One Of My Best Hotel Scores of the Year
I have talked a few times in the past about my “system” for finding cheap hotel rates. Of course I believe in using cash as little as possible and thus try to use points most of the time, but sometimes better deals are to be had by paying with cash.
While this post isn’t about my system, it is about how that system really paid off on my recent trip to Washington DC. During that trip, I had a one night hole in my schedule between the time my family left and my departure to New York.
During our family time, we stayed at the Grand Hyatt using a suite upgrade, but that hotel is expensive and I didn’t need anything fancy for just myself.
In my opinion most hotels in DC (not the suburbs) are terrible values points wise. Since I didn’t want to overspend with points, I began searching for a cheap hotel for my one night stay.
One of the most reliable tools I have found lately for hotel deals, is Hotel Tonight. (My full review.) I wrote earlier this year about how I saved over 50% on a hotel in Seattle and I have used it about half a dozen other times where the rates were lower than anywhere else.
During my DC hotel search I used Kayak and other sites, but I made sure to include Hotel Tonight, since it really is built for a situation like I was in – a same day one night booking.
After firing up the app, I noticed that the Sheraton Pentagon City was listed for $59 for the night. I almost had to do a double take, since I had just seen the same hotel at $152 on Kayak.
Sure enough, I investigated and the hotel was $152 at every single site except for Hotel Tonight. In the past when I have scored a really low rate (mostly on Priceline) it has been for a deformed or tiny room, so I wasn’t expecting much.
After completing the booking process through the app, I emailed the hotel and asked them to add my SPG number on to the reservation. While I didn’t earn points for room, my Gold status got me upgraded to a higher floor. It was only a standard room, but I paid less than half the price!
Conclusion
I try to only write about and recommend services that I use often. After saving money several times this year, I can now say Hotel Tonight has firmly earned its place in my “system”.
While I would never tell you to use one site or one service all of the time, I am thoroughly convinced Hotel Tonight should be installed on everyone’s phone and should be a go-to for last minute bookings.
Every Hotel Tonight member has a referral code you can use when signing up to get a $25 free credit. My code is SCOOMER2. If you choose to use my code to sign up, I appreciate it. If not, sign up anyway since it may just save you some money on your next booking.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
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