How I Got A 3-Day Resort Trip for $130 Per Person
$260 total for two of us, but divide that by 2 and its $130. Quick maths...
No points redeemed, no points needed for this trip but it was still hella cheap!
The GF and I had a recent trip at a beachy town called Phan Thiet in Vietnam.
It’s 3 hours away from HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City), so it was quick and easy place to get out of town to a more nature-y, beach location.
So the sake of documenting and keeping awesome unforgettable memories, I created a Youtube video about this trip.
Please click here to check it out to see how our vacation went.
The reason why we couldn’t use points is because there’s this were no big chain hotel resort connected to any international companies for points to be redeemed for, so our alternative was to find the best deal possible with private resort hotels.
(Yes. $130 per person in total for a 3-day vacation looks almost like this. Anything is possible.)
The Planning:
Whenever we plan a trip, we need to discuss what exactly are we targeting?
It’s as simple as asking rooted question:
What’s our intention?
Why do we want to go there?
What’s are the benefits?
What’s our cost?
For how long can we go for?
Are we spending more time indoors or outdoors?
Is there a shuttle bus thats included?
Do we require bus or plane to get there?
Asking these questions seems simple, but gives ton of clarity and a clearer image of exactly why and where we want to go on vacation.
So here’s our answers:
What’s our intention? Enjoy a chill, beach area with swimming and sun. As long as we are out of the big metropolitan city. We want to enjoy fresh air.
Why do we want to go there? Because we want to be more exposed to nature, touch sand, breathe fresh air, go fishing, enjoy local foods, and relax.
What’s are the benefits? It’s off-peak season, best time to go now, less crowded, less chance of rain, the hotel resort is giving a bomb-ass deal for us to go now.
What’s our cost? $130 per person Or $260 total for 2 people (for 3 days, 2 nights)
For how long can we go for? 3 days was our time budget for a quick get-away.
Are we spending more time indoors or outdoors? Outdoors more, because it’s a freaking resort. There’s no reason to spend time inside besides showering and sleeping, so the room doesn’t have to be top-tier level.
Is there a shuttle bus thats included? Yes!
Do we require bus or plane to get there? A 3 hour bus ride is required.
As you see, there’s clarity and we finally know what we wanted.
That means we don’t have to search for hotels around highland, mountainous regions or cold places. It reduces our options, making it easier to choose, therefore less headaches and less chance of regret.
So the method here is to reduce options by eliminating on what you don’t want and asking yourself simple questions. Because it will eventually make sense and align with what you actually want.
This series of rooted questions helped me decide to unofficially move to HCMC in which I don’t not regret. Feel free to read more on that to see my thought process.
Process of Elimination:
Next thing we did now was narrow our searches more on the particular area that has lots of hotels and resorts.
The reason for this is because by the nature of business, these neighboring hotels are competing against each other by either lowering prices, giving more amenities, more food, free drinks, an extra night, whatever the fuck you want. They just want your business, so better to negotiate in your favor.
So this is where you need to take advantage of this as a consumer.
Competitive business is great… for the consumer, if done right.
By narrowing our search, we have several options that help move forward with decision-making.
Let’s say we take the top 5 hotel resorts we find near each other then we would jot down these information before contacting them:
Check their Google reviews / Facebook reviews. What are the complaints and why? Has these issues been resolved? Did the hotel’s management actually change based on customer’s complaints? What are customers saying now? Does it sound legit or generic? (most likely paid or a fake review).
Search for those hotels on Youtube. Has any blogger in the past been there and are they making honest review or does it sound paid? Check for other blogs, videos, Facebook search to see what people are saying about them.
What food menu does the hotel resort have? Is it available online? What types of foods do they serve? Are there extra costs? If so how much?
Again, this helps give more clarity in decision making and making progress to find the best deals.
The Negotiation:
Let’s say you found the top 5 best hotel resorts at this point.
The next step is to contact them directly.
Nope, not from any middle-man travel agent sites like Booking dot com, or Traveloka or Agoda, etc.
