HotelTonight ‘the biggest innovation in online hotel booking since online hotel booking’ ?
At least this is what comes up after a search on Google.
HotelTonight is an hotel booking app, designed for same-day bookings and promises savings up to 70 percent off. I don’t know about the biggest innovation but I was curious whether it is the best app to use for last minute (literally) hotel booking.
So I have compared HotelTonight with the Expedia and Priceline apps and roomkey.com (“Founded by a group of leading hotel companies, Room Key’s mission is simple: offer travelers direct access to a broad network of hotels around the globe, ..”) . Roomkey is an interesting concept, and I will write about it in a future post. They don’t have an app yet (how difficult would it be? they seem to have the resources) but they have poetry.
But I have started to digress, let’s go back to the price comparison. I searched for a room in downtown Vancouver, and no other criteria has been used (stars, ratings, etc., I suppose when one has to book last-minute, any hotel – to a certain degree – would do). And without further ado: only once did HotelTonight offer the best price, and there was a tie between Priceline and Roomkey (5 days each with the best price).
However, HotelTonight offered a better price for the same hotel and perhaps this is the discount up to 70% they promise. I assume when HotelTonight makes a deal with a hotel they (i.e. the hotels) have to offer them the best price and by a quite sizeable margin.
Example:
Friday 27 July, The Listel Hotel
HotelTonight – $165
Expedia – $199
Priceline – $196
Sunday 29 July, Moda Hotel
HotelTonight – $119
Expedia – $169
Priceline – $168
Monday 30 July, Granville Island Hotel
HotelTonight – $159
Priceline- $208
Of course comparing the same hotel, ‘our’ app (bad literary style to repeat the same word one after each other so this is the reason I didn’t use HotelTonight) comes on top.
“In the seven instances HotelTonight competed with Expedia, it beat Expedia six times and tied once. In the eight times HotelTonight competed with the hotels’ own websites, it beat them seven times and lost once ..”, from an ABC News page ‘Using HotelTonight For a Hotel Tonight’.
So I fail to see what’s so revolutionary about this app. And how many people book on the same day they need a hotel room? The only firsthand case I know is of my work colleagues who got their flights cancelled because of bad weather and they had to find a hotel room; they would have cared less about the price as they were going to be reimbursed anyway.
And we might have the odd case of a millionaire who does this kind of things and again he would care less of the price and go to the most expensive available hotel.
However, who am I to say this? Hotel Tonight is backed by top investors (Battery Ventures, Accel Partners and First Round Capital). Everyone who works there, even if they have not slept and eaten for 3 days, is still 10 times smarter than me (100 times under the same circumstances). Accel for example invested in Facebook, made lots of money with the IPO, and what about me, I lost money as I bought the IPO.
So they must know something I don’t.
| Date | App | Hotel | Price | Cheapest |
| Thursday 19 July | HotelTonight | Sylvia | 145 | Roomkey |
| Listel | 145 | |||
| Expedia | Howard Johnson | 129 | ||
| Priceline | Catherine’s Bed & Breakfast | 78 | ||
| Ramada Inn & Suites | 123 | |||
| Roomkey | Budget Inn Patricia | 69 | ||
| Friday 20 July | HotelTonight | Quality Hotel Inn False Creek | 119 | Priceline |
| Expedia | Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver Downtown | 129 | ||
| Priceline | Budget Inn Patricia | 59 | ||
| Hotel Ambassador | 98 | |||
| Quality Hotel Inn False Creek | 128 | |||
| Roomkey | Budget Inn Patricia | 121 | ||
| Saturday 21 July | HotelTonight | Granville Island Hotel | 209 | Priceline |
| Expedia | Robsonstrasse Hotel | 159 | ||
| Priceline | The Kingston Hotel | 74 | ||
| English Bay Hotel | 113 | |||
| Granville Island Hotel | 261 | |||
| Roomkey | Budget Inn Patricia | 121 | ||
| Sunday 22 July | HotelTonight | Ramada Inn Downtown | 99 | Roomkey |
| Moda Hotel | 119 | |||
| Expedia | Ramada Inn and Suites | 104 | ||
| Moda Hotel | 151 | |||
| Priceline | Victorian Hotel | 78 | ||
| The Buchan Hotel | 93 | |||
| Moda Hotel | 149 | |||
| Roomkey | Budget Inn Patricia | 69 | ||
| Monday 23 July | HotelTonight | Quality Hotel Inn False Creek | 129 | Roomkey |
| Sylvia Hotel | 135 | |||
| The Listel Hotel | 139 | |||
| Expedia | Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver Downtown | 89 | ||
| Sylvia Hotel | 209 | |||
| The Listel Hotel | 189 | |||
| Quality Hotel Inn False Creek | 149 | |||
| Priceline | The Kingston Hotel | 74 | ||
| Quality Hotel Inn False Creek | 147 | |||
