Hotel Deals - How much money did you save using this forum?

Personally in 2009 it was a close to 2K USD. The best ones were the Fairmont & IHG FAF deals, the Accor promotions and a bundle of bonus miles for cancelled bookings in Venice... :)

For 2010 (when I take a 6 months sabbactical) the savings are close to USD 5K. Same promo's and I happened to need a Hyatt in Waikiki... I love Flyertalk!

Thanks to all of you who post those great deals. I really wonder how much this thread saves the average FT'er.

The Fairmont FAF hasn't saved me per se but allowed me to stay at higher quality hotels. For the same price, I stayed at a Fairmont instead of a Hilton or Marriott. I

Personally, I have not saved one single penny from this thread.

I do not see any deals in this thread.... :D

Is not only what I've saved (which is a lot) but the chance to stay at 5 stars hotels for the price of a 2 or 3 stars. It feels nice to stay at a 5 stars hotel in Paris paying an Ibis price. :p

I have probably spent more because of this forum :)

I didn't save with this thread, but do saved a lot with this forum, lol~

I didn't save much but with the same price I got a whole lot more.

Agreed. That (more bang for my buck) may be a better way of putting it. Never would have considered the Plaza in NYC without this forum...

I saved about $400-500 from the Expedia.uk deal, $200 from Expedia IHG200 coupon, and about another couple hundred from the various smaller coupons I found in the forum.

Nothing it actually cost me more because I am staying at the Fairmont York instead of the Strathcona which is just about next door.

It saved me a lot.And thanks to all who share the information.

Let's see: The $50 Expedia coupon saved me $50 when I took the future Mrs Juiceman out for our anniversary and got a room in town rather than driving home, the hotelclub discount saved whatever that was all of those other times we went out for other occasions, etc. etc. etc. The cost of one DUI-several thousand dollars so I would say it has potentially saved me several thousand dollars. ;)

I have probably spent more because of this forum :)

Actually, that's probably true for me.

I have probably spent more because of this forum :)

me too...but my life has been made richer because of it! ^

Not necessarily all came via this forum originally, but I think I got 5 x Expedia £40 vouchers, 8 x Accor €60 vouchers and 1 free night from the Hyatt competition, so probably £800+ in value.

Sadly, I haven't managed to take advantage of any great airline deals this year (and there have been some great ones) because of pre-existing plans and having a toddler in tow!

Last winter with the "World for a Dollar" promo from LastMinute I got a July week in Waikiki, so about $1000-1500.
In April I spent several nights at the Kona Fairmont, where I had a much nicer stay for about the same price I would have paid elsewhere.

It's hard to say what I saved specifically from this forum, because sometimes I would have found the information elsewhere. Also, I mostly just stayed at much better hotels and was able to stay twice as long with the same budget. But I saved a ton of money on the stuff I picked up here first...

world-for-a-dollar promotion
orbitz $200 off 5-night hotel coupon
orbitz $75 off 4-night hotel coupon (ODWR75?)
expedia $50 off 3-night coupons (NFL50?) and $50 debit card promotion
the Accor super 3-day sale
the Accor $60 voucher
the hotelclub free $20/$50 promotion
various free night promotions from hotel chains

Thanks, FT!

The hotelclub $50 promo was very good to me. Saved me $200!

Plus I've learned about many SPG promos from FT...thanks!

Hotel Club $50 + IBIS Singapore deals saved me around $1000. Just love this thread !! :)

I probably saved nothing, because I took more trips and stayed at nicer places :). But I am very happy for all the tips nonetheless.

I've used lots of expedia vouchers, and still have many left, lol~
Thanks FT and EXP~ I do have saved a lot!

From the Fairmont thread alone, well over $1000 & had some great stays; thanks FT!

I probably saved nothing, because I took more trips and stayed at nicer places :). But I am very happy for all the tips nonetheless.

Indeed. This forum improves my lifestyle -- it doesn't save me money! :)

It is nice to have hotel options. When I got into the frequent flying game -- back in the late 80s -- hotels were the worst value component of travelling. You could get great airfares (and remember those triple miles!), cars were cheap, but hotels could sometimes bankrupt you. There wasn't a way to easily compare prices -- much less find hotel deals. Your best tools were an Entertainment Book and a telephone (and you looked for 800 numbers to save on phone calls). For overseas travel, you might send a fax -- or perhaps a letter. When you couldn't find a deal, you stayed in a cheap motel and hoped it wouldn't be too bad (no tripadvisor reviews back then -- it was very much a roll of the dice!).

We've come a long way. I'm hoping our deal-finding capabilities only improve. I love paying only a small fraction of "normal" hotel rates!

From the Fairmont thread, unclear how much money I saved, but it definitely provided experiences I wouldn't have had:

Four stays and counting:

- Plaza NYC: my parents were going to stay in the Waldorf on points for their whole stay, but moved them for their final night to the Plaza, for $238 (the NFAF rate was later raised)

- Went to Bermuda on the Jetblue all-you-can-jet pass. A night at the Fairmont Southamption was $100 vs. $400 regularly. I wouldn't have spent the $400, but would have spent much more than $100. Also stayed in the Fairmont Hamilton. Unclear how much I saved, but got to stay in a neat old hotel instead of whatever I would have done instead

- Boston Copley Plaza: hadn't been there as a kid, stayed there on a business trip. Without the discount, it would have been hard to justify the oridinary price, so I might have stayed at an SPG

- Fairmont Singapore: might stay there in December. Unclear how much I would save, but a lot more hotel that I would get otherwise

A lot. Three or so years ago stayed at the Best Western Zurich for 10 days at a rate of $18.00-$21.00 with breaksfast. Great savings. That deal alone has made me a fan.

Thank you.

This thread has saved me absolutely nothing.

However, this forum may have saved me a bit -- or caused me to spend more! ;)

Honestly, I often learn of hotel deals through prior knowledge, e-mail lists from the hotel chains, or other forums on FlyerTalk (the ones specific to the hotel chains). I'm not sure how much this particular forum has really helped me.

Finally, I don't think that threads like this one are helpful at all -- this forum is really for posting of deals, rather than "BS"-type discussions like this, which add little or no value. (There is WAY too much hot air on FT -- only maybe 5% of what is posted on FT has any practical value at all. And yes, I realize I'm contributing to the problem by posting on this thread myself! ;))

To avoid futher confusion, I changed the title of the thread...

Cheers,

MileageAddict
Moderator

this forum has saved me quite a lot. i love the orbitz coupons! thank you FT

A few years ago Octopus Travel had a Zurich hotel deal, I got 6 nights at a Best Western (The Montana) for a total of $116, their regular rate is at least $100/night, so I saved $484--I would not have known about the promo if I were not an FT reader.
Unfortunately, too many of the offers are gone by the time you see them here.