I travel a lot. I usually book through a particular travel agent who manages to book me into top end hotels for comparatively very cheap prices. The only snag i

I travel a lot. I usually book through a particular travel agent who manages to book me into top end hotels for comparatively very cheap prices. The only snag is you have to jump on the phone to them because the hotels don't allow them to publish the rates online. The process can be a bit cumbersome if you want to get prices on several hotels but I always find that it's worth it. Email me if you want the company name and telephone number. The other thing I do that is kind of risky is just rock up to a hotel on the day and try to get a good rate at the front desk. I'm at the Scottish Ruby Conference now and managed to get one of the best class of room here for less than my friend paid for his standard room. As a more extreme example last summer I turned up at the Ace Hotel in NYC hoping to lay my head down in one of their entry rooms for the night. Unfortunately they were fully booked except for the lofts which were ~$1500/night, there was no way I was prepared to pay that, and I talked them down to under $400. I called my friends and some girls and had a massive "house party" in my loft room. It was awesome! (pic - http://instagram.com/p/OdJmamMw2D/ http://instagram.com/p/OdJmamMw2D/) From the hotel perspective an empty room does not make them any money, they may as well have occupied even if it is deeply discounted.