Dealing with Hotels

Play the newlywed game. If you're going on your honeymoon, mentioning this when you're making reservations might earn you a modest room upgrade. Hotels have also been known to furnish hungry honeymooners with free breakfast or champagne. One caveat: Hoteliers are becoming hip to the practice of fake honeymooning, so you might have to convince the person taking your reservation that you actually have just married.

Check that rate one last time. If you have a hotel reservation and you suspect business might be a little slow, call the front desk directly -- not the 800 number -- just before you arrive and ask what the best rate is for the evening. In many cases, if it's late and the hotel is not full, you will be quoted a better rate than the one you got when you made the reservation -- hotel managers are fully aware that an empty room generates no revenue. If the rate is not better, simply show up with your reservation as planned. However, if you have guaranteed reservations -- the kind that charge your card even if you don't show up -- this trick won't fly.

Go easy on the unpacking. If you will be staying in a hotel room for only one night, put anything you take out of your suitcase into one drawer only. That way you won't have to go looking through closets and under beds to make sure you didn't leave anything.

Pump up the volume (a little). When you leave your hotel room -- even at a nice lodging -- be sure to leave the TV on with the volume turned up just loud enough to be heard outside the door. Thieves are less likely to try anything if they think someone is in the room watching TV.