Recently we posted an article entitled ‘How to Travel Hack a Tour Part I’ which covered the topics of using air miles, flight search engines/aggregators and various other ‘hacks’ in order to obtain cheap/ free air travel for your band – because let’s face it, even if you’re on a van tour, someone’s going to need to fly home from somewhere or fly in from somewhere at some point – and whenever you can save a little money – especially when you’re on tour, life gets just a little easier.
However the tour is not just about the air travel, no no no, there’s a lot more to it than that, and of course there multiple ways to travel hack to get what you want at the best possible rates – today we give you just a few more of them, with that all important travel topic – finding a place to rest your weary heads!
Again – What’s Travel Hacking All About?
You can skip this section if you’ve already read Part I , but basically the objective of travel hacking is to get the best travel option for the lowest price or best deal, or even better at no charge at all. This is achieved through effectively utilizing things like air miles, hotel rewards points and more as well as doing research online using cheap flight/ hotel search engines and various other tips and tricks that involve great savings – or spending absolutely no cash at all. And since touring really is all about travel, the lower your travel costs are, the more you’ll gain from your tour.
Accommodation/ Hotels
Websites such as priceline.com, hotels.com and others provide many options for cheap accommodation provided you know how to use them the right way – priceline is about bidding to get the best possible price whilst sites like hotels.com are more about using their search engine functions to find the best nightly deals, particularly last minute deals, and often you can get free nights after booking a certain number of hotel stays through them.
Then there’s individual hotel rewards programs, which similar to frequent flyer programs, you sign up for and gain points each time you stay at a certain hotel chain and once you’ve racked up enough of these you get free nights, as well as a host of other potential benefits. A good example here is the Hilton Hhonors program. But the Hilton, you say, that’s waaay too fancy for my band’s van tour! And true as that may be, like a lot of major hotel chains, Hilton owns many different properties and hotel brands, aimed at different markets and with a range of different price points – including some you might actually be able to afford on your accommodation budget. See some of the travel hacking resources below for more advanced info on how to travel hack a hotel room.
But then there are other hacks you can pull off, other options other than a hotel room that you can pursue to get a roof over the band’s head, and maybe even a hot shower or two – without spending a fortune, or even a dime. Hostels are always an option, depending on how many people are travelling with you, if you are a singer/songwriter and it’s just you and your manager/tech/ general road-buddy, it might be cheaper to stay in a hostel than to split a hotel room, though if you have fifteen people in your band and crew it might be cheaper to find a suite somewhere that will let you cram a few extra people in there. And then there are other options, such as ‘Better than the Van’ which is a resource for those willing to open their homes to bands for a night, and the bands looking to find places to stay, in exchange for something as simple as a couple of tickets to your show. You can read Mixonic’s full article on Better than the Van here.
Similarly there are also couch surfing sites out there that can potentially be used, depending on your exact situation such as couchsurfing.org. And if you are going to be somewhere for longer than a night or two, say if you are in Los Angeles for two weeks recording an album, you could always consider house-sitting, or house swapping. Hit google, craigslist or visit sites like Housecarers.com or HomeExchange.com for more info on this.
Travel hacking is all about thinking outside of the box and being creative – something musicians tend to be well-known for, so applying some of these and other travel hacking techniques should be pretty rewarding and easy enough – in fact for seasoned touring musicians and other travellers, some of these tips and tricks are probably almost second nature already, but be ready for part III where we throw in a few more curveballs and hacks you might not quite have thought of yet.
Stay tuned for Part III covering gas cards, dining, route planning to save cash and other rewards, tips and tricks!
Further Travel Hacking Resources:
- Man vs Debt: Travel Hacking for Noobs
- Nomadic Matt: The Ultimate Travel Hacking Guide
- Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Non-Conformity: Beginner’s Guide to Travel Hacking
- Chris Guillebeau: Travel Hacking Cartel*
**(Note: the Travel Hacking Cartel is a paid membership site but you can get a 14 day trial for $1 that will give you a LOT of info if you are interested in travel hacking, consider it a graduation from the Art of Non Conformity’s Beginner’s Guide)
