1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,640
Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,

2
00:00:02,800 --> 00:00:06,640
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing saving big money on travel, lodging,

3
00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:29,120
Speaker 1: big money, big money, big money. What's that from Joel?

4
00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:31,640
Speaker 1: And that the price is right? The old Game show.

5
00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:34,199
Speaker 1: I should know that because I've watched it with my

6
00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:38,120
Speaker 1: grandmother countless. Yeah, I feel like we should trade these

7
00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,760
Speaker 1: microphones that we're currently using out for those like long

8
00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:44,199
Speaker 1: Bob Barker ones. Things are so sweet. That's only what

9
00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:46,520
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of, like Bob Barker walking around like pulling

10
00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:48,560
Speaker 1: folks out of the crowd, showing up in an Adam

11
00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:52,000
Speaker 1: Sandler movie. Whatever it is that he he feels like daling.

12
00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:54,600
Speaker 1: But yeah, big money man. That we're gonna talk about

13
00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:56,960
Speaker 1: all the different ways that you can save money while

14
00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,240
Speaker 1: you are looking for lodging, while you're on vacation, ways

15
00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,160
Speaker 1: to save money, And basically we're gonna talk about all

16
00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:04,600
Speaker 1: the different types of places that you could actually spend

17
00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:05,959
Speaker 1: the night as well. We're not going to just talk

18
00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:08,920
Speaker 1: about hotels. We're also going to discuss all the alternatives,

19
00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:10,840
Speaker 1: just the different places that you can rest your head

20
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:13,520
Speaker 1: at night. On that note, how many hours do you

21
00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:15,959
Speaker 1: typically like to sleep at night. Do you have like

22
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:17,959
Speaker 1: a range that you typically shoot forward? Do you have

23
00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:20,319
Speaker 1: a set number of hours? And I'm kind of like

24
00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:23,360
Speaker 1: minimum made hours guy? Yeah, really, yeah, I like eight

25
00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 1: eight and a half. Trust me, it doesn't always happen, okay,

26
00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:27,760
Speaker 1: but that's that's my goal. There's definitely at least one

27
00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:29,640
Speaker 1: or two nights of the week where I'm getting more

28
00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:32,000
Speaker 1: like five and a half to six or even less.

29
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,680
Speaker 1: With the babies. Yeah, everybody knows we've had the babies recently,

30
00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,119
Speaker 1: so yeah, oh yeah, definitely with a newborn, I'm getting

31
00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:41,000
Speaker 1: less than that consistently, but in under normal circumstances, Yeah,

32
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,440
Speaker 1: I like to prioritize eight hours of sleep for sure,

33
00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:46,120
Speaker 1: eight eight and a half. Nice. Well, I'll say my

34
00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,560
Speaker 1: goal is seven hours and forty five minutes, which is

35
00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,400
Speaker 1: very specific, right it is. Yeah. The reason for that

36
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:54,720
Speaker 1: is because I've really gotten into sleep cycles recently, like

37
00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,120
Speaker 1: the kind of the science behind that, and evidently the

38
00:01:57,160 --> 00:01:59,360
Speaker 1: typical sleep cycle for an adult is an hour and

39
00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:01,640
Speaker 1: a half. And so if you take multiple hour and

40
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:03,040
Speaker 1: a half, some kind of group them together, so you

41
00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:05,240
Speaker 1: got an hour and a half, three hours, you got

42
00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:07,960
Speaker 1: double that, you got six, seven and a half. Hours.

43
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:10,240
Speaker 1: But then you say, well, why seven hours and forty

44
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,160
Speaker 1: five minutes, Well, evidently it takes the average adults fifteen

45
00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,040
Speaker 1: minutes to fall asleep, So evidently for most adults, five

46
00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:18,800
Speaker 1: full sleep cycles like that is supposed to allow you

47
00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:21,840
Speaker 1: to wake up as your body is kind of exiting

48
00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:23,640
Speaker 1: one of those deep sleep cycles and you don't feel

49
00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:26,280
Speaker 1: groggy in the morning. I don't hardly ever do that

50
00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:29,880
Speaker 1: as well. It's like a pipe dream almost at this point.

51
00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:31,880
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's that's what I shoot for. Do you

52
00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:33,400
Speaker 1: feel like it makes a big difference when you do

53
00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:35,639
Speaker 1: kind of hit that number on the head, that you

54
00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:37,480
Speaker 1: hit the nail on the head seven hours forty five

55
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,840
Speaker 1: minutes of sleeping and you you wake up feeling completely

56
00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,560
Speaker 1: different than even if you had gotten more sleep. Oh man, totally.

57
00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:45,920
Speaker 1: That's why I think recently I have sort of subscribed

58
00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:49,200
Speaker 1: to this approach because I have found myself if I

59
00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:51,919
Speaker 1: go to sleep exactly what I know I'm supposed to write,

60
00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:55,560
Speaker 1: which is typically it's in forty five, and I find

61
00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,760
Speaker 1: myself literally waking up at six, like a couple of

62
00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,440
Speaker 1: minutes before six thirty naturally, like on my own, feeling

63
00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,200
Speaker 1: alert and awake before my alarm even goes off, which

64
00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:07,960
Speaker 1: is amazing. And when I go to bed a little

65
00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:10,440
Speaker 1: bit sooner than that, which must be honest, that never happens.

66
00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,119
Speaker 1: So typically a little bit later, it is so hard

67
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:14,919
Speaker 1: for me to wake up because it feels like I'm

68
00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:17,800
Speaker 1: literally pulling myself out of this deep sleep. I feel

69
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:19,840
Speaker 1: super groggy. Before I hop on the bike and take

70
00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:21,760
Speaker 1: the girls to school. That's kind of the final straw

71
00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:24,480
Speaker 1: that actually kind of will wake me up. But before that, man, really,

72
00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:26,959
Speaker 1: I'm just dragging. All right, that's interesting. Man, I'm gonna

73
00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,160
Speaker 1: look more into sleep cycles. I just hope that it

74
00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:31,040
Speaker 1: tells me that I need to get like ten hours

75
00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,760
Speaker 1: a sleep, because that'd be ideal. Really, And Matt I

76
00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:36,880
Speaker 1: wanted to mention one thing really quickly. A listener of ours, Elliott,

77
00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:39,000
Speaker 1: he reached out and send us an email, and he

78
00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:41,720
Speaker 1: wanted to let us know about this really cool tax

79
00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,120
Speaker 1: credit that exists in the state that he lives in

80
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:47,160
Speaker 1: the state of Maine. It's called live and Work in Maine.

81
00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:48,920
Speaker 1: If if you actually you can actually go to live

82
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,440
Speaker 1: and work in Maine dot com and what Maine is

83
00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:53,560
Speaker 1: doing to try to attract talent to their state. They're

84
00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:56,920
Speaker 1: offering to pay your student loans down for you if

85
00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:00,640
Speaker 1: you decide to come live in Maine after graduating from college.

