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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!