8 ms·

To be fair, I have used HotelTonight for day of booking and it had a better deal than I could get through any other location online for a very nice hotel.

by tudelo 8y ago

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
linuxftw 8y ago
By how much? I suspect they simply were operating at a loss to build up their brand. Jet.com did the same thing.
- koboll 8y ago
  I've gotten $300-400 rooms for ~$120 several times. Nice boutique hotels in resort destinations, but at off-peak times of year.
- jonknee 8y ago
  Well literally their entire pitch is that you book last minute and get savings. It would be weird if it wasn't at a discount... I just pulled it up for Seattle and the Kimpton Monaco is up for $115, $140 after taxes and fees. From the Kimpton website it's $208 or $264 after taxes and fees. So about half off, pretty good deal! This was just the first one in the list, there may be better deals.
  - linuxftw 8y ago
    Just compared this exact hotel for tonight on hoteltonight.com and hotels.com and travelocity.com Same price across all 3 sites. Chances are, if you see a price lower than the major travel sites, they're losing money. In this case, they're the same price.
    - jonknee 8y ago
      Or chances are it really depends on where you are and if they have properties they have negotiated with vs general inventory that all the travel bookers use. Sometimes there are deals, sometimes there aren't.
      - linuxftw 8y ago
        Seems they're 'just another booking site' IMO.
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    I am surprised to see that Hotel Tonight is cheaper than the ihg.com Kimpton website. Although, I wonder if IHG leaves themselves wiggle room to offer different pricing to different channels by saying their price guarantee doesn't apply within 24 hours of checkin: 5. Find a Lower Rate. If you find a lower rate on an eligible, non-IHG website within 24 hours of making your reservation on the IHG direct channel, and it is more than 24 hours before the standard check-in time for the hotel where you made your reservation, tell us about it by completing and submitting the online claim form (“Claim Form”). We will verify the lower rate by comparing the rate found on the IHG website or mobile app with the rate found on the non-IHG website for the same hotel, room type, stay dates, number of guests, and cancellation policy. I'm actually shocked that they would do that, because now I will definitely shop around, I had erroneously thought their best price guarantee would save time.
    - linuxftw 8y ago
      Kimpton charges an additional 'resort fee' which is collected directly by the 'resort'. If you book direct, it's quite possible this is included in their price, but IDK.
  - notyourwork 8y ago
    Funny you mentioned that one, I’m staying at it next week and booked through HT.
- manigandham 8y ago
  HotelTonight's model is to find and offer up rooms for last-minute demand that would otherwise go empty. Hotels are happy to offer discounts for these. It's really just automating the same deals you could get if you called.
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    The bigger brands don't offer any discounts compared to their official sites. They can change prices many times during the day, but the official brand's website will always be the cheapest. Edit: I'm going to have to retract my comments about cheapest price being on official hotel brand websites. I did a cursory search and find many cheaper options on Hotel Tonight (and expedia) for same day reservations than the brands, and while I haven't looked at all the brand's best price guarantees, at least IHG's exempts them from having to provide the lowest price within 24 hours of checkin, so it seems like a loophole to let them dump rooms for cheaper on third party websites day of arrival.
  - linuxftw 8y ago
    This is what priceline et al have been advertising for two decades.
    - manigandham 8y ago
      Last minute? That was HT's original thing, same day bookings in an easy app.
      - linuxftw 8y ago
        No, it wasn't there original thing. Last minute hotel deals have been a thing for decades online. Oh, they have an app? That doesn't make their ideal original, nor were they the first to book 'last minute deals' on an app anyway.
        manigandham 8y ago
        Last-minute same-night deals was HotelTonight's entire business before they added all the other features like memberships and future bookings. That's where the name comes from. I didn't mean they were the first to do deals but nobody cares about that anyway. Users only care if it works for them, and HT has one of the smoothest apps with some of the biggest discounts. When I started using HT years ago, I could book a room in less than a minute at a lower price than any other online source. Anyways, as to the original point, they might have lost money on some deals but not all of them, and this is directly from private hotel owners I spoke with.
jpalomaki 8y ago
I’ve been under the impression that some of the large sites force hotels to sign agreements, which prevent the hotel from giving better rates to other sites. Found one article mentioning this [1]. Edit: but could be these don’t apply to last minute or same day reservation. Looks like for example Hotels.com best price guarantee excludes these. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/sep/15/australians-told-to-call-hotels-rather-than-rely-on-booking-sites-for-cheaper-rates https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/sep/15/australians-t...
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  All the big brands get around this by offering cheaper pricing restricted to their rewards members reserving directly via the brands' website or call center, which is non commissionable. It's free to be a rewards member for all of the hotel rewards programs, so there's no reason not to go that way if your goal is to spend the least amount of money. Edit: I'm going to have to retract my comments about cheapest price being on official hotel brand websites. I did a cursory search and find many cheaper options on Hotel Tonight (and expedia) for same day reservations than the brands, and while I haven't looked at all the brand's best price guarantees, at least IHG's exempts them from having to provide the lowest price within 24 hours of checkin, so it seems like a loophole to let them dump rooms for cheaper on third party websites day of arrival.
  - jdeibele 8y ago
    Found this was true for car rentals last weekend. Went to an aggregator, saw their price, went to the to the car rental company to compare. Aggregator price was 2/3rds of the rental company's lowest price. Have found the same for airline flights. Google Flights showed me a flight on Delta and provided a link that was much cheaper than I could find on their own site. Absolutely no problems with either reservation. Not sure why people would go direct unless it's their employer's policy or something.
- splonk 8y ago
  Correct, but this is being slowly phased out in some areas, particularly in the EU due to regulations. e.g. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d2ab9fe-a2a5-4f37-be33-914f5a30f441 https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d2ab9fe-a2a5...