86
00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:03,560
Speaker 1: There are obviously specific requirements you have to meet, and

87
00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:05,600
Speaker 1: there's a cap to how much they're actually willing to

88
00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:07,840
Speaker 1: pay of your student loan debt. But this is the

89
00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:09,440
Speaker 1: kind of thing that's starting to sprout up more and

90
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:13,080
Speaker 1: more places. Local municipalities are are doing similar things to

91
00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,000
Speaker 1: try to attract people to come move to their city

92
00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:18,240
Speaker 1: or town. So I thought it was really interesting that

93
00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:21,240
Speaker 1: there are other ways to consider ditching your student loans,

94
00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:23,520
Speaker 1: and you know what, moving to Maine might be one

95
00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:25,600
Speaker 1: of the best ways to do that. Dude, I think

96
00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,720
Speaker 1: it's actually pretty brilliant. Right. We've discussed, you know before,

97
00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:32,359
Speaker 1: how there's different incentives that state essentially offer, whether it

98
00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,239
Speaker 1: be intentionally or non intentional. Right, different states have different

99
00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:37,840
Speaker 1: income taxes. That's something to consider. We've talked about the

100
00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:40,160
Speaker 1: costs of healthcare and how it varies greatly from state

101
00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,600
Speaker 1: to state. This is just something else to consider. If

102
00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:44,720
Speaker 1: you have a state that you're considering a job and

103
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,640
Speaker 1: they have a program that will essentially pay down a

104
00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,240
Speaker 1: huge chunk of your student loans, right, and you mentioned

105
00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:52,280
Speaker 1: some of the different caps I saw. There's one program

106
00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:54,440
Speaker 1: that they have where there's a one hundred thousand dollar

107
00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:57,880
Speaker 1: cap on one of the programs. That's a year. That's

108
00:04:57,880 --> 00:04:59,880
Speaker 1: a lot of money, right, That's something seriously to can

109
00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:02,800
Speaker 1: that are when you are looking at where to move

110
00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,960
Speaker 1: post graduation. I really do think it's something brilliant that

111
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:08,880
Speaker 1: a lot of folks might be overlooking when it comes

112
00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:13,160
Speaker 1: to considering a location to accept the job. I gotta say, man,

113
00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:14,720
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have to twist my arm to move to

114
00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,279
Speaker 1: Maine either. It's a it's a beautiful place. So I

115
00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:19,240
Speaker 1: love that Maine is offering this. I was actually talking

116
00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:22,040
Speaker 1: to one of my friends who is Brazilian the other day,

117
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,080
Speaker 1: and the Brazilian government will actually pay for Brazilian citizens

118
00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,960
Speaker 1: to go get their degree abroad. And I'm not sure

119
00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:31,240
Speaker 1: what the specific requirements are, but but then he has

120
00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,640
Speaker 1: to move back with his family for four years and

121
00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:36,720
Speaker 1: that is kind of his obligation in order to not

122
00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:39,680
Speaker 1: have to pay for those college expenses. But but he's

123
00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:42,599
Speaker 1: pretty cool. He's saving a huge amount of by the

124
00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,440
Speaker 1: government doing that for him and sending him to Atlanta

125
00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,080
Speaker 1: in order to get his education at a really awesome university.

126
00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:50,520
Speaker 1: So yeah, thanks Elliott for letting us know about that

127
00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:53,479
Speaker 1: Main tax credit. I think it's a really kind of

128
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,360
Speaker 1: ingenious potential way for for folks to ditch their student

129
00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:00,359
Speaker 1: loans a little bit more quickly by just moving to

130
00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:02,280
Speaker 1: another state. And you know what, Main's got a lot

131
00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:05,440
Speaker 1: of good beer to Matt. Yeah, Man, craft beer and hiking,

132
00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:08,520
Speaker 1: which are two of my favorite things, and lobster, which

133
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,359
Speaker 1: is evidently one of the things that you enjoy. I

134
00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:13,440
Speaker 1: do have you hit up that lobster truck yet? You

135
00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:18,360
Speaker 1: know I have? It hasn't come back around, man, hopefully soon. Yeah. Well,

136
00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:20,039
Speaker 1: I think it would be appropriate if we had a

137
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,200
Speaker 1: main beer like I like ash or something like that,

138
00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:24,800
Speaker 1: but we don't. We have another amazing beer from Surly.

139
00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:27,240
Speaker 1: This is a beer again out of Minnesota, and Man,

140
00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:30,360
Speaker 1: this is actually the first repeat beer that we're having

141
00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,680
Speaker 1: on the show. We've had this beer once before, a

142
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,400
Speaker 1: long time ago. Yeah, it's uh Surly Darkness. It's a

143
00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:39,800
Speaker 1: Russian Imperial stout. We had a previous iteration of it.

144
00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 1: Surly bruised this Russian Imperial Stout up every single year.

145
00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:46,960
Speaker 1: It's magically different and magically delicious every single time. This

146
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,359
Speaker 1: beer is is truly iconic craft beer nerds will easily

147
00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:53,680
Speaker 1: recognize kind of the distinct design and then of course

148
00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:55,680
Speaker 1: the distinct flavors of this beer. So I'm really excited

149
00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:58,159
Speaker 1: to drink this one on the show with you today, Buddy,

150
00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:00,559
Speaker 1: and we'll give our impressions on this beer into the show.

151
00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,000
Speaker 1: Yes we are, man, and I'm so excited. This is

152
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,240
Speaker 1: such a good beer. Yes, yeah, it is. All right, Matt,

153
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:08,599
Speaker 1: Let's get onto the topic at hand. We're talking about

154
00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:11,880
Speaker 1: saving big money on travel lodging, and we talked about

155
00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:15,360
Speaker 1: traveling with a purpose on The Cheap Way early on.

156
00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:17,440
Speaker 1: I think it was episode number four or something that

157
00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:19,960
Speaker 1: a long time ago. A long time ago, but lodging

158
00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:21,880
Speaker 1: is such a huge cost when we travel that that

159
00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:24,040
Speaker 1: we thought it was important to dedicate a whole episode

160
00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,640
Speaker 1: to the topic. And there are some incredible ways to

161
00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:29,720
Speaker 1: save more thanks to the Internet, websites and apps that

162
00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,360
Speaker 1: have been created single handedly to improve price transparency and

163
00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,080
Speaker 1: to help save consumers more. Matt, first, I want to

164
00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:37,960
Speaker 1: ask you have you ever stated at a hostel, because

165
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,000
Speaker 1: when people think about cheap lodging when they're traveling, hostels

166
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,400
Speaker 1: are are one of those immediate things that rise to

167
00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:47,200
Speaker 1: the top. Because hostels are of course really inexpensive places

168
00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:48,920
Speaker 1: to sleep at night. Have you ever stayed at one?

169
00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,280
Speaker 1: That's like asking me, have I ever been twenty years old,

170
00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:53,680
Speaker 1: because because I feel like everybody has to kind of

171
00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:55,760
Speaker 1: go through the stage where you're maybe doing a little

172
00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,560
Speaker 1: bit of traveling checking out a hostile. Yeah, yeah, I've

173
00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:00,160
Speaker 1: stayed at one, but I think I've only stayed had

174
00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,840
Speaker 1: like maybe two or three. I specifically remember one in

175
00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:08,240
Speaker 1: Rome that was it was not fancy. It was pretty grungy.

176
00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,679
Speaker 1: That is the typical hostile experience. I think, yeah, grunge

177
00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:14,280
Speaker 1: all the way. If you told me it was really posh,

178
00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:16,600
Speaker 1: I'd be like, wait, did you really fancy? Was actually

179
00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:20,840
Speaker 1: a hostile. But specifically this one, the location was amazing.

180
00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:22,320
Speaker 1: I mean literally we could see the top of the

181
00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:24,600
Speaker 1: Vatican just around the corner. That was sort of the

182
00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,040
Speaker 1: selling point of this one. And so if you've never

183
00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:29,200
Speaker 1: been to the Vatican there in Rome, I mean it's

184
00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:33,280
Speaker 1: it's it's unreal. Just the scale of St. Peter's is

185
00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:35,880
Speaker 1: it's just mind blowing, right. So I remember that, and

186
00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:38,520
Speaker 1: I also remember there being two Australians that we shared

187
00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:42,560
Speaker 1: our room with and they're all about the Discoteca. Well

188
00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,440
Speaker 1: who isn't right, Well, we weren't because we didn't know

189
00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:47,520
Speaker 1: what the heck it was. I was like nineteen years old,

190
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:50,040
Speaker 1: and I just remember them saying, like the first day

191
00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:51,719
Speaker 1: we got there, like, are you guys gonna check out

192
00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,760
Speaker 1: the Discotheca? And I thought, I don't know what that is, man,

193
00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:57,240
Speaker 1: But we were just like, yeah, maybe we're thinking about it.

194
00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,960
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just a club basically Australian and New Zealander's.

195
00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:03,160
Speaker 1: They just travel away differently, you know, they're they're taking

196
00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,160
Speaker 1: that off year and they're in Rome for like weeks

197
00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:07,680
Speaker 1: and they've done all that sight seeing and they're just

198
00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:10,920
Speaker 1: there to kind of party. It's a specifically, I remember

199
00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,360
Speaker 1: that standing out and just staying in a hostile in general,

200
00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:16,200
Speaker 1: it's just such a more fun and social way to

201
00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:20,440
Speaker 1: find lodging while you are traveling abroad. Specifically, yeah, at

202
00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:22,199
Speaker 1: least until you hit a certain age, I guess, right.

