Spring break is just a month away, and many of us are already daydreaming about escaping to a warmer climate.
But before you hit the road, book an airline ticket or hotel stay, the staff at Consumers Checkbook has narrowed down three big ways you can save money on spring travel.
Let’s start on the road. If you’ve racked up some mileage over the winter, your vehicle may be due for routine maintenance. But before you call an auto shop for an estimate- be careful what you ask for.
“A lot of consumers, when they when they call shops to get these periodic maintenance packages done, they just say ‘I need 30,000 mile maintenance or I need 60,000 mile maintenance’,” said Kevin Brasler with Consumers Checkbook.
In a recent study, Brasler and his team at Consumers Checkbook found repair shops were more likely to give you a higher estimate if you asked for mileage-based maintenance. Instead, you should look up what your car manufacturer recommends at different mileage intervals and ask for those specific services instead.
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“I'm not really sure why shops charge so much more if all you do is say I need 30,000 mile maintenance or 60,000 mile maintenance than they do if you tell them which jobs you need. I think it's likely that they know that most customers don't know what work needs to be done at those service intervals and assume it may be a lot of work when, in fact, these days, cars don't need nearly as much maintenance as they used to,” said Brasler.
If you’re bypassing the road, and catching a flight instead, Brasler said you can save money by skipping out on travel insurance.
“None of them are worth buying. They're good deals for the companies that sell them. They're enormous profit centers for retailers. But they're bad deals for most consumers, because they say they contain so many policy exclusions that they're just really not worth much at all,” said Brasler.
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And when it comes to finding the lowest hotel price for your stay- Brasler says it doesn’t necessarily pay to shop around.
“The reason is, is that the hotels themselves and all these different hotel booking websites, spit out the same rates over and over again, for the same stays. Almost all of them are owned by one of two companies, Expedia and Booking Holdings. And they along with hotels, have come up with agreements that say basically, for the same state, we're all going to charge the same price across all different booking platforms,” said Brasler.
Expedia did not respond to our request for comment about their pricing. In a statement, Booking Holdings told us, “Hotels decide what prices they want to charge and they load those rates directly only whichever distribution channels they want to use, including online travel sites. Yes, Booking Holdings owns sites like Booking.com, but hotels are free to set the prices and conditions as they see fit. Travel is very much a highly competitive and dynamic industry characterised by a high degree of choice for consumers.”
For the lowest hotel prices, Brasler says to look for "Price Breaker"’ " or "Hot Rate deals" offered by Priceline or Hotwire. They don’t tell you the name of the hotel or exact location before you book, but you could save up to 20 %.
Brasler says you can also save about 8 to 10 percent if you book a non-refundable hotel stay. And some hotels also offer discounts of around 8 to 12 percent if you create an account with them, and sign up to receive emails or text messages.
