How I Find the Best Deals on Budget Hotels

In 2014 I spent more than 100 nights in different hotels and guest houses in five different countries. Most of these nights were in budget hotels and guesthouses. If you want to know how to find a good deal on a budget hotel or guesthouse when traveling I am somewhat of an expert in that area and I want to impart some of what I have learned and the methods that I use.

The internet has come along way in the last five years. When I first started traveling internationally in 2007 I would usually use my guidebook and walk door to door once I arrived in a city to find a guesthouse or hotel. Now you will find that even many of the small guesthouses are listed on hotel booking sites. As a result, I now almost always book ahead when traveling to a new city even when I am backpacking for extended periods of time.

The largest directory of hotels in the world with more than 507,000 hotels listed worldwide is booking.com. I always include booking.com in my hotel searches. This is because it is one of the largest hotel booking sites with lots of reviews and includes most of the properties in the area with exception of a few hostels and AirBnB listings which I will get to later. The booking.com website also has one of the best property filters available so you can sort on geographic area within a city, price, review score, accommodation type, and many other factors.

The next site that I always include in my hotel searches is Hotels Combined. This site is very popular with people looking for mistake rates, but also includes results from all of the major hotel search engines as well as many smaller websites. Hotels Combined does a great job of  comparing the prices between different websites.

A third website that is still in Beta is called All the Rooms. This site is really growing on me as I only recently started to use it. This website claims itself as The World's Most Comprehensive Room Search Engine. This website also includes listings from AirBnB so you do not have to open that site separately if you use All the Rooms.

AirBnB has become very popular recently. On AirBnB you kind find individuals renting out there own spaces. This includes private rooms, studios, entire apartments and even houses. You can find some pretty great value on this site. I have used AirBnB one time when I went to Oktoberfest in Germany. My friends were staying in a hostel dorm room with 7 other people and paying 70 Euro a night per person. My girlfriend and I were able to find a private room with easy access to the event for 70 Euro for both of us. It worked out great!

If you are interested in checking out AirBnB use my referral link: AirBnB and you will get $25 off your first booking of $75 or more.

I generally start all my searches filtering on price. I do not necessarily stay in the cheapest place available, but it is a good starting point to know what the cheapest place available will get you and how much the cheapest place available costs. From there I look at reviews, location, amenities, etc.. To find the best place within my budget. If you utilize these sites, you will definitely find the best price for the hotel you are looking at. Another piece of advice is to go directly to the hotels website once you have identified your best option. I have found that in some cases the hotels website offers a cheaper rate than is posted on major hotel search engines. This is especially true of smaller hotels and guesthouses. 

How Does Applying for Credit Cards Affect Your Credit Score?

When I tell people about applying for credit cards to reap the rewards to travel for almost free, one of the first questions I am asked is, "doesn't applying for credit cards hurt your credit score?" The answer is yes and no. Our credit score is derived from a number of different factors, some of which are proprietary. What you should know is that applying for a credit card results in a hard credit inquiry. Hard credit inquiries show lenders that a person has been looking for new credit. A single hard credit inquiry can reduce your score from 2 - 7 points depending on the make up of your credit report. The impact of individual credit inquiries to your credit report diminishes after 90 days. The hard credit inquiries will still be recorded on your credit report, but they will no have much impact on your credit score after 90 days. Credit inquiries stay on your credit report for two years. So 90 days after a hard credit inquiry your credit will likely go up all other factors held constant. This is how applying for credit cards can decrease your credit score.

You credit score is made up of five main factors: payment history, amounts owed, length of credit history, new credit, and types of credit used. The hard credit inquiries fall into the new credit category which makes up 10% of your overall score.

On the other side, getting new credit cards can actually increase your credit score in the long run. This is because another important make up of your credit score is the credit utilization or amounts owed. Credit utilization is the ratio of total credit being used compared to total credit you have available. In other words if you have one credit card with a $5,000 credit limit and during the month you spend $2,000 on your credit card this would be a 40% credit utilization. The lower the credit utilization the better. Generally anything over 20% utilization is a negative factor. When you apply for a new credit card your total available credit increases therefore your credit utilization decrease which is a good thing. Amounts owed makes up 30% of your overall credit score.

There are many strategies for how, when, which, and how many credit cards to sign up for at one time which I will discuss in more detail in a future post. Be aware that in the short run your credit score will go down as a result of applying for credit cards. Also, you are at risk of being declined new credit if you have too many credit inquiries in a short period of time. Proceed with caution!

When starting out in the miles and points game begin with just one or two credit cards for the first 3 months. Make sure you can meet the minimum spend requirements, pay off your credit cards in full, and pay credit cards on time before getting too zealous and damaging your credit. Keep following future posts, I and will discuss in detail best strategies for applying for new credit cards.