203
00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:25,160
Speaker 1: I think I'm maybe past the hostile kind of age

204
00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:26,959
Speaker 1: out of it at some point. Yeah, yeah, I mean

205
00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:28,720
Speaker 1: I don't think Emily and I going on a tradi

206
00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:31,160
Speaker 1: port like want to be hearing about the discothequa, you know,

207
00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:33,040
Speaker 1: with a room full of other people. It's like, let

208
00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:34,959
Speaker 1: me just go to sleep, man, I'm old. Yeah, but

209
00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,160
Speaker 1: I think it is a worthwhile thing for people to consider,

210
00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:40,160
Speaker 1: especially if they are in that phase where they don't

211
00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:42,280
Speaker 1: mind kind of and and actually it can it can

212
00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,000
Speaker 1: enhance your experience where you can meet new people. You

213
00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:46,720
Speaker 1: can find folks that have been there for a while,

214
00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,360
Speaker 1: maybe already, and that know a certain amount about the city.

215
00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:52,280
Speaker 1: Hostiles can be a great place to find new buddies

216
00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:54,360
Speaker 1: right when when you are traveling. Yeah, they can show

217
00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:56,640
Speaker 1: you the ropes. Yeah, no doubt. So there are websites

218
00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:59,280
Speaker 1: like hostile Bookers dot com and hostile world dot com

219
00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:01,880
Speaker 1: and those are great ights to help you find a

220
00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:04,400
Speaker 1: hostel if that sounds like fun to you. So we're

221
00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:06,200
Speaker 1: not gonna spend a whole lot of time talking about hostels,

222
00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:07,880
Speaker 1: but that's kind of a known entity, and of course

223
00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:10,600
Speaker 1: they're they're especially big in Europe, but you can find them,

224
00:10:10,679 --> 00:10:13,160
Speaker 1: you know, across the nation too, here in the United States,

225
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:15,120
Speaker 1: and you can say big bucks by staying at a

226
00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:17,520
Speaker 1: hostel as opposed to staying at a hotel. But Matt,

227
00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:20,720
Speaker 1: you know what's even better than than low cost free,

228
00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:22,680
Speaker 1: And let's talk about some of the free options that

229
00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,600
Speaker 1: people have for lodging when they are doing some travel

230
00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:28,120
Speaker 1: before we get into kind of some of those websites

231
00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,000
Speaker 1: and apps that can help you save and kind of

232
00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:33,560
Speaker 1: more traditional ways of finding accommodations when you're traveling. Yeah,

233
00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:35,800
Speaker 1: a lot of times man free is better than cheap.

234
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:37,520
Speaker 1: And one of the best ways to do that is

235
00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,520
Speaker 1: through a site called couch surfing. And that's something that

236
00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:42,959
Speaker 1: I have not done before, but you've got some experience

237
00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:44,640
Speaker 1: with that. Yeah, I think I've actually mentioned this on

238
00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,480
Speaker 1: the show before. My buddy Travis actually met his wife

239
00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,800
Speaker 1: on couch surfing dot com, which is kind of cool. Uh,

240
00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:53,079
Speaker 1: it's just claimed to fame right there. Like that. He

241
00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:55,920
Speaker 1: ended up staying on her couch and they got to

242
00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:57,920
Speaker 1: know each other and they fell in love and it's

243
00:10:57,960 --> 00:10:59,800
Speaker 1: kind of a beautiful story. So couch surfing you can

244
00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:03,199
Speaker 1: fall on love there. But it's completely free. People offer

245
00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:05,720
Speaker 1: up their couch or maybe their spare bedroom, even two

246
00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:07,880
Speaker 1: folks that are traveling, and so it is this kind

247
00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:11,680
Speaker 1: of cool site. It's very community Yeah, it's very community centered,

248
00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,800
Speaker 1: very community oriented. Airbnb is more transactional. It still has

249
00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:17,960
Speaker 1: this great community vibe. Right, We've talked about it, but

250
00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:20,600
Speaker 1: it's it's still it's gonna cost you money to find

251
00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:23,000
Speaker 1: a premost space couch surfing, you're gonna have to be

252
00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,760
Speaker 1: okay with kind of some interesting sleeping conditions, with maybe

253
00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:29,319
Speaker 1: not finding out until last minute where you're actually gonna stay.

254
00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:31,679
Speaker 1: There are all sorts of quirks that come along with

255
00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,480
Speaker 1: finding lodging on a site like couch surfing. But ultimately,

256
00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:37,400
Speaker 1: if you're looking to travel and you are dead serious

257
00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:40,240
Speaker 1: about slashing costs, well, CouchSurfing can be just a really

258
00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,200
Speaker 1: awesome website to help you travel across the nation or

259
00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:46,120
Speaker 1: or also a lot of places across the globe for free,

260
00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:47,920
Speaker 1: which means you can travel for a whole heck of

261
00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:49,600
Speaker 1: a lot longer. Yeah, you can say that money and

262
00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:52,120
Speaker 1: instead spend that at the discotheca. Yeah, so be sure

263
00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:54,280
Speaker 1: to check them out. You can also check out Hospitality Club.

264
00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:57,560
Speaker 1: That's another site that is similar to CouchSurfing. Again, like

265
00:11:57,600 --> 00:11:59,880
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Joel, it's all about the communal aspect of

266
00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:03,240
Speaker 1: Oftentimes the hosts are travelers themselves or that you know

267
00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:04,880
Speaker 1: they used to be travelers and they want to be

268
00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:07,600
Speaker 1: able to continue to foster that environment of being able

269
00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:09,440
Speaker 1: to travel and see the world for free, So be

270
00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:11,440
Speaker 1: sure to check those out. And I wanted to mention

271
00:12:11,480 --> 00:12:14,080
Speaker 1: to something that's sort of free, and it's also like

272
00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:16,200
Speaker 1: sort of lodging, right, I don't know if this would

273
00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:20,319
Speaker 1: totally qualify as lodging. Okay, I'm interested to hear this.

274
00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:22,920
Speaker 1: A couple of times while I was traveling in Europe,

275
00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,800
Speaker 1: we took overnight trains to get to the next city,

276
00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:28,520
Speaker 1: and for us this worked pretty well. Right. We had

277
00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:31,440
Speaker 1: pretty cozy seats to sleep in, and one instance, we

278
00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:33,480
Speaker 1: had our own cabin that was nice. We had a

279
00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:36,200
Speaker 1: little more privacy there, but it wasn't a sleeper cabin, right,

280
00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,560
Speaker 1: so there were not any beds. Were basically sleeping in chairs.

281
00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:41,560
Speaker 1: It's sort of like sleeping on an airplane these days.

282
00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,240
Speaker 1: Though I would totally pony up for an actual bed,

283
00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:46,760
Speaker 1: like an actual sleeper cabin to get a good night's sleep,

284
00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:48,719
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it really matters all that much

285
00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:50,400
Speaker 1: because I've been known to to be able to get

286
00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:52,880
Speaker 1: sleep pretty much anywhere these days. Yeah, I love the

287
00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:55,680
Speaker 1: idea of of doing train travel and staying overnight on

288
00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,000
Speaker 1: the train, but yeah, I completely agree having an actual

289
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:02,200
Speaker 1: bed to sleep in is huge. Otherwise it's not necessarily

290
00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:07,080
Speaker 1: replacing a hotel or another form of accommodation. It's just

291
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:09,600
Speaker 1: kind of cheeping out and having an awful night of

292
00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:11,880
Speaker 1: sleep right wherever you go. It just depends on how

293
00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:15,240
Speaker 1: hard you can sleep. Man. I remember specifically riding through

294
00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:17,320
Speaker 1: the night. We got on a train at night in

295
00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:20,040
Speaker 1: Milan and then we took the train all the way

296
00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:22,760
Speaker 1: down to southern Italy. It was like a nine hour

297
00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:24,960
Speaker 1: train ride, and truly we were able to sleep for

