To Get A Good Deal, You Really Have To Ask

As a group, American travelers can fairly be said to have a few faults, some major, most minor.

When abroad, we tip too much (occasionally, too little). We often don’t know the language of the host country and try to make ourselves understood by shouting, seemingly hoping that comprehension increases with the decibel level.

Then there are those among us who, having arrived in Lyon or Florence or some other world-class gastronomic capital, set out in search of a McDonald’s or some other American fast-food outlet.

But one of the biggest mistakes we make when traveling - at home or abroad - is one that can cost us dearly: It’s our failure to bargain for the best price.

In large part, of course, this is a cultural failing. We are accustomed to paying clearly marked prices for virtually every purchase in this country. We have never developed the negotiating skills required for everyday commerce in the bazaars, souks and straw markets found in much of the rest of the world.

Our inexperience - and, perhaps, ignorance - often costs us right here at home. As a travel consumer, especially, learn to think of almost every price as negotiable.

Take a hotel room, for example. When is the last time you tried to bargain down the room rate? In fact, have you ever seriously tried to negotiate a lower rate? For most of us, the answer is no.

So, repeat after me: At most times and in most places, hotel room rates are negotiable.

Yes, you can bargain for a lower rate - but you have to ask for it. That’s the key.

Second, you have to ask the right person - the reservationist at the hotel where you plan to stay, not the reservationist at a hotel chain’s central reservation office that you reach by dialing a toll-free number. When you ask for the rate from someone at the central office, you’ll be quoted what is known in the industry as the “rack” rate. That’s the rate you’d be quoted at the hotel desk if you simply walked in off the street, and the same rate that appears in the hotel’s brochures. And, like the price of a full-fare, economy-class airline ticket, almost no one pays it.

So forget the 800 number and go right to the hotel itself, because, while managers may be loath to admit it, they give a fair amount of pricing leeway to their on-site reservationists. And that makes sense, because a room that goes unoccupied is not generating the revenue required to pay the fixed costs - heating and cooling, real estate taxes, etc. - assigned to each room. Thus, booking the room, even at a substantial discount from the rack rate, is a reasonable course of action for the hotel.

Armed with this knowledge, how do you get a better rate? It isn’t all that difficult. Here’s one scenario:

Say you want to spend a few days at the Bigotel chain’s hostelry in Sarasota, Fla. You call the hotel and get reservationist Don Rez on the line. The conversation might go something like this:

You: I’d like a double room for four nights, beginning Sept. 9.

Rez: No problem. Let’s see, that’s a room for two persons, checking in Sept. 9, checking out Sept. 13. Correct?

You: That’s right. Uh, what’s the rate?

Rez: Our standard double is $120, plus tax.

You: Oh, well, I don’t know. That’s really more than I wanted to spend.

Rez: About how much did you figure on spending?

You: I was hoping to find something for about $85 or $90.

Rez: Let me put you on hold for a second so I can see what we might have. (Pause for a minute or so.) OK, I do have one double for $95. Will that do?

You: That will be fine.

Naturally, it may not always go quite so smoothly. Suppose Rez doesn’t ask you what you’d like to spend and simply restates the rack rate. What then? Ask for a deal:

“I’m arriving on a Saturday. Do you have any weekend packages or any other special multiple-night discounts available?”

Often you’ll get a positive response to that query. But, once again, you have to ask for the bargain.

If this second gambit fails to elicit a discount from our man Rez, you have nothing left to do but play your trump card - a threat to book a room at the Midotel down the street:

“Well, I guess you’re just out of my price range. Midotel said they’d give me a double for $80, but I really prefer to stay with Bigotel. I’ve always had good experiences in every Bigotel where I’ve stayed.”

Hotels don’t like to discount any more than is necessary, but they dislike losing guests to the competition even more. Threatening to go down the street may be just what it takes to pry a lower rate out of the hotel of your choice.

Now, do these tactics, or variations thereof, work all the time? No. They don’t work when there’s a huge convention in town and occupancy at most hotels is running close to capacity. You’ll pay the rack rate or close to it. Supply and demand is still operative in the hospitality market.

Nor, for the most part, can you bargain for a discount at a resort, where the rate often includes meals, activities or other items and not simply the cost of your room. It’s not impossible to cut a deal in the depth of the off-season at some resorts, but most resort operations slash their high-season prices so substantially during the slow period that such negotiated rates are rare.

In another area of travel expenditures, I’ve saved money, both here and abroad, by negotiating discounts on rental cars. Again, supply and demand dictate how flexible your negotiating opponent will be. (A tip: Rental-car rates often are lower if you rent and return the car at the airport instead of at the company’s in-town office.)

But remember the key: You have to ask for a deal.