To be fair, I have used HotelTonight for day of booking and it had a better deal than I could get through any other location online for a very nice hotel.

by tudelo 8y ago

To be fair, I have used HotelTonight for day of booking and it had a better deal than I could get through any other location online for a very nice hotel.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

linuxftw 8y ago

By how much? I suspect they simply were operating at a loss to build up their brand. Jet.com did the same thing.

koboll 8y ago
I've gotten $300-400 rooms for ~$120 several times. Nice boutique hotels in resort destinations, but at off-peak times of year.
jonknee 8y ago
Well literally their entire pitch is that you book last minute and get savings. It would be weird if it wasn't at a discount... I just pulled it up for Seattle and the Kimpton Monaco is up for $115, $140 after taxes and fees. From the Kimpton website it's $208 or $264 after taxes and fees. So about half off, pretty good deal! This was just the first one in the list, there may be better deals.
- linuxftw 8y ago
  Just compared this exact hotel for tonight on hoteltonight.com and hotels.com and travelocity.com Same price across all 3 sites. Chances are, if you see a price lower than the major travel sites, they're losing money. In this case, they're the same price.
  - jonknee 8y ago
    Or chances are it really depends on where you are and if they have properties they have negotiated with vs general inventory that all the travel bookers use. Sometimes there are deals, sometimes there aren't.
    - linuxftw 8y ago
      Seems they're 'just another booking site' IMO.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  I am surprised to see that Hotel Tonight is cheaper than the ihg.com Kimpton website. Although, I wonder if IHG leaves themselves wiggle room to offer different pricing to different channels by saying their price guarantee doesn't apply within 24 hours of checkin: 5. Find a Lower Rate. If you find a lower rate on an eligible, non-IHG website within 24 hours of making your reservation on the IHG direct channel, and it is more than 24 hours before the standard check-in time for the hotel where you made your reservation, tell us about it by completing and submitting the online claim form (“Claim Form”). We will verify the lower rate by comparing the rate found on the IHG website or mobile app with the rate found on the non-IHG website for the same hotel, room type, stay dates, number of guests, and cancellation policy. I'm actually shocked that they would do that, because now I will definitely shop around, I had erroneously thought their best price guarantee would save time.
  - linuxftw 8y ago
    Kimpton charges an additional 'resort fee' which is collected directly by the 'resort'. If you book direct, it's quite possible this is included in their price, but IDK.
- notyourwork 8y ago
  Funny you mentioned that one, I’m staying at it next week and booked through HT.
manigandham 8y ago
HotelTonight's model is to find and offer up rooms for last-minute demand that would otherwise go empty. Hotels are happy to offer discounts for these. It's really just automating the same deals you could get if you called.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  The bigger brands don't offer any discounts compared to their official sites. They can change prices many times during the day, but the official brand's website will always be the cheapest. Edit: I'm going to have to retract my comments about cheapest price being on official hotel brand websites. I did a cursory search and find many cheaper options on Hotel Tonight (and expedia) for same day reservations than the brands, and while I haven't looked at all the brand's best price guarantees, at least IHG's exempts them from having to provide the lowest price within 24 hours of checkin, so it seems like a loophole to let them dump rooms for cheaper on third party websites day of arrival.
