“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” –– Susan Heller
It’s ridiculous.
You work hard, track expenses, monitor budgets and count the days until you’ve earned enough.
And when you do…You blow all your hard-earned money on a two-week vacation, making countless and costly mistakes along the way.
Unfortunately, those were probably mistakes that could have been easily be avoided. Fortunately, the buck does NOT stop here.
Below are seven costly mistakes travelers make and how you can avoid them…
Traveling during peak season.
People choose to travel during peak seasons for ideal weather, holidays or school breaks.
However, if you travel during the shoulder season – a couple weeks before or after peak season – you can save big on flights and hotels without compromising on quality.
Being inflexible with travel dates.
Have you ever made travel plans before checking the price of flights? Big mistake! Before you submit your vacation request, be sure you research the lowest priced flight.
Airline sites such as Hotwire.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, and Cheapflightsfinder.com offer a “Flexible Date” search to help you find the lowest fare.
Airfarewatchdog.com sends travel fares to your inbox for city-to-city alerts or anything that’s cheap from your local airport.
Also, weigh the cost of flying non-stop versus multiple stops. For single travelers, saving a hundred bucks might be worth an additional layover.
However, for parents traveling with children a direct flight might be worth the extra money. One excellent site that measures savings versus agony is HipMunk.com.
Paying full price for hotels.
Some hotels such as Choice Hotels and Hotel Indigo offer up to twenty percent off your hotel if you book an advance purchase rate, which means you pay for the hotel in advance, not at check in.
Bookings need to be made in advance and are non-cancellable, non-changeable and non-refundable.
You can score great hotel deals at Hotwire.com which helps hotels book their unsold rooms. The only catch is you won’t know the exact hotel until a couple days before your trip.
An alternative is to name your own hotel price at Priceline.com.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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