298
00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:26,880
Speaker 1: most of the time that we were moving. But I

299
00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,040
Speaker 1: think we did have a couple sort of times when

300
00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:30,599
Speaker 1: we had to switch trains, So I don't think we

301
00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:32,200
Speaker 1: were counting on that because that kind of, you know,

302
00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:35,480
Speaker 1: broke our sleep a little bit. Yeah, that'll Cholchi awake, right, Yeah,

303
00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:36,880
Speaker 1: but I wanted to mention that, you know, those are

304
00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:38,520
Speaker 1: some of the different things you can try when you're young,

305
00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:41,640
Speaker 1: you're adventurous. Sleep isn't quite as important to you. Yeah,

306
00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:44,240
Speaker 1: and Matt, we're gonna get into more about how to

307
00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:47,600
Speaker 1: pay less for travel lodging, including some of our favorite

308
00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:50,320
Speaker 1: sites for booking a place to sleep, because where your

309
00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:52,920
Speaker 1: book can save you tons of money. We'll get into

310
00:13:52,920 --> 00:14:03,959
Speaker 1: that right after the break, all right, Joel, we're back

311
00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:06,199
Speaker 1: for the break, and we were talking about saving big

312
00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:09,320
Speaker 1: on travel lodging. You know, we've talked about the sort

313
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:11,720
Speaker 1: of freeways that you can score a night's sleep, you know,

314
00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:13,760
Speaker 1: traveling on a shoestring. But we're now going to talk

315
00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:16,760
Speaker 1: about hotels, the official way to get a good night's

316
00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:20,880
Speaker 1: sleep if you're a grown up. Yeah, exactly. I've had

317
00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:23,840
Speaker 1: some experiences with that free lodging stuff in the past

318
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:26,240
Speaker 1: and it was fun while it lasted. But for me,

319
00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:28,360
Speaker 1: at least on past those days, it's just not gonna

320
00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:30,840
Speaker 1: happen anymore for me, Man, I totally hear you. So

321
00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:33,360
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Let's talk about when you're gonna go

322
00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:36,240
Speaker 1: on these trips, just like your flights, when you travel,

323
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:38,840
Speaker 1: when you actually go, it matters a lot. So if

324
00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:41,760
Speaker 1: you want to go to Ireland in July, you're gonna

325
00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:44,880
Speaker 1: pay close to double for a cool bed and breakfast

326
00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:48,720
Speaker 1: then you would pay, say in February or November. Joel, Man,

327
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:50,480
Speaker 1: that's exactly what you and I did when we went

328
00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:52,800
Speaker 1: to Ireland with our wives. Our favorite spot that we

329
00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:55,640
Speaker 1: stayed at in Killarney, National Park. It was only seventy

330
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,720
Speaker 1: euro per room when we went at the beginning of November,

331
00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,200
Speaker 1: when normally it's one fifteen to one thirty. It is

332
00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:04,800
Speaker 1: really important to know when high season is right, when

333
00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:07,800
Speaker 1: it's shoulder season, and when it's off season. It's basically

334
00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:10,000
Speaker 1: a simple supply and demand and if you are able

335
00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,920
Speaker 1: to go on vacation when the demand is low, well

336
00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,120
Speaker 1: you're gonna save a lot of money. Yeah. On that note, Matt,

337
00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:18,000
Speaker 1: let's say someone wants to come and visit Atlanta. Well,

338
00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:21,120
Speaker 1: so much of the price of a hotel room in

339
00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:24,120
Speaker 1: Atlanta is dictated by the conferences that are going on

340
00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:26,920
Speaker 1: in town. So if you have flexible dates, you could

341
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:31,360
Speaker 1: score an incredibly inexpensive hotel room in downtown Atlanta or

342
00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:34,200
Speaker 1: you know, in the surrounding areas. But if you try

343
00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:36,480
Speaker 1: to come during a week where there's a big conference,

344
00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:39,560
Speaker 1: you're gonna pay likely three times as much to stay

345
00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,760
Speaker 1: in those same rooms. So, in particular, when you're looking

346
00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:45,280
Speaker 1: at cities that do have big conferences coming to town,

347
00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,920
Speaker 1: Las Vegas or Atlanta or Orlando, places like that, make

348
00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:51,200
Speaker 1: sure you look at the room prices before you book

349
00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,040
Speaker 1: your tickets because that can have just a massive effect

350
00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:57,480
Speaker 1: on how much you're gonna pay. Also, look into midweek stays, right,

351
00:15:57,480 --> 00:15:59,600
Speaker 1: it's not just off season travel, but if you're looking

352
00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:02,400
Speaker 1: at shorter trips, try and go during the week if

353
00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:04,440
Speaker 1: you have that kind of flexibility, because that can save

354
00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,520
Speaker 1: you money too. Yeah, and and not even with just hotels,

355
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,080
Speaker 1: but we've done that with our Airbnb. Our weekend pricing

356
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,280
Speaker 1: is anywhere between twenty and thirty dollars more than a

357
00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:16,920
Speaker 1: typical week day because obviously there's just going to be

358
00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:19,880
Speaker 1: more demand on the weekends when more people have that flexibility.

359
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,480
Speaker 1: So if you have the flexibility to go during the week, man,

360
00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:24,800
Speaker 1: you've got to consider that. Yeah, think about the memberships

361
00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:26,920
Speaker 1: that you have that might also be able to save

362
00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:29,440
Speaker 1: you money on a booking. If you're a senior or

363
00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:31,920
Speaker 1: a student, or a member of the military, or even

364
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:34,160
Speaker 1: if you just have a triple A membership, well that

365
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:36,520
Speaker 1: can help you save more as well. Make sure to

366
00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:39,560
Speaker 1: take advantage of those perks. Don't be afraid to tastefully

367
00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:41,760
Speaker 1: ask for the discount. We've talked about that before. It's

368
00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,760
Speaker 1: so important just to ask the question because you might

369
00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:46,640
Speaker 1: be able to score a sweet discount. It makes me

370
00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:49,760
Speaker 1: actually think of my dad because he would always and

371
00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,280
Speaker 1: he still does, actually ask for a military discount because

372
00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:54,480
Speaker 1: he was in the army. He's you know, he's retired now,

373
00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:57,560
Speaker 1: but as a kid, I remember being so embarrassed by that,

374
00:16:57,600 --> 00:16:59,680
Speaker 1: like he would always ask for a military discount. Be like, hey,

375
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,040
Speaker 1: do you offer for a military discount? Because you know,

376
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:04,960
Speaker 1: as a kid, you're just embarrassed of everything. But now,

377
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,200
Speaker 1: as a grown up man, I appreciate what he did.

378
00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:10,040
Speaker 1: He's just like kind of flexing his discount muscles. So yeah,

379
00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:12,359
Speaker 1: be like my dad, flex those muscles. They'll be afraid

380
00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:14,240
Speaker 1: to ask for that discount, yeah, man. And and those

381
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:16,720
Speaker 1: memberships can be great, right, and they can save you,

382
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,920
Speaker 1: especially last minute in a pinch. That additional ten percent

383
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:22,639
Speaker 1: can be huge. But there are also websites and apps

384
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:26,040
Speaker 1: that I think can be even better than a membership discount.

385
00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:29,200
Speaker 1: These sites can can save you big money on lodging

386
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:31,359
Speaker 1: and and so let's talk about those. And the first

387
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:33,480
Speaker 1: website I think we should mention is a website called

388
00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:36,840
Speaker 1: trip Advisor. And it's really interesting because it yeah, yeah,

389
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,040
Speaker 1: trip Advisor isn't actually going to save you money on

390
00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:42,000
Speaker 1: a hotel booking. It's not going to find you the

391
00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:44,080
Speaker 1: cheapest hotel on the block. But what it is going

392
00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:45,720
Speaker 1: to do is it's going to help you do your

393
00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,919
Speaker 1: research so that you can know which hotels are the

394
00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:52,280
Speaker 1: best in a given location. And that's thanks to a

395
00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:55,040
Speaker 1: ton of travel nerds out there. The rating system on

396
00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,760
Speaker 1: trip Advisor is so good, and it's a place I

397
00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:01,080
Speaker 1: turned often in order to vet hotel or a place

398
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:03,520
Speaker 1: that I'm looking to stay. They've got way more information

399
00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:06,399
Speaker 1: than just lodging information, right. But but that is a

400
00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,600
Speaker 1: key place where I can get really helpful info because

401
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,000
Speaker 1: the star ratings and the reviews on some of the

402
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,359
Speaker 1: actual booking sites they're not nearly as helpful. And some

403
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:17,879
Speaker 1: of those star ratings can feel quite a bit inflated.

