Tip: for last-minute hotel stays, look online before you book

Here’s a tip for anyone without hotel reservations: Never accept the first price you’re offered at the front desk. One reader refused to, and he saved $100 a night at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers. Yes, that’s $100 a night.

How’d he do that?

“Initially, I was quoted a rate of $239 a night,” he says. “After showing my Starwood Preferred Guest platinum card, I was told the ‘best rate’ was now $199 for the night.”

Much better, he thought. But could he beat that? The property had free Wi-Fi in the lobby, so he fired up his PC and decided checked the Starwood site for prices.

“I found a room at the hotel for $139,” he recalls.

Several minutes later he checked in, “amazing the clerk with the new rate,” he says. “I hadn’t made a reservation at a hotel front desk in a while, and now I know why I won’t ever do it again.”

The experience made him wonder about all the other people who needed a last-minute room and paid through the nose. Make me wonder, too.