One of the budding technologies that has captured my recent attention are those which track hotel prices. For years, frugal travelers have been able to track changes to airfare planned far enough in advance. However, the true ability to make sure they are getting the best price on a hotel has eluded them.
My first hotel price tracking review considered an app that works entirely inside Facebook. While this was an easy way to get up-to-date information about hotel prices, I wasn’t entirely comfortable booking my stay inside the social network. My next stop involves a little-known startup that wants to help you ensure you get the best rate, wherever you go.
HotelRatePRO is a new website born out of a need for business travelers. To cut costs, some corporations demand the lowest possible rate out of their travelers – meaning ideal locations and prime hotels may not be available. Through HotelRatePRO, those same road warriors can track multiple hotel locations and find the one that combines rate with location.
Does HotelRatePRO work better than other tools? With no accomodations booked for an upcoming getaway to San Francisco, I decided to give the site a try to see just how effective it is in helping me save money.
The first thing that impressed me about the site was the organization. No matter what I needed – help booking a hotel or just checking rates against a current booking – the website could help me constantly get prices. When I clicked the booking button, I was taken to another page where I was asked to plug-in my destination, dates and number of guests.
With San Francisco selected, I was shown a number of hotels overlaid on an easy-to-read map. Instead of guessing which ones were in my preferred brand, each was color coded on the overlay, helping me figure out not only which were best for my destination, but also which were connected to the chains where I held status. When I wanted to learn more, I clicked on the hotel location, which took me directly to the brand website to book.
While everything got off to a great start, this is where the experience got a little off-track. The map at HotelRatePRO couldn’t actually show me the current rates on hotels. This forced me to go to the hotel website, get the rate and then come back to HotelRatePRO to get e-mail updates about the hotel price. Once that was done, I could receive regular notifications about the hotel I was looking at and the price changes.
Although the website feels a little rudimentary in some ways, I actually found myself appreciating the simple layout and navigation. The organization was key to my ability to determine where I wanted to stay, while the ability to book directly on the hotel websites gave me a lot of trust in the system. As a bonus, I was able to keep my points and receive elite benefits. Even though hotel cancellation policies are changing, this tool could be useful in getting the best overall rate up until the cancel window closes.
Who should use HotelRatePRO? Those who have already booked their cancellable hotels should use this tool to make sure they get the best price for their stay. While the website also offers booking options as well, this tool will become my primary rate-checking site – just in case I can do better on the price. After all, what is frugal travel without making sure you pay as little as possible to see the world?
Would you use a tool that offers regular hotel rate updates? How would it serve your hotel plans? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Written by Frugal Travel Guy @ http://www.frugaltravelguy.com
Written by Frugal Travel Guy @ http://www.frugaltravelguy.com