We have been living on the road basically since 2011. We had a short break where we stayed in Charlottesville, VA (my hometown) for a 9 month lease in 2012, and then were back on the road.
Amazingly, we’ve found that it is cheaper to live out of a hotel and see 20 countries or so a year than it is to live in Cville. But since we publish every penny we spend, I’ve been able to see what traditional strategies work and don’t work. Simply put, redeeming points for aspirational hotels is a bad idea for me, contradictory to what the typical advise may be. So this is about what things do work, and what we look for.
Mistake Fares – “duh”
I’ve talked a bit already about how mistake fares are an incredible opportunity not only to travel for sometimes the same price as an award ticket (as you pay taxes) but to also earn miles. The last mistake fare I booked to Oman, I turned around in DC only to fly right back to Kenya. A long way to fly the route, but those flights alone earned us at least a oneway to Europe whenever we want.
No need to sell the idea too much.
Oneways
Miles are obviously cheaper than paid tickets but the value increases when I realize that I end up mostly only buying oneway tickets. Like I can fly from the Caribbean to Europe for the same price as US to Europe… so why pay for the flight from the Caribbean back to the US first?
It’s crazy how often oneways cost the same amount as a roundtrip. Absurd way to price tickets, in my opinion. But like it or not airlines charge a ton for oneways. In this way, the value of miles increases a lot.
Last Minute
As chasing hotel deals is off and on an important part of our strategy, booking last minute flights without a fee is often important. Airlines like British Airways, or Lufthansa not only allow oneways but don’t charge “close-in fees”.
On the other hand, airlines like AA or United charge $75 for booking within 21 days of travel – this is the “close-in fee”.
Therefore stocking up on miles like BA and LH, or points that transfer to these programs have become pretty important. In my mind, BA is the perfect currency for chasing deals. They don’t charge close-in fees, and have really cheap short haul prices.
Status doesn’t help
Status genuinely doesn’t help in the typical ways people seek status. So it’s not something we chase. Double miles is great if you pay for a ton of flights, but there are seriously cheaper ways to get miles than the selling of your soul to a company.
Grant it, I like airport lounges and other perks, but status doesn’t help save money. Now in rare situations I have been able to work the system to a profitable degree, but this is rare. The way status is set up in general is that you honestly feel like you’re winning, and you’re honestly losing. Unless you’ve got an ace up your sleeve, you’re paying because you like it and not because it saves money.
Hotels
Stretching points
This is counter intuitive, but using points in expensive places can be a waste of points. However, since we track, publish, and anaylze our expenses publicly, I’ve learned a lot about saving money on travel. Most recently, I realized that higher priced points redemptions were causing me to spend more money on hotels, and low category redemptions were bringing down my average cost of a hotel.
Think about a hypothetical in a city like New York with me for a minute.
When I use 50,000 points on one night at a hotel like the InterContinental New York I don’t have any points to use on cheaper points hotels. So later when I’m in a place like Krakow I end up spending $100 a night for what could have been 4 or 5 nights.
But let’s say I forked up $250 (I’m giving a high number as I’ve spent $100 for decent hotel in NYC) I save 50,000 points and earn points. Earning points with the Big Win promotions has led to hundreds of thousands of points. I estimated at one point that I was probably earning 30,000 points a night. But let’s just ignore the earning, (despite it being huge), and say I just saved 50,000 points.
Then when I go to Krakow I don’t pay $100+ a night and use points.
Okay, this was just a what if scenario, but it seems to be true for me. And for most people it’s probably not as true because they have enough points to cover both the hotel in NYC and the hotel in Krakow. But for me I have seemingly an infinite amount of hotel stays ahead of me and a limited resource of points.
Longer stays
I get tired of moving around all the time but am so driven by the deal that we hop around hotels even when we’re in one town. In 10 nights in Budapest we switched hotels every other day.
Things like BRGs are great for saving money and a tiring amount of effort on both ends.
So I think saving points for longer lower category stays and spending cash when there isn’t a good option will save me money in the end and prevent me from burning out.
I’m trying to watch out for other deals for longer stays as well. Here’s what I currently do:
- Mistake Fares
- Promotions
- Low category award nights
- General deals – like the Orbits deal ($100 off any stay) Expedia’s version, and others.
Other things I’m considering in the future:
- House sitting
I’m not a fan of planning ahead, or feeling responsible for other people’s stuff, but I’m a fan of saving money. So if you have other suggestions on strategies to get long stays for cheap, feel free to share them.
