How to get cheap hotel deals

How to find cheap hotel deals

This section covers how to get the best hotel deal possible. But in brief: always follow the golden rule below...

Compare prices across hotel booking sites

To check lots of hotel booking sites at speed, it's best to use comparison sites. Different comparison sites cover different hotel booking sites (such as Booking.com, Hotels.com and Agoda) and the price you're offered can vary depending on the comparison site you're checking.

Below are the ones we like – we've based this list on which features each site offers, how easy they are to use and how often they found the cheapest price in our quick test. Each of these sites lets you filter results to show hotels with free cancellation. This can be useful not just if your plans change, but because it allows you to rebook if the price falls later (see below).

For ski holidays specifically, there's travel agency IgluSki, which includes 60+ tour operators. It's popular with MSE Forumites, who mention 'great prices' and helpful advice from customer service. It also offers a price match guarantee.

While ski holidays aren't MoneySaving, if you're planning on having one anyway, the website is worth a check. Plus see how you can skim down other costs with MSE Jenny H's Skiing MoneySaving blog.

Filter for hotels with free cancellation

Even if cancelling your booking isn't free, it's worth weighing up the cancellation charge against how much the price has dropped – if the charge is small, you could still be quids in.

How to check if there's free cancellation

If it's not clear, check the terms and conditions before you book – they should clarify your cancellation rights. It's not likely to be free cancellation if you're asked to pay upfront, though it depends what site you book through.

If you can't see a free cancellation room in the options for the hotel you want, call it and check.

See if a website can help you track prices and rebook

Price tracking websites like Rebookey, Hotel Price Track, and Rebookr claim they're able to find you a cheaper rate on a room you've already booked, so long as it has free cancellation. These services are free, will alert you if the price drops, then guide you through cancelling and rebooking yourself.

We're currently trying these out for ourselves and will update here once we have more to add.

What to watch out for

Although cancel-and-rebooking can save £100s, it's not foolproof, so:

• Check your booking for any hidden T&Cs – make sure that cancelling really is free, and there aren't any extra charges.

• Bear in mind some sites make you pay in full when booking, even if you can cancel penalty-free. If so, you'll need to factor in if you can afford to rebook, given the refund from the original booking may take days or even weeks to come through.

• If you booked in a currency other than sterling... be aware the value of your refund could be less – or more – due to currency fluctuations.

Look for sites with price promises that will refund price differences

Where to find hotel price promise guarantees

Here are some of the big sites which do this:

Check if you can save by going direct

Once you've found the best comparison site price, call the hotel to see if it'll beat it – sometimes they offer direct bookers early booking promos or three-for-two night deals that comparison sites miss.

It's worth noting that attempting to negotiate with the hotel directly can increase your chances of having freebies thrown in and earning loyalty points if the hotel has a loyalty scheme.

Choose the right hotel

Whether you want luxury, boutique or a cheap stay, it's important to do your homework to get the best option.

When picking your hotel, there are a few things to watch out for:

How to cut the cost of your hotel booking

So, you've compared prices and found the perfect hotel, but before you go ahead and book, it's worth seeing if you can knock a few more quid off.

Use cashback sites to earn money back on hotel bookings

A couple of things to watch out for:

• You may not always get cashback on the full price you pay for your hotel. Extras and fees are sometimes excluded.

• Cashback sites like to shout about high cashback rates. For example, 'up to 15% off Expedia', but then only offer the top 15% on car hire and a measly 3% on hotel bookings. So check before you click.

For more ways to boost your returns, see our Top cashback sites guide.

Join hotel loyalty schemes for discounts and perks

Many hotel chains have free-to-join loyalty schemes. It's worth signing up – not so much for the free stays (which can take ages to clock up) but for the special offers they send to members. Plus, if you call the hotel and ask for a discount or an upgrade when you check in, you're more likely to get one as a 'preferred guest'.

Here are some of the entry-level hotel discounts you can expect with some of the major hotel loyalty schemes:

Individual hotels and smaller chains often have their own loyalty schemes or memberships with unique perks. This paid off massively for MSE Rob when he simply created an account with Royal Sun Resort in Tenerife.

Check if the price includes breakfast – and if it's really worth it

Breakfast also makes an excellent haggling point – if you're trying to persuade a hotel to beat a comparison site's price, ask them if it'll throw in breakfast for free.