404
00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:20,600
Speaker 1: So I would say that those a little scammy, Yeah,

405
00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:22,760
Speaker 1: a little chilly. Oh this one's a twelve star. It's

406
00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:26,000
Speaker 1: like what I didn't know that existed. But but I

407
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,040
Speaker 1: would say those actual trip Advisor reviews, digging in and

408
00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:31,639
Speaker 1: reading a handful can really help you kind of get

409
00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,000
Speaker 1: the lay at the land and figure out which hotels,

410
00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:36,200
Speaker 1: which parts of town, which areas you want to book,

411
00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:39,760
Speaker 1: And then you get into actually going to the websites

412
00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:42,080
Speaker 1: that are gonna help you book a place at a

413
00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:45,840
Speaker 1: really discounted rate. Yeah, websites like the discount of websites

414
00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,400
Speaker 1: Priceline and hot wire. Those are great sites to peruse

415
00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: where you can kind of do some additional research and

416
00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:54,639
Speaker 1: actually book a hotel. You can save a lot of

417
00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:57,160
Speaker 1: money that way. But an even better way to save

418
00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,960
Speaker 1: money right is to book blindly. Don't be afraid to

419
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,480
Speaker 1: not know the hotel that you will actually be staying in. Like,

420
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:05,840
Speaker 1: that's how you can save the most money by far,

421
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,439
Speaker 1: is by blind booking. And here's the thing, it's not

422
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:11,000
Speaker 1: completely blind, right if you've done this before, Like you're

423
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:13,159
Speaker 1: given the star rating of the hotel, you're given the

424
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 1: general area, so you have an idea and they even

425
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:20,360
Speaker 1: say like typically hotels like these two hotels it so

426
00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:22,280
Speaker 1: you know that, Okay, there's a good chance I'm gonna

427
00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,240
Speaker 1: be staying either in a Double Tree or a Marriott

428
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,960
Speaker 1: something like that. And so if you'd be happy staying

429
00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:29,280
Speaker 1: at either one of those hotels, well, blind book and

430
00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:32,000
Speaker 1: snag that discount. Yeah, those sites are so great, Matt,

431
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,720
Speaker 1: because if you're willing for the actual hotel that you're

432
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:37,960
Speaker 1: going to stay at to be hidden from you, until

433
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:40,439
Speaker 1: after you actually go through and book it, but you

434
00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,320
Speaker 1: kind of know generally what you're getting into that can

435
00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:47,480
Speaker 1: save you off the actual price of the hotel where

436
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:49,679
Speaker 1: you to book it directly. I mean the savings can

437
00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:53,280
Speaker 1: be substantial. Another site actually that's come along in recent

438
00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:55,639
Speaker 1: years that that is kind of competing with Priceline and

439
00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,399
Speaker 1: hot wire at that game is a site called hotel Tonight.

440
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:00,680
Speaker 1: It's an app to that you can download, and it's

441
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,520
Speaker 1: really great for for saving with last minute lodging and

442
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,160
Speaker 1: with people using apps like Uber and Lift to get

443
00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:08,960
Speaker 1: immediate transportation wherever they want to go. It totally makes

444
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:11,359
Speaker 1: sense that an app like Hotel Tonight came along in

445
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:13,280
Speaker 1: order to kind of give folks down ability to to

446
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:17,040
Speaker 1: book a hotel extremely last minute at an incredible discount.

447
00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:18,720
Speaker 1: But again, to get the best deal with an app

448
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,480
Speaker 1: like Hotel Tonight, if you absolutely have to know the

449
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,199
Speaker 1: hotel that you're booking ahead of time, you're you're going

450
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,320
Speaker 1: to pay more. Yeah, And Hotel Tonight they've got that

451
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:27,960
Speaker 1: daily drop as well, which is like the special deal

452
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,520
Speaker 1: that they run yeah yeah, and you can uncover that

453
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,399
Speaker 1: one deal and find out the actual hotel you'll be

454
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:35,960
Speaker 1: staying at but it's only I've got a fifteen minutes right, Yeah,

455
00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,320
Speaker 1: you gotta book it super quickly. Minutes the book this

456
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:41,439
Speaker 1: hotel stressing me out. You know. This also kind of

457
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,240
Speaker 1: makes me think of the software that we use for Airbnb.

458
00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 1: But we use this pricing software that automatically adjust our pricing.

459
00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:50,359
Speaker 1: But one of the things that does that we have

460
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:51,520
Speaker 1: to kind of keep an eye on, that we have

461
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:53,920
Speaker 1: to keep tabs on, is that if we haven't booked

462
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,439
Speaker 1: some nights, that will automatically lower the price on those

463
00:20:56,520 --> 00:21:00,920
Speaker 1: upcoming nights because the software says, oh, these people want

464
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 1: their Airbnb to be booked, so I will lower the

465
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: price in order for it to be booked more easily.

466
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,199
Speaker 1: It's basically like hotel tonight, but the app form of

467
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,240
Speaker 1: it built into the software that we use for Airbnb

468
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,439
Speaker 1: sounds kind of confusing. No, that makes sense, But like

469
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,800
Speaker 1: basically last minute bookings, they want to be able to

470
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,280
Speaker 1: offer it for less because they think that we wanted

471
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:20,120
Speaker 1: to be booked last minute. And so if you are

472
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,359
Speaker 1: in the position of the guest and you're looking for

473
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,439
Speaker 1: a last minute spot, I think that's why more and

474
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:26,720
Speaker 1: more guests are waiting till the last minute because they

475
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,720
Speaker 1: know that they're going to be deals. And that's totally true. Man.

476
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:31,320
Speaker 1: That's what we found is that a lot of folks

477
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:33,800
Speaker 1: are waiting until the last minute. So know that even

478
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 1: if you're looking on Airbnb, you might can snag a

479
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:38,920
Speaker 1: really good deal last minute. And if there's a new

480
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:41,720
Speaker 1: travel site that's run by a company we're already super

481
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,080
Speaker 1: familiar with and we've talked about on the show before, Honey,

482
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,359
Speaker 1: which has this awesome Chrome extension to help people save

483
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:50,560
Speaker 1: money when they're doing their e commerce shopping around the Internet,

484
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:53,120
Speaker 1: not just the Chrome browser. They're on Safari now too.

485
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:55,320
Speaker 1: You would know that because you're a your PC guy.

486
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 1: That is true. But yeah, so you've been digging into

487
00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:00,439
Speaker 1: kind of what honey has to offer in the travel

488
00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,000
Speaker 1: lodging discount arena. What have you found? What do you

489
00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 1: like about what they're offering? Yeah, so their site is

490
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: called honey dot Travel, dude, and it is pretty freaking awesome.

491
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,640
Speaker 1: I just checked today multiple hotels in multiple cities on

492
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: the different hotel discount sites, and honey dot Travel had

493
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,480
Speaker 1: the best rates by a land slide. Like I'm not

494
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 1: even kidding. It wasn't even close. It wasn't like a

495
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:24,680
Speaker 1: matter of just saving like five bucks here and there.

