How to Score Affordable Hotels on Your USA Road Trip

We learned how to find cheap, nice hotels during our road trip across America. Staying in everything from two-star motels to five-star hotels, our only requirements were that the accommodations had to be cheap and clean. In fact, these tips and tricks are so effective that we’re excited to share them—especially since they lead to amazing budget-savvy prices!

HOW TO GET CHEAP HOTELS

Priceline – Express Deals & Pricebreakers
TripAdvisor – Properties With Special Offers
Employee Discount Programs
Accommodation Websites

Our Road Trip Journey

Our road trip began in Chicago as we kicked off our journey down Route 66. Over the next four months, we traveled through 15 states, reaching as far north as Glacier National Park in Montana.

For those who don’t know, we travel as a couple. Audrey is a bit of a germophobe obsessed with cleanliness—her passions include vacuuming and laundry, alongside travel. Harry, on the other hand, is all about getting the best bang for his buck and never wants to overpay for anything.

Combining these two personalities can make finding nice, affordable hotels quite the challenge! But no worries! Using our method, we managed to satisfy both our needs, traveling throughout the U.S. for about $50 to $60 per night.

While most travelers settle for the lowest price on typical booking websites, that’s not good enough for us. Typically, our strategies allowed us to pay between 20% to 30% less than the best available rates.

The tips we’re about to share are primarily geared towards travel in the USA, but they might also work internationally, so feel free to give them a try!

How to Find Cheap Hotels on Your USA Road Trip

For many travelers, the suggestion of using Priceline sparks the thought of the “Name Your Price” feature. While we have used it, a few times successfully and many times unsuccessfully, it seems like it’s more of a hassle than anything else.

Also, the actual discount never seems as substantial as advertised—simply put, we’re not big fans of “Name Your Price.” On the other hand, we are huge fans of Priceline’s “Express Deals” feature and “Pricebreakers.”

🏨💰 Priceline Express Deals > Give it a Whirl

In short, for 9 out of 10 stays during our journey, we used Priceline’s Express Deals and Pricebreakers to score amazing rates, with Express Deals being our go-to choice.

Example Reservation

If you’ve never used Priceline before, don’t worry; it’s very user-friendly. Simply go to Priceline.com, enter your city and check-in/check-out dates, and you’ll see several Express Deals and Pricebreakers options. You can filter results by amenities such as free breakfast, swimming pools, free parking, and more.

After selecting an Express Deal, you’re done! You’ve booked a hotel at a rate below the hotel’s guaranteed lowest price!

Tips for Using Express Deals and Pricebreakers

After selecting your city and dates, filter results to include free parking and sort by lowest price. We never stay at accommodations on Priceline with less than an 8.0 review score, so we select the first deal at the lowest price with that rating.

Example Using Pricebreakers

Let’s take the example pictured below. There are three Pricebreakers deals, one for $44 and two for $47. The first two Pricebreakers deals include hotels that have less than an 8.0 review score. The third deal, on the other hand, includes all hotels with a review score of 8.0 or higher.

As a result, we would select option number three because it’s the cheapest choice and all three hotels meet our 8.0 requirement. Also, there’s a possibility to receive a hotel with a review of 9.6. While receiving one of the more expensive hotels would be nice, it doesn’t occur often. However, it is possible.

How Much Did We Save Using Pricebreakers

Let’s propose that we selected the third Pricebreakers deal at $47. Most likely, we’d end up with the cheapest option, the La Quinta Inn & Suites listed as having a $64 retail price (see it in the green font?). Now, let’s compare the best available rate on other popular travel booking websites:

• Booking.com $65
• Hotels.com $65
• WyndhamHotels.com $65
• Kayak.com $65

Actual Savings Using Pricebreakers

Let’s do the math.

$65-$47 = $18 savings

$18÷65 = 28% discount

In other words, by using Priceline’s Pricebreakers we saved $18 or 28% off the best available rate.

Last-Minute Reservations Are Typically the Cheapest

Try to make reservations as close to your travel date as possible. Last-minute bookings can yield even greater discounts, but be cautious with same-day reservations as processing can take time.

Another fun aspect of using Pricebreakers is that sometimes you do secure a reservation at the nicest of the three hotels. When this happens, you feel like you’ve won the lottery, and that’s how to get cheap hotels.

TripAdvisor – Properties With Special Offers

Most travelers who use the TripAdvisor website will mainly use it to look up reviews for hotels and restaurants. However, did you know that there’s a feature called, “Properties with special offers?”

Next time you visit Tripadvisor.com and search for a hotel, try filtering the results to only include “Properties with special offers.” The “Deals” section is located on the top lefthand side, directly under the “view map.”

Filtering results this way can lead to significant discounts. For example, we scored a hotel for 50% off during our trip!

Here’s another example. We went to Tripadvisor.com and selected Branson, Missouri, a popular Midwest vacation destination. Next, we chose some random dates to see the current special offers available, pictured below.

As you can see, these are some pretty great deals—especially, the $25 gift card promotion. If you consider that many Best Western hotels go for about $75 per night, then this equates to a 33% discount! Overall, this is one of the best tips on how to get cheap hotels.

Employee Discount Programs

Many corporate employees don’t realize they might have access to special employee discount programs for travel. These can provide up to 20% off at various hotel chains, plus earn points toward free nights.

Accommodation Websites

Before completing your reservation on a travel booking website, always verify with the accommodation (directly) to see if they have any specials, packages, or discounts. Typically, chain hotels and motels do not offer these types of deals except through their membership programs through earning points. However, if you’re looking to stay with an unbranded accommodation, there’s a good chance that they do.

For example, if you were to make a reservation at the best available rate online for the hotel below, you would be paying $422 ($366+$56 taxes).

Now, head over to the website of the accommodation and see if they offer any deals. Sure enough, their homepage includes a section for “specials and packages.” See below.

Additionally, clicking on the link “specials and packages” will take you to a page that offers numerous deals. In particular, one is “Stay two nights, receive your third night free.” See below.

Completing the reservation on the accommodation’s website (with promo code), the stay would cost $286 with tax (see below). When compared to the previous reservation of $422, that’s a savings of $136 or a bit over 30%!

To clarify, before completing a reservation, verify the price on the non-branded accommodation’s website. There may be online deals or packages available if you book direct. Sometimes, you can great epic savings by going this route, and it’s one of the best tips on how to get cheap hotels.

The tips above explain how to get cheap hotels with great amenities. Following the steps above will make sure you’re getting the best price for your hotel reservation.

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