Who doesn’t love snatching a good deal when planning their next trip? If you know where to look and rely on the right tools to do it, you can save up to a few hundred bucks on flights and hotels.
That of course means you’ll get to boost your budget for souvenirs, go on that extra tour that was more on the expensive side, or treat yourself to a fine dinner. Make sure you don’t skip any of the tips below and you’re guaranteed to save your hard-earned cash before setting off.
Top Travel Tips To Save Money on Flights and Hotels
1. Try out new hotels
Hotels that have just opened or are about to open often offer up to 25% off their regular prices. While this is not a risk-free strategy — as you won’t be able to base your decision on guest reviews — it’s definitely worth trying.
2. Play around with your schedule
If you’re lucky to have flexible dates for travelling, don’t forget to search for several schedule arrangements before committing to one. Fares range widely within a year and sometimes even in the same month.
3. Channel your credit card points into travel
Using your credit card to pay your bills and even daily expenses is a really smart move, as most will give you one or a few points for each dollar spent, which you can then convert into air miles.
4. Plan the whole thing on your own
Agents need to add a markup to travel fares in order to make money, so the more planning you can be in charge of, the better. It’ll be slightly more time-consuming but will save you a decent amount of money.
5. Hunt for deals using incognito mode
Most websites will raise the price of a flight if you keep searching for it on the same computer. To prevent this from happening, you should turn on the incognito mode of your favorite browser when planning a trip.
6. Scan all your personal documents with an iPhone or iPad scanner app
ID scanning may not look like an obvious money saver, yet it can help you focus on your priorities and consequently have more time to plan your next trip — or enjoy it. What’s more, an iPhone and iPad scanner app is the safest way of storing all your personal documents. One of the top resources for that is PDF Scanner App, which is consistently ranked by users as the best document scanner for home office and travel. Download it and see for yourself. By the way, the best PDF scanner app on the market offers efficient file management, easy sharing, and many other useful features.
7. Travel in the shoulder season
Chances are you won’t make the most of your vacation in Greece if you visit the country over winter. But you don’t need to be there at the height of summer either. If your destination allows, consider travelling in spring or fall to find better deals, milder temperatures, and thinner crowds.
8. Set price alerts
This is one of the most precious flight tips, as airlines hold flash sales for all sorts of itineraries many times a year. Priceline, Expedia, Kayak, and Expedia are three of the most popular websites for price alerts.
Wrap-up
Knowing how to save money on flights and hotels isn’t rocket science; all it takes is using the best resources available on the web. Top strategies include working with a flexible schedule, using the incognito mode of your browser to search for deals, and ID scanning before flying.
Websites like Skyscanner for comparing air ticket prices and apps like PDF Scanner App, i.e. the best document scanner for home office and travel, are powerful allies when it comes to planning a trip for a lot less money.