Travelers often have no choice when they take their trips. You’ve got a convention or wedding, you book a hotel at the going rate and hope for the best.
For those who have greater flexibility, here’s a chance to maximize your travel dollars over the course of 2013. USA TODAY asked discount booking site Hotwire.com to analyze historical booking data to find the cheapest dates for hotels in top U.S. cities.
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If you love New York — but not its sky-high hotel prices — you should plan your trip in January, February, the Fourth of July or the week before Christmas. If you do, you’ll find room rates as low as $93 (this month), compared to a peak of $250 for the first week of December, when holiday visitors swarm the city. With several popular conventions and events throughout the year, New York is by far the most volatile market in Hotwire’s data.
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For Las Vegas, mid-May to mid-August visits will yield the lowest hotel prices. Rates in early August fall as low as $55 a night. While the desert in summer is not for everyone, if there’s one city where you can accomplish all your recreation indoors, Vegas is it. As you might expect, New Year’s Eve is the most expensive hotel night, with rates climbing to an average of $152.
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As one of the USA’s most popular destinations, Orlando hotel rates remain consistent for much of the year. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is the most expensive ($76/night), but the rest of the year stays fairly close to $50, with the lowest rate ($42) in late August.
Several popular cities show almost identical hotel pricing trends. For Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington, D.C., prices are consistently higher in spring and summer, and at their lowest from January to March and October to December.
Other cities show almost no seasonal fluctuation — average rates in Dallas/Ft. Worth and Atlanta barely budge throughout the year.
As you’ll see from the data below, there is one date on which you can expect to pay the most in almost any city, New Year’s Eve. But if you stick around for a few days after, or better still, wait until Jan. 2 to book your trip, you’ll find consistently low rates across the board.
With a caveat from Hotwire that it’s not always possible to anticipate identical rates on the same dates — a major event such as the Las Vegas CES may fall on a different weekend from one year to the next — here’s a breakdown of the cheapest and most expensive dates to book hotels in 2012:
Atlanta
Cheapest: $49, 12/17/12
Most expensive: $81, 12/31/12
Chicago
Cheapest: $52, 1/9/12
Most expensive: $97, 11/5/12
Dallas-Ft. Worth
Cheapest: $45, 1/9/12
Most expensive: $57, 12/31/12
Las Vegas
Cheapest: $55, 8/6/12
Most expensive: $152, 12/31/12
Los Angeles
Cheapest: $71, 1/2/12
Most expensive: $119, 12/31/12
New York
Cheapest: $93, 1/30/12
Most expensive: $251, 12/3/12
Orlando
Cheapest: $42, 8/20/12
Most expensive: $76, 12/31/12
San Diego
Cheapest: $54, 1/2/12
Most expensive: $111, 7/23/12
Washington, D.C.
Cheapest: $59, 1/2/12
Most expensive: $100, 5/14/12
Cheapest weeks to book hotels in top U.S. cities
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