Travel guide mogul Tim Zagat shares his personal hotel deal tips

You may know Tim Zagat more as the restaurant guru whose red books steer you to great eats (or away from not-so-great ones). But Zagat’s books also include hotels and resorts.

In a recent interview, Zagat offered these tips on getting good deals on hotels:

— “Don’t be afraid to negotiate,” he said. But won’t I look dumb and like a cheapskate? “At this point, in a lot of hotels if you don’t negotiate you look dumb…. It really is a sign of smarts and nothing to be ashamed of.”

— And remember, he said, “The individual at the desk has much more negotiating authority than an 800 number would.”

I’ve done it and it’s worked most of the time. In Vegas, for instance, when I’m checking into my favorite hotel, I often ask whether there’s a complimentary upgrade. Sharing a $20 bill with the desk person often helps. In fact, my success rate there is 100%.

(Where it didn’t work: at a chain motel in South Carolina. The desk clerk looked at me as though firecrackers had gone off in my brain before politely telling me that, no, just because it was 8 o’clock on a chilly December evening, she wouldn’t be giving me a discount. Maybe she knew I was going to stay anyway.)

— Zagat suggests you travel counterintuitively. That is, if a hotel is in a busy commercial center, you may get a better rate on weekends. If you’re going to a resort or a place that’s big during the weekend, you’ll get a better rate at midweek (Vegas is a good example).

And, as Zagat says, “You won’t know unless you ask.”

Tomorrow: How to enrich your soul and not deplete your account

— Catharine Hamm, Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Photos: zagat.com]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 1:04 pm by Catharine Hamm and is filed under Deals, Hotels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.