Hotel Bargains

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During the peak season, you are very unlikely to get any real bargains when booking into your hotel, most of which will be offering rooms at the brochure price with no discounts. Having said that, hotel prices in the USA are generally a lot lower than similar quality hotels in the UK.

You may qualify for some discounts year round if you have an MKC card, or if you are prepared to sit through a time-share presentation, but generally expect to pay the brochure price through most of the peak season. Having said that, you may well get a better deal than the rate quoted in the brochure if you are prepared to book directly with the hotel and bypass the travel agents.

Outside of the peak season, things are somewhat different, and hotels are often happy to offer special deals just to fill a few rooms and generate a little more income. However, you have to remember that they may not always openly advertise special rates or discounts, so you must ask what is available before you check in.

Don't be swayed by offers of discount coupon books, because these are readily available all over the place, including most restaurants, malls, and shops. Also to be honest they rarely offer any discounts that can't be obtained by asking anyway.

Some offers include a "lucky-dip" style, where you pick a nightly room price at random from a box of raffle-style tickets. In this case, if you pick a bad price, just stay for one night, then check out and back in, picking another (hopefully better) price.

Others may well include a 'Stay for three nights, get the fourth free' type deals, or deals tied into timeshare presentations. Whatever the deal is though, you won't get it unless you are prepared to ask what's available.