I want to stay in Coralville , Iowa in Oct.

the place I want to stay is charging $159.00 or a single , non smoking .

If I check every 6 hours , will the price go up and down like air fares do ?

I'd like to find something under or right at $90.00, that is not a flea ridden mess of a crap hole.

Its been ten years since I done this , what do I need to know?

Check Trivago.com You can compare rates and options

Trivago.

I usually look in the booking websites rather than on the hotels website. Sometimes there’s better deals there. Time of year and location matters a lot too. Like when we go into anchorage, in the woods yet you can get a good room for 70 bucks a night, summer...it’s like 170 a night.

I've found I get the better rooms and upgrades when booking directly with the Hotel.

Generally - hotels will give you the worst room they have when booking with discount sites. And when there is a problem - you sort it out with the booking site.


Best of luck.
Andrew

quote:

Originally posted by El Cid 92:
I've found I get the better rooms and upgrades when booking directly with the Hotel.

Generally - hotels will give you the worst room they have when booking with discount sites. And when there is a problem - you sort it out with the booking site.


Best of luck.
Andrew

I've had good luck calling the hotel directly, being nice, and asking for their best rate. If I've checked other sites and found better rates, I ask them if they can match that. At times they will mention something going on locally that drives prices up and recommend changing dates to get better prices.

Bendable, I sent you an email.

Don’t forget to ask about any discounts for groups you may belong to, AAA, AARP (don’t know your age, no offense intended if you’re not), airline rewards programs, military, NRA, etc... Signing up for a hotel chain rewards programs is also helpful, even if you don’t travel that much.

Not that it’ll really matter in the case of a cheap hotel room, but when checking into a hotel handing over a 20 with your ID and such can, and has for me on more than one occasion, led to a very nice room upgrade / free meal or drink tickets.

Book online. I use Priceline, and several others. I've been told the hotel is sold out, stood at the desk and booked via an online service, paid considerably less, and had my room.

quote:

Originally posted by El Cid 92:
I've found I get the better rooms and upgrades when booking directly with the Hotel.

Generally - hotels will give you the worst room they have when booking with discount sites. And when there is a problem - you sort it out with the booking site.

That's not been my experience, and I travel a lot. Most of the time I use Hotels.com (Expedia) and I've been very pleased with my rooms.

I always preferred book directly on the hotel website, but then our new travel department forced us to book through them. If we didn't, our expense report would get denied.

Do sign up for any hotel club cards. Often they'll get you free upgrades, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I want to stay in Coralville , Iowa in Oct.

the place I want to stay is charging $159.00 or a single , non smoking .

If I check every 6 hours , will the price go up and down like air fares do ?


I'd like to find something under or right at $90.00, that is not a flea ridden mess of a crap hole.

Its been ten years since I done this , what do I need to know?

Iowa homegame weekend? If so all prices at the top end of the scale, and availability at the bottom end!

I use kayak.com to find rooms as a starting point. Kayak will direct me to the hotel/motel's website, and I'll look for additional discounted rates there. In my experience, the front desk staff have always told me it's cheaper to book online than over the phone or in person. Their hotel's 'web only' rate is the lower than anything they can offer.

I've also had decent luck w/ hotwire.com, but it's a roll of the dice.

Hotels.com

Read the reviews, understand the terms (ie when you can / can't cancel), chose one.

I have a hotel rewards credit card and use points toward that for free rooms. After decades of going cheap on motel rooms I now only stay in Hampton Inn or one of the Hilton chain hotels. They cost more but are clean and at Hampton if you arent satisfied with your stay you don’t pay. I book through my rewards app on my phone. I no longer worry about finding the cheapest room unless I’m staying for a week or longer (which is rare, most of my stays are 1-3 nights).

Family has been in the business nearly 25 years. Hotels have to pay up to 30% commission to some of the booking sites. You only give them a few rooms to sell and keep most of your inventory to sell yourself. Always call the property direct, be nice and you'll usually get a better rate

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
I have a hotel rewards credit card and use points toward that for free rooms. After decades of going cheap on motel rooms I now only stay in Hampton Inn or one of the Hilton chain hotels. They cost more but are clean and at Hampton if you arent satisfied with your stay you don’t pay. I book through my rewards app on my phone. I no longer worry about finding the cheapest room unless I’m staying for a week or longer (which is rare, most of my stays are 1-3 nights).

Looks like there’s a Hampton Inn in Coralville. Right off the bat, the price is $99. Sure might be possible to get a discount and get the price down to $90

nope , not a home game weekend,
they took $9.00 off for the AAA discount.
yep Hampton inn

will check that out ,

can there be "hidden " fees involved by going through them ?

Have you ever thought about an AirBnB? A quick search found this place for $40 a night.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21645845?s=51

Lots of great AirBnBs in the IC, C'rapids, C'ville area at every price point. All bets are off on home game weekends.