Travel Tip - Booking Your Hotel Room

I am always amused when I read travel advice in national newspapers and on-line magazines written by their in-house 'experts'. One recent article I came across from a prominent internet travel magazine had travel author state that it is ALWAYS better to book hotels in advance, especially cheap hotels. I've read other articles that claim waiting until you arrive at your destination will net you the lowest rate. So which is it?

Here's a pair of actual recent events for you: A guest checked in on a night when I was renting rooms for $88.00 plus tax. This guest had booked weeks earlier through an internet travel site and had paid $109 before all taxes and fees. One night earlier, a guest checked in that had reserved a room 5 days earlier for $109 plus tax. I had rented my remaining rooms that night for $159.00 plus tax.

Doesn't seem to make sense - book early pay more, book later pay less? Just to confuse matters even more, on a recent night when we were renting rooms for $119, a guest who had booked a week earlier paid $107 and another guest who had booked months earlier also paid 107.00. A guest who booked earlier in the same day paid $129.00 however, so now the reverse seemed true: book early, pay less, book late, pay more. What's going on?

In the case of the experts, what's going on is that they are both right. And both wrong as well. What they should be saying is SOMETIMES it pays to book early and sometimes to wait until you land. As an 'expert' myself, some might suggest that is a cop-out answer but there are so many factors involved which people never consider that it makes a definitive answer impossible. Rooms sell as a commodity - supply and demand (and hotel owner policy) dictates what rooms might rent for, not logic. It seems fair to assume the early bird gets the worm but I often see people who paid $107 six months prior come in on the heels of someone I quoted $88 to a half hour earlier. What hurts is when the reverse is true and rooms are scarce anywhere in the area. The early bird definitely gets the worm and that worm is saving them almost $50.

Finally, consider this. The night I mentioned I was renting rooms for $159? I told perhaps a dozen people I was sold out when I actually had 2 rooms. Why? Because sometimes things happen and someone on staff (like ME) made a mistake and a guaranteed reservation that we entered for the wrong date shows up. Or perhaps a valued frequent guest calls and needs a last minute room. Or something breaks in a room like a water pipe and you need to move someone. Saving a couple rooms when you know you will rent them eventually anyway is just plain smart. So how do you the potential guest figure this out? I could offer a suggestion but you would think it self-serving so I'll leave it up to you to ponder. Suffice to say that very rarely does anyone ever question me and NEVER do they seem to consider the possibilities. So I sit on my vacant rooms and they continue driving endlessly looking for one in an area where few if any rooms are still vacant.