On the very first night of our first trip together, we learned an important money-saving tip: Always book hotels ahead of time.

We left Chicago on a Friday night after work and headed toward South Carolina. Our idea was to drive as far as we could and stop for the night whenever we got tired. The logic being that we didn’t want to commit to a hotel too far away, but we also didn’t want to stop if we had energy to go another hour. In the end, we ended up making it as far as Louisville, Kentucky (what we expected) and stopped at a Super 8 Motel we thought would be cheap. We paid $90 for a room we were in for a total of 8 hours. The waffle iron in the lobby the next morning eased our sticker shock, but we’ve never booked a room on the spot again. By using Google maps to provide an educated guess about how far we can go in a leg of driving, we plan ahead and have since stayed in standard roadside chain hotels for as little as $40. Hotwire.com has provided the greatest savings, but even a hotel’s regular website or hotels.com is cheaper than booking at the front desk. If you travel with a smartphone or tablet, you can even book from the car just prior to arrival to ease your fear of hotel commitment.