Travel Tips: Accommodation
Two negotiate better than one
Travelling with someone is always going to be cheaper when it comes to sharing somewhere to stay but a further discount can often be obtained by employing good cop bad cop negotiating tactics. One of you wants the room, while the other pulls a face and clearly wants to stay elsewhere. After arguing among yourselves for a while, during which the price has hopefully already been reduced a little, the good cop should take the hotel guy aside and suggest a price at which he or she can persuade their partner to come around. Confer with your partner a little more and, if the price suits, take the room.
Cheaper rooms
Hotel and hostel owners will often show you the best room available. It never hurts to ask if there is a cheaper option. Often during negotiations the owner will drop the price and take you to another, usually smaller, room a few doors or floors away.
No rooms anywhere
Occasionally you may find that every room in town is taken. This usually happens when a headlining band or a big event is in town. For us it was the Red Hot Chilli Peppers in Auckland and the hostel was full of travellers trying to sneak a free night wherever they could. Luckily we'd already stayed there before, had been polite to, and remembered by, the receptionist. When he kicked everybody out onto the streets we quietly signaled us to stay where we were on the sofa. If you convey the impression that, in normal circumstances, you would be a paying customer you may get away with dossing down somewhere.
Sleeping out
In a city school fields can often provide a bit of green space to camp in. Make sure that you're all packed up and gone before the kids arrive to prevent yourself becoming the early morning entertainment.
Mark Orsbourn
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