a stay at the parker palm springs with a deal from jetsetter

turns out that traveling can be an expensive hobby, especially when your hotel is costing you an arm and a leg. call me crazy, but when i travel, i tend to spend minimal time in a hotel. while i like to stay in cool places with a great atmosphere and helpful staff, the costs can really add up and take over my travel budget. over the past several years, though, i’ve seen an amazing number of resources pop up devoted to budget travel, many of which have really good deals for hotels. here, i’ve pooled together some of my favorites for obtaining cheaper accommodations.

• subscribe to every budget travel site you can find. my personal favorites are the ones that include luxury accommodations at discounted prices. try jetsetter, tablet hotels, and living social (check out their escapes section). through jetsetter, my husband and i spent a night at the luxurious and quirky parker palm springs for under $160 (to this day, my favorite hotel). my best friend and i were able to score a hotel one block from union square in san francisco for under $180 per night (rarely can you find anything in that area for under $250). and for our honeymoon, i found a great deal on jetsetter for the hotel hera in athens. it was walking distance to the acropolis, subway, and pedestrian mall, our room had a balcony with a view of the acropolis, and, best of all, we paid in USD and were therefore not subject to fluctuations in the euro. amazing.

our fantastic hotel in sedona (our room had an outdoor shower!), purchased from a deal on sniqueaway.com (now owned by jetsetter)

• try an apartment instead of a hotel. when my best friend and i were planning our trip to barcelona, we were struck by how expensive meals were. our solution? we booked an apartment for a week instead of a hotel. the apartment gave us plenty of room to spread out, cost less per night than a hotel in a similar area, and allowed us to have a kitchen where we could prepare lunches or snacks from food purchased at the market. this cut down significantly on meal costs, and we were happy to make our own bed fine with not having our bed made each morning. try airbnb for apartment rentals (or rent a private room in someone’s house/apartment for even cheaper), or search local apartment rental sites online.

just washing some dishes at our apartment in the fashionable el born district of barcelona!

• travel in non-peak times. ok, so this isn’t rocket science, but its true. a hotel room on a tuesday night is cheaper than one on a saturday night. however, not all of us have the luxury of unlimited vacation days to spare on midweek travel. instead, try traveling during non-peak months. i have a friend who always takes a trip with her husband over labor day; since kids are already back in school (or soon to be in school), she is able to find cheaper flights and hotels. my husband and i visited new york in the middle of december once for crazy cheap prices. it was after the thanksgiving rush, but before the christmas rush, and both our hotel and flights were much cheaper than usual. january and february are also inexpensive travel months.
• sign up for every hotel point system, especially if you travel for work. points can add up fast, especially if you take advantage of promotions throughout the year. my marriott points from work have allowed me to stay for free for five nights in dc, two nights in seattle, countless nights in random cities for weddings, and one night at the ritz in half moon bay as part of our california central coast trip last year. i don’t have the matching hotel point credit card, but some of my coworkers have seen even more increases in points through that.

those are some of my favorite tips. what are yours?

our personal fire pit at our free room at the ritz in half moon bay – thanks, marriott points!