Guide to saving money on flights and accommodation

[Adamadam]

During the course of planning my trip to Brazil I've discovered a few sites and apps that have saved me money so I thought I'd write a brief guide. 

Cashback websites

These are totally legit, quick to join and simple to use. I've been using them for many years and saved several hundred pounds. If you want to make a purchase of any significance it's always worth a quick check to see if they are present on a cashback site.

In the UK they prove particularly valuable for insurance, broadband, mobile phone etc. contracts (returning £100/$125+). They are also good for flights and hotels as well as the likes of Amazon for everyday purchases. Last year a British Airways flight and hotel package to Barcelona was excellent value already and a moment to click through from a cashback site earned me £15 cashback (paid some months later) - not a lot but every little helps! 

Hotel Booking Services such as Hotels.com will generate 9% cashback going via a cashback site (at time of writing) and the clickthrough can be combined with their 'Stay 10 nights get 1 free' loyalty program(me)! 

In the UK the two good sites are: https://www.topcashback.co.uk/ and https://www.quidco.com/

In the USA promient sites include: https://www.ebates.com/ , https://www.shopathome.com/  and https://www.couponcactus.com/

It's also very worth a brief google to see if the particular business you're about to make a payment to has a coupon/discount code that you may be able to apply to your booking!

Finding cheaper flights

Comparison sites such as https://www.skyscanner.net/, https://www.kayak.com/ and http://www.momondo.com can save you hundreds on flights! I particularly like Skyscanner's month view where, if you have some flexibility on your dates of travel, you can see at a glance the cheapest fares over an extended period of time. With these and most comparison sites it sometimes pays to be more specific with your origin and destination if there are several airports in the region. Looking at one-way fares, noting the cheaper dates and combining this with the cheapest one-way fares the other way can produce the best results. Momondo seems to be a more powerful engine however, crunching hundreds of airlines and possible routes. 

http://www.secretflying.com/ is an excellent site that can help you save up to 80% on flights around the world! I think they get a lot of their information from the legendary http://www.flyertalk.com/ website and they post some ridiculously cheap error fares. You can sing up for emails based on your location in Europe, the USA or other continents but you have to be quick sometimes to get them before they expire.

Frequent Flyer rewards are not something I chase too hard and I'm sure most of you are familiar with. In the UK the blog http://www.headforpoints.com is a great resource for maximising flight (and hotel) reward programs. 

Accomodation

As I mentioned above, a cashback site in combination with hotel comparison sites such as https://www.hotels.com/, https://www.booking.com and https://www.trivago.com can deliver some big savings on your accommodation bill. It's always worth having a quick check between these sites as there can be some quite serious differences in price for an individual hotel between the sites. Hotels.com offer a loyalty program whereby every tenth night you book with them rewards a free night - an effective 10% saving. At times, last weekend for example, they run promotions where these rewards are doubled to two nights. I prefer them for this reason. 

Google for coupons/discount codes too!

Airbnb

This huge enterprise has been mentioned in the threads frequently and is great for getting a more intimate look at a city and privacy. For the purposes of this site obviously an entire place booking is preferable.

The site isn't perfect however. My favoured method of browsing places I might want to stay at in a particular area is to create a wishlist and save any appealing properties to that as you browse. When you've finished scanning an area you can further trim your wishlist to find your perfect place. 

Make sure you click the '+' button on the map until you are as zoomed in as far as you can go and pull the map a little in as you go! 

For some reason (and ridiculously), some properties are not visible on the zoomed out map and some will pop in and out of existence as you drag the map in a direction.

Airbnb recently increased their sign-up bonus to $40 / £30. This is paid in account credit after you complete your first booking.

Also, in the UK at least, if you make your first payment via paypal on airbnb with discount code PAYPAL25 you will save £25/£30! 

I'm genuinely unsure if you get this bonus if you go straight to their site without using an invitation link, if you use mine -  www.airbnb.com or someone else's you definitely get the bonus and I/they get £20/£15. I don't really like it when people use their own referral links on forums so if OZ wants to replace that with their own link that's cool  or other members can post theirs to spread the love!

 

If anyone else has any tips or sites they think should be included please let me know and I add it to this post 

[Guest bobbalino]

Thanks for the diligent and detailed posts.

I only use airbnb. I have had some stars and some dogs.

The reviewer community sucks in general and I have been surprised at the quality difference in places that have the same overall star rating. 

Best places for me have been really inexpensive stays in 'private room' with a family. The digs are not misrepresented because they are so basic but adequate ... I never feel gouged. And you know there is no pretense and less likely a host hustling to make rent ... housing to income ratio so prohibitive In Rio.

The positive reviews of the bargain basement places also seem more objective and accurate. 

I may eat these words some day. 

I can afford much more, but not complaining about the cash redirect to other expenses.

I have never been grillled about what shenanigans I am up to when out and about.

But this airbnb tier is not for everyone. I live alone and try to push myself out of my comfort zone when travel.

Yeah ... the mapping can be 'kerflooey'.

A "superhost" designation MIGHT be a better bet.

And do utilize the airbnb staff if you are screwed with. Their customer service is fantastic.

You can also ask if host attends local airbnb meetings. Rio has good infrastructure and serious more reputable hosts more likely tend to integrate into it.

I hope I did not scare you off. I still think it is a great alt to hotels.

 

 

[Guest KevinC]

I use airbnb too sometimes.  There are pros and cons with airbnb, you can read about them by doing a simple search on Google.  But my experience with the airbnb rental in Brazil has not been good.  I usually rent 1 bedroom airbnb apartment in a good neighborhood (Rio-Ipanema, SP-Jardim), but the quality and cleanness of the furnishings(including linens and towels) all left a lot to be desired.  For example, the fabric of the couch was stained, soiled, worn or torn (or even disgusting smell), but you can't really see these things from their airbnb pictures.  So, if you are thinking about airbnb, please do read the pros and cons on Google. 

So now, my preference is hotel for short term stay (< one week), and airbnb for longer term stay (> one week).  The reason is the kitchen.  It is just more convenient when you have a kitchen (with microwave, utensils, dishes..etc) on a longer stay.  

[SolaceSoul]

When you find a good AirBnB, in a location that you like, continue to use it, if it is available. Shopping around trip by trip is a waste of time and energy. I don't intend to use the apartment for much more than sleeping, bathing, eating, cooking and screwing, so anything that's clean, safe, private and in a convenient area works for me. I'll do my sightseeing outside the apartment.

There are also non-AirBnB apartment sites for about the same price. However, many of these same apartments are also available on either AirBnB or HomeAway/VRBO. Three of the ones I have used in Rio, 2 in Salvador, and 1 in São Paulo are on one or both of those sites. I've become friends with a few of the apartment owners now so no need to shop around -- and at this point, they would feel offended if they found out I was in town and did not ask to stay at one of their places.