If you’ve ever had the experience of arriving in a new city, only to realize all the hotels are booked up, you know that finding last minute deals can be stressful. The situation can be even more frustrating if your business trip is delayed and you need to extend your stay at a lower rate. Fortunately for travelers everywhere an app called HotelTonight might have found the solution to these problems.
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Best Apps For Last Minute Hotel Deals
Last-minute hotel deals were once hard to come by, but no longer. Thanks to major advancements in both booking and inventory technologies, hotels can be much smarter about how they manage their rooms on a nightly basis. The result? Many of those efficiencies get passed onto guests. Not only are guests now able to wait until the eleventh hour to book their abode, but these three apps will actually reward you for doing so. Why would you ever plan ahead again?
My flights concierge service for corporate executives, Yore Oyster, has seen the direct benefits of this movement toward last minute booking as well, since we’re doing for flights what these companies are doing for hotels: offering last minute business class flights at 30-60% less than buying direct from the airlines. It just makes good business sense. As consumers desire greater flexibility in their purchases, you can expect last minute services like these to pop up in industries all across the board.
HotelTonight (iPhone / Android)
HotelTonight’s modus operandi is very simple: they only offer hotels that they would like to stay in themselves. With 15,000 properties in over 35 countries across the Americas, Europe and Australia, they’re clearly striking a price-quality balance that consumers enjoy. Also, given that they were one of the first last minute hotel services on the block, they’ve had the time to iron out the kinks and offer pretty impressive service, which is put into overdrive through Aces, their in-app hotel concierge that acts like your own personal Siri. Aces’ chat function allows you to ask for things like advice on a great spot for dinner, extra amenities for your room and activities in the area. The Aces network extends to other HotelTonight users as well, creating a collaborative community with a mind-boggling response time of just 23 seconds.
PROMOTED
HotelQuickly (iPhone / Android)
HotelQuickly is all about size and speed. With over 20,000 hotels in its inventory spanning the Asia-Pacific region, the app really shines for travelers seeking a more flexible schedule. While HotelQuickly allows you to book up to a year in advance for rooms, the best hotel deals are generally be found the day of your stay, when the app prepares deals from all of its destinations and offers a lowest price guarantee. You can book a room until 4am for check-in that night, making it perfect if your flight arrives late or you’re in a bind.
One Night, Sixty SoHo
Photo: SIXTY SoHo
One Night (iPhone / Android)
“The night begins at 3pm.” At least that’s what One Night claims, their tagline directly supporting their model of only offering same-day bookings. The app’s beautifully image-driven interface and assortment of enticing luxury hotels bears a similar air to HotelTonight, though their offering of hotels is considerably more curated. What’s the reason for the stricter curation? One Night is operated by Standard International, the parent behind the trendy Standard Hotels, and their selection shows it. On top of all of the Standard properties, One Night has hand-selected other properties based on their approach to design and lifestyle experiences, resulting in user experience that’s deliberately limited yet highly appealing. If you like what you get at one One Night hotel – perhaps SIXTY SoHo, pictured above – you’ll probably like what you get from all of them. Though their properties are currently only available in Austin, LA, Miami and New York, One Night assures they’ll be adding more cities throughout the year.
Technology in the travel space changes rapidly, so expect these apps to pivot and adapt in the coming months and years. We’ve already seen HotelTonight, which launched by strictly offering same-night bookings (a la One Night) in 2011, expand to a seven-day booking window, a move that many hoteliers did not enjoy. Though One Night has explicitly said they have no plans to do the same, only time will tell whether they choose the same path of expansion.
One thing is for certain. As Airbnb’s continual growth adds mounting pressure to hotels around the world, creative solutions like these last minute booking apps will only continue to flourish.
Best hotel booking app 2022
- Booking.com
Arguably the most popular website for reserving accommodations, Booking.com has a robust, easy-to-use app that deserves a spot on your smartphone. One of the best things about this app is the sheer number of options it offers, including accommodations in off-the-beaten-path locations around the world.
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If you’re traveling to a country where you don’t speak the language, the app makes it easy to view the address of your hotel in the local language. If you need to show a taxi or rideshare driver where you’re headed, you can simply pull it up in the app and point.
