Murky Turkey/Negotiating Hotel Prices/Free Stays at Wyndham
Nomadico issue #53
A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.
Still Murky in Turkey
Will the country of Turkey (Turkiye) continue down its current spiral or turn things around? That’s still up in the air as neither presidential candidate got above 50% in this month’s election and a run-off is coming. With the prospect of Erdogan remaining in office a possibility, the Wall Street Journal reported that “Investors are betting the lira will lose another half of its value in the next year” with no change in leadership.
News Flash: It’s Not the Nomads Driving Up Housing Prices
If you’re an editor trying to formulate a good clickbait article, tying rising housing prices to the remote work trend seems to be a sure bet. But it turns out housing prices in Mexico went up 11.7% last year and many markets that increased the most had nary a nomad in sight. (In case you’re wondering, the average price of a home in Mexico is $90,850.)
In-Person Hotel Prices
I don’t do this often, but when I do it almost always works: negotiating hotel prices in person instead of booking in advance. This week while road-tripping around Greece we showed up in one remote town and immediately paid 90 euros for a waterfront hotel instead of the online price of 110 (including breakfast for two) by asking in person for a room. In the end, the owners probably still came out ahead because they avoided the high fees charged by the likes of Expedia and Booking. This works best with 1) family hotels, 2) outside of high season, and 3) checking in late in the day. Paying cash can sometimes help too…
A Simple Hotel Credit Card
I’ve got a few different hotel credit cards I use to stack up free nights and get upgrades. One of them you don’t hear about much offers a great payoff without complications: the Wyndham Rewards card from Barclays. There’s a $0 annual fee version that gives you 45K sign-up points and a $75 fee one that gives you 75K points and Platinum status. Wyndham only has 3 redemption levels, the highest being 30K for a free night, so no complicated charts or changing levels for cashing in. And no foreign transaction fees.
05/25/23
