Booking a hotel reservation is never easy and finding discounts suck when it's not readily seen online.  Booking travel has given me some unique tips that I would like to pass on to you. 

Hotels:

Summer: 

• Summer is high season, so expect high costs.
• End of August - tends to be cheaper. There is an influx of people from Europe. They come like crazy because all of the "crowds" are gone.
• Book in the winter for Summer trips because you can get some good deals earlier on.
• Check Hotel website directly for specials.
• Sign up for Hotel Newsletters for specials not made public.
• Call the Hotel directly and ask for the FRONT DESK. for any specials not stated on their website.  DON"T SPEAK TO RESERVATIONS - they will not help you!

Conferences / Conventions:

• Fall Months tend to be the times when many companies sponsor conferences all over the nation. Prices for hotels will go up sharply because if hotels they sponsor are booked up the surrounding hotels will "RAISE" their prices to compensate for any sold out hotels that the conference already booked.

Las Vegas:

• Sign up for Hotel Newsletters for Specials not made public. Las Vegas Hotels always give out cheap specials to their subscribers.
• Sign up for to be a "club card" member. These are FREE to join and when you play you can rack up points (this takes time sorry), but you can qualify for FREE rooms and get special perks when booking in. Example: I have a Total Rewards card that now covers many hotels. When I booked in last August, I avoided a long lengthy hour wait and skipped right to the front of the line to check in. 5 minutes later, I was in my room!

** Sneaky tip**:

Coupon Codes:

• Corporate codes - Companies like IBM, Costco, ATT and Dell always have some type of discount code on file with major hotels. Next time you book, look for the option to enter a coupon code and see the price difference.   
• Code Codes: IBM, COSTCO, ATT - try and see what you get.  (put in Corporate codes section: http://www.marriott.com/default.mi (Click on special rates and rewards)
• Sign up for AAA. They have tremendous discounts for hotels like you won't believe! They are extremely strict on asking for ID so don't use anyone else's.

Websites:

• Tripres.com - They always have great deals and sometimes you can catch Buy 1 Room, Get 1 Free. Like with anything, do your price comparisons. 
• i4vegas.com - This site has some really cheap discounts for Las Vegas.
• Smartervegas.com - I love this site. They have tons of coupons for most of the hotels in Las Vegas. Try them out to make sure they work. I had no problem on my last coupon.