The hotel business is in a much better position than the airline business these days. In the past few years, the airlines have generated losses exceeding all the money ever made in the industry. On the other hand, hotels collectively made a profit of $23 billion. The average room rate went over $90 for the first year in 2005, and this year it could go over $100. One reason is that hotels haven’t been adding rooms, yet demand for those rooms has gone up. That allows hotels to charge more. In addition, hotels are being upgraded and rooms are being redone. It’s another reason they can charge more. But it’s still possible to get a deal. Clark is a big fan of using specific Web sites to save money on hotels. First of all, biddingfortravel.com is a free guide to using Priceline and Hotwire. Hotwire is much easier to use than Priceline, but Clark has had good experiences on both. Now, it’s important to note that Hotwire inflates its hotel ratings by about one star, while Priceline boosts them about half a star. Clark uses Priceline to book about three-fourths of the hotels he stays in. He likes to stick with three stars as a rule because you never know what you’re going to get below that. He used it this summer to bid on a hotel in Manchester, England and he got it for about 45 pounds. That’s great! The downside is that the bookings are non-refundable, so once you book it you own it. But it’s still possible to get great hotel prices these days. A few others to try, according to Consumer Reports, are betterbidding.com and tripadvisor.com.