Chicago Hotel Discounts

As an Independent Travel Consultant, I have this privilege to offer Chicago hotel discounts, although I would better call it as the best Internet rate. However, in today’s fast growing travel market you can find a lot of misleading information, which makes you believe in something that doesn’t exist. I will provide some information that will help you to understand the hotel rate principles, so that you can always be sure of what you get.

If you came here just to make some fast hotel booking, then please visit my Smart Travel Station in Reservation page, where you will find the best Internet rate for cheap hotel booking in Chicago or anywhere worldwide.

Hotel Rate Types – No Secret!

When you see the headline – discount hotels or similar, you should to be very careful, as in 99% it is just advertisement and there is no real discount. According to definition, Chicago hotel discounts should be rate below the hotel regular price, but you know - hotels don’t have such rates.

In hotel market I counted 14 types of hotel room rates – rack, promotional, seniors, weekend, group, convention, Travel industry, member, day, advance purchase, corporate, negotiated corporate/government, run-of-the-house and Internet special rate.

Let’s start with description of each rate

Rack rate – this is the official, published retail rate by hotel. The name of this rate comes from old days before computers, when each room was represented as a plastic tab in a large rack located at the hotel front desk. If you will call to hotel for booking, you will get this rate, which in most cases are a bit higher then in Internet booking engines due to reservation fee that applies to booking by phone.

Promotional rate – any special rate or package, usually offered with the time limitation. Most likely is that when you will see sign - Chicago hotel discounts, you will get this rate. Important is that this promotional rate is available to anyone during its period (could be also to some special traveler category) and it is created by hotel. Therefore, there is nothing to do with some Internet seller who advertises this as hotel discount rate.

Senior rate – special reduced rate extended to those over a certain age. It depends on each hotel, but generally, it is over 50, 55, 60 or 65.

Weekend rate is different from weekday rate. This rate could be lower or higher depending on hotel type – business or resort. The definition of “weekend” also depends on hotel – could be from Thursday to Sunday or Friday to Sunday.

Group rate – usually is special rate for 10 or more people.

Convention rate – a contracted rate extended to someone attending special meeting, conference or convention.

Travel Industry rate – a special rate available to certain professionals – airline personal, clergy, military, diplomats and travel agent.

Member rate – a special rate available to members of society or organization.

Day rate – a special rate for guests who utilize a room during the day but not in the night.

Advance purchase rate – a special rate for guests willing to trade flexibility for discounted rate. In most cases, it could be non-refundable rate for discount you get.

Corporate rate – a special rate for use by business people.

Negotiated Corporate/Government rate is provided by hotel to some large organizations or governments that provides great volume of business to particular hotel.

Run-of-the-house rate is qualified discount rate provided by hotel. Usually it for gusts that is willing to accept any type of location with in the hotel when the hotel is overbooked.

Internet special rate – is a rate then can be published and booked only in Internet.

Of course, this is just terms, but now you will understand the difference between them and also, hotels price policy. However, if some advertisement says that you can get Chicago hotel discounts, then before you grab it, I suggest to do some comparison-shopping – research in other booking engines, as most likely they also will have the same rate level for that particular hotel and you can compare them.

There is no doubt that the cheapest hotel rate you can get is in Internet, as all hotels are connected to the special computer system – global distribution system (GDS), which instantly provides real time data about hotels availability, pricing, amenities and any other important information about hotel. This system was created in order to minimize telephone reservation and in order to make fair competition among all travel agents. All Internet hotel booking engines are connected to this system (though it can be in different levels), so they all got the same information in the same time.

The price difference among all on-line booking engines comes through marketing efforts and particular company policy. Usually this difference will be around $10 to $50.

How to get the best
Chicago Hotel Discounts?

If you will pick up hotel just according cheapest Internet rate or worse – Chicago hotel discounts rate, you cannot be sure what other costs might be during your stay. Maybe you will need to pay for WiFi Internet, car parking, road toll, public transport to/from your hotel, meals, room service and more other options and hidden charges.

Imagine, you pick up some discount hotel in area where there is no bistros or any other dining place. Hotel provides only breakfast and its restaurant in the evening is very expensive. Therefore, in order to get some meal you will need to take public transport or your car and drive somewhere. If you take your car, you might need to pay toll for road and also car parking. How much will it cost for you?

If you ask Travel Agent to pick a hotel, then most likely you will get the best hotel with the best price for you – according to Your Specific Travel Needs. He will ask you different kind of questions and after that he will do hard research in order to find the best hotel for you. You will save huge on different kind of costs and still you will get the cheapest rate for particular hotel. Sometimes I heard myths that if traveler asks help for Travel Agent then most likely he would need to pay more. In reality is quite opposite, as I explained above.

I think that this short introduction with Chicago Hotel Discounts will help you to save money and fully enjoy your trip.

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