Decided on where you want to go for your next holiday? You'll soon be glad that you stumbled upon this article... it will change the way that you go about booking accomodation.

It pays (pardon the pun) to specifically search for luxury hotel accomodation at bargain prices.

How the search works

• Hotels want to use up their un-used rooms. To increase the amount of guests checking in, certain travel sites have been created with the purpose of filling up luxury hotel rooms by offering bargain prices.
• To avoid complaints from their current customer base about such bargains, these travel sites do not reveal the names of the hotels. It's all one big and, well, not very well-guarded secret.

The sites to use

• Lastminute.com

Specify the star level and the facilities that you'd like your accommodation to feature.

You will then be told the star levels and given descriptions of hotels which match your criteria in your chosen location.

This is where we go all detective on your asses - the identity of the hotels is supposed to be 'Top Secret', but you can then go on to paste the hotel description into Google. Chances are they'll have used the same description as the normal (not-so secret) listing for that hotel, so it should be easy to work out exactly what hotel you're about to pay for.

Once you have successfully played at being a spy, you can use comparision sites to make sure that you are being offered the best deal for that specific hotel.

Double check on Trivago or Travel Supermarket

• Priceline.co.uk

Through this webiste, hotels can offer discounts on unsold rooms without publicising their emptiness. It offers great discounts, especially for US hotels.

Priceline works on a 'name your own price' function.

Start by picking a city area where you'd ideally like to stay and a star rating class.

Decide how much you're willing to pay for what you have chosen (considering location, and amnetiies included in the star level).

That then becomes a bid for a room per night - if the hotel accepts your price, your bid wins, and that is how much you pay.

Always start low, and remember that if accepted, a bid guarantees a sale... so no refund!

• Hotwire.com

Search for a room in your chosen city on a specific date to see the 'hot rates'.

You are not told the name of the hotel. You are instead told only the star rating, the area of the city where it is located, and the hotel's amenties.

Time to go all Sherlock Holmes again. You can search on Hotwire's revealed hotels, in a bid to match up the 'secret' hotel deal with Hotwire's own publicised deals.

Match the area of the revealed hotel on the map with your secret, and check the standard hotels that match the hot hotels' star ratings.

Compare the rates.

Once you have matched up the rates and the stars, you can then read reviews on websites such as TripAdvisor before you commit.

• Travelocity.com

Find secret rooms in the USA, Canada and parts of the Caribbean.

Once again, you are only given the star rating, user review rating and rough location of the hotel. No name.

Yep, you guessed it. More spying. You're like James Bond, just with snakebike and black instead of Vodka Martini. To find out the identities of the deals given for the 'secret' hotels, you can search Travelocity itself for its revealed hotels on the same date.

Match up the star ratings and user ratings.

All will soon be revealed.

Remember:

• The hotel star system is based on facilities, and not quality. Try not to judge hotels purely by their star ratings.

• Sundays are the hotel's quietest booking days, so the best bet when looking to book a bargain.

• Check if room taxes are added on after the intial deal price. Many countries could charge up to £30 per day room tax...

• Using these websites, you could potentially book a room in New York at the Times Square Sheraton for £55 a night, beating the listed £200 price tag.

Luxury hotels at bargain prices. Not such a secret anymore...

Tags: Budget travel