Finally, the interface makes it easy to see all past, current, and future trips, and it highlights any loyalty discounts you’re eligible for at properties across the globe.
But you can book more than just hotel stays. The app searches for private vacation rentals like those listed on Airbnb and Vrbo. It also displays the hotel’s or host’s cancellation policy, noting the date range for free cancellation.
- Hotels.com
Another major search engine in the online booking space, Hotels.com includes hundreds of thousands of properties in more than 200 countries and territories.
Hotels.com’s best perk is the free night you get for every 10 nights you book through it. But you have to use the app to book your reward night at no charge. If you use the website, it costs $5.
The app also lets you view or modify current reservations and view your reward progress toward free nights.
- Priceline
Priceline rose to fame for its name-your-own-price feature. While it phased out that feature starting in 2016, Priceline replaced it with two new features called Pricebreakers and Express Deals.
Pricebreakers show you a price quote and the names of three hotels in your destination city, and you book without knowing which hotel you’ll land. You get a deal in exchange for flexibility.
Express Deals also involves a bit of dice-rolling. They quote you a price, the approximate location, the hotel star rating, and the hotel amenities and bed size. You also see three possible hotels on a map, one of which is the real one.
With a bit of online detective work, you can often sleuth out which hotel they’ve quoted you. But even if you can’t, the deal you get may still be worth it.
The only drawback is that there’s no free cancellation when you book through these programs.
Or you can use Priceline’s more common features, such as booking hotels, flights, rental cars, and even cruises at retail pricing. It includes exclusive deals and promotions on hotels you can’t get on the website.
Priceline also now offers a loyalty program called Priceline VIP. Once you complete two trips with Priceline, you start seeing discounts up to 50% on over 15,000 properties on their platform.
After five completed trips, you reach VIP Gold and start seeing discounts on over 30,000 properties. And at 25 completed trips, the number of discounted properties rises to 45,000.
- Expedia
If you enjoy playing the travel rewards game and want to see just how steeply discounted a rate you can find, Expedia is the app for you. It often features exclusive app-only deals. Plus, you get double rewards points on everything you book through the app.
Like other hotel booking apps, Expedia hosts a wealth of hotel reviews from real guests to help you find the best stay.
You can also use the app to book other Expedia services, like flights, car rentals, tickets, and tours. Expedia offers mobile-only discounts of up to 30% on hotels and says you can save an additional estimated 43% when bundling a hotel with your flight.
Plus, the app alerts you about important travel information like flight updates, delays, and gate changes before it causes a problem.
Expedia also offers a convenient buy-now, pay-later service for hotel deals so you can pay at the hotel rather than upfront.
- HotelsCombined
HotelsCombined sets itself apart from the rest in a few ways. It offers tons of pictures of potential hotels, which appeals to people who want to know exactly what they’re getting into when booking a room.
It also has a price alert feature that lets you sign up for an email notification when a room you’re interested in drops in price by 10% or more. If you can plan ahead to get the specific hotel you want, this feature can help you score a great deal.
HotelsCombined also offers a best-price guarantee. If you find a better deal elsewhere within 24 hours of booking, HotelsCombined matches it and refunds you the difference.
The app also says it can unlock “secret deals” exclusive to users. Try it to see how much it can actually save you. You can always invoke their best-price guarantee if you spot a better deal later.
- Travelocity
The Travelocity app does everything you’d expect. You can book flights, hotels, and rental cars and bundle them for discounts. You can also browse and search activities to fill out your trip.
Beyond hotels, the app also includes private vacation rentals like you’d find on Airbnb. That helps you find the best accommodation at the lowest price regardless of the property type.
Travelocity offers free cancellation on most hotel bookings. You can even filter search results to list only hotels that let you reserve now and pay later.
Travelocity offers its own price guarantee. It not only matches the better offer but gives you a $50 coupon toward your next booking. But the window only lasts 24 hours after booking.
In addition to their price guarantee, Travelocity guarantees excellent and timely customer service. That includes 24-hour customer service through email, phone, chat, and social media channels.
Conclusion
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