to bid on Priceline in the range of accepted bids, but I'd better have a back-up plan.”

 

The next step: www.PriorityClub.com.

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