Scout around for special opening rates

New hotels often offer special rates to drum up custom. Typically this can be at least 50% off or even complimentary stays. To find new hotel openings, scour industry publications such as Hotel News Resource and Hotel Designs – these cover news worldwide.

It's also worth keeping an eye on forum threads and social media for alerts on opening rate discounts. You can even try the brazen approach and just call up the hotel to ask about about special rates – a bit of sweet talk goes a long way.

Try member-only sale sites for big discounts

Special members-only websites such as Secret Escapes* offer big but short-lived discounts on luxury hotels worldwide. It's free to sign up – you just need to log in to see what's available.

For example, we found the Hotel Balmoral in Paris for £116 a night on Secret Escapes, compared with £210 a night booked directly. Le Meridien Lav in Croatia was also £142 a night through the site, and £184 a night booked directly.

In the past we've mentioned members-only site Travelzoo* too. However, it’s no longer free to join – it now costs £30 a year. Remember to cancel if you don't want to be charged going forward.

Hotel companies and travel brokers also often offer short-term sales and these can be worth looking at. But always do your own independent research to see if you're really getting a good deal, or if you can beat it elsewhere.

Play detective and uncover 'secret hotel' bargains

The top sites doing this include Lastminute.com* and Hotwire* for UK and worldwide deals. Then there's Priceline*, which offers ‘Express Deals’ where you book a mystery hotel based on location and star rating, with discounts of up to 60%. Its ‘Pricebreaker’ option shows three possible hotels and picks one for you, often at a lower price.

However, these deals aren’t always the cheapest option, so sense-check against other prices. And as you won’t know exactly where you’re staying, they’re best suited to those who are flexible, as bookings are usually non-refundable.

How to find cheap Airbnbs and other hotel alternatives

Depending on your destination and the size of group you're travelling with, booking a hotel may not the cheapest option. Here are some cheap accommodation alternatives to help you cut costs.

In a big group? Villas, apartments and Airbnb can be cheaper

Consider staying in a spare room

If you're travelling on your own or as a couple, crashing in someone's spare room can be a cheaper alternative to a city-centre hotel. For example, we found a night in a double room in a Barcelona flat for £49 – a similar quality hotel cost £90.

The sites below act as middlemen between hosts and guests. It's worth trying a few, as sometimes prices differ for the same room between sites. When comparing, always click through to the payment page, as they can add extra fees at the final stage.

Try a house-swap holiday

A number of home-swapping sites such as Home Base Holidays and Homelink allow you to switch your home with someone's elsewhere in the world.

To join you'll need to pay a fee – Home Base Holidays is £49 for a year's membership (although you can slash the cost by choosing to pay in New Zealand dollars – the $69 yearly fee works out at about £30). Homelink's a pricier £125, though it claims to offer a more personal service, with representatives around the world. Then you upload photos and a description of your place.

Home Base Holidays offers a two-week free trial, Homelink a 30-day free trial.

Feedback varies – some have found it a way to make lifelong friends, while others wouldn't try it again – so you'll need to decide if it's for you. See the Great Travel Swapping Hunt MSE Forum thread for more tips on this.

Work for free food and accommodation

It's sometimes possible to bag free food and accommodation in exchange for a few hours' work each day, usually on farms. Two of the biggest programmes are HelpX and WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms). Prices differ depending on which country you're in for HelpX – WWOOF costs £25 a year (or £35 a year for joint membership).

MSE Laura F spent several months WWOOFing in Australia, which included housekeeping in a Brisbane hotel, and gardening, packaging soaps and house-building in the Northern Territory.

Consider hostels – dirt-cheap, not dirty

Hostels can offer massive savings over hotels. While a few may be dodgy, many are clean and friendly, with free internet access and breakfast. Plus, you're more likely to strike up a conversation in a hostel than a Hilton. And you won't necessarily be bunking up in a dorm either – many offer singles, twins and doubles.

To check prices and availability, you can use Hostelworld* – it gives hostels a percentage rating based on users' experiences. Even if they say a hostel's full, always try emailing direct, in case there's a spare room that doesn't show up. To read more reviews from past guests and compare prices, try Hostelz.com. For UK trip, try the Youth Hostels Association* (YHA) and Hostelling Scotland. Both boast some pretty special properties including fabulous shooting lodges and Victorian mansions such as Ilam Hall in Derbyshire.