496
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: It was consistently saving at least twenty bucks and in

497
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: some cases like ninety dollars compared to prices on some

498
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 1: of the other discount sites. I was completely impressed because

499
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,480
Speaker 1: I haven't personally booked a hotel using that site, but

500
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:39,800
Speaker 1: now that I've sort of discovered them, I am totally

501
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 1: looking forward to giving them a shot soon. Nice. That's

502
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,520
Speaker 1: that's um good news. Good to have another awesome website

503
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:48,359
Speaker 1: to consider when you're looking for the best deal. The

504
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 1: only catch, though, with Honey right is is that they

505
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,440
Speaker 1: only offer these really low rates to users who currently

506
00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:56,640
Speaker 1: use that browser extension. Right, And they've found something called

507
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 1: a Honey key. Yeah, and you said find it because

508
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 1: it is sort of like the scavenger hunt. Right. So

509
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,600
Speaker 1: this Honey key evidently appears randomly at checkout when you're

510
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 1: using the regular Honey extension to score coupons and discounts

511
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,800
Speaker 1: when you're on just a regular site. And so I've

512
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 1: never actually noticed these keys before, but they're listed in

513
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,680
Speaker 1: your account overview when you click that little Honey icon

514
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:19,800
Speaker 1: in your browser. And so if you've been using Honey

515
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 1: you'll likely have keys just sitting there for you and

516
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 1: you don't even realize it. When I found out where

517
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:26,320
Speaker 1: the keys are are sort of stored, I found that

518
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:28,199
Speaker 1: I had fifteen of them there and I didn't know

519
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 1: it at all. Man. I love that Honey has sort

520
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:33,040
Speaker 1: of gamified this whole process and it makes it just

521
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 1: a lot of fun and man, because it is so fun. Seriously,

522
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:37,639
Speaker 1: I got really into it when I was kind of

523
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 1: researching the Honey thing, and so I wanted to find

524
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:42,160
Speaker 1: out how I got those keys because like, literally, I've

525
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 1: never really seen them pop up before. They kind of

526
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:46,720
Speaker 1: automatically get stored into your account, and so I kind

527
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 1: of reached out via Twitter to Honey because I wanted

528
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 1: to figure out like the secret sauce, like how do

529
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:53,159
Speaker 1: you get the keys? And they just said that you

530
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,360
Speaker 1: just have to use it. There's no secret sauce necessarily.

531
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: It kind of pops up as you use it and

532
00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,119
Speaker 1: before you know, you'll have those keys. And once you

533
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:01,399
Speaker 1: have those keys, it basically gives you access to all

534
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:03,920
Speaker 1: the discounts that Honey that Travel offers. So it's just

535
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: kind of an added incentive to actually use Honey, Whereas

536
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:09,720
Speaker 1: you kind of already had an incentive to in order

537
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 1: to score discounts on the stuff you are already planning

538
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 1: to buy exactly. But that's cool. Yeah, I love it.

539
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,080
Speaker 1: And if you want to go the complete opposite direction,

540
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,639
Speaker 1: you're not into the gamification, you're not into the discount

541
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,920
Speaker 1: travel sites. Well, another way to go about saving money

542
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: on a hotel in particular is to make that old

543
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: school phone call directly to the hotel that you're interested

544
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:33,119
Speaker 1: in staying at. For it to be an old school

545
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:34,920
Speaker 1: phone call, you have to use like your old flip phone.

546
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 1: You gotta use the rotary dial. I think, yeah, it

547
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: only works if you do it that way. But but yeah,

548
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:42,719
Speaker 1: if you make a phone call to a particular hotel

549
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 1: to ask what offers they have, or or even to

550
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 1: to mention a rate that you've seen online to see

551
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,680
Speaker 1: if they can beat it, well that's a really good

552
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 1: way to potentially save more. These hotels actually give up

553
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 1: a decent amount of money to these online booking engines,

554
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,360
Speaker 1: and they can clause that money back if they get

555
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 1: consumers to book directly. So at one example, Emily and

556
00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,880
Speaker 1: I ended up staying at a hotel in Athens last

557
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:07,679
Speaker 1: year after Christmas and it was super fun. We had

558
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 1: a great time. But I had looked directly on the

559
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 1: hotel website because it was really this kind of specific

560
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:15,640
Speaker 1: nich hotel that that we preferred to stay at because

561
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 1: it was kind of cool, it was a little vinto

562
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:18,920
Speaker 1: g and if it didn't work out, if we didn't

563
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:20,640
Speaker 1: get a deal, we would have been happy to find

564
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,960
Speaker 1: somewhere else to stay. But I decided to call and

565
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:24,439
Speaker 1: just kind of see what they had to offer. They

566
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,159
Speaker 1: had this awesome Black Friday deal they were offering, and

567
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:29,879
Speaker 1: so we were able to to score a discount on

568
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: this hotel that that we couldn't have gotten through any

569
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: sort of online booking engine. So basically, as these hotels

570
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:37,960
Speaker 1: are starting to see that they're getting a lot of

571
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: their profits eating away by the online booking engines, making

572
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 1: a phone call directly to the hotel and asking what

573
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: sort of rates they offer are seeing if they can

574
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,919
Speaker 1: beat a rate that you find online, that's definitely a

575
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: way to save more. Yeah, dude, this goes back to

576
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:55,199
Speaker 1: the art of asking for a discount episode which was

577
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 1: episode eighteen way back when asking for a discount it

578
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 1: truly is an art, and with more of our purchasing

579
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 1: and communicating taking place digitally. I think asking for a

580
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: discount is becoming even more rare, So if you can

581
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,200
Speaker 1: master the practice of that, you are going to have

582
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 1: a leg up. And another tip when you do call

583
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 1: the hotel, make sure that you're calling the specific location

584
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: of the hotel that you want to stay at. A

585
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 1: lot of chains will have say an eight hundred number,

586
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: and you want to make sure that you're calling the

587
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: front desk of the hotel that you want to stay at,

588
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: because a lot of times the managers there they're gonna

589
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,119
Speaker 1: have the most power to offer you that sweet discount. Yeah, man,

590
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think the better we can

591
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: get at asking for a discount, the more likely we

592
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: are to be able to actually get one. Another thing

593
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:40,200
Speaker 1: that deserves mentioned as we're talking about booking these hotel

594
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:42,920
Speaker 1: rooms and trying to to get a sweet discount is

595
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: the concept of refundable versus nonrefundable rooms. So in order

596
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:48,919
Speaker 1: to get the best deals, in order to score a

597
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: hotel room at a really sweet discount, we mentioned that

598
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 1: you're not going to know the name of the hotel.

599
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:55,680
Speaker 1: You're not gonna know where you're staying until after you've

600
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 1: booked well, also, it's going to be a nonrefundable room,

601
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,879
Speaker 1: which means your handcuffed to it once you've booked, And

602
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily a bad thing if you know what

603
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 1: you're doing and you book smartly. You just gotta be committed, man, Yeah,

604
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: you gotta be committed once you hit the accept key

605
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:13,440
Speaker 1: and you're going forward in the process. Don't back out

606
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:15,399
Speaker 1: on that trip with your wife to Athens. Why would

607
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 1: you do that, Joel? Well, I wouldn't. I would, and

608
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:19,920
Speaker 1: of course I wouldn't. But you're gonna get the best

609
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: deal if you're booking a nonrefundable room on one of

610
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: those sites that we've mentioned. So one other tip to

611
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: help you save even more money is to book a

612
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:30,679
Speaker 1: refundable room right after you book your airfare or if

613
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 1: you're driving, just to to book something that's refundable as

614
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:35,679
Speaker 1: soon as you kind of have an idea of what

615
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:37,919
Speaker 1: your trip is going to be like. Having a refundable

616
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: room is like having a burden in the hand that

617
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:42,640
Speaker 1: you can let go if you find something better when

618
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 1: you book your non refundable room at just an incredible deal.

619
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 1: But if prices go haywire as you get closer to

620
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 1: the date. It's nice to have that refundable room in

621
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 1: your possession because you know what, you can always stay there.

622
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:55,679
Speaker 1: And typically when you have a refundable room, you've got

623
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:57,680
Speaker 1: about forty eight hours in advance of your state to

624
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 1: cancel with no penalty to you. Just make sure you

625
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: know the fine print instead of calendar reminder to cancel

626
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,440
Speaker 1: that room. If you're able to find nonrefundable lodging, that's

627
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 1: better and at a cheaper price point. Nice man. That's

628
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: a strategy that I've forgotten about, and I'm definitely gonna

629
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:14,919
Speaker 1: keep that in mind next time I book a hotel.

