How much you pay for a hotel room will often depend on the type of hotel you choose. However, the rate you pay for a room can vary within the same hotel. If you have a choice of traveling dates, staying in the off season will get you a much cheaper rate. The day of the week that you stay will often be a factor of how much you are charged, too. Summer is not always the busy season, often it is winter in the ski areas. If the hotel is in a city, midweek can be more expensive than weekend.
Look up the price of the hotel room directly on the hotel website. Often there are specials being offered. If your time is flexible try several dates for the best price. When booking directly with the hotel, discounts of 10% or more are given for seniors, automobile clubs and other groups. Also, if you have to cancel, you can usually do this in the late afternoon of your expected arrival day and you will not be charged anything. Call the hotel directly and ask if they are offering any deals that are better than the Internet prices.
When you have your best price directly from the hotel, go to a site like SideStep or Kayak and search for the same hotel to see if you can find a better price. If you manage to find a better price for the exact same room, date and cancellation policy, call the hotel. Many hotels offer to give you a discount of 25% if you can find a cheaper price than what they are offering on the Internet.
If you know the town or area you want to stay but do not have a hotel in mind there are sites that will let you bid for hotel rooms. Most sites will let you select the area you want to be in and the class of hotel but not the hotel. Familiarize yourself with a reasonable price of what you would be paying for a room in a hotel of the standard you want to bid for, and always read through the website before making a bid on any of these sites.
If you are heading to a popular destination like Florida or a ski area and plan to stay for a week, check out time share rentals. Many sites offer rentals of timeshares that are not being used by their owners for very reasonable prices. These are especially good deals if you are traveling with more than two people, because they offer separate bedrooms, and kitchens to let you save on eating out.
