In my ten-year hiatus as a tour manager and road dog, I’ve learned a few tricks. I’ve had both pleasures of per diem hotels, as well as hotels covered by the agency. Either way, if you’d like to stop and splurge on a night or two in a posh Vegas hotel on the marketing agency and stay under budget, I’ve compiled my strategy for the newbies.
Finding deals on hotels can be relatively easy if you know a few basic tricks.
Look on the internet at your preferred hotel chain to get an idea of the pricing for the event dates that you are coming in town for. Typically, I travel with five to eight staff at all times. Let’s assume your budget is $90.00 per night. Even if the hotel is $109.00 a night, call the hotel and ask for someone in Group Sales. I explain that we are coming in town for five nights, times five rooms (twenty-five nights). I ask them if they can match a local competitor who is offering us the rate of $87 per night, and if not, to see how close they can come to that number, and we will book our twenty-five total nights with their hotel instead. I occasionally tell them we already have reservations elsewhere, but we’d prefer to stay with their hotel. In the last 3 years, there have probably been only two hotels that could not match or come very close to the rate because they were already booked. I’ve managed to book hotels that had a rate of up to $350 a night at 4 and 5 star hotels using this little technique. I book all of our training (with 30 or so staff) with upscale hotels this way.
Ask for the lowest rate! If you call and ask how much a night is, they are required to give you a “rack rate” quote at most places. If you inquire what the lowest rate is, then inquire (if you have it) if the AAA rate is lower. Most places never ask to see your AAA card, but if you are paying for your hotel out of your per diem, it is worth the $65 to get the discounts at the hotels. You’ll typically be quoted the lowest rate, and AAA takes off another 10%. This tip in a long tour really racks up savings. In a yearlong tour, you could pocket approximately $3,200 from saving 10% on $89 a-night hotels.
I filled out a survey at a Marriott in Denver asking them if they would like to work with our marketing agency’s budget. I simply told them that we would like to stay in Marriotts exclusively, that we prefer TownePlace Suites and Residence Inns because of the kitchens, and said if they could book us within our budget, than we could feasibly be booking 1800 plus rooms a year just with my team alone, and I would happily get other teams and accounts involved. They responded immediately with a contact name from Marriott who now books all of my hotels for me, matching our criteria for semi tractor trailer parking as well as box trucks, our floor/room type preferences and other needs. Our contact lets her hotels in the area know we are coming in, and finds out who would like to book us at the rate we desire. I send her a calendar and it is always taken care of. Our rate is always between $79 and $89 a night. Most of the hotels even waive my pet fee as I travel with my dog. He even gets goodie bags from hotels we frequent. Our goal is to take a 7-night vacation to Hawaii with our 130,000 platinum member points at their highest star resort!
The contact at Marriott is:
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