Buzz
A few years ago, I was planning to meet some friends in another city. I made my hotel reservation two months in advance (which is rare for me), and felt pretty proud of how prepared I was. That is, until I found out that a friend who booked after me paid less. It turns out that, much like flight tickets, hotel prices can change—sometimes better deals appear later.
Earlier today, the tech company Service introduced a solution to this issue: It will track your hotel booking’s price, and if it drops, will automatically rebook you at the lower rate. (Making you the most smug of all.)
How Service’s Hotel Rebooking Works
You might have heard of Service before; it launched in 2015 to help travelers automatically receive compensation for canceled or delayed flights. This new hotel rebooking feature is its first expansion beyond that. Here’s how it works.
To get started with Service, you’ll need to link your Gmail or Hotmail account. (Even if your work uses Gmail but your address doesn’t end in ‘@gmail.com,’ it’ll still work.) Once linked, Service will scan your inbox for any hotel reservation-related emails. If it detects something from, say, Sheraton or an email with ‘hotel reservation’ in the subject, it’ll download that message.
Once Service identifies an email as pertaining to a hotel reservation, it will check the price of that exact room—same dates, same reservation type, same preferences—several times a day. If it finds a cheaper rate, it will ‘amend’ your reservation, rebooking you at the lower price. All it needs is your name and confirmation number, which it extracts from the email. This process continues until the booking is non-refundable, usually 24 to 48 hours before check-in.
There’s no upfront cost, but if Service secures a better rate for you, you’ll pay a fee equal to 30 percent of your savings. For instance, if you save $30, Service will charge your credit card $9. And if you cancel your reservation, Service won’t charge you—even if it already completed the rebooking process.
Frequent travelers can also opt for a subscription plan priced at $49 annually. With this plan, all the savings you accumulate—whether from airline delay compensation or hotel bookings—are yours to keep.
Currently, Service only works with bookings made directly through Marriott, Hyatt, Starwood, Intercontinental, and Hilton. (Which is probably how you should book hotels anyway.) The bookings must be refundable, changeable, and made with cash, not points. They can be either domestic or international. The company plans to integrate online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Trivago, and Priceline in the near future, and will continue expanding its partnerships with new hotel brands.
How Much Can You Really Save?
Hotel prices aren’t as unpredictable as airline tickets (or Amazon). So, is tracking them really worth it?
“Hotel rates change frequently,” said Service CEO Michael Schneider. “Whether they drop depends a lot on the market. For instance, New York City often starts high and decreases closer to check-in.” He added that Las Vegas behaves similarly to New York, while Miami and Los Angeles remain more stable. San Francisco, however, follows the opposite pattern: it starts low and increases.
“In the top 25 U.S. markets, hotel rates drop 36 percent of the time,” Schneider noted. “On average, the drop is 10 percent, with the typical rate being $153 per night.” So, you could save about $15 per night on a standard booking. “But don’t forget,” he added, “the price might drop several times before your stay.”
Personally, I’m probably going to give Service’s hotel feature a try. It’s free to test—and given my irrationally competitive nature when it comes to finding the best travel deals—I think, why not?
