When you’re checking in to your hotel, you can usually get a better room if you remember to ask the right questions.
But what are the right questions? When do you ask them? And whom do you ask?
Here are some ways to ensure that your next hotel stay isn’t spent next to loud renovations, and that your shower doesn’t run at a drip.
Check out the rest of our Hotels section for money-saving tips and great ideas for unusual accommodations.
Our series on what you need to know about hotels also features Snagging Better Deals on Hotel Bookings: Part One.
Don’t ask the front desk clerk anything. They don’t know a thing about the rooms or anything else in the hotel. They have never seen a room and most likely are an entry level employee who has not worked at the hotel for more than six months.
If you want to know anything about a hotel, ask a bellman. They have been to every room in the hotel and have been up to room that day. There is less turnover at the bellstaff than at any other position in the hotel business and he has an incentive (in the form of a possible tip) to help you.
Just make sure to give him a decent tip; if you don’t, expect a wake-up call at three A.M.
You mentioned the credit card rebate on travel overseas. Our son in 2006-07 spent about $25,000.00 and I wondered how he should apply for the rebate.
Love your progrqam and appearances on the TODAY Show.
Thanks,
Jean
Jean, here’s the information you’re looking for, re: international credit card usage:
http://www.petergreenberg.com/2008/03/11/news-analysis-the-great-international-credit-card-settlement/