Frommer's Kauai - Jeanette Foster [61]
HOME EXCHANGE If you are interested in trading your home on the mainland for someone’s home in Hawaii so that you can both have an inexpensive vacation, the best book to read first is Home Exchange Guide: How to Find Your Free Home Away from Home, by M. T. Simon and T. T. Baker, published by Poyee Publishing (2901 Clint Moore, no. 265, Boca Raton, FL 33496; 56 1/892-0494;www.poyeen.com). This step-by-step guidebook first helps you determine if home exchange is right for you. It then helps you develop a strategy to get the word out. You’ll utilize “surefire ways” to have a successful home exchange on both sides.
BARGAINING ON PRICES
Rates can sometimes be bargained down, but it depends on the place. In general, each type of accommodation allows a different amount of latitude in bargaining on its rack (or published) rates.
The best bargaining can be had at hotels and resorts. Hotels and resorts regularly pay travel agents as much as 30% of the rate they get for sending clients their way; if business is slow, some hotels might give you the benefit of at least part of this commission if you book directly instead of go through an airline or travel agent. Most also have kamaaina or “local” rates for islanders, which they might extend to visitors during slow periods. It never hurts to ask politely for a discounted or local rate; a host of special rates are also available for the military, seniors, members of the travel industry, families, corporate travelers, and long-term stays.
Nickel-&-Dime Charges at High-Priced Hotels
Several upscale resorts in Kauai have begun a practice that we find distasteful and dishonest: charging a so-called “resort fee.” This daily fee is added on to your bill for such “complimentary” items as a daily newspaper, local phone calls, use of the fitness facilities, and the like. Amenities that the resort has been happily providing free to its guests for years are now tacked on to your bill under the guise of a “fee.” In most cases you do not have an option to decline the resort fee—in other words, this is a sneaky way to further increase the prices without telling you. The only way that this obnoxious fee will ever be rescinded is if you, the consumer, complain, and complain loudly.
Ask about package deals, which might include a car rental or free breakfast for the same price as a room. Hotels and resorts offer packages for everyone: golfers, tennis players, families, honeymooners, and more. See “Money-Saving Package Deals,” earlier in this chapter.
We’ve found that it’s worth the extra few cents to make a local call to the hotel; sometimes the local reservationists know about package deals that the toll-free operators are unaware of.
If all else fails, try to get the hotel or resort to upgrade you to a better room for the same price as a budget room, or get them to waive the parking fee or the extra fees for children. Persistence and polite inquiries can pay off.
It’s harder to bargain at bed-and-breakfasts. You may be able to bargain down the minimum stay or negotiate a discount if you’re staying a week or longer. But generally, a B&B owner has only a few rooms and has already priced the property at a competitive rate, so expect to pay what’s asked.
You have somewhat more leeway to negotiate on vacation rentals and condos. In addition to asking for a discount on multinight stays, also ask whether the condo or vacation rental can throw in a rental car to sweeten