Mystery hotel deals can be a great way to score a bargain on a hotel room, saving you literally hundreds of dollars off the cost of accommodation! There’s just one catch: you won’t know where you’re actually staying until after you’ve paid.
There are numerous websites that sell discounted mystery hotel rooms. These include Hotwire, Wotif and Lastminute.com. Priceline also offers “Name your own price” bookings, where you can bid for mystery hotels.
Mystery hotel websites have received largely positive reviews from our members, with many having successfully saved hundreds on quality hotel rooms!
I have used ‘name your own price’ and searched for clues on all of the above sites… but information can be limited for hotels outside the USA. We scored the Hilton on the Avenue of the Americas for some crazy price like $100 a few years ago. Absolute bargain. The room wasn’t the best condition but it was fine for the price. Same in singapore – another Hilton on Orchard Road, for something like $80. The room was a standard room – perfect.
I booked the Sheraton just north of Times Square for $100USD/night including taxes back in February through Hotwire, and used BetterBidding to confirm which hotel I was looking at. I was pretty happy with the price.
While the majority of mystery hotel experiences appear to have been positive, reviews have been mixed. There is always a risk that the room you end up with may not meet the expected standard of quality, or may not be in an ideal location.
I’ve read fairly mixed reviews about the site, most of them regarding the condition of the room that you get and the inflated star rating of the properties that were advertised.
To reduce the risk of getting stuck with a bad hotel room, while still enjoying the savings, it pays to do your research. By comparing the advertised amenities and star rating of the mystery hotel with available hotels in that location, you may be able to deduce the identity of the hotel before booking. Websites such as Better Bidding and The Bidding Traveller can also assist. These websites can help you to determine which hotel you’re likely to end up booking using a mystery hotel deal. They can also help you when using Priceline’s “Name your own price” auction by revealing past bid amounts, and whether or not these bids were successful.
With some research using Better Bidding, you can work out the hotel with 90% certainty I’ve found.
Booking a mystery hotel deal may require a little extra effort, but the savings can well and truly add up!
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