Those sites are there to market to idiots who don’t know how to do the easy work of researching, therefore those middle-men sites will charge much higher to make profit and charge the consumer more.
So best way to contact these hotel resorts is to message them directly on their Facebook page.
That’s the secret sauce.
Just message any company on Facebook page and it’s free. You would be surprised that you will get a reply.
Not sure why people think I do some crazy hacking skills to bypass hash256 security to get contact with any of these companies but I get that impression a lot by people who hear that I travel hack.
Now that you know to message almost anyone on their Facebook page, ask them:
What deals do they have currently?
What can they offer if you booked not just one night, but 2 nights?
What is their food menu?
What time is check-in and check-out?
What is accessible in the facility? Spa? Massage chair? Gym?
Is there a pool? Hot tub? Bath tub?
Complimentary towels?
Can I bring my kite? (Yes, they allowed me bring a kite and it was awesome!)
What foods are available? Seafood? Meat? Beef? Pork? Fish? Hot pot?
Am I getting breakfast, lunch and dinner? What’s NOT covered? Have snacks? Free water? What is extra cost? How much?
Note: Your negotiation power starts to decrease during times of peak season. Avoid going to places during peak season. There’s no reason to want to go to an inclusive resort hotel where it’s 10x more crowded and demand is higher therefore increasing the prices of hotel nights. Makes no sense. Off-peak season is the key here! Common sense is in the supply and demand. Take advantage of this.
Final Decision:
After examining the 5 options you chose, which you should have taken notes and writing down the pros and cons of every hotel resort.
Now is the time to choose the final winner.
Before you even choose the winner, you can go and take the extra additional steps to use promotional offers against each other on other hotel resorts to get the most benefits, if you choose to go this route.
Because business competition is good for the consumer, you have the upper hand to negotiate harder.
Congrats, you just learned a new skill to try and find the best deals!
Our Case Study:
Using our “formula” of searching the best hotel resort we were able to get these extra amenities if it wasn’t going through middle-man websites:
Cheaper cost per night. We paid directly to the hotel, middle-man gets nothing since we didn’t go through them, knowing that their “deals” were shit. This is why Facebook is king for communication and great deals!
Getting breakfast, lunch & dinner all included! We didn’t pay extra because they kept giving us more better deals as we were highly interested in their business during off-peak season. You see? Off-peak season gave us that upper advantage to negotiate on extra amenities. We did end up paying extra just because their menu was still considerably cheap and we wanted to enjoy ourselves with more drinks and foods.
Free shuttle bus: We needed to go from the city center to the resort and it was not close by. It was around 30 minutes away so luckily, they provided a free shuttle bus. If we didn’t have this extra amenity, we would’ve had to pay extra for a taxi going to and from the hotel resort.
Free fishing: I wanted to learn how to fish since I never had much chance to ever go fishing. So they offered that we could go fishing and even buy the fish we catch to eat. I didn’t intend to eat the fish we caught. I only wanted to experience what it’s like to fish for fun.
We got the highest peak view to the sea: If it wasn’t for asking directly on Facebook, we probably would’ve gotten a shittier room without realizing beforehand. But we ended up asking for the best view in the hotel resort and the price difference wasn’t too much.
Our Final Cost:
We paid for 3 major things to count towards the end of the cost analysis.
Counting both of us (assuming rate of 24,300 VND rate at the time of transaction):
Round trip bus from HCMC to Phan Thiet: 800,000 VND or $32.91 USD
3 days, 2 nights in hotel resort: 4,800,000 VND or $197.53 USD
Additional foods and drinks: 630,000 VND or $25.93 USD
Total cost is: 6,230,000 VND (or $256.37 USD) / 2 people is 3,115,000 VND per person or $128.19 USD per person.
So being a $130 3-day trip, this would be an estimated equivalent to a $1000 trip to Las Vegas. And that’s due to branding, marketing, influencers, celebrities inflation and more.
Go where everyone is NOT going then you shall be rewarded with better deals and less crowded areas while enjoying vacation.