I once stayed at some crappy roadside motel in Nowheresville, Georgia. The towels were thin, the toiletries the cheapest you can buy, the carpet worn, the bathroom held together by many tubes of caulk.

The room rate listed on the back of the entrance door? $399 per night.

Of course nobody in the history of that motel has ever paid more than 1/4 of the listed price for that room. It’s a total joke.

Here’s a photo of the price at Element Miami Airport I stayed in a few days ago when I had some meetings nearby. It was a fine hotel I’d gladly stay in again, with a great suite layout and a kitchen. When I search various dates for it online, the rate is usually around $150 or so. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say sometimes they’re able to charge double that amount. But here’s what’s on the door.

The original idea behind this practice was to keep hotel management or front desk clerks from gouging you. Cities or states required the “rack rate” be listed on the door as the maximum. If anyone paid more than what was listed, they could complain and get compensated.

Follow the logic of how hotel owners are going to respond and you know how we got into this silliness. If the hotel must list its maximum rate, the owner/manager is going to pull a ridiculously high number out of thin air and post it as a pipe dream. Nobody ever complains because nobody will ever pay anything close.

When I go on Trivago.com and search Miami hotel deals, I get 168 hotels to choose from in Miami proper (apart from the beach). That’s what keeps prices in check: competition. When people can go on that site and see prices from nearly every booking site out there, do we really need this silly system anymore?

Do you typically go to one or two sites to check hotel prices before booking? Do you change those sites depending on the region?

Even if you do, you’re probably paying too much.

One of the companies I’ve partnered up with over at Perceptive Travel is Trivago. Since I’ve starting using them to search for the best hotel deals, I’ve seen dramatic differences between the various online travel agencies and you can rarely point to one of them as being consistently lower in price than others.

A lot of American travelers haven’t heard of Trivago because they’re based in Europe. The closest thing to it here is Kayak, but I don’t have to look at 3 display ads from outside companies and three blocks of Google Adsense ads on Trivago. And I don’t have to uncheck boxes that will send me to three more booking sites. (If Kayak already gives you the best results, why do they want to send you to Orbitz or Priceline? Because they get a few cents every time you leave the boxes checked and those windows open, that’s why).

So this site delivers multiple results like Kayak, but it loads faster and has a cleaner interface, without a bunch of distracting ads blinking and expanding on the sides of the page.

Trivago pulls from 141 booking sites in all, so if you search for a Budapest hotel deal, you’ll get 1,149 hotels in the results. Whoa, that’s a lot of hotels! When I searched Miami Beach hotels for an upcoming trip, there were 365 of them to choose from. Thankfully you can narrow this down by price, distance, ratings, or popularity on the general side, lots of specific factors (like star category, amenities, and type of hotel) on the left sidebar. If I drilled that Budapest list down to 3-star hotels within a mile and a half of the city center, I got 13 results. All but one were $100 or less.

Here’s why using a metasearch site like this matters though. In those results, the lowest price for various choices came from six different booking sites. Sometimes Agoda was lower, sometimes Booking.com, sometimes Vivastay or EasytoBook. This is why just going to Expedia every time is a bad idea, especially for international locations.

I also like this site because it gives you different room options from various sites. So you may see a difference of $10 for a standard double, but a difference of $50 for a junior suite. Or you may click on a hotel on the same block and find a similar junior suite $60 less than that.

There’s a lot to sift through in some cities and that can be a bit daunting. But if you use the filters to home in on what you want, you can book through Trivago feeling confident that you’ve gotten the best possible deal, whether that deal was from Splendia, Agoda, GetaRoom, Venere, the hotel chain site, or a dozen sites you probably never would have checked otherwise.

If you’re going to potentially save $40 or more on your hotel bill, a few extra minutes spent on research would seem to be a good payoff.

Follow this link to find your cheap hotel deals.

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All-inclusive for 3, at $108 per night

Magazines and websites constantly run stories about finding great travel deals and vacation bargains. Usually they highlight some nifty new website, the latest apps, or some Twitter stream that you have to catch at 3:30 pm each Thursday. Really though, it’s not complicated. Here’s the one-sentence answer on how to save the most:

Pick the right place, at the right time, and pay less than what most others are paying.

