TravStrat Checklist: Saving Money While Dining on Vacation

I love traveling, luxury hotels and great food and cocktails.  I just don't like paying luxury prices!   Here's the first installment of what will grow into topical quick reference checklist of strategies I've picked up to enjoy great experiences on the road without breaking the bank.  This first post will cover dining while traveling.

Truluck's Miami Happy Hour

Explore happy hour options

Check what your hotel offers onsite and email or phone the concierge to inquire about nearby happy hour specials.  You may have some luck researching this with some Google searches or Yelp browsing, as well.

• Example: In the Brickell neighborhood of Miami, Truluck's Seafood, Steak & Crab House offers a nightly cocktail hour with half priced appetizers and cocktails.  The appetizer options are hearty enough to build a small dinner.  Many nights also feature a piano singer.  They run the same deal at their other locations, including their Fort Lauderdale outpost which is only a 5 minute drive from the resorts that line the beach.

 

Check for discounted, prepaid vouchers online

Note that generally any heavily discounted vouchers are not able to be combined with other discount programs (e.g. restaurant week menus).

Restaurant.com Voucher Options

• Restaurant.com: Search for your restaurants to see if there are any prepaid voucher discounts, such as a $25 certificate for which you pay only $10. While you can score 60% vs. the value of the voucher, you also need to review the voucher requirements; the same $25 voucher referenced may require that you spend a total of $50 on your check before tax and tip so you'll earn 20-25% savings overall. 
• Example: Atrio at Conrad Miami offers vouchers worth $10 - $100 at 60% off.  To redeem the voucher, your total check before tax and tip must be twice as much as the value of the voucher.
• Travelzoo Local Deals: Travelzoo offers prepaid vouchers for restaurants as well as spa services and other experiences through their "Local Deals" portal which you can browse by major city.  The vouchers must be redeemed during certain times and do expire.  You can also check Living Social, Groupon, or Amazon Local Deals though deals tend to be fleeting on those sites.



Travelzoo Voucher for KTCHN

• Example: In NYC, Travelzoo currently has a voucher available to enjoy "KTCHN" restaurant in Hell's Kitchen (a 5-10 min walk from Times Square hotels as well as my personal favorite Kimpton Ink48 on the west side).  For $59 plus tax and tip, you get a three course dinner for two plus two glasses of wine or beer.  I've never been for dinner but we have enjoyed brunch at KTCHN.

 

Purchase the discount voucher from an online shopping portal

Simply start out at one of the airline, hotel or credit card company's shopping portals to accrue points or miles for your purchase of vouchers from Restaurant.com or elsewhere, regardless of payment method.

• Example: United Airlines has a MileagePlus shopping portal where, at the time of this posting, you could earn 8 miles for every $1 spent at Restaurant.com.  You simply log into the mileage/ points mall with your loyalty program credentials then click through the Restaurant.com link on the United portal to access the site.  Once you land on the Restaurant.com site, you can proceed with making your voucher selection and purchase as you would otherwise. 



MileagePlus Mall: Restaurant.com link for 8 miles/ $1

 

Check for "restaurant week" deals

Many major cities offer a designated week or month once or twice a year.  Participating restaurants offer prix-fixe menus at discounted rates.  Some restaurants exclude peak days of the week (e.g. Fri, Sat) from restaurant week promotions, though others extend their deals to the lunch menu as well.

• Examples: Atrio at the Conrad Miami participates in Miami Spice which runs during low-season of August & September and offer a 3-course meal worth $55 for $39.  Panzano restaurant at the Kimpton Monaco participated in Denver Restaurant Week and offered an appetizer, salad, entree and dessert for $30 per person (I loved their brussel sprouts).

 

Engage with the restaurants online

Some restaurants will publicize specials or post discount coupons to their social media pages, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.  Others have email lists you can sign up for.  It's worth a quick look as you may simply need to "like" the restaurant to get access to the deal.

• Example: Yogurt Ur Way on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale offers a 20% off coupon through a link on their Facebook page.

20% off and other coupons are up for grabs through social media

 

Book your reservation online through OpenTable

You'll earn points towards just for making the reservation, regardless of payment method when you actually dine.  Once you accrue 2,000 points you can redeem them for a $20 certificate good at participating OpenTable restaurants.  Be on the lookout for "1,000 point tables" occasionally offered during off-peak times; securing such a reservation is like getting paid $10 to dine there.  Don't forget to check if the hotel's breakfast/ brunch venue is bookable on OpenTable, too.

