Any advice for reducing cost of regular hotel for work?

comeandgo

In my previous employment and the construction teams were away for a few weeks there were a few who just found a suitable girl/boy friend for duration of contract and stayed with them.  Wives usually were in the dark.

Cisco001

If it is only 2 nights a week, you could possibly rent a room with live in landlord. 
My friend and my brother came across plenty of doggy people at house share from professional landlord. Luckily, I didn't.

Albermarle

If you do need to book a hotel, then use someone like booking.com, to find out what is available, quality and price. However after making a choice, always try phoning the hotel direct, to see if they can better the price. Usually they will not just offer a lower price, but they might throw in breakfast for free for example.
Note that some hotel chains are not on booking.com or similar, such as Premier Travel Inn or Travel Lodge, although the latter are generally best avoided.
My favourite was to stay in pubs with rooms, as long as the rooms had been modernised at some point. Less facilities but a nicer atmos in the public areas than a faceless Holiday Inn etc.

prowla

Does the client/employer have a hotel discount available?

I once had a stint away and was getting £300 rooms for £89.

Rosa_Damascena

Personally I can think of little worse that spending a night in a stranger's home, on balance I'd just suck up the extra costs and book a hotel with a decent bed. 

OP - is there any possibility of spending just one night a week away? Ie travelling in the morning of Day 1, and returning home on Day 2? Yes it would be tiring but you could also save a bit that way.

kinger101

Some places (Travelodge, Premium Inn) don't tend to advertise the likes of booking.com.  These offer basic but comfortable options.

I've been doing quite a few months of staying one night a week in hotels, and have observed;

(a) Price does not always equal quality.
(b) The best value hotel tends to change from week-to-week
(c) Monday nights tend to be more expensive than Thursday nights.  So if you have are choice which two days a week you do, work out which days are cheaper.
(d) The city I stay in doesn't have very many B&B options I'd touch with a barge pole.
(e) I vary whether I get breakfast or not based on price.  Sometimes they want to charge £20 extra for what essentially isn't very good.  Other times I've find half board for only slightly more than room only.
(f) You can't tell what to expect with Best Western.  Varies from flea pits, to Fawlty Towers to very good.  

Savvy_Sue

One of the cheaper rates you can get with Premier Inn is pay up front, but with the option to change the booking to a different date at the same hotel. If you aren't certain of dates that might be worth investigating 

Andyjflet

I have done a lot of this in my career, one was commuting from Milton Keynes to North Wales! I travelled up on a Monday at 4am and came back Thursday or Friday, I did occasionally search offers on Booking.com etc and I ended up staying with a late 70s couple who gave me an en suite room, we became friends for 4/5 years.

A friend of mine works in F1 and travels down to Brackley, he has converted a van and lives in the camper during the week, he loves it!!

RipleyG

The area you are staying in matters - seaside areas can have cheap B&Bs out of season, tourist hotspots will be expensive all year round, un-touristy but built up areas can be really cheap.

I stayed 3 nights a week in Bath for work (my cost). Hotels or B&Bs were expensive all year round, even the Travelodge often being £140 a night. It was cheaper for me to rent a room as a Monday to Friday lodger, which had the benefit of use of a kitchen so my food bills were no more expensive than staying at home. I live in Bournemouth - here it's different, and cheap Airbnbs can be found out of season. 

Someone has already mentioned spareroom.co.uk which I found the most helpful source of rooms. 

saker75

Rosa_Damascena said:

Personally I can think of little worse that spending a night in a stranger's home, on balance I'd just suck up the extra costs and book a hotel with a decent bed. 

OP - is there any possibility of spending just one night a week away? Ie travelling in the morning of Day 1, and returning home on Day 2? Yes it would be tiring but you could also save a bit that way.

It’s not about spending a night in a strangers home but renting a room on a regular basis. I’m still in touch with all but two such lodgers that I rented to. Technically I had use of their room when they weren’t around but in reality I never did do - therefore they could leave their suits etc and not feel like they were camping! One made the most wonderful South African food…!