How To Save on Hotel Accommodation

The holiday season is coming up and many Singaporeans will be travelling overseas to take a good break just before the year ends. Similarly, Heartland Boy is busy making preparation for his two-week trip to London. Yes, he confesses that he does sometimes get inspirations for his holiday destinations from currency weakness. During his preparation, he noticed that flight and hotel accommodation made up the bulk of his holiday budget. These are almost inevitable costs unless you offset the cost with air miles, extremely cheap hotels or even couch surfing. Since everybody enjoys a good deal, Heartland Boy would like to share how he managed to save on hotel accommodation.

1. Compare Across Different Booking Websites

Just like choosing a good savings account at the bank, it is important to compare hotel prices. These days, most people naturally go to Airbnb to book their hotel accommodation. It is important to note that top of the mind recall may not necessarily be the cheapest option available. Heartland Boy will illustrate this with an example as he compares the price of the same house over the same period on Airbnb and Booking.com.

Price of House as quoted on Airbnb

Price of House as quoted on Booking.com

It is quite obvious that the main difference is that a cleaning fee has been levied on the Airbnb platform but not on Booking.com. Heartland has noticed that this is not a one-off occurrence and generally finds this quite true on the numerous occasions that he has compared prices across hotel booking websites. What Heartland Boy is trying to emphasise is that the same property may be listed at different prices on different booking websites. So do spend some time to shop around to get the best quotation so that you save on your hotel accommodation.

2. Use The Same Website To Gain Loyalty Points

Once a user finds a certain website consistently offering lower rates, he or she may like to stick to the same website. Not only does the user benefit from ease of use arising from familiarity, he or she may also enjoy exclusive benefits from a customer loyalty marketing programme, if any. For instance, Heartland Boy qualified as a Booking Genius by using Booking.com (referral link embedded for 10% cashback) more than 5 times in a single year. This entitles him to a 10% discount on existing rates, as well as to secret hotel deals that only Genius members enjoy.

Heartland Boy Became A Genius!

Note that this 10% discount can also be combined with existing discount codes that the various hotels may be following as shown below:

Genius discount on booking.com

A 10% discount on hotel accommodation can be quite substantial, especially in an expensive city such as London! By using the Genius discount, Heartland Boy has already saved S$160 on his hotel accommodation.

3. Receive Cash Rebate On Your Hotel Booking Via Shopback

Wait a minute, it gets even better! If you book your hotel on Booking.com through Shopback, there is a 6% cashback.

Booking.com on Shopback

What is even more amazing is that Heartland Boy was still able to enjoy Genius status despite being directed to booking.com via Shopback! So do take advantage of the cashback offered by Shopback and receive between 6% to 15% cashback when you book your flights and hotels this holiday season. You may sign up with this referral code:

https://app.shopback.com/LO6njzJC29

Do note that by signing up using Heartland Boy’s referral code, you immediately gain $5 worth of free credits. When you make your first purchase, you get another $5. That is an instant $10 subsidy from your first purchase on Shopback. You are never too late to jump onto the bandwagon. By using Shopback, Heartland Boy has saved money on hotel bookings! To be precise, it amounted to $119 worth of hotel booking costs saved. He is patiently waiting for the day that his Shopback credits get hatched.

Heartland Boy’s Cash Rebates From Shopback

4. Save on Hotel Accommodation With The Entertainer App

An even better deal would be to book your hotel accommodation via The Entertainer App. The Entertainer App prides itself on offering 1 for 1 deals. In other words, you stay 2 nights but only pay the price of 1 night. That is an immediate 50% savings in your hotel budget. Of the 4 tips, this is perhaps the most powerful tip since your savings are guaranteed at 50%. Writing from experience, Heartland Boy managed to book a luxurious house overlooking the award winning Simola golf estate during his honeymoon to South Africa. How this good deal stretches to a country as far as South Africa is quite beyond Heartland Boy’s belief. But he is definitely not complaining, as he managed to save S$400 for that hotel booking alone.

Hotel in South Africa on Entertainer App

Well, such a good deal does have its drawbacks. For example, not all countries are participating merchants. Unfortunately, that applies to London and hence Heartland Boy could not use The Entertainer to save on hotel room booking this time. In addition, depending on the participating merchant, the discount may decrease dramatically if you stay beyond the second night.

Saving On Hotel Accommodation

These are the 4 tricks that Heartland Boy has been using lately to try to slash a significant chunk off his holiday budget. He hopes that you also enjoy significant cost savings on your hotel booking from these handy tips.

Already saved a few dollars on your hotel accommodation? Don’t forget to purchase your Travel Insurance policies immediately after you have booked your air tickets! Protect yourself against trip cancellations, flight or luggage delays, medical fees incurred in foreign countries with a comprehensive Travel Insurance policy. Compare and purchase on InsuranceMarket.Sg* to get the widest selection of Travel Insurance policies (for both annual or single trips) at the most competitive rates.

*Insurance Market.sg is an affiliate partner of Heartland Boy and he earns a small fee for every successful referral.

After learning how to save on hotel accommodation, you might want to save on your overseas flights as well. Find out which credit card gives you the best cashback here.