• Examples: Atrio at Conrad Miami offers 100 OpenTable points for dining with them if you book online through OpenTable.  The Ca Va Brasserie by Todd English within the Intercontinental Times Square New York offers 1,000 point tables daily from 8-10pm.  For breakfast, you can score 100 points at Steak954 inside the W Fort Lauderdale or Area 31 inside the Kimpton Epic Maimi even if your room rate includes complimentary breakfast there.
  

  

  OpenTable 1,000 dining times for Ca Va at Intercontinental New York

 

Order from the bar menu

Many restaurants have a full service bar or lounge attached.  Some offer separate bar menus that present more affordable options.  

Bar at Level 25 at Conrad Miami

• Examples: Atrio at Conrad Miami has the adjacent "Bar at Level 25" which offers bar, booth and outdoor balcony seating.  We've arrived for our Atrio dinner reservation previously and opted to sit at the bar instead.  We were allowed to order from either the separate bar menu or the full Atrio menu while dining at the bar, and could mix and match.  If you try this option at Conrad Miami, give the goat cheese croquettes and lobster sliders a try.

 

Charge to your room

If you're dining at your hotel, sign the charges to your room so you can accrue hotel points on the purchase.  Many hotels offer multipliers or additional points if you've also reached a certain status level in their loyalty program, meaning even more value for those dining dollars you've charged.

• Example: Hilton, which is the parent company of Conrad Miami, offers 10 base points for every $1 of room charges.  You can then opt-in to for an additional 5 points per $1 (in lieu of frequent flyer miles).  If you have status with Hilton, you get a multiplier on base points.  In my case, Hilton Gold VIP status gets me an addition 25% bonus on base points.  That means that all-in, every $1 of spend at the Conrad Miami earned me 17.5 Hilton points, which yield a redemption value of around 0.6 cents per point. 

 

Order delivery vs. room service

If you've had a long day and want to enjoy in-room dining, you're not necessarily limited to the room service menu and related surcharges.  In major cities, there are a variety of online food delivery portals such as Seamless or GrubHub that you can try.  Use their convenient mobile apps or website to place your order.  With Seamless, you can also get $7 off your first order or $15+ using this link and with GrubHub you can get $5 off $10+ if you sign up here.  Note that many hotels will not allow the food delivery person beyond the lobby, so you'll need to head down from your room to retrieve it.

• Example: Last December at the Sheraton New York, we passed on room service to instead enjoy food delivery from a nearby restaurant offering organic, healthy fare.  We placed the order on Seamless and ate comfortably in our room.

 

Charge to the credit card with the best bonus

Based on what's in your wallet, either charge your dining and/ or overall hotel folio to a cash back card or a hotel's co-branded credit card, the latter of which is usually the better option.

• Cash back cards: Some credit cards offer quarterly bonus points or cash back for certain spending categories



Chase Freedom 5% Bonus Categories

• Example: From April to June, the Chase Freedom card offered 5% cash back for dining charges.  You simply had to enroll your card in the promotion in advance and then use the card when you dined out.  The 5% bonus caps out after you hit $1,500 in eligible spend for the bonus category for the quarter. Note that you still may be better off using the  next credit card option listed.
• Co-branded hotel cards: Most major hotel chains have a co-branded credit card with a major issuer like American Express or Chase that pay higher point rates for any spend at the designated hotel chain.  Some cards carry an annual fee, so make sure you'll use it enough to get the value.  If you have friends that may carry the card, ask them to refer you so that you can both get a points bonus for your application.
• Example: The Hilton HHonors Surpass card from American Express offers 12 points per dollar for spend at Hilton Worldwide properties (Waldorf, Conrad, Hilton, Curio, Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton Inn, etc). When charging my meal at the Conrad Miami to my room, which is then charged to my Hilton Amex, I earn 12 points per dollar in addition to the 17.5 points per dollar noted above from the normal loyalty program earnings.

 

Final Analysis

After considering all of these angles, you can avoid paying full price for dining while traveling fairly easily.  And, when you're able to compound these strategies on top of each other, you can expect to save upwards of 30% as seen in the example below based on a meal at the Conrad Miami that doesn't even take into account restaurant week or happy hour deals.

Total savings of 34% through discounts and points at Atrio at Conrad Miami

What other travel strategies have helped you to save money on dining without sacrificing enjoyment?