Travel Smarter, Not Harder: How to Score Incredible Hotel Deals on a Budget

Hey guys, it's Jacob. Welcome back to my channel. Today, I'm going to be doing a video on how to get a hotel at a cheap nightly rate. Depending on where you're going, you can find many different deals when looking for hotels. You don't have to always book directly through the hotel's website. There are websites like Expedia, Priceline, Hotwire, and a bunch of others where you can find deals on hotels. You can go through your credit card or someone who books your itinerary. There are so many different ways that you can book a hotel. Today, I'm going to be showing you guys how to get a really good deal on a hotel. I'm sure this depends on where you're at, but most places have this website, and you can use this hack on it. So, I'm going to be telling you, guys, how to use Hotwire to get a discount on a hotel room.

First of all, to get a good discount on hotel stays, I search on multiple websites at once and check different days as prices vary. However, I found that there is a hack on Hotwire.com. Hotwire offers many hotels at low prices but also has “secret hotels”. To access these, you can search for your desired location and Hotwire provides options for different hotels. They display a picture of the room with vague descriptions of the hotel amenities, but they don't disclose the specific hotel you will be staying in. Instead, they indicate the general area where it's located. For instance, I am going to Las Vegas for my 21st birthday, and I used this hack to find my hotel.

On the strip for Las Vegas, I was trying to stay at a more luxurious hotel since it was going to be my 21st birthday. I wanted to explore and do things that I feel like I wouldn't do if I were going regularly. I won't always stay at a luxury hotel, you know? So, I was looking at hotels and went on Hotwire. The first thing that came up was the "Hot Deal of the Day." They have different deals every day, and you can look at them. You can see where the hotel is located in general but not the exact location. You can use this to figure out if you want to stay at the hotel. However, most people wouldn't want to book a random hotel because they want to know what they're getting for their money.

I did my research before and found out which hotels were in that area. Then when Hotwire offered me their mystery hotel options, I could easily identify the hotel based on the picture or the reviews. However, it's important to note that Hotwire has changed its policy recently. They used to offer a good rate for a specific secret hotel, but now they offer a random mystery hotel. Despite this change, they still offer three options to choose from, giving you a guarantee that it will be one of those hotels. Overall, Hotwire can still be a useful tool for finding affordable hotel rates. If you do your research beforehand, you can easily figure out which hotel you'll be staying at, even with the new mystery hotel policy. Just be sure to double-check your options before booking to ensure you're getting the best deal possible.

It was a five-star luxury hotel. However, I wanted to know exactly which hotel I was staying at. Hotwire gave me three options: The Encore at the Wynn, The Venetian, and The Palazzo at The Venetian. All great options! I knew I would be happy with any of them since the price on Hotwire was significantly lower than the price on Expedia for the same rooms in these hotels. Taking advantage of this deal was essential as it may not always be available. To test the hack, I opened an Expedia tab and looked at the location where I wanted to go. Simultaneously, I also had my Hotwire tab open for the specific hotel options available. Remember that the reviews on Hotwire are powered by Expedia. As for the American English polishing, there were minor corrections made throughout the article.

Get a good deal with the mystery hotel, there may be some differences in the amenities or features. So, it's important to do your research and make sure you're getting what you want out of your stay. Additionally, it's a good idea to read through some of the reviews on both sites to see what other travelers have experienced during their stays. Mystery hotels can be a great way to save money on your travels, but it's important to approach them with caution. Take the time to do your research and make sure you're getting a good deal on a hotel that meets your expectations. With a little bit of effort, you can find the perfect mystery hotel for your next adventure!

Pretty much, I can guess what it is. It's like a kind of hack, but it's not 100% because the reviews on Hotwire may not match up perfectly with those on Expedia. This is because Hotwire has one category in the reviews that is not the same as the category on Expedia. So, to compare, say you go to "quality of service" and find one hotel on Hotwire with a rating of 4.7. You then compare that to the hotels on Expedia until you find a matching rating of 4.7. If it matches up, then you know that's pretty much the hotel you're looking for. If it doesn't match up, you know you have to look for a different hotel on Expedia and make sure the numbers match up. For me, I kinda knew it was going to be the Palazzo, but I still looked up all three hotels because, you know, it's always better to be sure.

That the hotels you're going to get will be one of the three hotels that Hotwire offers. You can look up those hotels on Expedia and see which one matches the best to the reviews, and then you know which hotel you're getting. That's how you get the deals. So, I ended up paying about $123 a night for a room at the Palazzo at The Venetian during Spring Break. I paid that much because when you look at it online, on Expedia, I believe it was around $160-$170 a night, so I saved like $50 a night. That's a good deal, and you can save even more. I think I actually saved more than that, but I'm not 100% sure. You just have to make sure that the reviews match up and if you know the hotels, you can see on Hotwire which ones they are offering.

You like just one picture of the hotel room, like it's just a quick picture, so it doesn't give away what hotel it is. You can pretty much just guess what it is by looking at the pictures and you pretty much have a good idea. I feel like they do these mystery deals to get their rooms filled up, but they also don't want to make it look like their luxury hotel is giving rooms away for cheap. So, you pretty much benefit because you're able to do the work and figure out what hotel you're staying in, but you also don't have to pay the highest prices for staying in that luxury hotel. So, I was super excited that this worked. The only thing with Hotwire is that you have no cancellation and no change, but I'm pretty sure you can get around that if you have a credit card and you pay with a credit card that has, like, travel cancellation. Um, so say you get sick or something happens or you can't travel, after all, they will refund you.

Reimburse you for your travel. Um, it depends on your credit card. I know the Chase Sapphire Preferred has that, and I do have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and that's what I paid with. So, either way, if something actually happened, I don't plan on canceling my trip. But to say something like this happens last minute that I need to cancel a trip, I'm sure I can do it and still get refunded with my credit card. So, um, I do recommend that you guys check this out. I know a lot of people are going to be traveling now that the coronavirus is hopefully coming to an end. Like we're hoping, hoping everyone gets their vaccines, we are going to be hopefully back to traveling soon. Hopefully, we are able to explore the world. I really do want to explore travel. That's one of the biggest things I want to do. I want to see the world. So, hopefully, you guys can use this trick and this hack to reimburse yourself for your travel expenses.

Get a Hotel for Cheap Um, I know a lot of people are college students like me, and you don't have a bunch of money. And you, or say you're not even a college student, you just want to save money, you don't want to spend so much money on travel. This is the perfect hack for you. So, I do think you guys should try this out. It would be great for you guys to try this out and get ahead of the game and get a good discount on your hotels. As far as the legitness (I don't know if that's a word, but we're going to go with it) of Hotwire, I do think they're pretty legit. Like, it does look like a sketchy website. Everything's a mystery. It's a deal like whoa! Hotwire is a budget website, but it is not fake. You will get your stuff. It might be hard to deal with them; I haven't experienced that. But I'm sure it's hard to deal with their customer service. Maybe there's always a downside with budget websites and budget things. But I feel like, if I got the deal, and I'm going - I know I'm going for my birthday - I don't see how I can go wrong. Like, I literally just paid for it, and now when I go to the hotel, all I'll have to do is check-in, and then the hotel is the one that's going to be in charge of me. So, it's a luxury hotel. Of course, they're gonna have good customer service. I am looking forward to going to Vegas for my 21st birthday, and I hope you guys can use this deal and get out there and get traveling when it's safe to do so. But be sure to be safe, wear your mask, be COVID-conscious, and I hope you guys have a great day. Whatever time you're watching this, I will see you guys in the next one.