Most people stay at a hotel when they are traveling. Anyone can book a hotel room but not everyone can save money and do things while at the hotel to make the stay go smoother. In this post, I share 25 hotel hacks that will help you keep more of the money that you have and help you enjoy your stay while you are at the hotel more.
Money Saving Hotel Hacks
1. Sign Up for Loyalty Programs
Major hotel chains like IHG, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and others have loyalty programs that you can sign up for. The nice thing about the programs is that it doesn’t cost anything to join the programs.
By being a member, you can take advantage of member pricing and other perks that come along with belonging to the loyalty program.
2. Look to Stack Deals
There are a number of things that you can do to stack deals to save when you book a hotel room.
First, check sites like Rakuten to see if they are offering cash back at the hotel chain that you want to book. You can also use a site like Cashback Monitor to help you find the best shopping portal to use for a particular hotel.
Another thing you can do is look at your credit card to see if there is an offer for cash back that you can add to your card for a hotel chain. After you add the offer to the card, you can use the card to earn more cash back.
As you can see, if you are staying at an IHG hotel, you could save 20% on your stay by stacking the Rakuten and credit card offer.
Some credit cards also come with shopping portals. You can check to see if they are offering extra cash back for the hotel chain that you want to book with.
Finally, if you belong to organizations like AARP, AAA or have a military ID, you can use those memberships to help save some extra money.
3. Have hotel elite status
Having hotel elite status can help you get the most out of your stay. It is actually easier than you might think to earn some form of elite status with a hotel chain. The easiest way to earn elite status is by having a hotel credit card.
Having low level status with a hotel won’t get you as much as having a higher elite status. It still will get you some perks that not having status won’t get you.
4. Earn a Free Night
There are a number of ways to earn a free night at a hotel. First, you can book a hotel stay with credit card points. It is possible to earn points from opening a hotel credit card.
You can also open up a credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred that has transferable points. The points from the Sapphire Preferred can be transferred to Hyatt, Hilton, or IHG hotel chains.
Another way to book a free night is through the annual free night certificates that come with some hotel credit cards.IHG, Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton all have credit cards that come with free night certificates.
5. Use Hotel’s Credit Card
Using the hotel credit card to pay for your stay is usually the best way to earn the most points. Even if you happen to use points instead of money to pay for your stay, you can pay for incidentals with your card and earn a lot of points. Depending on the card that you have, you can earn from 5x to 26x per dollar spent when using a hotel credit card.
Numerous hotel credit cards also come with annual free night certificates. The certificates can more than make up for the annual fee that you pay on the card.
6. Free Breakfast
A great way to save money while you travel is by staying at a hotel that offers free breakfast. The savings can really add up fast if you are traveling with a family. This tip is something that I look for everytime that I travel.
Plus, you can always grab a few items from breakfast and take them up to your room for later to have for a snack.
7. Earn Airline Miles
It is possible to earn airline miles when you stay at a hotel. I am not kidding you. IHG and Marriott allow you to earn airline miles instead of hotel points. All you need to do is switch what kind of points you want to earn in your account.
Hyatt and American Airlines even have a better deal when it comes to earning Hyatt points and American miles. You can link your American Airlines and World of Hyatt accounts. Everytime that you fly American Airlines or book Hyatt hotel rooms, you will earn Hyatt and American Airline points at the same time.
Hotel Hacks
8. Get Water from Gym
Sometimes you may get a few bottles of water when checking in at the front desk or in your room. This isn’t always the case. A place that may have free bottled water is in the hotel gym.
Even if they don’t have bottled water for you to enjoy, many times you can find a water bottle filling station where you can fill up your water bottle.
9. Bathroom Cups for Toothbrush Holders
A way to make sure that your toothbrush doesn’t get any unwanted germs on it is by using the hotel cups. If it is a glass cup, you can put your toothbrush right in the cup.
For paper cups, you can turn the cup upside down and poke your toothbrush through the bottom of the cup to hold your toothbrush.
10. Don’t Use Bed to Empty Suitcase
Your suitcase has traveled many miles as you have. In the process of all of that traveling, it has gotten dirty. The last thing you want to do is dirty your bed sheets by putting your suitcase on the bed to empty it out.
Look for an ironing board, shelf space or the luggage rack which is usually in the closet to unpack your suitcase.
11. Use TV to Charge Devices
Some hotel rooms lack outlets or charging ports to charge your phone or other devices. This can be a real issue if you have numerous people that need to charge different things.
