When you travel a lot, staying in hotels becomes a big part of your expenses. In the course of our travels, though, we’ve come across many ways to save money on hotels and I’m now going to share with you our killer combination to save up to 20% on every single stay!
I’ve run the numbers and apart from some deals that float around on sites like Agoda.com (mostly for Asian destinations) this particular method of saving on Hotels cannot be beaten! I’ve tried everything from coupons to hotel comparison engines and over the years, this method has come out to be my top go-to process for hotels savings.
To put it simply, when you book a hotel using this method, you will get a certain percentage of your cash back after a while, and you will be able to get the rest back as rewards.
So here’s how this works: we use a combination of Hotels.com, a cashback website, and two rewards programs. If you feel that Hotels.com are more expensive than other booking engines, my experience has been that they normally include all the relevant taxes, etc. in their prices and this is why their prices may seem higher at first. But if you look at prices on other websites (like Booking.com) carefully, the prices are usually the same across the board.
Given that this can be consistently done over a long period of time, it’s a no-brainer for a long-term traveler or even a frequent traveler of any type!
1. Sign up for the Hotels.com welcome rewards program
It’s free! They will give you one night free for every ten nights you stay through them. This immediately converts into a 10% reward since your reward night is an average of the 10 nights that you spend in a hotel through them.
Hotels.com Rewards Program
2. Sign up for PouringPounds.com
It’s also free! PouringPounds, a UK based cash back website, will give you up to 7.5% in cash back for every booking you make through them on Hotels.com. The regular cashback rate is 6% but they often run specials every other month where they offer up to 7.5% cash back.
3. Use a rewards credit card
When you pay for your hotel bookings. Our cards give us about 2.5% on every purchase as a reward, but other cards can give you up to 3%!
In total, using the combination of the above three methods, we’re able to save up to 20% on every hotel booking we make. None of the programs above require any minimum stays or qualifying dates. You can also pay in any currency you like on Hotels.com and it will not matter! Your hotel would need to be a part of the Hotels.com Welcome Rewards program, but most hotels are a part of that program these days.
The Pouring Pounds Homepage
Let me explain how all of this comes together with an example. We’re going to Austin. So, I load up PouringPounds.com and go to their homepage. I log in, click on Travel, Hotels, and then on Hotels.com. That’s it. I’ve now clicked THROUGH to Hotels.com.
Don't be misled by Expedia, when you click through they offer just 4.5% on Hotel stays
At this point, I do a regular search for a hotel in Austin on my dates. I get a number of results and filter them to my preferences. When I’ve finally narrowed it down to a hotel I want to book, I click on Book to complete my booking. Before I book, I make sure I log into my Hotels.com account so that I’m sure to rack up some Welcome Rewards for this stay.
Finally, I use my rewards credit card to pay for the hotel booking.
So here’s what happens next. When I pay with my credit card, I will immediately get 2.5% back as part of my credit cards rewards program. This will usually show up on my next statement.
Once I check out of the hotel, I will rack up Hotels.com Welcome Rewards for every night that I stayed. This amounts to a 10% value. So after 10 nights of $100 each, I’ll get one night of $100 for free, $100 back on a $1000 spend amounts to 10%.
After a few days, pouring pounds will send me an email saying that my cashback has tracked. This will then start reflecting on my Pouring Pounds account balance as Pending. It will take a few more weeks for Hotels.com to confirm the cash back with them but eventually, I’ll see the 7.5% balance as confirmed and ready to withdraw from my Pouring Pounds account. Whenever I want, I can request them to send a Paypal payment and I’ll get my money in 2-3 days.
And that’s all there is to it! When you break it down, this is a really simple way to save big! We’ve been consistently saving up to 20% on hotels by using the above method. There are no minimum spend requirements, blackout dates, or other limitations to this method. It’s been a pretty great way for us to keep traveling over the years without going over budget.
Hey A&Z!
Just found your awesome blog. Have to comment, here. I understand you are a fan of sustainable travel. so why not book directly with the hotels and ask for a 20% discount? This way, the hotel still gets 80%. If you book through the booking site and cashback service, the booking site also cuts not a small commission, can be as high as 25% (with Booking.com).
Find more information on how to stay in hotels for longer for less in British tech journalist Paul Carr’s easy and entertaining book, http://www.amazon.com/Upgrade-Cautionary-Tale-Without-Reservations-ebook/dp/B005CI2IUA
On a slightly separate note, I haven’t found more general ‘accommodation tips’ on your blog. Sure, when you are on a ‘tour or excursion, tourist mode’ you go with regular accommodation/booking options like everyone else. But most digital nomads settle for a few months at a time. What are your tips for accommodation for such circumstances? That would be an interesting post for your readers.
Hi Joey,
For longer stays we suggest short term rentals. We usually make our bookings via Airbnb, even though we’ve been noticing in the last couple of years how the prices have been going up. Still, we’ve realized that even prices on Airbnb are negotiable. We often get around 20% discount, as long as we have the time to do a little back and forward with the host to negotiate.
If you are new to Airbnb, you can sign up with our invite code and get $35 off your first booking! :)
A fantastic post, thanks so much! I’d not heard of Pouring Pounds before but will certainly check it out as a way to save money on our travels :)
PS – Does this work for those of us not based in the UK?
Yes, you don’t have to be based in the UK for this to work. You also do not need to pay in GBP on Hotels.com. You can pay with USD or any other currency but your cashback will always come in GBP (at the day’s rate).
I made several bookings thru Hotel.com and its website said the same about 1 night free for every 10 booked. however, despite writing them, they did not respond and did not credit my stay. Also u have not mentioned that they sometime offer special 8% discount if booking is done immediately which I did only to find that after the booking was done and payment was made, the note says I am not entitled to 1 night free scheme if I availed cash discount. Something they shud have said first but made it appear that the 8% discount for QUICIK BOOKING was over and above the 10days=1day free scheme.
Hi Ravi,
Just like with many other services, when using Hotels.com you cannot avail 2 promotions at a time. Even though they have promos all the time, we always use the free night. If every 10 nights you get 1 free night, that represents the same value as a 10% discount. Their other promotions never reach a 10% discount, so you might as well stick with this one! Hope things are clearer for next time! :)
We are from Happy Low Cost.
Which credit card reward do you recommend us?
Thanks! Very interesting information!
Worth trying Wyndham rewards , it’s a reward system covers all major low budget hotels (or can say motels) across US . I think it may work internationally .
Great tips. But where can I get a 2.5% cash back credit card?
Depends on what products are available in your country. These cards are available fairly easily in the US, UK, Europe, India, etc.