When planning a vacation, the two cost components that get the main attention are airline tickets and hotels. Finding airline tickets and lodging at a budget-friendly price is something that is challenging.
Here are seven tips to get the price of airline tickets and hotel room rates that fit your budget.
1. Go Vacation At Low Season Period
Choosing the right vacation time is one way to get cheap airfare and lodging rates. Go vacation during low season can reduce the cost of our expenses because the price of airline tickets and hotel rooms can be cheaper.
How do we know when the low season period?
Low season usually occurs during weekdays (Monday to Thursday) and days where there are no long holidays, such as school holidays or religious holidays. The weekend is a high season period, as well as December and first to second week of January.
If you want to travel to Europe, the low season period is usually between November and March. For Asia, low season varies for each country. For Indonesia, January to March is known as the right vacation time, when many hotels usually do promotion during those months.
You can do a little research in advance to find out when the right time to do a vacation that fits your budget.
2. Cost Sharing
If you are single, going on holiday with friends is also a cost-effective way to get a good lodging, because we can share our accomodation cost, while the plane ticket is still paid respectively.
3. Finding a Newly Open Hotel
One more way we can do is find a new hotel open. Do research on newly opened hotels at your destination. Because usually, the launch of the new hotel will give special rates and promos.
4. Stay at Capsule Hotel or Backpacker Hotel
Currently there are many hotel capsules available where the ‘rooms’ are only bed-sized. There are several bathrooms available that can be used interchangeably, and lockers to store our personal belongings. If you want a cheaper cost of accommodation, you can choose to stay at this property type.
Another option is a hostel or hotel packpacker. The rooms offered usually contain multiple bunk beds lined up in the room. The security side needs to get your attention while staying at a hotel like this, and you may feel less privacy. But the fun is you can meet new people to get to know each other, share experiences or even be your traveling companion in the city.
If you’re travelling with friends, staying at a more expensive hotel may be better, because the cost can be shared. But if you’re travelling alone, staying at Hostel or Capsule Hotel is a wise option to save money.
5. Booking on Last Minutes
Some say the hotel’s reservation on the first day we would like to stay at the hotel will cause the price to be expensive. Apparently it’s not true. Sometimes the hotel lowered the price on that day to keep the hotel’s occupancy rate remains high. They prefer to lower the price of the room rather than being left empty, especially if the reservation is made through an online travel agent.
6. Booking via Travel Agent Online
Booking via on-line travel agent is usually cheaper than if you booked directly at the hotel. A bit inconvenient because you have to open several websites to find the appropriate price.
If you are a bit lazy to check one by one in every online travel agency, you must read the tip no. 7.
7. Search Hotel and Flight Ticket via Price Comparation Site
This is one of the best ways to find the cheapest accommodation prices. You do not have to bother to open and search on each of the travel sites one by one. Use the services provided by the hotel price comparison website.
Xelexi.com is one of the hotel price comparison sites. The name Xelexi comes from the word ‘selection’, which means the tool to choose or select. Xelexi also provides cheap airline ticket search services from hundreds of online travel agents and airlines.
Read also: How The Hotel Comparison Sites Work
