With summer holidays just around the corner and the cost-of-living crisis still in full swing, here are some top tips for making savings or boosting your holiday experiences on a budget.

Book directly with the hotel

Instead of booking your hotel through one of the Online Tour Operators (OTA’s – late rooms / booking.com etc.), get the best rate from these platforms and then contact the hotel directly. Ask if you can book the room directly with the hotel – at the same rate you found online.

This tends to work for smaller hotels because they pay a high commission to OTA’s. Due to rate parity, the hotel cannot display the cheapest rate on its own site and therefore it’s likely the OTA rate is cheaper. Often if you speak to the hotel, they can be flexible. They’d prefer to take the full payment directly from you, rather than pay the 10 – 20% commission and therefore you can often negotiate a cheeky little benefit like a later check-out, upgrade, or free-breakfast and so on.

Check out all breakfast options

Hotel breakfasts can be really hit and miss, and they are often quite expensive.

Before committing to a bed with breakfast package, look at some of the bistros, restaurants and cafes in the vicinity and see what breakfasts they offer. Usually there are some good options that are sometimes half the price and just a short distance from your accommodation.

Clear your recent browser history

If you’re searching for flights and hotels using online tour operators (Skyscanner etc.), make sure that you clear your cache or recent history in between searches – or use different browsers. Without getting too technical, it often remembers you and will keep displaying higher prices to encourage a sense of urgency. If you clear cache or look from another browser or device, it should reflect the original price.

Take a tour bus right at the start

If you’re spending a week or more in a brand new city, jump on a cheap hop on / hop off tour bus right at the start. It massively helps orientate you and can provide inspiration for your itinerary. It also helps to give you a sense of how far things are from each other and where the busy spots tend to be.

Keep all essentials in your hand luggage bag

During peak season travel, suitcase delays and baggage losses are commonplace. It’s advisable to keep enough essentials in your hand luggage to see you through the first 24 hours after landing including underwear, basic toiletries, umbrellas etc. Never put irreplaceable items in a suitcase.

Download Uber and Deliveroo

Uber and Deliveroo are not yet covering all of Derbyshire, so it’s likely that this may not have been considered, but Uber is quite popular in many other countries and it’s the cheapest way of getting around privately by car. It’s also handy when you’re unfamiliar with a destination because it uses geographical technology to locate you.

If you don’t want to go out to eat, and the room service menu is terrible – order a Deliveroo to be delivered to the hotel by a nice restaurant. It’s usually cheaper, quicker, and tastier than some room service menus and basic hotel restaurants.
Download and install them before you go to save roaming and data charges (they often need a text message confirmation number).

Katie King is a small business marketing consultant and hospitality expert. Find out more here.