Cheap hotels guide discussion area

Nick_C

The time I spent on line researching all my travel options for my summer holiday has saved me several hundred pounds. I would rather have that money in my pocket than pay it to a travel agent in commission. If I had "saved" my time and trusted a travel agent, I would not have had the opportunity to earn the money I have saved, and this site is all about Money Saving!

myrddin_2

Nick_C wrote: »

The time I spent on line researching all my travel options for my summer holiday has saved me several hundred pounds. I would rather have that money in my pocket than pay it to a travel agent in commission. If I had "saved" my time and trusted a travel agent, I would not have had the opportunity to earn the money I have saved, and this site is all about Money Saving!

I respect your views, Nick-C, and the company I suggested are not conventional travel agents. You wouldn't pay them a penny. I would assume you must have tried them though, to be so sure that you couldn't have saved still more money.

Anyone trawling sites whilst at work is either costing their boss money, or costing themselves money if self employed. Isn't working the means by which we earn the money we subsequently save? I'm simply advocating that the time be saved - as well as the money from discounted rooms. If the trawling is done out of working hours, then it eats into precious leisure time, and if the rates saved are no better than the professionals can provide, then isn't it a waste of that time?

Get the best of both worlds - save time and money by trying them when you need more rooms in future.


Enjoy your summer trip - and keep saving money, of course.

blindman

myrddin wrote: »

Get the best of both worlds - save time and money by trying them when you need more rooms in future.

You wouldn't happen to be affiliated in some way to this "magic" Travel agent that does all the work (and doesn't charge comission or get "kick backs" )

Sounds too good to be true and you know how that saying ends

myrddin_2

blindman wrote: »

You wouldn't happen to be affiliated in some way to this "magic" Travel agent that does all the work (and doesn't charge comission or get "kick backs" )

Sounds too good to be true and you know how that saying ends

I first used them to find a good rate at a Manchester airport hotel in January 2010. They searched the market, and offered me free advice on quality and location as well as cost. The rate I received from them was cheaper than from any other site (including the hotel's own website), and they handled all the paperwork. All went smoothly, from start to finish. I believe that sort of service deserves some credit, don't you? As for the way they're paid, I'm not sure that I care, so long as I get the best deal.

As Nick-C wrote: "this site is all about Money Saving!" and I thought we were intended to share information about that. If cynics feel there has to be a catch, maybe those who have already saved should stop sharing, just to please them. No?... I thought not.

blindman

myrddin wrote: »

As Nick-C wrote: "this site is all about Money Saving!" and I thought we were intended to share information about that.

If cynics feel there has to be a catch, maybe those who have already saved should stop sharing, just to please them.

You have made 5 posts on MSE and 4 have been about this magic travel agent.

Moneysaving is great and it's good to share, but we shouild all be careful about "Too good to be true deals" IMHO.

myrddin_2

Fine. Whatever.
Someone responds to a post, and if an interesting or controversial point is being made, why not reply? 4 of the 5 posts you refer to are in reply to such comments made in the last few days, most of those being today. Now there are six.
My only other post to MSE was when I was looking for a flight for myself to Rio de Janeiro in July 2007, and MSE was encouraging us all to post details in a thread called "Beat my holiday quote" so that we might receive the best deals. No one offered a rate, so I didn't bother posting again until last week.

If I find something worthwhile, I'll usually share it with others, but now I may not bother again on here, thanks to recent responses.
Cheers guys!

billy

the US discount website mentioned in the main article on cheap hotel rooms is opening up a UK site worthwhile checking out

http://www.hotwire.com/uk

and here

http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/major-us-travel-brand-launches-in-the-uk/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+breakingtravelnews+%2528Breaking+Travel+News%2529

jordylass

Would it be possible to update the cheap hotels thread with information on 'stay with a local' sites such as www.airbnb.com https://www.crashpadder.com and https://roomorama.com/ they often have full houses/ self contained accomodation to let as well as rooms in people's homes. It can be very cost effective and often very central.

rayhool

Does anyone know where this secret hotel is in Leeds?

• Modern hotel perfect choice for City Trips - 3* - Leeds
• GB
• 

tahrey

I wish I'd thought to look here before going away for an extra long 2-stop bank hol weekend... instead, very short of time thanks to vehicle trouble (booking the first stop in the early afternoon before setting off) I just panicked and put the only hotel chain names I could think of into my browser. Probably paid somewhat over the odds, but then I was accepting that anyway.

However, as all of them seemed to have at least a few rooms left in the target zones, there may have been bargains to be had...

All the same - if I'm allowed to say it - I found Best Western to be surprisingly good, and that's who I ended up staying with for the whole duration. Perfectly nice, if slightly Fawlty-ish traditional 3* hotels in decent settings (rather than Travellodges beside motorways or amongst clubland, etc... well, ok, if you ignore the freight trains that slowly slither-clunked past one of them), no hidden charges, and - in this case - actually significantly cheaper than Travellodge, Premier Inn, etc. Possibly because everyone had ignored them and gone straight for the "oh it'll be so much cheaper than the others" budget options!

To be fair, the room on the second stop was a little pokey (just a single...), but it still fulfilled my needs as somewhere to crash and get changed, the inclusive breakfast was pretty good, and they didn't bat an eye at me grabbing an extra pain au chocolat, a couple bits of bread and extra bacon with which to make a lunchtime sandwich, stolen away in a napkin... Plus there was a heated pool for when the rain blew in of an early evening, spoiling the chance to watch the sun go down over the beach.

Not a paid plug or anything like that, but if you have no luck with the search engines and the cheap cookie-cutter motels, they'd be worth a look as a backup.