630
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk more about some different fees associated with

631
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: hotels as well as some different alternatives to consider right

632
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 1: after the break, All right, Matt, we're back, and what

633
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: can kill a deal more quickly than ridiculous fees, right, So,

634
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: one thing that we need to be very aware of

635
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 1: as we're talking about scoring a deal on lodging when

636
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: we're traveling is potential hidden fees. There are like lawsuits

637
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 1: going on right now because certain hotel chains have been

638
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: charging exorbitant quote unquote resort fees, and they're even charging

639
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: these fees for basic hotels with almost no amenities. Yeah,

640
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 1: which is really ironic because they call these fees amenity

641
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 1: fee fees, resort fees. Yeah, there are all sorts of

642
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:06,920
Speaker 1: different names for them, but they're awful and most travelers

643
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 1: are caught completely off guard. They have no idea that

644
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: when they show up, they think they've paid the full rate,

645
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 1: but when they get there, it turns out there's more

646
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: they need to pay. Yeah, it's sort of a bait

647
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 1: and switch because they are not publishing these fees in

648
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 1: the total cost of the room, and so it doesn't

649
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 1: allow travelers to compare apples to apples when they're looking

650
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: at the different hotels. And in addition to those hotel

651
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 1: fees are just other fees or other expenses associated with

652
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,640
Speaker 1: the hotel, Yeah, Matt. And if there's a specific hotel

653
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: that you're looking at, it can be helpful to go

654
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: to their website to see what sort of additional fees

655
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 1: they charge that you might not be noticing on a

656
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 1: third party booking site. And let's mention a couple of

657
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: other fees that you need to be aware of before

658
00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 1: you book. And one is a fee for parking. Parking

659
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:50,480
Speaker 1: is a big one and it can influence your decision

660
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 1: to Uber as opposed to running a car. Parking fees

661
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: can cost thirty five fifties seventy five dollars a night,

662
00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: depending on what city you're booking in. That that's crazy, yeah,

663
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:01,479
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're looking in San Francisco or New

664
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 1: York in particular, you're gonna pay a lot in order

665
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: just to have the privilege of parking your car at

666
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: that hotel. When Emily and I were in San Francisco, actually,

667
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: what we did to avoid parking fees, which I think

668
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 1: we're like thirty five bucks a day, but that was

669
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:16,240
Speaker 1: like eight years ago, so it's probably more expensive now.

670
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 1: We decided to actually walk about a mile to rent

671
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 1: a car the day that we needed it, and we

672
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 1: returned it on the same day, so we kind of

673
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 1: got out of town, did our thing, brought it back,

674
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: and we never had to actually pay to park at

675
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 1: the hotel because that was such a ridiculous fee. It

676
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: was cheaper to rent the car for a day than

677
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 1: it was to park the car for a day. It

678
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 1: was mind blowing. Yeah, So make sure to watch out

679
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 1: for exorbitant parking fees at hotels. What's also in saying

680
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: is that you had to walk a mile. These days

681
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:46,320
Speaker 1: you just hop on a little scooter, a little east scooter.

682
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: Well it's kind of nice, man. It's like San France

683
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: is such a walkable town and you get to know

684
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: the town by walking. And that's one of my favorite

685
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: things when I'm traveling is to is to do a

686
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 1: lot of walking, because I feel like it gets you

687
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 1: acquainted in this way that no other method of transportation

688
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: can help you get acquainted with the city. So, yeah,

689
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 1: that walk was was not only to save money right

690
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 1: in order to get there, but it was this way

691
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 1: of kind of getting to spot other places that we

692
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: might want to come back to later. Yeah, man, I

693
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: could not agree more. Right, when when you're walking like that,

694
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 1: you slow down enough that you're you're not just seeing

695
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 1: the sites, you're actually experiencing them. That's what travels all about.

696
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: You know. We're talking about fees here. The best way

697
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: to avoid them is to make sure that you read

698
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: all the fine print. You know, it might feel a

699
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:32,240
Speaker 1: little bit uncouth to ask, right, but call and ask

700
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: the front desk see if there are any additional fees

701
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: at the time of your booking. You don't have to,

702
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: but come on like this is your money, and personally,

703
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 1: I'd rather that money go towards some local craft beer

704
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 1: of whatever town that I'm in visiting. However, if there

705
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: are other perks included that are free, like free parking

706
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: or maybe that breakfast where you can at least kind

707
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 1: of score some bacon and eggs, that can make the

708
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 1: price of your room seem a bit more reasonable. So

709
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to weigh all these things all

710
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:00,640
Speaker 1: at the same time, but you do, in a way

711
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 1: some of these additional perks that you are going to receive, Yeah, Matt.

712
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 1: One other way that people think that they're going to

713
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: save a good bit of money when they're traveling is

714
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 1: by joining a hotel loyalty reward program. It's typically free

715
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: to join those programs, and it's not a terrible idea,

716
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 1: but those hotel loyalty programs are specifically designed to get

717
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: you to continue to book at their hotels, and that

718
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 1: might not be the best idea for you. Actually, you

719
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: might find the perks the benefits that are being touted

720
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:30,920
Speaker 1: if you would just join this hotel program are not

721
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 1: nearly as good as the savings that you'll find by

722
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 1: booking through some of these other third party websites. It's

723
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 1: not a bad idea to join these rewards programs. There

724
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: might be other additional benefits like free WiFi or free breakfast,

725
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 1: right just just by being a member. And if it's free,

726
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 1: then it's a no brainer to join in order to

727
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: score those benefits. Certainly take advantage of it if it's

728
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,200
Speaker 1: there and you happen to be staying at that hotel. Yeah,

729
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean that you're going to get the

730
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 1: best rate on an actual room because you are a member.

731
00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 1: It still makes sense to do your due diligence and

732
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: look to book on your own as opposed to just

733
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 1: kind of blindly being loyal to one hotel chain. Yeah. Man.

734
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 1: And similar to the hotel loyalty programs, there are also

735
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 1: hotel loyalty credit cards. And the thing is they are

736
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:15,280
Speaker 1: also not quiet as sweet as they might see them

737
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 1: on the surface, because they're they're beholden to a specific

738
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: hotel chain and you may not get the best deal

739
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 1: with that specific hotel depending on where you're traveling. And

740
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 1: so instead we would recommend a credit card that is

741
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 1: a little more general. We have the freedom to move

742
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 1: those points around and book lodging at whatever hotel you

743
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 1: decide to book those at. And these are credit cards

744
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 1: like Chase, Sapphire, Preferred Capital Ones Venture. Both of those

745
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: are more sort of general travel reward credit cards, and

746
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 1: they're going to give you the flexibility to do what

747
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 1: you want with those points without losing them and without

748
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 1: having those points handcuffed to a specific hotel chain. Man,

749
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 1: there's so much to cover when we're talking about hotel booking.

750
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 1: There are so many ins and outs, there are so

751
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:56,880
Speaker 1: many particulars, and there's so many things to watch out

752
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: for so that we're being intentional about scoring a good

753
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: deal when we're traveling. But there are also alternatives, right,

754
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 1: there are things other than hotels. At the beginning of

755
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: this episode, we talked a little bit about hostels, and

756
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,919
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about traveling for free using

757
00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:12,799
Speaker 1: a site like couch surfing dot com. But there are

758
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 1: other ways to that. You can ditch the hotel and

759
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:17,920
Speaker 1: figure out another way to stay in a city or

760
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:20,800
Speaker 1: town for less money. And another thing to consider is

761
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 1: an airbnb. We've talked about that before, or even to

762
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 1: do something like a home exchange, and there's actually a

763
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,279
Speaker 1: website called home exchange dot com and this is an

764
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 1: awesome way to actually do kind of like a house

765
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 1: swap with someone in another location. This can save massive

766
00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:37,439
Speaker 1: money and actually end up securing you way cooler place

767
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 1: to stay. While hotels can be really easy and they

768
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,760
Speaker 1: can be just the simplest way we think about finding

769
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: lodging when we're traveling. Well, if you can dig one

770
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: level deeper and you can do some sort of home

771
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: exchange with somebody else, you can secure lodging that otherwise

772
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:55,520
Speaker 1: would have been impossible or just to prohibitively expensive for

773
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:57,600
Speaker 1: you to book. But doing a swap with someone else

774
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 1: can actually make it possible. So I love idea, and

775
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,080
Speaker 1: I think it's one of those things Matt that the

776
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:04,760
Speaker 1: people just oftentimes don't even think about it. It doesn't

777
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 1: come across their radar. Yeah, Joe, that's a great option.