- linuxftw 8y ago
  This is what priceline et al have been advertising for two decades.
  - manigandham 8y ago
    Last minute? That was HT's original thing, same day bookings in an easy app.
    - linuxftw 8y ago
      No, it wasn't there original thing. Last minute hotel deals have been a thing for decades online. Oh, they have an app? That doesn't make their ideal original, nor were they the first to book 'last minute deals' on an app anyway.
      - manigandham 8y ago
        Last-minute same-night deals was HotelTonight's entire business before they added all the other features like memberships and future bookings. That's where the name comes from. I didn't mean they were the first to do deals but nobody cares about that anyway. Users only care if it works for them, and HT has one of the smoothest apps with some of the biggest discounts. When I started using HT years ago, I could book a room in less than a minute at a lower price than any other online source. Anyways, as to the original point, they might have lost money on some deals but not all of them, and this is directly from private hotel owners I spoke with.

jpalomaki 8y ago

I’ve been under the impression that some of the large sites force hotels to sign agreements, which prevent the hotel from giving better rates to other sites. Found one article mentioning this [1]. Edit: but could be these don’t apply to last minute or same day reservation. Looks like for example Hotels.com best price guarantee excludes these. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/sep/15/australians-told-to-call-hotels-rather-than-rely-on-booking-sites-for-cheaper-rates https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/sep/15/australians-t...

lotsofpulp 8y ago
All the big brands get around this by offering cheaper pricing restricted to their rewards members reserving directly via the brands' website or call center, which is non commissionable. It's free to be a rewards member for all of the hotel rewards programs, so there's no reason not to go that way if your goal is to spend the least amount of money. Edit: I'm going to have to retract my comments about cheapest price being on official hotel brand websites. I did a cursory search and find many cheaper options on Hotel Tonight (and expedia) for same day reservations than the brands, and while I haven't looked at all the brand's best price guarantees, at least IHG's exempts them from having to provide the lowest price within 24 hours of checkin, so it seems like a loophole to let them dump rooms for cheaper on third party websites day of arrival.
- jdeibele 8y ago
  Found this was true for car rentals last weekend. Went to an aggregator, saw their price, went to the to the car rental company to compare. Aggregator price was 2/3rds of the rental company's lowest price. Have found the same for airline flights. Google Flights showed me a flight on Delta and provided a link that was much cheaper than I could find on their own site. Absolutely no problems with either reservation. Not sure why people would go direct unless it's their employer's policy or something.
splonk 8y ago
Correct, but this is being slowly phased out in some areas, particularly in the EU due to regulations. e.g. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d2ab9fe-a2a5-4f37-be33-914f5a30f441 https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d2ab9fe-a2a5...