I readily admit that the haggle lobe of my brain is merely inert tissue - I have no idea how to negotiate.
So walk me through the process, specifically the situation where you call a hotel to reserve a room.
Typically I would call the hotel, talk to whoever picks up, and say something like "We’d like to find out your room rate, we’ve got 2 adults and 2 kids, for these dates… " And then they’ll click stuff on their computer and say “That will be $149 plus tax per night, what credit card would you like to use?..”
So, all you shrewd negotiators, how exactly does your conversation play out when you call to reserve a room? What exactly do you say, what do you ask, etc.
Well, we’re planning on asking when we get down there if there is a discount for cash or for military (Ivylad was in the Navy.) I also printed out a print screen of their website, where they offer a fourth night free. So far, we’ve only paid for one night, to hold the reservation.
I figure lots of hotels, with the economy so rough, have plenty of empty beds. All you have to do is ask.
When I worked in hotels, the basic hotel cost to rent out a room was about $35-40 (to cover the labor and all that). If we were slow, we’d be willing to take about any offer above that amount just to get an occupant. My general manager always used to compare hotel rooms to grapes - they spoil. If you don’t rent it tonight, you’ve lost that chance to make money on the room.
Call around, get some rates from different hotels. Check travel sites… Then call and talk to a real person. After they quote you a rate (which isn’t usually rack rate anyway, rack rate is mostly used when people want an Entertainment Guide discount or something). Just tell them that you have a budget of $x and you don’t want to go over it and ask if there is anything they can do to help you out. If the reservations person hedges on helping you, ask for the front desk manager or director of rooms…even the GM. Someone will be able to help you. All depends on their occupency rate and how far out you’re looking (the further out, the less likely they’ll lower the rate.)
I’ve had pretty good luck with just asking, “So, what kind of deal can you give me?” Unless you’re booking during a convention or whatever, they will almost always try to find a way to work with you, even with the ritzier hotels. Hell, even AAA membership usually get you a few bucks off if you ask for it.
My son did the following. He phoned a hotel.
-What is your rate for such and such night?
-$179.
-Oh, do you have anything cheaper?
-$169
-Anything cheaper than that?
-$159
Two more iterations.
-$139
-Can you do better than that?
-No.
-I’ll take it.
There was really no reason to think that he was getting a poorer room each time.
I used to work as a reservation agent for a luxury brand hotel and my husband still does, but not in reservations. The best suggestion I have is to ask if there is a lower price. AARP and AAA both used to give discounts. In addition to the lower price, look for packages. Our hotel doesn’t like to lower rates if it can help it in order to protect price integrety. When the financial situation improves guests are put off by paying $250 for a room that they paid $99 for 6 months ago. To combat this the hotel will put together packages where the cost of the inclusions substantially lowers the room rate. The most common inclusions are parking and breakfast for two. At one of our hotels this can run between $75 to $100 dollars.
The other suggestion is to ask for a lower room category. We used to start selling and not offer the lowest price room category that was available. This way we had something in our back pocket to counter price resistance. Be careful with this one though and be sure you understand what the room is. In addition to missing the great views it could be the size of a closet.
I can give you how it works at an independant hotel that gives their reservations/front desk staff a lot of autonomy (staff at some chain hotels have much less flexibility).
The price reservations quotes you is either going to be Rack, or more likely a discounted rate that the reservations manager thinks will bring in more total revenue. If you’re being quoted rack it means either it’s so busy the hotel knows they can get someone to pay that rate, it’s an opening offer and can be negotiated, or the clerk is in a really bad mood.
At this you can just come out as say ‘I’d like a cheaper rate. What can you do for me’. Or you can ask about discounts you may be entitled to (CAA/AAA, senior citizen, military, government employee, employee of a company the hotel(or chain) does business with, etc.)
The further out you’re making the reservation the more the hotel will stick to standard discounts; it’s only when it’s closer to last minute that the clerk will start being flexable enough to start giving custom prices. This is not only for reasons of rate integrity (ie. giving your biggest-bestest-customer-rate, or better!, to just anyone can cause issues when your sales guys try to negotiate next year’s biggest-bestest-customer-rate), but the hotel has a much better idea of what the price floor should be for any given day as it comes closer.
If you don’t get the price you want from the first clerk you speak to you can ask to be moved up the chain, or try again on a different shift. Late night employees are a strange bunch, depending on the hotel they can have a lot more authority/leeway than daytime employees (plus way more time to help you) or have essentially zero. The night auditors at my hotel are just shy of manager-on-duty authority, and the differences don’t matter wrt the reserations we make. Night auditors at other hotels in town that I’ve talked to need signed permission to sneeze.
Find out a discount rate on a 3rd party discount travel site, like Travelocity. Call the hotel, and say “I noticed Travelocity is showing a rate of $79.00, can you match that directly?”> They usually can.
In my experience, when you go to a hotel’s website (not a 3rd party service) it will give you several options: one double bed, one king bed, etc., and all the standard discounts for AARP, military and so on. Some of the sites even have something called “Best Available Rate.”
But those are all standard discounts, and in fact it’s hard to book a room online without stumbling over some sort of deal.
What those of us who aren’t born negoiators are really wondering is, what’s the magic phrase or secret handshake that we need to use to get that super secret discount, and who do we use it on?
To get the super secret discount you have to know to call right after the GM or Rooms Division manager walked by the desk and said ‘Lurker, I need you to sell out tonight’ or ‘Lurker, we need 50 more room nights to make budget this month’
To luck in to that situation you really want to be calling the hotel directly, not a travel agent or central reservation number. And there’s no magic words to get the right employee, it varies too much hotel to hotel.
That’s how I got an unbelievably good rate at a downtown ‘spa’ style hotel in Seattle. The price went from $300 a night to $175 a night for a single, then when we checked in we were upgraded to a corner suite for the same price. It was incredibly cool. It is absolutely worth a try.