Most travel sites will have you book your flights and hotel stays at the same time.
Most of these sites will also make you think you’re saving money by doing so. The reality is that booking your flight and hotel separately is a better option for several reasons.
You’d likely save more money by booking your flight and hotel separately. The main reason for this is that the costs of air tickets and hotel stays are not always ideal at the same time. The optimal time to book that hotel room you’re looking at is likely not the same. The sweet spots for saving on a flight and hotel room simply don’t exist at the same time, so putting more time into organizing your trip is the actual key to saving. “If you don’t book your flights early, you’re going to spend a fortune. With airline tickets, prices shoot up a lot if you wait too long, but it’s the exact opposite with hotel prices, which decline the longer you wait,” HotelTonight CEO Sam Shank told Forbes.
Because of this mix-up, hotels often make quite a bit of money through sites that prompt users to book their flight and hotel together. The reality is that the best way to save is to book your flights at least six weeks in advance. To save on hotels, however, you should book them closer to the date you plan on staying to save. According to Forbes, the average hotel is only two-thirds full on any given night, so there is no need to panic over hotels being booked out in most cases.
