By Hannah Sampson
The Washington Post

Through the first eight months of the year, hotel prices in North America and most other parts of the world increased compared with the same period in 2023, when U.S. rates already were at record highs, according to the commercial real estate information company CoStar.

According to the travel app Hopper, prices in some U.S. markets have skyrocketed since 2019. Boston and New York have seen 20% increases, while Phoenix hotel prices shot up 28% and prices in San Diego and Chicago increased by 30%. Prices have been on the rise since travel demand surged in 2021 following a pandemic-era lull, the company said.

“While airfares and car rental rates have mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels, accommodation prices remain sky high compared to what most travelers paid pre-pandemic,” Hopper said in a statement.

Some relief may be in sight: Inflation data shows lodging prices were down 3.7% year-over-year in September.

Still, travelers may be shuddering as they search for a place to stay in the coming months. We asked expert travelers their favorite tips for easing the blow.

Comparison-shop

Phil Dengler, co-founder of travel deals site The Vacationer, said he always starts by searching Google Maps for hotels. After adding the filters you want, the list of hotels will show prices directly from the property and from other travel sites. If third-party rates are cheaper, he recommends calling the hotel and asking them to beat them.

Many hotels promise they will offer the best rate themselves and even give discounts if third-party sites undercut them — with some caveats. Stephen Pepper, a contributor to the site Frequent Miler who is in the seventh year of a 50-state road trip, has written about so-called “best rate guarantees” and their fine print.

“Everything has to match — dates, room types, cancellation periods, etc.,” he wrote in an email.

Watch for price drops

If a hotel does not require payment upfront to hold the reservation, you can wait to pay until check-in. Then keep checking the price on the website, said Sally French, a travel expert at the personal finance site NerdWallet.

“You might actually see hotel prices drop; then you can go ahead and cancel your reservation and rebook,” she said.

Before trying this, just make sure the cancellation policy allows doing so without a charge.

Know the right time to book

According to Hopper, inclusive resorts should be booked three months or more in advance, while popular leisure destinations might offer their best prices one to two months before the vacation date.

But waiting longer can pay off in big cities with plenty of hotel inventory. French said hotels often will be “more willing to sell a room at a cheap rate just to fill it.”

“I’m very comfortable booking an overnight in New York at the last minute,” said Hayley Berg, Hopper’s lead economist.

Madison Rolley, a travel content creator and digital nomad, wrote in an email that she likes to use the app HotelTonight for her last-minute bookings.

“This hack really saved me in a pinch when a flight got canceled on a layover after midnight due to poor weather,” she said.

Be flexible with your dates

If a trip isn’t tied to an event, occasion or other specific date, travelers can find deals by picking the right days and months for their stay.

Hopper says January and February typically are cheaper than busy spring break times, for example — and that goes for airfare as well as hotels. Weekend nights can cost significantly more than weeknights, too, so consider a midweek trip if possible.

Dengler recommends checking to make sure there’s no overlap with big events in a destination and playing with dates in Google Hotels to see how low rates can get.

Use cash-back sites

Dengler recommends checking whether hotel companies or online travel agencies are part of cash-back portals such as Rakuten, BeFrugal or TopCashback. Booking through one of those sites or using their browser extensions can earn travelers money back for purchases they were already planning to make.

Paying with a credit card that offers cash back can sweeten the deal. In most cases, Dengler said, shoppers can expect 1% to 3% cash back from most hotel sites or a bigger return from online travel sites.

Make points work for you

Not a points wiz or credit card maven? That’s OK. Dengler said the simplest way to assess whether it makes sense to book a hotel using credit card rewards is to look in your card’s travel portal and see how many points a hotel costs compared with the cash price. One cent per point is acceptable for most people, he said — though he likes to hold out for more value.

Become loyal

Pepper said joining a hotel brand’s loyalty program can deliver lower prices, even for travelers who haven’t built up status. Plus, once you’re a member, you’ll start earning points — which could eventually pay off.

Consider a gamble

Have your heart set on a particular hotel? Want a flexible cancellation policy? Is control at all important to you? Then this option is not for you.

But if you truly are just interested in a discount and don’t mind a go-with-the-flow approach, consider using a surprise site. You’ll select the city of your choice, with varying amounts of information on location and ratings, and — surprise! — find out exactly what you got after you make your purchase. Hotwire offers Hot Rates, and Priceline has Express Deals and Pricebreakers, which show a list of three options. None are refundable, so prepare accordingly.

Rolley posted on TikTok in March about her own Pricebreakers strategy, calling it her “favorite cheap travel tip” for hotels.

“I always think this is a fun, cheap and spontaneous way to travel,” she wrote in her email. “And I end up staying in much nicer hotels than I could have afforded otherwise.”

By Kerry Dooley Young
Special to The Washington Post

For millions of Americans, the end of the year means it’s time to review health insurance coverage as open enrollment for 2025 gets underway. That usually takes place in October and November for the 154 million who get their plan through work; for the additional 21 million who access insurance through the government-run marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it started Nov. 1 and goes through Dec. 15.

