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I’m in the industry on the commercial strategy side, working with hotels across multiple markets, and lately I’ve watched some properties crumble on price.
As a traveler (or industry pro), how do you actually make sure you’re getting the best deal? Do you set price alerts, use specialized apps, wait for last-minute deals, or just hope for the best when you book?
Honestly curious—because even from the hotel side, I’ve seen so many rate changes after booking that I get buyer’s remorse myself!
Would love to hear what tools, hacks, or booking strategies travelers are using these days to avoid overpaying.
Hi Daniel, interesting question!
A few various thoughts below:
1. My first introduction to hotel OTAs was Wotif in Australia in the mid 2000's. Back then, Wotif displayed a grid layout of the week showing each hotel for a city by row, and the room night for each day of the week (a week or 10 days out, if I recall). Wotif delivered maximum utility to the visitor who wanted to compare (other hotels) on price. I really loved that design and I wish someone would re-invent it again.
2. My hotel stays are almost always for conferences (e.g. ITB, WTM, etc) so I really just want convenience for a couple of days so I can maximise my time for meetings, events, etc.
3. In recent years I mostly book directly with hotels via their apps (eg Marriott Bonvoy, Accor, etc). The key reason: loyalty. I want early check-in / late check-out, a room upgrade, points, flexibility to modify, and all the stuff that you get booking direct. I usually do a quick check on OTAs to view the going room rate, and almost always the direct hotel price is on par, or cheaper.
4. For longer stays (e.g. 4+ days) then I do find myself shopping around, or staying with friends.
5. Perhaps a question to ask is what $ would I need to save to be willing to be "un-loyal" to my hotel and take the risks of not booking direct? Yes, I believe there are real risks. I made a mistake once of booking the wrong date through a HotelsCombined partner due to search fatigue, and when I rang the hotel a few minutes later they would not change the booking due to the strict terms. I wasted an hour in Bangkok trying to check in to a hotel that didn't get my booking from the OTA, only for them to be fully booked and the refund from the OTA then taking 10 days! I have a long list of these kinds of stories.
6. I found the Google I/O keynote the other week quite interesting in regards to tools for hotel booking. They gave an example of an agent that could keep an eye on hotel prices in a city and report back. So perhaps add these kinds of agents to the list of tools.
Hope this is helpful feedback!
Your question reminded me of Tingo.
Tingo was a travel site that was opened many years ago, part of Smarter Travel Media, that offered a unique approach to booking hotels. It allowed travelers to search for and book hotels, but with a focus on price fluctuations and potential refunds if rates dropped after booking. Tingo tracked hotel prices and would provide refunds to customers if the price for their booked room went down before their check-in date.
Back in the days, I was working for TripAdvisor, which was also part of Smarter Travel Media group, and I used Tingo for holidays that required an itinerary visiting different cities. I remember a trip to California with my family that I booked with Tingo about tow months before the trip because I kept receiving alerts from Tingo about rebooking they had made to make me safe money. But the time I was ready to start the trip, I had saved more than 1,200 USD in refunds form my hotel nights.
This initiative was hated by the hospitality industry for obvious reasons. Not sure what happened, but I remember that the following summer, wen I was planning to use it again, I found that the site had stopped its activity.
Rarely do I book my travel plans more than a week ahead, so my approach is “hope for the best”. I almost always use my AMEX Platinum for anything travel related. The points, benefits, and customer service can’t be beat. I stopped booking through third parties years ago after having one bad experience with fraud.
My strategy today is hassle-free and knowing any dollars spent I’ll be rewarded with later via loyalty. OR I book directly with the hotel.
Great question! I tend to check Booking or Expedia first for prices, then contact the hotel directly (particularly if I am a member and can get points) because I have found that they can price match.
I also use credit cards with Airmiles, Avion, and Aeroplan and find that those points are very useful for booking hotels.
Agoda is another great site for hotel bookings, there are usually excellent deals, but are time sensitive.
I sometimes find that after a couple of searches for a particular hotel, the price will start to creep up. So if I see a good deal, I'll write it down then book it on another computer/IP address/wifi location so it's like I'm searching for the first time and will usually get the original quoted price.