If you are looking to stay in a hotel whether it be for business or pleasure, you certainly need to shop around a bit to find the best price. There are some great deals to be had if booking far in advance or if booking last minute. Often people ill book a hotel room directly through the hotel’s website, but there are normally better deals to be had online.
There are a number of sites that show you a range of hotels for selected dates and locations and offer the rooms at slashed prices ( sometimes even 50% less). These sites such as Booking.com or Late Rooms advertise the rooms at certain hotels for an extremely discounted price and then once sold they charge the hotel a commission.
If you find a room on one of these sites you could even call the hotel direct and ask if they will match or beat the price as you my be surprised how many of them do.