Travel Deal of the Day (Nov. 24, 2006)

Going to a convention at a hotel? Did they block rooms for overnight guests and you automatically just accepted the pre-negotiated group rate for the hotel? Well, you may have just overpaid, or, if nothing else, subsidized the group organizer’s room.

The Deal:
Saving money when attending a convention is easy and painless. There are a couple of rules to keep in mind when attending a convention to avoid overpaying.

How:
1) Call to find out the pre-negotiated rates for attending the convention. Sometimes, the rate will be a bargain. But, sometimes the rate is actually higher than rates available to the general public since the hotel knows most people will just book a room at the group/negotiated rate (you are a captive audience). In addition, sometimes the pre-negotiated rate is higher so as to subsidize the free room(s) given to the group organizer(s).

2) Check the website of the hotel and check rates via an aggregator website which checks hotel rates at a number of area hotels (examples include: www.sidestep.com, www.kayak.com). Check for applicable discounts including the Entertainment Card rate, AAA, AARP, travel industry, American Bar Association. Also, do a www.google.com search for the hotel and terms such as “promotions” or “discounts” – you may find incredible deals you did not even know existed.

3) Call the hotel and check for available discounts. But do not indicate that you are part of a convention. Just check to see the rates available to the general public and check for discounts. You may be pleasantly surprised at the choice of available rates. One thing to note here - if the hotel has blocked a large portion of its rooms for its group/convention, the rates may be higher than normal (since fewer rooms are available for the general public), making the group rate seem more attractive. I would recommend finding a room rate that is cancelable, book that rate, but be sure to note Step 5 since the hotel will likely discount rooms closer to your check-in date if the pre-blocked rooms go unsold.

4) If it would be feasible for you to stay in the vicinity of the convention but not necessarily at the exact location, I would recommend using a prepaid/non-refundable service such as www.priceline.com or www.hotwire.com to find a hotel in the area of the convention but likely at a much lower price. (I will talk about how to use these services efficiently in a later blog – stay tuned.)

5) Assuming that step 4 did not work out and you booked a cancelable room rate, I would recommend periodically checking room rates at the hotel. If the convention guests do not use all the pre-blocked rooms, the hotel will release the rooms for sale to the general public. This often occurs so close to the arrival date that the hotel must sell those rooms at a significant discount. If you have booked a cancelable room rate, you can switch to the lower rate. Remember, the hotel will not call you to tell you that it has lowered its rates – it is incumbent upon you to check. Also remember that it is important to reserve a room in advance to ensure that you have a room in case the hotel does sell out.

6) If you are staying at the hotel over a weekend, check for last minute weekend rates offered by many hotel chains the Tuesday or Wednesday before the applicable weekend. You can sign up to be automatically emailed such last minute hotel rates at http://www.smartertravel.com/hotel/.