Looking for affordable travel? Last minute trip? Got an iPhone? Then the Hotel Tonight App is a great travel hack for you!
What is It? Hotel Tonight is a travel app for iPhone and Android users looking for last minute travel deals. When I first got the app 2 years ago, it used to be same day only. Now, you can book up to 7 days in advance!
Why use it? If you’re looking for hotels for a last minute trip, this app is for you! Hotel Tonight also claims that they hand-pick every hotel option and that only the best hotel options are listed.
How to use it? Once you download the app to your phone, create an account and search for the city you’re looking to stay in. Once you click on the travel dates, scroll down and click which hotel you would like. From there, you can read about the room, its amentieis and location. Then, book it!
So, is it worth it? Yes, sort of. Well, it depends.
I’ve used this app in two cities: Las Vegas and San Diego. While I have had the hotel tonight app for about 2.5 years, I have used it approximately 3 times. The reason for this is that certain discounts vary from city to city and the app is primarily for last minute users. If I’m going to Portland, Maine for a wedding, I’m not going to wait last minute to book my hotel. Whereas Vegas is usually a sponteneous decision given that it’s a 4 hour drive from my residence.
Since they’ve added their 7 day-advance feature, it has been useful to see how this compares to other travel search engines, like Kayak. Kevin and I had planned on going to Vegas a week in advance. We had such great luck using Hotel Tonight 2 years ago when we went to Caeser’s Palace. As a first time user with a friend’s access code, we got a room at Caeser’s for $30 and ended up receiving a room upgrade with a better view once we arrived.
This time around, I wanted to see if waiting until the last minute was still the best decision instead of using their advance feature. 7 days in advance, I saw deals such as: $23 for Rumor Boutique, $70 for MGM, $55 for Luxor, etc. These were pretty good deals! But we wanted to wait it out.
OVer the next 7 days, our selected dates were in constant flux. Two days later, these same hotels went up $30+ dollars. I started to regret not paying right away. Kevin, however, insisted we wait as long a possible.
It was finally Las Vegas day! Two hours into the road trip, it finally felt like the right time to take avantage of the last minute deals. For $39 a night, we chose the Rio resort (which, despite its location, had large rooms and shuttles to the strip until 1:00 am). It was the cheapest deal while still maintaining high quality. When comparing rooms like Encore, Aria, and the Venetian, Hotel Tonight was approximately $25-$50 less than Kayak.
With resort fees, Hotel Tonight app fees, and taxes the total was $153 for two nights.
Was this the cheapest option for our standards? Somewhat! Compared to other search engines, this was the best option for Las Vegas. I noticed that some cities are about the same when compared to other search engines. As always, you must do your homework when looking for the cheapest option.
But we had an additional credit that lowered our cost and you can too!
If you use the code SVM, you get $25 off! Share your own account code and you will get $25 off for every friend who uses that code.
