If you booked a hotel room well in advance of a trip, there’s a good chance the price dropped since the time you made the reservation. One way to lower your travel costs is to check the price again as your departure date approaches and re-book the reservation if the cost is lower. Prices may drop anytime a hotel has rooms they’re still trying to fill for upcoming days!

Before my last trip, I re-booked two reservations the week before departure at significant savings.

At the Comfort Inn on the Bay in San Francisco, I was able to reserve a rate that was $44.71 lower per night than my original reservation, and the room still had a nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge (photo above). I saved $8.86 on another reservation for a single night at the Comfort Inn Monterey Peninsula Airport, for a total savings of $98.29 compared to my original booking price.

It is common for hotels to allow free cancellation up to 24-48 hours before your scheduled check-in date. If you have a reservation with free cancellation, and you see the price has dropped, simply re-book the same room type with a new reservation and cancel the old one. This may not work with every hotel chain or booking site, but it definitely works with Choice Hotels reservations like the ones I recently re-booked.

One last key point, when using this strategy, be sure to double check that your original reservation can be cancelled BEFORE you re-book!

As long as you have free cancellation, check those prices and get the best possible deal on your hotel stays!