Enjoy a luxury trip on a shoestring

Are you keen on living in the lap of luxury, well who isn’t? Like most of us you may be tightening your belt so much that you don’t think you can afford a four or five star break. To show you that you still can enjoy that bit of luxury, we have put together a few tips on where and how to find the best deals all year round. Get ready to pack those bags and experience the style and glamour that you deserve. Luxury market recovery We have all felt the effects of the recession, but the luxury travel sector was hit especially hard – which makes sense, when you have less money you scale down your plans. Even though the market has been recovering we are seeing some great available savings for luxury hotels as the sector continues to recuperate. Where to book? Some of the best prices can be found in areas that have had new hotels come online. When a destination adds new hotel rooms or hotels, more often than not they need help filling those rooms with travellers. So, they will turn to travel sites to help them do so – at deeply discounted prices. Recently, this trend is taking place in Las Vegas which expanded rapidly over the past few years and Vancouver, where plenty of new rooms were built for the Olympics. We also predict that London is likely to follow a similar pattern just before and after the Olympics in 2012 as they’ve already added thousands of room and plan to add thousands more. So, be sure to pay attention when a city opens a new hotel or where new hotels might be being built. How to book? There are a number of ways to book a hotel room that include booking over the phone or through a travel agent, but the age of the internet has changed that. Nowadays, a lot of us book all travel arrangements online and use a variety of different websites to do that. One of the newest models for booking luxury holidays online, sometimes referred to as ‘secret hotels’ or ‘Hot Rates’, offers 4-star hotels at 2-star prices. With this model you book a room without knowing the hotel’s name. Everything else, such as amenities, star rating, approximate location and user recommendations are disclosed. It is a way for hotels to sell hotel rooms that would otherwise remain unsold and offer a deep discount without alienating their existing customers. The best savings can be found 2-4 weeks before travel at larger city destinations, but sometimes great deals will be available even few months out. Definitely worth a try the next time you are planning your next city break. When to book? We all know that avoiding ‘peak season’ can help us save money, but often we don’t realize how much. Holding travel plans from the popular vacation months of August/September to the less popular month of October can help keep hundreds in your pocket. For example we are currently seeing some fantastic deals on four star hotels in Berlin (£37 a night) around that time. Also, cities that rely on a lot of business travellers often offer big discounts when these travellers are not working – therefore places like Paris, Toronto and Chicago tend to have great deals over the holidays that happen throughout the year. So, by picking those time periods to visit these big cities, you might be able to hit some of the biggest sales of the year and instead of giving your money to hotels – give it to the department stores. Have a good trip! Fulvia Montresor is Senior Director at Hotwire.com. If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.