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Four Tips for Quick Travel Deals

A common misconception is last-minute trips require shelling out substantially more money than a trip with more planning time. There certainly are deals to be found when you have months to look, but you can also discover savings on short notice within a few weeks or even days. Here are some tips to help you avoid breaking the bank on last-minute trips.

1) Try something new: Humans tend to be habitual, and that can carry over into our travel. We may go to the same place during the same week every year. There is nothing wrong with that, but you may be missing some potential savings. By expanding our horizons, we may find a deal and an entirely new experience. If you always stay in hotels, maybe you could try a house-sharing service like VRBO or Airbnb. If you always go to the beach in South Carolina, maybe you could try the beach in Virginia. If you always fly, maybe you could try driving or taking a train. When it comes to last-minute travel, the willingness to try something new can save you some serious money.

2) Hunt down the best deals:

Sometimes a deal just falls in your lap, or more likely your email or Facebook stream. Great! That may be a sign for you to get up and go. Those opportunistic trips will resonate more with people that have a great deal of flexibility. We can’t all jet off last minute to Paris because we found a sweet airline deal. Most of us want more control over our final destination, which means we’ll need to search for that deal. There are plenty of online travel tools available to help you quickly hunt for airfare, hotels, car rentals, and more. Some tools like Kayak, Hipmunk, and Google Flights allow you to search with flexible dates, which can help find the cheapest day to travel. Once you narrow down your search criteria, take a few minutes to browse different travel tools to ensure you get the cheapest price for your itinerary. Airfare is notorious for its fluctuating prices. So if possible, check prices over the course of a few days. When you know you found a deal, book it! You never know what the price will be tomorrow or even in a few hours.

3) Be flexible: Flexibility with travel dates and times, location, accommodation, transportation types, and airlines can all help you save money. We can’t always have as much flexibility as we would like, but wherever you can flex could save you money. When searching flights, check neighboring airports to your first choice for both origin and destination. There may be savings when flying to or from a neighboring airport. Does your destination have great public transportation? Maybe you can save money and skip the rental car. Can you stay an extra day or two? Airfare may be cheaper and hotels often have deals for longer stays. Also, if your intended destination is general like “Florida Atlantic Coast Beach,” you may find more deal options than a specific destination like Miami Beach.

4) Pick up the phone: With technology these days, we rarely pick up the phone and talk to someone. That is unfortunate when you are booking travel because you could be missing out on a deal. A lot of smaller hotels, BNBs, and inns don’t participate with online travel tools. If you found a place you love, give them a call to see if they have any specials. Sometimes they have deals they aren’t advertising online. Even if the lodging is all booked online, it could be worth a call in case there was a last-minute cancellation. You won’t know what is possible until you pick up the phone!

Do you have additional tips and tricks on how to save money when booking last-minute travel? Tell our team at Eat, Heal, Travel via our Twitter or Facebook page.