Originally Posted by
slippahs
Book the cheapest refundable rate (or at least with a 72 hour cancellation policy) you can find and that you're comfortable with. Then just keep looking. If occupancy is down, rates drop five days prior to arrival, for sure. And you never know what specials might be offered later once the busy winter travel season has died down.
I concur with this also.
It sounds like you're looking for a hotel, but we just did this with a condo rental for the week before you're there, b/c we're taking two of our kids this trip.
Our recent experience:
We've had reservation booked at the AinaNalu in Lahaina for about 5 months or so until a couple of weeks ago.
At the time of booking....they were one of the cheaper condos in the area for the size we needed/wanted and resigned ourselves to being in town instead of on the beach.
Then, we started seeing discount special showing up in our email accounts last month and started shopping around.
We wound up canceling out the AN and booked a unit at the Wailer for $700/wk less....right where we'd rather be anyway.
After booking that....like airline seats....prices went back up for comparable units in Whalers within a day, or so, but my wife's noticed recently that prices are back down to that level again.
Everything is very fluid right now, so pick one you like w/o cancelation fees and keep your eyes open.