Most rooms have a TV that has USB ports in the back of it. You can plug your device or devices into the back of the TV to help alleviate charging issues.
12. Top Floor and Corner Room for More Quiet
If you are someone that wants or needs to have more peace and quiet, a great way to do that is by staying on the top floor of the hotel and in a corner room.
By staying on the top floor, you aren’t having people in a room above you walking on the floor. The corner room helps by only having one wall with an adjoining room.
13. Pack Plastic Bags
It is always good to have a number of plastic bags in your luggage. You may or may not be able to wash your dirty clothes. Being able to put dirty shoes in a bag before packing them keeps everything else clean, also.
14. Use the Do Not Disturb Sign
Do you want to keep people out of your room? A great way to do this is by using the “Do Not Disturb Sign.” This will give the cleaning crew the impression that you are still in the room.
15. Ask for a Free Upgrade
When checking into the hotel, you can kindly ask if there are any free upgrades. If you have some kind of status with the hotel, you can mention that, also. You may or may not get one but it is worth the ask.
16. Let Hotel Know if You are Celebrating Special Occasion
Are you celebrating a special occasion like an anniversary, honeymoon or birthday? Make sure to let the hotel know before you arrive. They may do something special for you like giving you a cake, fruit, champagne and maybe an upgrade of your room.
17. Darken Room with Towel
The obvious use of a towel is to dry off after taking a bath or shower. You can also use a rolled up towel to darken your room. Place the rolled up towel at the bottom of the door. It will stop light from pouring into the room and it will help keep your room nice and dark. The towel will also help with hallway noise.
18. How Not to Forget Valuables in Hotel Safe
If you use the hotel safe, the last thing you want to do is forget to take the valuables out of the safe before you leave the hotel.
One way to make sure this doesn’t happen is by placing your car keys, a shoe you are going to wear leaving the hotel, or some other valuables that you will need the day you are leaving the hotel.
So, a missing shoe or missing car keys will help you to remember to take the valuables out of the safe before you leave.
19. Use Hanger to Keep Curtains Closed
Sometimes the curtains in the room won’t stay closed. An easy fix for this is by taking a hanger from the closet and using the trouser clips on the hanger to keep the curtains closed.
If the room doesn’t have hangers with trouser clips, you can also use hair clips to do the same thing. Both things will keep the curtains closed and the light out of your room.
20. TV Remote Germ Free
The TV remote in a hotel room is one of the dirtiest things that you will handle while in the room. You can do a number of things to get around this. First, you can use sanitizer wipes to wipe down the remote before you use it.
You can also take a small sandwich bag or the shower cap from the bathroom and place it over the remote before you watch TV.
21. Get More Counter Space
If you are lacking counter space in the room or the bathroom, a great way to increase the space is by using the ironing board. The ironing board also makes for a great adjustable work space or even a table.
22. Use Shower to Get Wrinkles Out
Having clothes packed in a carry on or a suitcase can cause some wrinkles to form. One way to get the wrinkles out of your clothing is by placing them on a hanger and putting them in the bathroom while you take a shower. The steam from the shower will take the wrinkles out.
23. Ask for Two Sets of Keys
In some hotel rooms, you need to keep a card in a slot to keep the power on in the room. So, always ask for two sets of keys. Keep one of the keys in the slot so that it keeps the power on in the room to keep the air/heat on and so it charges any devices left in the room.
24. Pack a Mini Power Strip
Depending what size of group that you are traveling with, you may run out of outlets to charge all of the different devices that you have. You should pack a mini power strip to ensure everyone in the group has a way to charge what they need.
25. Ask Front Desk for Basic Necessities
There may be times where you forget to bring something with you on your trip like a charging cord. Go to the front desk and ask if they happen to have one that you can borrow. Many times they have a box full of things that people have forgotten that you can use.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, these hotel hacks can help you save money, earn more hotel points, and help you have a better experience while you are at the hotel.
So, are there other hotel hacks that you like to use when on the road. Feel free to leave your hotel hack in the comment section.
Go to my blog Travelwidstom. There you will find more posts on how to save on travel, travel itineraries, how to earn and maximize credit card points and miles and more.
great tips sound awesome love saving money as well as great tips while on the trip thanks for sharing your knowledge
Glad that it helped.
So many uses for an ironing board. Good tips. Thanks!
You are welcome.