| The Listel Hotel | 186 | |||
| Roomkey | Budget Inn Patricia | 69 | ||
| Thursday 26 July | HotelTonight | Quality Hotel Inn False Creek | 109 | Priceline |
| Expedia | Best Western Plus | 130 | ||
| Priceline | Hotel Ambassador | 77 | ||
| Quality Hotel Inn False Creek | 136 | |||
| Roomkey | Holiday Inn VANCOUVER-CENTRE (BROADWAY) | 192 | ||
| Friday 27 July | HotelTonight | Ramada Inn Downtown | 79 | HotelTonight |
| The Listel Hotel | 165 | |||
| Expedia | Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver Downtown | 129 | ||
| The Listel Hotel | 199 | |||
| Priceline | Catherine’s Bed & Breakfast | 98 | ||
| The Listel Hotel | 196 | |||
| Roomkey | Best Western Plus | 170 | ||
| Saturday 28 July | HotelTonight | sold out at 9:29 pm | Priceline | |
| Expedia | Holiday Inn Hotel | 220 | ||
| Priceline | Howard Johnson Plaza | 128 | ||
| Roomkey | The Hotel at Terminal City Club Vancouver | 264 | ||
| Sunday 29 July | HotelTonight | Moda Hotel | 119 | Roomkey |
| Granville Island Hotel | 179 | |||
| Expedia | Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver Downtown | 99 | ||
| Moda Hotel | 169 | |||
| Priceline | Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver Downtown | 88 | ||
| Moda Hotel | 168 | |||
| Granville Island Hotel | 244 | |||
| Roomkey | Budget Inn Patricia | 70 | ||
| Monday 30 July | HotelTonight | Ramada Inn Downtown | 109 | Priceline |
| Granville Island Hotel | 159 | |||
| Expedia | Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver Downtown | 99 | ||
| Priceline | Catherine’s Bed & Breakfast | 78 | ||
| Granville Island Hotel | 208 | |||
| Roomkey | Days Inn – Vnacouver Metro | 101 | ||
| Tuesday 31 July | HotelTonight | Moda Hotel | 119 | Roomkey |
| Expedia | Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver Downtown | 99 | ||
| Priceline | Catherine’s Bed & Breakfast | 78 | ||
| Roomkey | Budget Inn Patricia | 69 |
Monday 30th of July
HotelTonight
Expedia
Priceline
Roomkey
“However, HotelTonight offered a better price for the same hotel and perhaps this is the discount up to 70% they promise…”
Exactly this. Theoretically, HT should compete on price (mapping their ratings to comparable star ratings) with hotwire/priceline opaque bookings made within 3 or so days of arrival, with the obvious advantage of knowing the hotel. HT might even win (vs. a hotwire/priceline booking that turns out to be the same hotel).
So, comparing the cheapest hotel available on HT with the cheapest on hotwire/priceline/etc isn’t particularly useful — if HT is ever cheapest overall, that’s accidental and particularly fortunate for them. But they should always offer a decent discount on the hotels they list, with some variance for room availability.
There’s clearly a market for HT — people who refuse to use hotwire et al unless they can deduce the hidden hotel before booking and that aren’t bound to loyalty programs. Even the latter category has a price delta at which it often ceases to matter.
A comparison of HT rates against reported successful priceline bids and hotwire bookings for the same hotel in similar demand periods would be interesting. Similarly, a same-hotel comparison against various publicly-available discounted rates on hotel chain websites would be quite revealing.
That’s a good price for the Granville Island, but I still prefer the Hyatt for its central location. Close to shopping, waterfront, and public transit to the airport.
“And how many people book on the same day they need a hotel room?”
Normally, I wouldn’t think this happens a lot, but next week I’m driving cross country and will need to find a hotel wherever we are when we get tired of driving. I was considering downloading and using this app for this reason, but based on your review I’m questioning whether it’s worth it.
Tracy, actually you should download it, it is free after all. Who knows, perhaps the respective day they have the best deal (very unlikely, but they might). It wouldn’t take too much time to use it and actually first time I think they give a $25 credit, not so sure though.
Dear Cynical Traveler: This is Jared Simon, COO of HotelTonight. Where’s the fun (or innovation) in forcing our customers to dig through a long list of hotels every day to find the one they want for that night? We think that’s a real pain, so we work hard to curate our hotels, removing those that have poor reviews or which are in sketchy locations, so that it’s easy for our customers to find an amazing hotel very quickly. As a result, the grungiest (and often cheapest) hotels won’t be on our app. However, as Nik notes above, for those hotels that make the grade, the best rate can always be found on HotelTonight and our customers can trust that they’ll have a great experience. Now that’s innovative!