Traveling is fun, but it can be expensive. Savvy travelers know there are ways to save on your upcoming vacation — you only need flexibility and the right travel apps.
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Here are four travel apps to help you save on your next vacation.
Hopper
Hopper lets you book flights, hotels and rental cars all over the world. The app predicts future booking prices and will inform you if prices will likely go down, or if the best time to book is right now. It uses trillions of data points to analyze the pricing patterns of airlines, hotels and car rental companies.
You search by entering your destination and travel dates. Hopper will show you the cheapest dates to travel around the time you want to go. Once you select your dates and flight, the app will advise you to either book now or watch the trip. If the algorithm predicts that the price for your trip is likely to go down, you’ll be notified when to book.
There are also flash deals, which Hopper negotiates with its travel partners. If your dates and your itinerary are flexible, you can sign up to be notified when flash deals become available.
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Skyscanner
Skyscanner sounds like an app for finding the best flight deals, and that’s how it started. But now, you can use the Skyscanner app to identify the best deals on hotels and car rentals too. The search engine has a ‘search everywhere’ feature, so you can enter the city you’re leaving from and your dates, and see all the places you can go.
Unlike some other apps, though, you just identify the best deals on Skyscanner, and then book directly through the airline, hotel or car rental agency.
Hotel Tonight
For the ‘where the wind takes you’ traveler, Hotel Tonight can be a life and money saver. This app lets you book a hotel for the same night, sometimes at greatly reduced prices. The hotels make nothing if the room isn’t booked, so they will sometimes offer deals at the last minute. If you’re in a popular city during the off-season, or at least when there is not much going on, you can get a great deal.
For example, Hotel Tonight recently offered a one-night stay at the Battery Wharf Hotel in Boston the same night for $194. On the hotel’s website, the same stay two weeks later was $423.
GasBuddy
If yours is a road trip, saving a few cents per gallon on gas can add up. To find the best price on nearby gas stations – or to find the nearest station so you don’t run out – try the GasBuddy app. It will find the gas stations nearest to you and sort them by price so you can save the most. GasBuddy’s data is generated by users, so in less populated areas the information could be out of date.
Using apps to help you save on travel is a smart move, but be sure you’re booking the right trips, too. Traveling during the off-season – or the so-called ‘shoulder’ season, just before and after high season – can save you a lot. So you can have flexibility in your dates or book hotels that may be a little bit off the beaten path.
Bon voyage!
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 4 Top Travel Apps To Save on Your Next Vacation
