ctkathy

Thought this was odd--the Hilton Puckrup Hall would be cheaper by about 100 BGP to book 3 nights each separately rather than book three nights together. Any downside to making three separate bookings for consecutive nights?

If the difference weren't so great, I really wouldn't care, but 100 lbs is quite a bit of difference for a 3 night stay.

kazza

I've done this before for the same reason and found a couple of small downsides due to the hotel staff not sorting things out properly. I was told that I could stay in the same hotel room for 3 nights but after the first night the room key stopped working after the checkout time (hotel staff had only set it for one night). When the points posted I only got credit for 1 night but sent in a missing stay claim form clarifying the other confirmation numbers and the points eventually posted. Obviously 3 separate nights counts as 1 stay but I didn't expect otherwise and didn't need the additional stay credit anyway.

On the upside I did get 2 bottles of complimentary water each day (this is ordinarily only given out on the day of arrival at this particular hotel).

Did the same for a 4 night reward stay in Malta (because apparently this was the only way they could book using reward certs earned through an earlier 5/10/15 promo) and the same thing happened with the key each day (despite reporting it and explaining to the front desk every time it happened). The upside was that we got 'welcome' gifts on every day of our stay however!

MachOne

I noticed the same thing when booking a recent stay at Doubletree Doheny Beach. My original booking was two nights at $161 per night.

I went back to change to three nights and found the rate had gone to $190 a night. Ended up booking the extra night at $161.

MO

cordelli

Hilton does this sometimes, it's a royal pain. Sometimes one night will be a different rate then the other nights, but most times they just adjust all the rates to the highest rate.

I would first call the hotel and see if they can adjust the three night reservation to reflect the change in rates.

If not, it can be a hassle if they expect you to check out by checkout time and check in again if they don't get it right at check in or have assigned you to a different room each night (yes they may do that). They will also process it as three different transactions, three different holds on the card, etc.

MichaelColey

It's not just Hilton and not just hotels.

I had the same thing happen with a 26 day National car rental. It priced at something like $239/week (and almost as much for the last five days on a daily rate). I was able to book it as four separate 6-7 day rentals with weekly rates around $189/week. Plus I was able to use four separate weekly coupons instead of just one. The net result made it worthwhile for me to exchange cars once a week.

Wally Bird

This usually involves staying over a weekend (cheap) into Sun/Mon (not as cheap). I do this regularly and book the expensive night(s) separately. As a diamond I have never had a problem checking in for all nights at the same time while keeping the rates separate.

Yes it's a pain, but as OP says the difference can be substantial.

formeraa

Ah, true revenue management is catching on at Hilton!

satori

Multi-night stays take time to check all the night combinations. I have done several analyses of 3 night holiday weekend hotel stays.

1. Check Fri, Sat, Sun separately
2. Check 2 night combinations Fri-Sat, Sat-Sun
3. Check Fri-Sun 3 night stay
4. Check special offers.

The more time you have to check, the more likely you will find the lowest combination. The rates frequently don't match in the nightly rates using different combinations regardless of the hotel chain.

mnredfox

That's happened to me several times, esp when the hotel is more full or sold out. If you do a diamond force, you pay the diamond force rate the whole stay.

Pretty much what you guys are doing is accurate. It's a hassle having to worry about mulltiple folios, proper credit, moving rooms etc. But if you are lucky the hotel gets it all right.

jabez

I've done like satori. Two weeks ago my 2 nigjht stay at the Hilton Galveston was priced at $189/n. I instead booked the first night for $99 and second for $189. These were Tues/Wed, so even midweeks have changes.

mareh

I know this thread is old, but I currently have five separate reservations for an eight night stay. The rate difference is substantial. I actually had not seen this happen with Hilton (actually, it's a Doubletree) before.

helosc

I see it very often and thus I often have more than one reservation for a stay.

Lately I've been seeing some really odd pricings - it used to be that an expensive night dragged the price of all nights up but now I'm also seeing multiple nights costing more than any of the individual nights.

A recent example: 119 € for the first night, 119 € for the second night but 154 € for each night if booked as a two night stay.

I have also been having a fair bit of trouble with the stays posting correctly - missing night credits, missing points.

tda1986

I saved $210 in the Maldives by booking four nights as two consecutive two-night stays. The hotel had no problem combining these two separate revenue stays plus our two free night certificates (with paid upgrades) into one reservation in the same room. Of course, that resort has much higher service standards than most Hilton-family hotels.

templar42

Has anyone ever come across any code to scrape prices from the Hilton site? For longer stays I suspect this is a job for an algorithm.

Chang11

I don't recall which hotel chain, when there was a price differential each nite was charged the different rate. Another way I have seen it is each day is charged at the designated rate and the average rate is displayed as the daily rate. Hilton is cheating it's loyal customers by charging the highest daily rate of the stay period for all days. I've notice this happening frequently at Hilton.

I avoid this by searching single nites and checking flexible dates, then the date/rate differentials are noted and reservations made for each date/rate block often being weekend transitions.