Suggestions on vacation cost reduction

[meadow lark]

Long story I will try to shorten - essentially we got ourselves into going on a trip with one budget, now the cost has substantially grown, and now I need suggestions on how to shrink it!  As a part of the week we will be in New Orleans for 3 nights, with a total of 3 adults, 1 child.  Any suggestions for hotels?  The lowest we are finding is $240 for 2 nights (have the first night figured out.) Air bnb is more expensive, and I don't want to couch surf b/c the child isn't mine, and I don't want her family to be like, "You are doing what?"  Also the rental car is outrageous, because we need one from Houston for 8 days.  Any suggestions?

[meadow lark]

Just searched relayrides.com . Found us a car in Houston (2006 PT Cruiser) for the 8 days that would be $167.20.  So we have sent the request to the owner.  Looks like a sweet deal, you pick it up and drop it off at the airport.  Our reservation for Thrifty Rental Car was a Kia Rio $437.00 for 8 days.  Of course we expected to get a better deal before we did it - but this is a smoking deal!

[HappyHoya]

It doesn't sound like you're planning on using AirBNB, but I'll caution you (and anyone who reads this) against it, anyway. My husband and I tried to use it last summer, only to find out that their customer service is totally based on service to hosts, not to guests. We had a horrible experience and couldn't get a refund (which we could have gotten if we stayed in a hotel). We ended up having to stay in a hotel anyway, so it cost more than if we just used a legit service to begin with. I understand the spirit of this board is to save money, but I would factor in whether or not you cancel or get a refund into financial considerations. A lot of bargain travel deals don't have the same protections that normal cost ones do. You might want to look into reward programs for budget hotels, which are often free and can reward you as soon as after two nights (ie stay two nights get the third free type of thing).

[parkette]

I'm not sure how soon you're going, but if you have some time on your hands you could consider applying for a credit card with hotel rewards (with no annual fee, or at least not for the first year). You might be able to get 1-2 nights free that way. A quick search found this: http://www.cardbenefit.com/hotel-credit-cards/.

There's also a referrals thread on here somewhere that may be able to add additional rewards to the credit card if someone's got what you're looking for!

[meadow lark]

We are going in April.  Looks like the Marriott credit card would be the best, but I doubt we can get the points fast enough.  May try anyway.