Pick the right place

Destinations are not priced equally. Internationally, a trip to Japan can literally cost you five times more on the ground than what a trip to Indonesia will cost you. Denmark will be exponentially higher than a vacation in Bulgaria. Two weeks in Chile or Brazil will cost you three times as much as two weeks in Nicaragua or central Ecuador.

Quito lunch

If you start with an expensive destination, all other cost-cutting attempts become much harder and less effective.

Even within countries though, major capitals and popular tourist resort areas occupy the top end of the scale. Compare New York City to Austin, Cabo San Lucas to Guanajuato, or Prague to any town in the Moravia region of the Czech Republic. Sure, we’d all like to spend a week in Paris, but if you’re looking to lower expenses, head to the villages instead.

At the right time

Nearly every destination has a high season and a low season. The optimal time is in between—the proverbial “shoulder season.” This is when the weather is still good and everything is still open, but the tourist hordes and peak prices have gone home.

In some places this is easy to figure out, like Europe in the spring or late autumn, the Caribbean or Mexico after the spring break crowds and snowbirds have left. In others it’s not as obvious, but a quick glance at a guidebook or destination website will usually clue you in.

The tough one for parents is always our summer, when school is out. But even then, it’s not high season in the southern hemisphere, in African safari country, and much of Southeast Asia. It’s not high season for cities in the U.S. You can find rock-bottom deals in places where it’s sweltering outside: think Las Vegas, Scottsdale, and Florida outside Orlando. Avoid the obvious and you’ll be rewarded.

Pay less than what most others are paying

If you open up a common online travel agency site, book your hotel, and add on a few local tours, you’re probably paying top dollar. You can almost always do better.

Hotel chains spend millions of marketing dollars to make you believe their 20 percent off deal or $100 spa credit thrown in is some terrific bargain. If you go shopping around on the likes of Expedia and Travelocity, it’ll look that way too. Contracts with those online agencies ensure that nobody is showing a price much lower than anyone else’s.

There’s a whole other booking system though that’s hidden–it’s even called “opaque booking.” You know this system by the brand names participating in it: Hotwire with its hidden hotel names, Priceline with its bidding on properties you can’t identify. Then there are the membership flash sale sites where you have to get the e-mails from the likes of Jetsetter, Vacationist, SniqueAway, and TripAlertz. Plus there are a few semi-hidden ones operating in between the light and dark, like LuxuryLink and SkyAuction.

You can iron out most of the uncertainty on Hotwire and Priceline by using online message boards that will clue you in, but if the idea makes you uncomfortable or you don’t want to commit your money up front, there are other strategies to take. The best one is to avoid the international chains entirely and book an independent hotel. You can find these in guidebooks, on websites dedicated to the destination, or on value-focused sites like EuroCheapo for Europe and Travelfish.org for Southeast Asia.

My sub-$50 hotel in San Cristobal de Las Casas

Sure, if you’ve got hotel loyalty points banked up you want to spend, by all means go with the corporate hotel or resort using that hard-won currency. But in many cases you’ll pay far less and get more personal service by staying at an independent hotel that is less visible but really wants your business. If you’re staying for more than a night or two, you’ll also have a better chance here of negotiating for a better rate or an upgraded room. Just ask a long-term traveling backpacker—they’re doing this every week.

This “pay less than most others” strategy applies to dining and attractions as well. Avoid tourist restaurants, sniff out the specials, and ask real locals (not a concierge) where they like to go. Find the local coupon books and consider using something like the Entertainment Book or signing up for Groupon or Living social in the place where you’re headed.

There’s one expense I haven’t mentioned in all this and it’s a sizable one: airfare. In today’s mostly transparent climate for flights, finding a real airfare deal is not easy no matter where you’re going. Use miles to pay for long-haul flights when you can and watch for specials. Many sites will let you search all flights from your own airport to spot the bargains or will send you a weekly rundown on sales. If you’re not dead-set on a certain place, you’ll find many more opportunities to save. In other words, return to #1 because that’s a different angle on “Pick the right place.”