778
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 1: You know you mentioned airbnbs. Anytime that you're able basically

779
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:12,839
Speaker 1: to get out of the part of town where all

780
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 1: the other tourists are and all the other visitors, like,

781
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 1: that's probably going to save you money. And here's the

782
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:19,880
Speaker 1: thing too with airbnbs, man, you know we talked about

783
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 1: like how there's parking fees, Well, typically with Airbnb's when

784
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:24,719
Speaker 1: you're staying at someone's house like you can avoid that.

785
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,640
Speaker 1: Earlier we talked about booking a place that's refundable. Well,

786
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 1: a lot of hosts on Airbnb offer really flexible cancelation policies.

787
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,279
Speaker 1: There's just a lot of benefit that you would experience

788
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,920
Speaker 1: from going with an Airbnb versus a hotel alight. Matt,

789
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:40,280
Speaker 1: I feel like we've really run the game in this episode.

790
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:42,240
Speaker 1: We've talked about kind of a lot of different options,

791
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 1: from free to cheap, and also to trying to score

792
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,320
Speaker 1: nicer lodging like a nice hotel room at a reasonable

793
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: rate through the different apps and websites that are available.

794
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:52,839
Speaker 1: But I feel like we have to go super Matt

795
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 1: and Joel on this one too and mention that there's

796
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 1: there's one more thing that people should consider, and I

797
00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,840
Speaker 1: think that's camping. Bring your tent along and you're sleeping

798
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:02,799
Speaker 1: can lead to big savings on a trip, and so

799
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 1: this is something that I have definitely done. Especially when

800
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 1: you're driving your car from place to place, finding a

801
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,680
Speaker 1: spot to camp can be really really fun, can add

802
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 1: to the excitement of your trip, and can also actually

803
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 1: save you big money at the same time. Because, of course,

804
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,439
Speaker 1: we talked about how expensive. Some of these hotel fees

805
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 1: have gotten these resort fees that they've added on. But

806
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,400
Speaker 1: just the price of a hotel room can be a

807
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,320
Speaker 1: little costly, right, and can can actually steer us away

808
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:30,359
Speaker 1: from traveling all together, because the costs just add up.

809
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: And if we're willing to rough it a little bit,

810
00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: or maybe even just do half and half, right, split

811
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:37,359
Speaker 1: the time between camping and a hotel room. Oh yeah, right,

812
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:38,759
Speaker 1: that can be a good way for us to cut

813
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: down on the cost of lodging as we travel, and

814
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 1: also maybe even kind of make it a little more fun.

815
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 1: I mean, I really like that idea, right, Like you

816
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,719
Speaker 1: you go camping, get your money savings in you're kind

817
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 1: of roughing it, but then even kind of maybe booking

818
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:51,520
Speaker 1: an airbnb on the back end a little bit. That

819
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:54,319
Speaker 1: way you get that hot shower, get that softbed, helps

820
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 1: you to kind of reintegrate with society a little bit. Yeah,

821
00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 1: a little refreshing on the back end. Yeah. And on

822
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: the note of camping, man, it makes me think of

823
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:03,399
Speaker 1: the trip that Kate Nit's with you and your wife,

824
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: along with some of our other friends as well. We

825
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,800
Speaker 1: went up to Asheville. We had a nice big crew Yeah,

826
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:09,160
Speaker 1: we did. Men, that was a lot of fun. And

827
00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: we went camping. We found a spot next to this river.

828
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 1: We all pitched our tents. We you know, in the

829
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: morning we had like some solid breakfast. During the days

830
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,239
Speaker 1: we went hiking, we hit up some breweries. It was

831
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. It was a lot of adventure,

832
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,480
Speaker 1: created some long lasting memories for sure. And guess what,

833
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 1: we paid no money because we were camping. Yeah, especially

834
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: if the weather is nice, it can add so much

835
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:33,959
Speaker 1: to the trip. That was fun, man, And it's something

836
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,399
Speaker 1: that I'm totally willing to consider in order to save

837
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:38,799
Speaker 1: money on lodging. It's cheaper than a hostel, and you

838
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,120
Speaker 1: know what, it might even be better depending on where

839
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: you're going. Man, I love it. I'm happy that we

840
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 1: sort of run the gamut from everything from couch surfing

841
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:49,399
Speaker 1: to fancy hotels, you know, and then we're back down

842
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:52,440
Speaker 1: to our roots camping. Man. If it's this is a

843
00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:55,719
Speaker 1: multiple choice quiz, I'm like Mark and d all these

844
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 1: I am Man. I love every once in a while

845
00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:01,800
Speaker 1: staying like a really posh hotel and then other times camping,

846
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,359
Speaker 1: other times well, couch surfing. I think I'm passed out

847
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 1: at this point. But I loved it when it when

848
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: it existed. When I did it, it was fun. It

849
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:09,759
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun, dude. Yeah, And I love

850
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 1: kind of all the different ways you can experience it. Right,

851
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be always the nicest hotel, and

852
00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:17,279
Speaker 1: it doesn't always have to be camping, and so much

853
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 1: of it depends on what your budget is and what

854
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:21,920
Speaker 1: kind of experience you want to have. Yeah, that's right,

855
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:24,160
Speaker 1: And regardless of what you're going for, hopefully we've covered

856
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:27,239
Speaker 1: something that will allow you to save money next time

857
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,160
Speaker 1: you are looking for some lodging. All right, Matt, Speaking

858
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: of an experience, let's talk about the beer that we

859
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 1: had on the show today. We drank Certainly Brewing Company's Darkness.

860
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: It's a Russian Imperial stout, and the folks that Certainly

861
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,480
Speaker 1: were kind enough to send this one in our way. Matt,

862
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 1: what were your thoughts on this beer? I think everything

863
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: of this beer because it is just so stinking good.

864
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:49,680
Speaker 1: There's something about this beer where it is able to

865
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:53,000
Speaker 1: sort of ride the line between a Russian Imperial stout

866
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: where there's lots of flavor, a lot of dark sweet

867
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:57,839
Speaker 1: notes packed into it, but at the same time it's

868
00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: not too heavy, it's not too thick. Yeah, man, this

869
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 1: beer is a legit beast. It's huge, but it's still

870
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:07,800
Speaker 1: incredibly well rounded. It's got these little hints of coffee

871
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 1: and cherry and dark chocolate. It's got all those little

872
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:12,759
Speaker 1: notes that slide across your tongue as you're drinking it,

873
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:16,320
Speaker 1: and it just makes this beer just so interesting and unique.

874
00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:20,799
Speaker 1: I would say, it's this gigantic stout that is completely

875
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: worthy of the hype that surrounds it. Beer nerds long

876
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,400
Speaker 1: for this beer. It's super special, and I'm glad we

877
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 1: got to drink this year's iteration because it's incredible. Man.

878
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:33,160
Speaker 1: It really is just an awesome representation of a Russian

879
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,720
Speaker 1: Imperial stout, which is something I don't drink very often,

880
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 1: but I feel like I should, and if more Russian

881
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,319
Speaker 1: Imperial stouts tasted like this, I would. Yeah. Well, with

882
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 1: the weather cooling down, it's it feels really appropriate to

883
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:45,440
Speaker 1: have a beer like this. So thanks to everyone up

884
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 1: there at Surly Brewing Company. All Right, Matt, that's gonna

885
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:50,239
Speaker 1: do it for this episode. If you want the show notes,

886
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:52,680
Speaker 1: you can find those pretty easily on our website at

887
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: how to money dot com and If you found this

888
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 1: episode and our podcast in general helpful and you enjoyed it,

889
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:00,720
Speaker 1: we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review

890
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 1: wherever it is that you listen to your podcasts. Alright, buddy,

891
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 1: until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,