How to cut hostel costs even further

On top of cheap prices, there are further discounts to be had. A Youth Hostels Association* membership costs £20 per year (when paid by direct debit), and gets you 10% off at Hostelling International hostels. Bookings that include anyone under 26 can get 15% off per night. And don't forget to check if you can go through a cashback site for any of the above.

If you've never stayed in a hostel before, there's a handy list of Q&As on the YHA website which covers everything from whether you need to bring your own bedding to how you can keep your belongings safe.

Camp under the stars

Camping is a fun way to explore the great outdoors and get away on the cheap, especially if you're staying within Europe. You simply need to pack up a car with your own equipment and book a pitch at one of the many campsites across the continent.

This can save on accommodation costs, even if you're travelling further afield – for example, when we looked we found a week's stay for a family of four at the Bloomfield Beach Camp in Tropical North Queensland for about £200. You'd pay about £900 in a nearby hotel.

As a starting point, check out the European Federation of Campingsite Organisations and Holiday Park Associations or Campingo, which lists campsites in more than 85 countries. If you're planning a camping getaway in the UK, MoneySavers rate the website UKCampsite.co.uk, which lists sites by area and facilities. It also includes user reviews.

For a full list of MoneySavers' top tips on safe, hassle-free camping, see the Great Camping Hunt in the forum.

How to find cheap UK hotels and accommodation

While the tips in this guide are valid no matter where you're going, if you're planning a getaway a bit closer to home, we have some UK-focused tips to help you bag a bargain in Blighty.

Look out for Travelodge and Premier Inn's regular sales

If you’re hunting for cheap hotel rooms in the UK, chain sales and budget brands are often the easiest place to start.

Hotel chain Travelodge* said it had 'over one million rooms for £35 or less' for stays up until 25 March 2027, and also runs regular sales. The ultra-cheap rooms are released in batches – to bag serious bargains you need to know when a new lot has been released. If you can book your room at the start of a sale, there should be widespread availability.

Our regularly updated Travelodge sales and Premier Inn deals page lets you know when the latest sale starts, and Travelodge sale updates are regularly included in our free weekly MoneySaving email.

Slash the cost of city-centre stays by finding university digs outside term time

Always thought you could've got into Oxford or Cambridge University? Well, now you can. The fab site University Rooms rents halls-of-residence rooms left empty during the holidays in a host of UK cities, including London, Oxford and Cambridge, plus a few worldwide. It's possible to find rooms for as much as 50% less than hotel rooms in the same area.

While it's not the Ritz, many MoneySavers have been pleasantly surprised. It can be a surprisingly cost-effective way of staying very centrally, and the surroundings at Oxford and Cambridge colleges in particular can be stunning. The website Travelstay also lists cheap university rooms across the UK.

Examples of places you could stay include UCL halls in Camden, London, Edinburgh University halls and Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge.

See if you can get an alumni discount on top

If you went to a UK university, it's also worth contacting it directly to see if there's an alumni discount for staying on campus (or in any other of its official uni lodgings).

MSE Laura F was able to spend four nights on the campus of her alma mater, Royal Holloway University (pictured below), using a 10% alumni discount.

Holiday in the UK from £9.50 per person (plus charges) with The Sun

You can bag four-day holiday park breaks for around £44ish for four people by collecting tokens in The Sun newspaper, at various times in the year.

There are over 250 parks included across the UK and Europe, and prices start at £9.50 per person, but this is only the basic cost - you'll need to add on the price of the papers, and you'll need to pay for at least four people even if only two of you are going.

The way it works is you pick four dates and four parks you'd like, and hope for the best – you'll be allocated the exact date after booking. You can't cancel or amend your booking after making it though, so double-check you can make all your options beforehand.

Check out our Sun £9.50 holidays guide for full details.

Sunday's often the cheapest day to stay

The traditional day of rest is hotels' quietest booking day, so you're likely to pay less to stay on a Sunday. Also look out for Sunday special offers such as three-for-two nights or free bottles of champers.

Forumites such as Eileen have saved by booking a Sunday night stay:

Best ways to protect your booking

No matter the type of accommodation you choose, there are a number of tips you can follow to make sure your booking is protected and that you don't get hit with extra charges when travelling.

• Sort your travel insurance ASAB (As Soon As You Book). Some insurers will cover you if the travel firm goes bust, if you're made redundant or if you become too ill to travel, and some cover other elements of your trip too, such as flights, if you can't find anywhere else to stay. Check your policy to find out your exact cover levels. Read Cheap travel insurance for more info.
  