For more timeless advice on getting more for your travel budget, pick up the book Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune, available in paperback and for the Kindle. 

Last post I talked about why I still recommend Hotwire and Priceline a lot. But of course they’re not the only places to get a cheap hotel deal. Also, their reach is limited the further you get from the U.S.

So here’s a quickie list of websites worth checking out, depending on your budget range. Don’t forget the obvious one though: just show up. For hostels, guesthouses, and budget hotels, you’ll often get the best deal in person. This doesn’t work for peak periods—like summer in Europe or when a big festival packs the city—but normally you’ve got economics on your side in person. There are empty rooms, you’re willing to fill one, bargaining can ensue.

Free and Cheap Lodging

Booking a hostel or cheap place to crash is easier than it used to be. Just pull up a site like Hostelbookers or Hostelworld and you can see all the options. Prices, location, reviews, and photos. (See note about about showing up though—booking ahead means paying list price.)

Trusty guidebooks are still useful, though remember that the places listed in Lonely Planet don’t need your business very much and will be priced/packed accordingly. Often a better bet is to consult guides or websites run by people specializing in a region or country. Examples would be info and apps from Travelfish for Southeast Asia, Eurocheapo for Europe, or IndiaMike for the sub-continent. Or drill down further to sites like Yucatan Today or Guanajuato Guru in Mexico. Just do some targeted searches and you’ll often find a great resource on even obscure destinations you thought nobody had heard of before. These days Google will even roughly translate ones built in another language.

The cheapest option of all is…free. Couchsurfing is the best-known option for finding willing hosts around the world, but also try Hospitality Club or Global Freeloaders. (Or friends of friends.)

A $60 hotel in the Czech Republic

Mid-range Lodging Deals

Once you get about the $30-$50 range, depending on country, your options open up a lot. As mentioned before, Hotwire and Priceline work very well in many developed countries if you use the message boards listed here to figure out what you’re probably getting in this “blind” buying process. Otherwise, mid-range chain hotel prices don’t vary much from site to site: there are too many agreements in place to keep that from happening. In the U.S., one of the most reliable discount finders is very old-school: the motel coupon books you find at highway rest stops. Printed deals are usually excluded from the price-fixing arrangements online.

Otherwise, many of the methods listed for budget travelers still apply, especially the websites focused on a specific location. Andean Travel Web, for instance, has Cusco recommendations from $16 to $787 a night. And again, waiting until arrival can work at this level too, for independent hotels where the front desk person has some real authority to discount.

If you own your own home, or a vacation home somewhere, you can tap into the whole home exchange network and pay next to nothing. Someone stays in your house or apartment while you stay in theirs. There are formal programs for this like HomeExchange.com, or some find success targeting specific areas on Craigslist.

Or you can rent out someone’s pad short-term with AirBnB. You’ve probably heard about this place in the news, and not in a good way, but they’ve put a lot of new systems in place to give more confidence on both ends. This works especially well where hotels are crazy expensive, like New York City. For Europe, a similar site is Wimdu.com.

While the U.S. is dominated by chain hotels, many locations do have quite a few bed-and-breakfast hotels that are independent. Check BedandBreakfast.com for comprehensive listings and deals.

Guidebooks can often lead you to alternative options too, like state park cabins, campgrounds, or colleges renting out dormitories in the summer.

Luxury at a Discount

If you’re reading the Cheapest Destinations Blog, you’re probably not a luxury traveler. But hey, everyone likes a splurge now and then and for all I know you’re helping grandma plan a big family vacation.

The obvious choice for the high end in the most locations is Luxury Link. They run auctions on high-end properties that can snag you a significant discount. Also try SkyAuction, which is especially good for all-inclusives in resort areas. As mentioned in my last post, I also like Bookit.com for discounted resorts. If you or someone you’re traveling with has an Amex Platinum card, book with that and get all kinds of extra goodies thrown in.

