jonslow

Let's say you book well in advance on the hotel's website or directly with the hotel. Does anyone ever check the rates just before you check in? If the rates have gone down, do you request the lower rate?

sandyweb33

I almost always book a cancellable room and check a few times to see if there is a better rate. If there is, I cancel and rebook.

obscure2k

As this is not a Luxury Hotel Topic, I am moving it over to TravelBuzz. Please continue to follow there..
Thanks...
Obscure2k
Moderator
Luxury Hotels

tev9999

If it is a place with highly variable rates, yes. Las Vegas would be my prime example. I booked with the Flamingo once and then rebooked three or four times as the rates dropped. I always book a new reservation before canceling the old, just in case it does not go through.

I'm also checking daily to see if I can get a better deal for my trip to ANC Saturday.

If it is a business trip where we have pre-set rates I don't bother.

dia1

I've had good luck with Intercontinental hotel chains just changing my existing reservations to the new rate. The agent often has to ask a supervisor for instructions, but they have never refused to do it.

cordelli

Constantly, and have saved thousands of dollars over the years.

Hilton lets you do it on their website most of the time, just click to open the reservation, recheck the rates, if it's better click and you have the new rate. You can keep doing that until you check in.

If they won't change the rate for you, book a new room at the lower rate and cancel the old reservation. Make sure to do it in that order, don't cancel and try to book and find out in those seven seconds the rate sold out (done that).

Prepaid and other rates you can't cancel of course don't work so well for this.

But, yes, you should always check your hotel, air, and rental car rates.

There are threads in several of the hotel forums about rate drops.

alanh

Also note this applies to car rental reservations, too. Keep checking the price, and if it goes down book a new car and cancel the old.

YVR Cockroach

Better to make a new booking first then cancel the old one just in case the new rate isn't actually available.


This was discussed a few years back in the Hilton forum. I think some consensus was reached that it was better to make a brand new booking rather than rebook to avoid a possible hassle at checkin/checkout if the hotel doesn't see your new booking.


And air reservations

infinityplusone

Wirelessly posted (My IV to the Net: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Yes, when ever I do personal travel, hotel and rental car.

I sometimes do it for business travel.

Mr MCO

I always check if there is time between the booking at actual travel. I had an instance last month where I called to change the rate to a lower rate. They would not change it as it was a promotion for new bookings. I cancelled my booking on the phone as I was making a new booking on line. That was a 15% discount on a 10 night stay.

hhoope01

You can, but be careful with this as most airfares purchased tend to be non-refundable since they are cheaper. Each airline has their own rules on how they will handle changing to a lower fare. Some will reimburse the difference in a credit voucher, some will charge a change fee, etc.

karenkay

i do...i just saved us about $100 all told on an upcoming five night trip to magical wichita. in addition, as the date got closer and i was sure we were going, i booked a prepaid, noncancellable room online and cancelled the more expensive cancellable rate. two days later, i noticed that for .10 more, aaa was offering free breakfast on the same room.

i called hyatt. first agent said 'sorry, can't help you.' i was pleasant, hung up, waited 10 minutes and called again (i haven't been on ft two years for nothing. ) second agent said 'i can't fix this, but my supervisor can.' voilá! the rate's still not cancellable, which doesn't matter, but it now includes a hyatt breakfast for 10 cents more. yay!

it's well worth checking hotel rates as your travel date approaches. as others have noted, be sure you book your new room first, then cancel the more expensive one.

epi231

Like tev9999, I have had no problems cancelling and rebooking hotel reservations with Las Vegas hotels in order to take advantage of a new, lower rate. It was quite amazing to see how the rates dropped over the course of 2-3 weeks.

Emeraldcity

I just did it in Las Vegas.......had a room at $149.00 per night and called and they lower it to the current rate of $99.00.
I have also done it through Marriott when traveling to Australia. I booked at one rate and noticed that the rate went down and they rebooked me at the lower rate. They don't have problems doing it at all......

travellingcari

I was pleasantly surprised this weekend at a Sheraton in PA. Had booked with a AAA discount and the rate was ~109. When I checked in the agent said "Oh I see there's been a change in this rate" and I mentally prepared myself for an increase so I was thrilled when he said it was $99. That coupled with gorgeous weather and PA's low hotel/tourism tax made for a very nice stay--and triple points