Promotions
Much like mistake fares, not only does a good promotion keep me from spending points, it earns me a ton of points. And with this method alone we’ve been able to bring our average night down to $30. Because, while we pay over $100 a night in cash for the average paid night, we end up earning a ton of points from the intentional paid stays we do.
If there is a good promotion and you stay in hotels a lot anyways, consider combining a few of the things I’m talking about. Get your paid stay in when the earnings are huge. I figure I’ll pay for nights once I’m out of hotel points anyways, so might as well stay ahead of the game. It helps if you keep track of your uses of points and cash on hotels.
Rules
Go where we want to go
I don’t have to go where I don’t want to go. Mistake fares to the middle of nowhere, or places I’ve been and didn’t love (England) aren’t something I have to do. PointBreaks at the Warsaw airport isn’t something I have to book. For this reason I haven’t booked many PointBreaks hotels in a long time.
Personally, I like seeing new places and places I love. I see no point to go back to a place that I’m not in love with because of a deal. Life is too short. Although right now the focus is mostly on seeing new places.
Work is equally first
I can’t afford to spend more time away from the internet unless it’s my dream destination. The truth is that I have 100 things going on at this point in my life, and anyone who knows me well knows that I spend an unhealthy amount of time working.
This is why we live out of 5 star hotels and not hostels. I mean, you can probably think of a few other reasons 5 star hotels are nicer than hostels, but basically we’re not backpackers.
We’re living in hotels.
If people can understand the fact that the hotel is our home, and not that we’re homeless, it helps. Because if I find out that your rent is high, I don’t suggest living in the hostel of your city… you would look at me like I’m crazy. Same with you if you suggest staying in hostels. I love being cheap, but I also really value work and… ya know having a minute of alone time, and being married.
But I realized recently that you can have a nice hotel room with no comfortable place to work. We stayed at a hotel in Budapest, and I can’t complain since it was free via the Orbitz deal… but man the only place to work was on the bed and that just isn’t a way to spend 18 hours of every 24 hours.
So the more I work the pickier I get in regards to a hotel, and hotel room. Good internet, good work space, and great location. I don’t want to spend 2 hours of my limited free time on the subway.
Conclusion
Mostly the thing that I learned last year, and therefore went all in on, is that hotel promotions are the backbone of basically all travel. I can’t understate how great it’s been for us in terms of saving money, staying in nice hotels, and getting longer stays in.
However, I still crave for even longer stays. We need more time to work before packing up and heading to the next place.
At the end of the day, I don’t need to change anything as I’m happy with the way things are going. But saving money and staying put to work more is never a bad thing.
I know you’ve mentioned using Airbnb in the past, in CO I think; is there any value there as an option for long-term stays?
As far as house sitting, I’ve had a few friends that have all had great experiences all over the world sitting for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I definitely think you and Carrie would fare well there, both of you guys being famous publicly-known travel bloggers and all. 😉
I have heard of friends bartering for long term stays via AirBnb. Seems to work out well although generally in cheaper countries. The value I see in it is mostly for families who would other wise get two or more rooms. Idk…
lol. Well, I imagine we could get some good house sitting gigs. We tend to be commitaphobes when it comes to staying in one place, but the price is quite tempting. I really think this year we’ll give it a try at some point.
what is orbitz deal?
Back just after Thanksgiving, Orbitz teamed up with Visa to offer a $100 of any hotel booking of $100 or more. Many people booked a ton of single-night stays at hotels that were right at $100/night… back to back.
The deal died after a few hours, but there were modified versions of it across a couple of different Orbitz websites around the globe… including $100 off a 2-night stay.
Of course that’s the Orbitz deal I *assume* Drew is talking about.
Yep, booked stays under both. The $100 one was… of course better.
Have you considered the carbon footprint of your lifestyle? On the one hand, you rent all of your possessions by the night. (Bed, nightstand, etc.) On the other hand, all that jet fuel oh my god…
C’mon… they have no car.. no commute… and the planes fly with or without them so their marginal “contribution” to the jet fuel pollution, by virtue of being ‘cargo weight’ is nil to zero.
Drew, you always have good insight and logic in challenging ‘aspirational’ vs. rational for travel hacking. Keep up the excellent work!
This Can’t be a serious comment, Jesus…
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!! all I can think to say to stvr (not sure if stvr is male or female) is get a life. Sounds like you are a sexually dissatisfied nut. Or maybe you are jealous of Drue and Carrie?
Take your carbon global warming footprint and just shut up.