• Get ATOL protection on DIY bookings. Package holidays are usually protected (always check) under either the ATOL or ABTA consumer protection scheme. This means if your tour operator goes bust, you're covered.
  
  ATOL doesn't protect standalone hotel bookings. But if you book a flight plus separate hotel or car hire together from the same travel website in the same transaction, you get full ATOL financial and legal protection, just as with a traditional package holiday. If you book these elements from the same site, but in different transactions, you'll only get financial protection, not full legal cover.
  

  Even better, if you book flights and a hotel together, Expedia* and Lastminute.com* sometimes give extra discounts. Compare this with booking the cheapest flight and hotel separately to see if this protection 'costs' you.
  
  See our Holiday rights guide for more info.

• Use a foreign travel card to avoid exchange fees. If you're travelling abroad or are booking your stay in a foreign currency, it's worth having a travel debit or credit card that removes foreign exchange fees (typically around 3%).
  
  Read Top cards for travelling abroad to learn more.

Try these extra tips to cut costs further

Here are a number of smaller tips and tricks you can try to shave some extra pounds off your booking.

• Bag £100s off hotels with Clubcard points. Those who've saved up Tesco Clubcard points can trade them in for Rewards Vouchers*, which can be spent around the world at hotel chains such as Mercure and Butlins Hotels, as well as at Hotels.com*. The big advantage is that Clubcard points are worth 1p in store, but they're worth double when converted into 'Rewards'. For example, £5 in Clubcard vouchers will get £10 in Hotels.com vouchers*.
  
  The snag though, is that hotels usually only let you use vouchers against their rack rates (normal prices), which are often much higher than their cheapest online ones. So before exchanging your Clubcard vouchers, carefully compare prices, as you may get better value for your vouchers elsewhere.
  
  Meanwhile, if you're a Morrisons More member, you can book hotels through Morrisons Travel and earn More Points on each £1 spent. See our Tesco Clubcard and Morrisons More guides for more info.

• Sign up for websites' email alerts to bag extra discounts. Booking.com, Expedia*, Hotels.com* and Priceline*, for example, send out discount codes via email – if you can, sign up to a few. If you get tired of the emails after you've booked, you can always unsubscribe when you don't need to look for a hotel and resubscribe when you do.

• Use Google Hotels to track prices and book at the right time. Google Hotels lets you track prices for specific destinations and dates, so you can see how rates change over time. You can also sign up for email alerts when prices drop, helping you jump in and book at the right moment.

• Try using a VPN – it could save you money. VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) mask your IP address when you're browsing the internet, letting you appear to be based in another country. There's usually a monthly subscription cost for one (though free trials are available).
  
  Many VPN companies, such as NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN, have blogs on how to get a cheaper price on your holiday by booking via a VPN. The idea is that some booking platforms may charge you less if they think you're based locally or in a particular other country.
  
  While this trick can often lead to cheaper deals, it's worth noting that the money you save may not outweigh any VPN subscription costs. It's important to factor this in when you're booking. Share your experiences on the MSE Forum if you've any luck with this technique.

• Pay with the right plastic to get the best rates. This isn't a specific hotels tip, but it's one that needs to be high on your agenda if you're paying for a hotel in foreign currency. There's one way to spend abroad that smashes all others – using a specialist travel credit card.
  
  An added bonus is that if you are booking on a credit card, you get Section 75 protection for anything over £100.

• Unpaid carer? See if you can get a cheap room. Charity Carefree gives unpaid carers (plus a companion) access to one/two-night breaks across the UK. These are unsold rooms donated to Carefree by hotels. There's a £38 admin fee, but no other costs for the accommodation (though carers must pay for their own transport, food and travel insurance, if applicable).
  
  You must be an 18+ unpaid carer doing at least 30 hours a week to qualify.

See if you can save with a traditional package holiday. Before booking a hotel, see if you can save with a package holiday. This often makes sense if you're heading to a traditional tourist destination (such as Rhodes, Malaga) for seven, 10 or 14 days.

When we checked, we found a week in Lanzarote for a family of four, including flights, transfers and accommodation, at £217 per person. Going DIY, the flights alone for the same dates were about £480 per person – add a hotel and it pushes the cost per person to about £605. Plus with a package, you get ATOL protection.

For package holiday prices skimpier than a pair of Speedos, it's normally cheapest to book late. But if you need special facilities, book early where you can, and consider carefully whether booking a package really will save you money. See Cheap package holidays for a full guide.