The Best Hotel Discounts You Should be Using

There are a times when hotel rooms are not available on points or are very expensive on a popular holiday like Memorial Day or July 4th.  If you are going to pay for a hotel, there are a lot of discounts that are available that you should consider.  Listed below are what I believe to be the best hotel discounts.

AAA Membership

The AAA membership not only gives you peace of mind while you are on the road, but can get you substantial savings when booking a hotel.  Pretty much all big hotel chains have AAA rates.  The nice thing about AAA rates is that you can cancel your reservation without penalty.  Although I have a AAA membership, I’ve never been asked to show my card at a hotel so far.

Are you a government employee?

Hotels offer federal and state employee discounts.  If you are a federal employee, you can use the discount nationwide.  If you are a state government employee such as a teacher or public university professor, you can get the discount.  With the state discount, you are limited to hotels in your employment state only.  Just look for the government rate while booking.

Hyatt Hotels

One of the popular discounts for Hyatt hotels is the COSTCO discount, which gives you 10% off.  Theoretically, you don’t have to be a costco member to use the code.  Just type in COSTCO on the special rates section on the Hyatt website and search.  Alternatively, you can book through the Hyatt Costco discount page.

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG)

There has been a longstanding Friends and Family discount rate for IHG hotels.  The funny thing is you don’t really have to be a friend or family as these are public links you will find on google.  Below are a couple of them.

• IHG employee Randall McCamman’s friends and family discount link
• IHG employee Cassandra Imfeld’s link

Things you must know about this discount:

• It is prepaid and nonrefundable
• It gives you 15% off the Advance purchase rate
• You will NOT earn points for your stay
• You must fill out the rate voucher with your “friend’s name” and other details and present it upon checkin

Starwood Preferred Guest

The best discount with SPG is the pay your birth year rate.  Basically, you pay the full rate for the first night.  Then, the second and third nights are equivalent to the last 2 digits of the year you were born.  Born in 1970? Pay $70 for the 2nd night and $70 for the 3rd.  I’ve used this in the past without any problems.

Things you must know about this discount:

• The rate is based on availability.
• Maximum of 3 nights
• Some hotels charge an additional $100 on top of your birth year.  You will see this before booking
• The rate will be adjusted at hotel check-in.  Thus, you won’t see it while booking
• You will earn points on this rate since it’s booked directly with SPG

Club Carlson / Radisson

One of the lesser known discounts is the friends and family discount with the code CARLSONF.  Enter it into the promotional code box and you can get hotels in the US for $80, and hotels in Europe for 80 Euros.  Unlike the IHG friends and family discount, this is probably a little more strict.  According to this flyertalk thread, a hotel may or may not ask about the details of your Club Carlson “friend.” I would recommend you make a real friend at a Radisson property.  You won’t earn any points using this discount.

Another Club Carlson discount is 2 for 1 nights or 4 for 2 nights in Europe, Middle East, or Africa.  This is strictly for Gold members.  If you don’t have Gold status, it’s pretty easy to status match.

Hilton 

Although there is an old MVP program discount, it still works and anyone can use it.  I have used it in the past without any problems.  It will save you about 20% off the best available rate.  Enter the codes below in the Corporate Rate box.