How to Get the Best Hotel Deals on Booking Websites in India: 7 Proven Money-Saving Tricks

Every seasoned traveller who visits India must have been in a similar situation. Book a hotel, think you got a reasonably good fare and then find out two days down the line that your colleague has booked the same room at almost half the rate of yours. It is painful. The worst part is, they were not part of some membership club or had some secret source of information; They just knew how to use a hotel booking websites in India better than you. The good news is that these are learnable techniques. Whether it is a family trip to Jaipur or a professional trip to Mumbai or you like to take a solo trip to Coorg, this is something that has been tried and tested.

 

Don't waste time booking when you find a room you love

One common mistake made by travelers on any hotel-booking website in India is to book too early. However, it must be noted that hotel room prices in India vary greatly depending on demand, season, occupancy rate and even time of booking. If you’re a bit flexible with your travel dates or have a couple of weeks to spare, then take your time and see how the costs trend on your preferred hotel booking site in India. Most of the sites have price trend indicators to let you know if the prices are going up or down. Utilize that information. For instance, a hotel room booked on Tuesday night for 3,500 would drop to 2,800 for the same dates on Thursday.

 

Always incognito mode

Although there is evidence to prove that it happens, it is a shock to many people. The hotel booking sites are using cookies to track what you’re looking at. Some sites view this as high intention of purchase and therefore increase their prices as soon as they notice that you have visited the same listing several times. Going incognito will help avoid being tracked and ensure you’re getting the fairest possible prices. Make it a practice. Each time you have to open a window in the privacy of your search.

 

Check on multiple platforms before confirming

No Indian hotel booking site can claim to have best price on any property all the time. Depending on what promotions they’re running at that point of time, the same rooms in the same hotel will have different prices on MakeMyTrip, Bidinn, Goibibo, Yatra, EaseMyTrip, Agoda and Booking.com – from hundreds to thousands of rupees. It is only sensible to find your chosen hotel and spend 5 minutes of your time comparing the price of the property on at least 3 different booking service websites and then confirm. These five minutes save you more money than any discount code ever will. Take a look at the hotel’s own website. Many stand-alone hotels in India are often cheaper on their own websites – because there are no platform fees. Also, complimentary breakfast and room upgrades may be available.

 

Book during flash sales and app-only deals

All the major hotel booking platforms in India regularly have flash sale deals on occasions such as a Diwali deal, a Holi deal, a long weekend deal and an app deal which are never promoted in the Web version. You will be able to install the applications of two or three leading booking platforms and enable notifications. This will not cost you anything, while it can help you save a lot when booking. The midweek bookings are also cheaper than the weekend bookings when considering booking time and travelling time. If your trip is flexible on the day to check-in, a one day shift can make a big difference on the end price.

 

Read cancellation policy before confirming

This may not sound like a money-saving trick, but it would certainly save you from losses you need not suffer. Almost always cheaper rates are non-refundable, sometimes as much as 20-30%, but carry real risk if your plans change. If you're using a hotel booking site in India, always check both refundable and non-refundable rates for the same room. And if the difference is small then go for the flexible option. But if the difference is large and your plans are fixed, the non-refundable rate may be a good deal.

 

Use reward points and cashback offers judiciously

Most of the hotel booking websites in India are linked with favourable offers in terms of UPI cashback deals, credit cards reward schemes and in-house loyalty points programmes. They total. If you have booked your hotel stay via a hotel booking site in India that gives 10% cash back and you have paid via a credit card that gives points for every transaction, then you are paying much lesser than the actual quoted price for your stay.

Always check the offers page of your bank. For example, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Bank, and Axis Bank have hotel booking websites offers that are not well known or advertised.

Ultimately If the reservations on a hotel booking website in India are done out of habit or haste, then the Hotels in India will definitely be overpaid. This is never going to be about getting caught up in the moment or going on autopilot. You can’t negotiate the prices but the process will take time, comparison and all the resources available free of cost on Indian hotel reservation websites.

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