One of the biggest shake-ups in recent years is the growth of high deductible plans, which offer lower monthly premiums but require consumers to pay most initial medical costs out of pocket before the plan’s coverage kicks in. While their cheaper premiums may look like a bargain, consumers risk paying much more if they have unexpected illnesses or fail to budget well for more routine care.

Here’s what you need to know when it’s time to choose a health insurance plan:

How are high deductible plans different from other options?

Most Americans are familiar with the more traditional “preferred provider organization” (PPOs), which offers a broader network of participating medical professionals and a lower deductible in exchange for a higher monthly premium. These may be a good choice for people who’ll need more than routine medical care. They also tend to have lower co-payments and don’t always require patients to seek their primary doctor’s approval to see specialists.

Some employers also offer the option of a health maintenance organization (HMO), which typically charges lower premiums but imposes more restrictions on access to specialists, with primary care doctors sometimes acting as “gatekeepers.”

Both types of plans have lost ground to high deductible plans. In 2006, only 4% of workers were covered by them; by 2024, the share was 27%, according to the nonprofit health policy research organization KFF. In that same time, the share of people in PPOs slipped from 60% to 48%, while those in HMOs dropped from 20% to 13%.

Why can high deductible plans be risky?

Many Americans have had sticker shock in recent years because deductibles have risen across most types of plans. HMO or PPO plans average around $3,000 a year for family coverage (when out-of-pocket expenses of all members count against a deductible) compared to almost $5,000 for high deductible plans.

The ACA established federal requirements for most health plans, including high deductible ones, to ensure the most basic routine preventive services (such as mammograms and colorectal cancer screening) don’t require co-pays. But given the threshold for coverage under high deductible plans, enrollees are more tempted to curtail or delay other types of preventive care and elective treatments to save money, research has shown.

In other cases, consumers might hold off on elective treatments and screenings until later in the year, after they rack up other health expenses to reach their deductible. This can be especially risky for those who have chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, potentially leading to missed opportunities for earlier intervention.

Given that these plans can result in hefty out-of-pocket bills, high earners are in a better position to fund their medical care, while those on lower incomes are more at risk, said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. She encourages “caution” before signing up — despite the allure of lower premiums.

That’s especially the case for the millions of Americans who are cash-strapped even for basic necessities. A 2022 Federal Reserve survey suggested that about 37% of adults in the United States couldn’t fully cover an unexpected $400 expense with either cash or its equivalent, such as a credit card.

Why have health insurance deductibles become so expensive?

Deductibles have been pushed up in part by the broader increase in drug prices. Another driver is the consolidation of the health care system. Larger systems can demand higher prices, and because employers want to offer plans that include major hospitals in their region, hospitals have more clout in those price negotiations, Corlette said.

“Employers and insurance companies turn around and pass those costs on to consumers,” she said. “That is done both in the form of higher premiums, but also through higher deductibles and other forms of cost sharing.”

The consolidation trend has caught the attention of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services, which have launched a joint inquiry into how mergers and acquisitions, especially by private equity, are driving up medical costs.

Can health savings accounts help consumers cover some of those costs?

Created in 2003, HSAs allow people to set aside a tax-free share of their paycheck for health costs. These accounts have become increasingly popular for those on high deductible plans because they can be used to cover bills before the deductible kicks in. Employers offer them in tandem with high deductible plans and sometimes kick in matching money. HSAs are also appealing because they’re portable and can be invested, so employees can take them to a new job or roll them over.

That very feature, however, has opened HSAs to criticism as tax shelters for the wealthy, who have more cash to funnel to these accounts. A Congressional Research Service report, based on 2017 IRS data, pointed to such an income divide: Up to 17% of returns reporting adjusted gross income between $200,000 and $499,999 indicated use of an HSA, while less than 4% of those between $10,000 to $24,999 did so.

If I get a choice of health insurance plans, what’s the best option for me?

The answer depends on your personal and financial circumstances. But experts agree you need to consider more than the monthly premium. If you need only routine preventive care, the high deductible option may be attractive if you accept the limits of its coverage as a trade-off.

But people need to be realistic about their potential financial liabilities and consider what will happen if they have an unforeseen illness or accident, said A. Mark Fendrick, director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Value-Based Insurance Design.

“Even if you think you’re a superhero, you have to make sure that you can cover the deductible in your plan,” he said.

Experts also advise closely looking at which services are covered in the various plans.

Deniece Maston, an HR knowledge adviser for SHRM who used to work for government contractors, recalled talking with employees who at first were attracted to the plans’ low premiums. After encouraging them to consider their families’ likely medical needs, they often made different choices, she said: “By doing the math, they found out that the cheaper plan actually had them pay more.”

Regardless of what you choose, you should also make sure your plan’s information on in-network medical professionals is up to date by checking with their doctor’s office. Sometimes insurers’ directories are inaccurate, leaving people scrambling to find new doctors and hospitals or risk facing higher costs for out-of-network care.