Hotel and Travel Deals Blog

From Miami to Vegas to Cancun, hotels have been the home to many a reality show. Recognizing the potential for spotlighting their properties, many hotels are jumping at the opportunity for playing host to a reality show. Just look at MTV’s The Real World Vegas, which teamed up with The Palms in 2002 to create the “Real World Suite” that STILL to this day is consistently booked.

While as a former reality show contestant, I can’t divulge any insider secrets as to where exactly I stayed on The Amazing Race (minus countless red-eye flights) I can say that it’s not like being put up in a Vegas penthouse suite or a swanky desert resort every night. If you’re looking to live it up like a reality show star (sans an Amazing Race one), these properties will give you that “15 minutes of fame” feeling—even if just for a night.

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Japanese culture has been infiltrating the U.S. for decades but never have I seen an interest in this island nation than of late. While my personal connection with Japan resides solely in running around downtown Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing and taking part in a Japanese game show as a contestant in the reality show, The Amazing Race, I was still able to catch a glimpse of the ultra modern buildings—many that are home to Tokyo’s best hotels. So what hotels would I want to stay in upon a return [non-reality show] trip to Tokyo? Since I’m a deal lover, I’m interested in hotels that still offer the type of deals that we find on DealBase (as we expand into our DealBase coverage of Asia).

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Jobnob.com brings together job seekers and young startups so companies can receive some help on specific projects, and job seekers keep their skills sharp while working on a project they can then add to their resume. How do we know this? We’ll be at Jobnob’s Cal Alum Happy Hour and would love to buy you a drink. We’re looking for bright ‘n scrappy folks to help with some Marketing and Finance projects. To learn more, make sure you check out our Jobnob page for available opportunities. See you at Jillian’s!

DealBase.com looks everywhere to find the best travel deals, hotel discounts, and promo codes, so we wanted to share which travel companies are doing what on Twitter. If you’re looking for hotel deals, airfare discounts, travel promotions, or just wanted to tweet some feedback to a travel company, you can use this comprehensive and definitive guide to hotel, airline, and travel deals on Twitter.
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One of the easiest ways to find big-saving travel deals is during the off-season: certain months marked by unfavorable or extreme weather but fewer crowds, shorter lines, less traffic and more savings. We’ve rounded up American travel destination favorites, explaining when (and why) off-season travel is more than doable—especially when off-season travel deals abound.
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Here at DealBase, our goal is to help you become a smarter and more informed hotel travel shopper. Many of you have been following our travel tips and insights as you race to find the best hotel deals and discounts before they’re all snatched up. This week we’re spotlighting the person behind such informative research (like the list of Top Hotel Brands with Free Breakfasts, or the Most Glamorous Penthouse Suites in Las Vegas). Our Travel Editor, Jessica Stout, has traveled the world on a variety of budgets, and we sat down with her to get a little more information about the person behind the pen (or keyboard!).

Q. How’d you get such a passion for travel?

A. My passion for travel began during college while I was studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. Spain was not only my first trip to Europe, but my first introduction to traveling solo. I traveled to over 10 countries that year, all on a whim. It was an incredible experience to learn about multiple cultures in relation to what I was accustomed to in the States.

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Our fearless leader, Sam Shank, presented at the Travel Distribution Summit 2009, North America, this week on a panel discussing travel comparison sites. View his slides on what’s broken in the model today, and what needs to be done to fix it.
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After Labor Day, travel thoughts turn to Fall deals. This is a great time to find hotel deals in locations that may be too hot or humid during the summer, but just the right temperature before winter. Here at DealBase, we’ve seen a wave of new golf-related hotel deals and discounts in South Carolina. Home to over 360 golf courses, South Carolina offers a wide arrange of packages for golf diehards and non-players alike. For example, the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center offers a “Golfer with Non-Golfer Package at Glens Group” from $186/night (26% off), with free breakfast for two and three free rounds of golf for one.

Once you’ve selected your golf package and are preparing to fly to South Carolina, we’d like to provide an additional travel tip to help ensure a good time. Make sure you’ve got a sturdy golf travel bag that can withstand the rigors of plane travel. (Remember that YouTube video about broken guitars? You don’t want to find a dent in your 9 iron, trust us.) We found this and other travel bags on Become, a shopping site that we visit when we need a break from all of our intense hotel deal analyzing.

And, to make sure you don’t pick up someone else’s bag at baggage claim, you might consider purchasing a bag in a color other than black. Spyder golf travel bags come in a variety of colors, for example, though pink may not be your first choice.

Hotel loyalty programs have long been considered questionable for how beneficial they really are, but that’s becoming a thing of the past. With the competition for acquiring—and keeping—guests as fierce as ever, hotel loyalty programs are stripping away restrictions and blackout dates for members-only benefits, exclusive hotel deals, and airline and credit card partnerships. While booking free hotel rooms with points may still be subject to capacity controls, hotel loyalty program newsletters and websites are chock-full of hotel deals.

We’ve compiled the most popular hotel loyalty programs (all completely free to sign up for) and their corresponding members-only hotel deals and offers. And since we here at DealBase belong to every single one of the loyalty programs, you can consistently find all of these deals HERE.

Here at DealBase.com, we’ve analyzed over 30,000 deals in our short lifetime. We’ve picked up a few clues to identify what makes a great deal. We share our observations with you by breaking down this particular Venetian Resort deal in Las Vegas. If you’ve got other advice, we welcome additional tips!

1. List a Starting Price

Deals that specify a starting (or lead) rate fare better than those that don’t. Travelers save time and potential frustration when they know a deal is in the ballpark of their budget.

Smart travelers are also smart shoppers. Some hotels may list a low starting rate that’s only available once in a blue moon, with dramatically higher rates on all other dates. If you come across one of these types of deals where you find it difficult to get the stated lead price, let your fellow travelers know in the Comments section of a deal.

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