Any time you stay in a hotel, there are free things that you can at least ask to receive. In many cases, you will know about any additional service offered before you book but in some cases, they might come as a total surprise. The bottom line is that you will not know unless you ask, so it always pays to get this information once you arrive at the hotel. If the hotel is willing to provide you with some hotel extras while you are there, it is an added bonus to your stay and could turn a very average trip into something that you will remember forever.

The most common additional service that a hotel will offer is a free breakfast or lunch. In some cases, these meals can be found inside the hotel while in other cases, you might have to go elsewhere and have the hotel provide you with a voucher. Either way, this is money that you can save by simply asking if the hotel has this service available. Some hotels have these services, but do not tell their guests because it saves them money in the long run. Remember that if hotel extras were provided to all guests, they would not be extras any longer. Therefore, you must be proactive and uncover the extras that your hotel is offering if you want to take full advantage of your hotel stay. While not every hotel will have these features, it is worth asking if you do happen to find one that does.

Another of these free services that is quite common is a daily newspaper. Some hotels will drop off these newspapers on every doorstep in the morning, while others offer their guests the morning paper from the front desk. If a newspaper is an additional service, you might have to go down and ask for it, but many hotels will provide this free of charge to people who request it upfront. If you are the type of person who loves reading the newspaper in the morning, this additional service can definitely make your stay a more enjoyable one.

One of the hotel extras that is very important to people is whether or not they can make free local phone calls from their room. It can get very expensive using a credit card to make these calls or using an out of town cell phone, so free local calls are something that you should definitely look into. Make sure that you ask at the front desk about this extra before making any calls, as some hotels will charge you for every call and then bill it to your room at the end of your stay.  If this ever occurs, you could be in for a rude awakening when you check out of your room because your bill will be substantially higher than you would have otherwise expected.

Finally, many people look into whether or not their hotel offers a free shuttle service to and from the airport, as a free shuttle can save you a lot of money. This is one of those hotel extras that you will not find in many places, but is definitely worth taking advantage of if you ever do. Other hotels do not offer free shuttle service, but can arrange for an inexpensive shuttle to pick you up. This is also worth looking into because, in most cases, it is far less expensive than taking a cab. This is an additional service that many people will not travel without, so an increasing number of hotels now have deals with shuttle service companies.

All of these hotel extras depend entirely on the hotel’s policy, but it definitely does not hurt to ask what else they can offer you on arrival. If they do not have any of these extra features, it is nothing to be upset about, especially if they did not initially advertise them. If your hotel does offer this additional service, however, you should definitely take advantage of it because it can make your trip much more economical and easier on you… and, therefore, a much more enjoyable experience.  You could definitely be surprised if you ask someone at your hotel about these additional services because more often than not, a hotel will have something extra to give you. Whether you simply want to enjoy the newspaper in the morning or would like shuttle transfer services to and from the airport, simply ask at the front desk and see what they can do for you. Hotels are in this business to service you so if you truly want something extra, you will generally find that the hotel is more than happy to find a way to get it for you.

One thing that everyone must realize is that hotels are a business and, therefore, if you are unsatisfied or unhappy with their services they will normally try to appease you to minimize any potential negative feedback and loss of business. However from time to time you may come across some badly managed hotels that lure unsuspecting guests with deals that are seemingly too good to be true. These hotels are not interested in future business from returning guests, they are only interested in the high-turnover of their rooms and they will rarely notice or care if one customer does not visit the hotel again.

As a result, these kinds of hotels have no remorse in these situations and will simply force people to stay in the accommodation that has been provided. They normally get away this is as well, since the majority of people don’t bother to fight with the hotel management and will merely accept their plight or pay for another room at another hotel.  What smart travelers do, however, is negotiate with hotel management once they have arrived in order to get everything that they were told they would get when making the booking.

One way that people are often misled is through the amenities that they are promised by their booking agent.  In some cases, the fine print might include some sort of disclaimer but, truth be told, most people who book a hotel room are led to believe that more will be available for them than what they actually receive. If you feel as though the hotel has been misrepresented, there are a number of things that you can do in order to get everything you feel you deserve.

The first thing that you should do is negotiate the terms of payment before you book. That way, you won’t be held responsible if the hotel doesn’t meet your particular needs. If you can get a list of the available amenities in writing from the hotel itself, or a booking agent, you will greatly improve your chances of gaining a much better deal. You might even be able to receive a discount when checking in if they are not able to provide you with everything you had originally agreed to pay for.

Another thing that many people do is contact their booking agent or travel insurance company if they are unable to renegotiate the terms of their stay. In many cases, they are able to speak directly with these hotels and work their way around any fine print that might be coming into play. Booking agents can threaten to stop booking that particular hotel, since it will look bad for them as well. And depending on your level of insurance cover, your travel insurance company may be able to pay or reimburse you for the cost of making another booking with a different hotel.

You can also take control of the situation by threatening to write a negative review on a popular travel review website like www.tripadvisor.com. While this might not seem like a big deal, your review could scare away other potential travelers, which will end up costing these hotels a lot of money. Use your ability to communicate with others to negotiate with these hotels because they should be responsible for everything that they promised when you were finalizing your booking. Hotels are helped out a great deal by these review sites because good service is usually rewarded by positive word of mouth and personal recommendations. At the same time, however, negative reviews can greatly impact a hotels business by discouraging people to book the hotel, and this negative word of mouth can spread like wild fire with the power of the internet.

Check out this video of a couple who vacationed to a hotel and were offered compensation for their disastrous experience

If you feel as though your hotel is ripping you off, don’t simply accept that this sort of thing happens because there are plenty of options and alternatives that you can take to get what you want and what you feel you ultimately deserve. The hotel business is driven by customers and guests just like you and if hotels are trying to take advantage of unsuspecting clients, you should do everything possible to ensure others don’t get caught out as well. One thing that will definitely help you out a lot is booking your hotels through an experienced agent, as these agents will know exactly how to deal with hotels that mislead their clients with fine print. These agents will be able to get to the bottom of the situation very quickly and should be able to negotiate with the hotel to give you everything that you were initially promised. Remember that hotels are run by humans and as such there is always room for error. But those who stand up for themselves are usually rewarded because the last thing a hotel wants is a major loss of business from a single guest.