Does blind booking a hotel room really pay off?
Price-sensitive vacationers looking to book a hotel seem to have no end of options. The latest entry into the deal-finding field dominated by HotelsCombined and Kayak is Hotelly.
The fledgling service quickly canvasses a stack of existing hotel-booking engines and offers up their rates side-by-side so you can see which is cheapest for a given room. You then click over to the principal booking site to make your reservations – assuming you insist on knowing where you’re going to stay.
But are you better off in the so-called opaque market where you commit to a price or place a non-refundable bid before knowing which hotel you’re actually going to end up with.
Blind booking began with Hotwire about five years ago, but lately it has taken off, especially among American-based booking engines.
Last year, Travelocity joined the fray with its Top Secret Hotels, claiming to offer something like 45 per cent off hotels looking to fill unsold inventory that it categorizes as three- and four-stars. And Quikbook gives travellers a chance to book further discounted rooms by keeping the hotel names secret until the sale day.
The trade-off with all of these services is that your hotel's location will be something of a surprise. And you have to take your chances on some details. While you can usually figure out whether or not you’ll be right downtown, you may have to gamble on other information, such as if breakfast is included or pets are welcome.
But in most big cities, the chances are fairly good that you’ll end up with adequate accommodation. Hotwire’s four-and-a-half star hotels may be a good place to start for first-timers because the outcome is usually a major chain – Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood – with a proven track record. But, dollar-wise, there are likely better deals to be had.
The top resource for blind booking newbies has to be BetterBidding, a forum packed with useful information you can use to increase your bidding effectiveness, discover the names of the hotels you’re likely bidding on, and figure out exactly how much you should be willing to pay.
Has anyone tried to book a hotel blind? Were the savings worth the anxiety? Did the accommodation live up to your expectations?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Posted by: Steve Zussino - Canadian Coupons | Mar 22, 2022 1:15:10 PM
Priceline is amazing. Great deals and reasonable prices. Good recommendations for biddingtravel website.
Posted by: honest with hotels | Mar 22, 2022 3:48:44 PM
why bother with the web sites when traveling to vacation destinations or even for business. try calling the facility of your choice and speak with the managers about available last minute deals, sometimes try leaving your contact info and price limits. the managers are usually more than happy to personally book deals through themselves on what could be potentially empty rooms because they then skip the brutal double dip of the travel site who makes the booking instead. make sure you make a deposit or secure with a credit card and get a confirmation sent. this also works with just walking into hotels on the first day that you intend to stay but let it be know that you may be shopping around. plus it is more secure than putting your personal details on websites and relying on a third party to get your booking to the hotel in time/at all possibly losing your booking before you show up.
Posted by: tommy | Mar 22, 2022 11:54:27 PM
ha, I am going to test my thought, your post give me some good ideas, it’s truly awesome, thanks.
Posted by: David @hotelpepper | Mar 23, 2021 12:48:47 AM
Interesting approach. It depends on your priorities and for a lot of people it's location location location. So, gambling on location is pretty big. If you don't mind or just want to experience a city then it's a great idea but if you want to be near a specific location (business meeting; near the airport; a sports stadium; an event; a landmark etc) - I wouldn't risk it.
Posted by: Lloyd MacKenzie | Mar 23, 2021 4:38:35 PM
I recently used Expedia.ca to blind book a hotel in Venice. It was an absolutely disappointing experience. The promise was "deep discounts" off brand name hotels. In fact the site says discounts "up to 50% off". The 50% apparently based on recent comparisons on Expedia's own site. The hotel I got was not a brand name and the discount was 7% off the rate Expedia was offering at their regular rate. So in effect I took all the risk of blind booking and what I got was a small discount for a hotel on the very outskirts of Venice. I am sure the hotel is fine but Expedia compounded the issue in that after you pay (non-refundable) all they give you is the name of the hotel and a confirmation number. I had to contact the hotel to find out the room type and whether breakfast was included.
I called Expedia to question them on this outcome. They essentially said I agreed to the terms and no refund would be offered. Their contention was that they only offer discounts up to 50% they don't guarantee it. I asked how they can consider 7% a "deep discount" especially when I was the one taking the risk. When I finally got through to a supervisor I was given the same story... no refund, you agreed to the conditions, they aren't obligated to give any more of a discount than what was delivered. So feel free to risk your vacation on a service that promises much but delivers little.
Posted by: Ashley | Mar 23, 2021 6:02:16 PM
@Lloyd MacKenzie Expieda.ca is not "blind booking" you knew what hotel you were getting when you booked and you could have easily done research on that hotel to better understand what you were getting yourself into. With Hotwire.com you have no idea what hotel you get not even the name of the hotel when you book it. You don't get to see what the hotel is till after you have made the reservation and there are NO REFUNDS after the booking has been made. Pretty scary stuff if you ask me. I did however go through hotwire.com last summer for our vacation to Toronto and we were very happy with it. I kept with a 5star hotel because you really can’t go wrong with a 5star. It was a great hotel and we only paid $80 bucks and when I looked the hote upl on their website the same night was going to be $200 regular!
Best advice, you have to be smart when booking on these kind of sites and not expect too much from it.
Posted by: Lloyd MacKenzie | Mar 24, 2021 5:12:54 AM
@Ashley, you need to do your own research. it is obvious you didn't even take 30 seconds to check that Expedia.ca does have a blind booking service. Expedia.ca blind booking is done through a new service called "NEW! Expedia Unpublished Rate Hotels". It is partnered with Hotwire on this service but it is run by Expedia and under Expedia's terms. Expedia's unpublished rates even differ from Hotwire's for the same property.
So, to reiterate... I did not know what hotel I was getting until after I paid up front the full amount, which was non-refundable. This is blind booking!
So while your experience with Hotwire may have been fine mine with Expedia was not... precisely because they didn't live up to the promise of a "deep discount" such as you received. What Expedia did may have been legal but it was surely unethical.
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