Hmm...So Much for Those Last-Minute Hotel Deals

April 30, 2012 at 5:00 PM | by juliana | Comment (1)

Yesterday, we were trying to book a fun hotel room last minute in Las Vegas. The HotelTonight app yielded some great deals--$64 for Planet Hollywood and $45 for the revamped Tropicana but we've been to those places before and we wanted something a little higher-end.

So we decided to turn to another mobile app with a last-minute function--Booking.com's Tonight app. There we found The Cosmopolitan for $180 a night. Not as much of a deal as we hoped but we were nearly swayed by the gorgeous rooms of the Cosmo for under $200 a night.

But just to be sure we were getting a real deal, we double-checked the Cosmo's own website for room rates. And we were bummed to see that they were also offering a room for $180.

Hmpf. Wasn't Booking.com's app supposed to give you a deal for booking last-minute? Apparently not as we found that same rate again on Expedia.

We looked at Booking.com's Tonight app again today and saw The Venetian was listed at a 45 percent discount of $229 a night. That sounded like a good deal but when we went over to the Venetian site, they too were offering rooms tonight for $229. Not very convincing, Booking.com.

We're not ready to write off Booking.com completely. When you're deal shopping for hotels, it doesn't hurt to cross-check, double-check and check again all the various booking apps and sites. But Booking.com may not be at the top of our list.

In the end, we booked the all-suite, non-smoking, non-gaming and slightly boring Signature at MGM Grand as it was $99 on Expedia (versus $105 on the hotel's website) and we knew we'd have a quiet and convenient place to work. It's not the last-minute discount we were hoping for but in total it's about the same price as one night at the Cosmo. C'est la budget decisions.

[Screenshots: HotelChatter]

Comment (1)

Return to » Hmm...So Much for Those Last-Minute Hotel Deals

The answer is very simple: Mobile is a last-minute distribution channel by default and hotels are enforcing strict rate parity: 65%-80% of all mobile hotel bookings are for the same night or following night.

As travel demand improves in 2012 and beyond, hoteliers will be even less accommodating with discounts and especially last-minute deals via the mobile channel.
I published an article on the subject on HOTELS Magazine blog "The Pitfalls of Last-Minute Sales in Hospitality"

<a href="http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-pitfalls-of-last-minute-sales-in-hospitality/">http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-pitfalls-of-last-minute-sales-in-hospitality/</a>

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