Thank you Drew and Carrie for sharing your blogs. It allows me to travel, dream and explore countries that I didn’t know exist.
@stvr, I appreciate your comment. Gary Leff actually had a great post on how award seats are generally unsold seats and therefore it’s being more efficient. Idk… I could like the idea because it’s a justification, but you might be interested in it.
RS_wi does make a good point that we don’t have a car and use public 99% of the time, even when we had a house. I’m not sure how it comes out, but we’re extremely minimalist by nature (as travelers) and by choice, as we haven’t bought anything new (with a few minor exception like medical) in years.
IDK… I actually think more about the radiation lol. But maybe that’s paranoid too.
Carbon footprint! Ha! You hippie liberals crack me up.
My husband and I also live full time out of hotels. We’re doing the Club Carlson promo and it’s perfect for what you’re suggesting. We found an inexpensive location with a Country Inn and Suites that we like. I stay 3 nights under my acct number, then he does the next 3. Rinse and repeat for the length of the promotion. No changing hotels, and we’re racking up lots of points. And since we each have the credit card, we can use the points the same way, all over the world. I know there is a annual fee for the card, but for us, it’s well worth the cost to get the back to back reservations with every other night free. Again,it limits the moving around when you want a break from that. And the Country Inns always give you breakfast, and oftentimes an afternoon snack (depends on the location). Also, the Vancouver Amex deal is one we’re going to do the next time it’s offered. Totally worthwhile and in effect, free hotel rooms if you choose the reasonably priced one. Not every location has to be a home run….sometimes you just need to get some work done or get caught up with family and friends and a solid choice (while keeping costs low and racking up the points) will keep the balance sheet in good form.
Good luck, Drew. I love your blog and have learned so much from you and Carrie.
I agree that airline status is a poor value proposition unless you have a healthy mix of work travel mixed in so it’s not all out of your pocket. But with all your hotel stays I think it’s a no-brainer to acquire hotel status for the better rooms (more productivity) and lounge access (food and drinks).
The thing is that what hotel status can I get without paying for hotels? I paid for 4 Hyatt nights in the last years, so I’m not close to 50 nights a year.
Ambassador status you can buy but doesn’t give you anything really. So any status I have is useless. I did get suite upgrades as a Royal Ambassador, but you have to do 60 paid nights to get that now. Oh well.
I love the unique perspective you bring to travel hacking. The analysis you provide has given me a different way to look at the hobby. Love hearing about your travels, as well. Keep it up 🙂
Thanks for the support Ryan!
Have you considered the citi prestige card’s benefit of every fourth night free? If you hit the sweet spot of four night stays thats 25% off all hotels. I don’t own the card but supposedly you can book pretty much any hotel including boutique ones and they will match any published rate.
I rarely pay for hotels so I’m not sure how often that would come in handy. It might be useful for the current IHG promo as I have to do a weekend, so I could add an extra night and get two. But do they book through a portal?
I know it gets a lot of bad press but I’ve gotten amazing value out of skyauction.com. It’s not as good as it was but still great deals can be had if you’re careful to read the details (added fees, surcharges, etc.). On the rare occasion I couldn’t book my dates I got a full refund with no trouble. They have both auction and buy-it-now format, also a regular hotel booking feature which sometimes has good deals.
BJs Travel (BJs wholesale club) offers a rebate depending on the length of booking, the max is $200 off 10 nights or more. Again the prices might be better elsewhere, but it can still give good value.
Drew and Carrie. Please contact me regarding my offer of a job for you. All you will need for this job is a computer and internet service.
Anyways, yes or no answer will be appreciated.
janet, 2064152763 is my voicemail. I am not Drew or Carrie, but I have my own set of skills, as do some of my friends.
If you would like to communicate with me about this, please leave your email address in my voicemail. Thank you
LOL, please Janet, we need a job! Please hire me through the internet and pay make six figures!
Drew, excellent observation about hotels. As a Marriott Platinum I earn 20X if I use the Marriott Rewards Visa so I never use points to stay at a Marriott. Those points pile up fast and the best use of Marriott points is their hotel and fly packages where the points transfer 1-1 to nearly any airline.
Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the question about our carbon footprint.
We do need to think about this.
I’m starting full time next month, since I like to go to a lot of places off the beaten path that don’t have points hotels, prefer hostels mostly as a solo traveler, and also still building credit history) I’m doing plenty of cash back portals. My estimated lodgings for April are something like negative $25 or so 🙂 That’s in Europe, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu (though still a couple nights to book)