If you go high-end on a regular basis, it makes sense to subscribe to one of the many (and growing) flash sale sites like Jetsetter, SniqueAway, Vacationist, and on and on. Even Groupon and Living Social are in on this act. Sometimes the deals are great, sometimes just barely.

Your Turn

Where do you go for free, cheap, or discounted places to stay?

The first time I visited Las Vegas I was in awe. It was actually before I had even traveled internationally, so I was blown away with what I could get for my money. Super-cheap meals, free drinks at the $2 bet casino tables, room prices too low to believe—it was cheapskate heaven.

I returned with my wife for New Year’s Eve at the turn of the millennium. We partied like it was 1999. And things were still quite a bargain.

Over the years, Vegas has become more and more upscale. Sure, there were always extravagant suites for the high rollers and always lots of millionaires cavorting around. But as the casino companies consolidated (three companies seem to run most of them in the city now) and MBA grads starting designing the new ones going up, the “inefficiencies” in the system evaporated. Restaurants are no longer loss leaders: they’re showpieces for celebrity chefs. You can get lost in the shopping malls adjoining some hotels. Table limits have risen at the strip hotels and you need a big bank to be in the game.

So is Vegas still a value?

Well it can be if you’re smart and patient. The first thing to realize is that we’re still in a recession and that the city has a tremendous number of rooms to fill. Because of that, midrange travelers can go nuts when it comes to hotel choices. You can often find a decent room on the strip for under $50, especially weekdays, and for under $125 you’ve got half the city to choose from. Watch those sneaky resort fees at the MGM hotels though. The Caesars/Bally’s ones don’t reach in your pocket twice and are a better bet if you’re not there on business.

You can find deals on any of the big booking sites, but if you go to SmarterVegas.com you can end up with some bonus action. Like if you book at the Venetian through them you get upgraded to a suite, get breakfast for two, and get a bunch of credits and discounts. Here’s my favorite cheapo deal: book two nights at Luxor for $38 each (plus the pesky resort fee) midweek and get two complimentary buffet meals at any MGM resort. You almost get your whole room rate back on that one.

Shows in Vegas are not cheap by any means, but if you need your Cirque de Soleil spectacle fix or want to see the Blue Man Group—great fun—there’s a day-of ticket discount place on the strip where you can get cheaper tickets for shows that aren’t sold out. Or arrange it in advance online and save 25-40%.

For big savings in Las Vegas though, you need to get off the strip. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a blackjack table with a minimum bet under $10 at a strip casino, even during the daytime, except for the Casino Royale and Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall around the corner (near Treasure Island, Venetian, and Mirage). And some of them have snuck in alternate rules that increase their odds. But step off a bit even a block and it can be a different story entirely. In general you also need to get off the strip to find full-pay video poker machines or high-odds allowances on line bets on craps. Again, apart from the Casino Royale on the latter.

Getting off the strip is easy for locals with a car, but for savvy gamblers without one it’s best to catch a public bus to downtown Las Vegas. ($7 for a 24-hour pass.) I like this area a lot more anyway if I have the time to get down there because the whole area is walkable and still has some of that old-timey feel to it. It’s less glitzy and more down-to-earth. No reality TV shows are making these bars famous. Plus the cool Fremont Street light show is free.

If you’re good at poker though, that can be the best bet on the strip for having fun without losing your shirt. Even at Mandalay Bay where I was staying for a conference there’s a Texas Hold-em tournament running several times a day with a $40-$50 buy-in depending on the time of day. They give you $3,000 in chips for the tournament so you feel for a while like you’re rich. I came in 5th out of 20 and so was out of the money, but I got two hours of enjoyment out of it and a few stiff drinks. Not much damage to the wallet and I knew my potential losses up front.

Last, this is a city that is awash in old-school coupons. Casinos still hand out lots of free bet coupons to lure you like a hit of crack and you could spend a whole week taking advantage of 2-for-1 meal deals, free drinks, discounted meals, or “buy a beer, get a shot” bar specials. Grab a stack of different ones, plow through them in your room, and then go on a cashing-in spree. Happy hunting!