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Last Minute Hotel Booking - Avail the Best Stay in Town!

Last Minute Hotel Booking – Avail the Best Stay in Town!

The anticipation to arrange your hunt of wanderlust has come alive with the innovative technique followed by the trip organizers and hotel chains. To carve the unimaginable of an unplanned excursion, last-minute hotel bookings have reshaped the adventurous trip into the budget belt. The apps and websites are designed to ease the convenience of travelers and business people who’re always short of…

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Last Minute Hotel Deals - Avail The Best Offers During Your Next Trip

Last Minute Hotel Deals – Avail The Best Offers During Your Next Trip

The hotel business has gone through enormous modification to turn their outcome favorable. The world wide web created a platform to make all the chains break which bound the limitation of travelers to depend on hefty prices demanded by hotels. Witnessing the travel business skyrocketing, several startups have adopted innovative formulae to attract the travelers in their side. The race created a…

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Why Last Minute Deals are Getting Popular?

Why Last Minute Deals are Getting Popular?

If you are an everyday person like the rest of us, you are likely to be as busy as a bee or even busier. From rushing to work in the morning to getting caught in the traffic heading home at night, the day goes by in a flash and you are likely to often wonder, where has the year or even decade gone? The reasons for getting off the fast-track at least once every few months are often repeated and…

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Ways to Get the Best Hotel Deals

The hospitality industry is regarded as one of the most flourishing and booming industries in the country. As the desire for travel increases with every passing year, the profits that hotels make are also on the rise. The competition among hotels is rising exponentially and it is not enough to address with excellent services and amenities. Hotels are providing excellent best hotel deals in hopes to come out ahead in this tough, competitive environment. Despite the growth in the industry, both the budget and luxury hotels in India continue to be inconsistent and unpredictable with their rates. Hotel rates are always fluctuating and there are many reasons attributed to this lack of consistency. Ideally, the rates for a type of room would be the same, perhaps changing during the peak tourist season. In reality, the price of a hotel room changes daily, and often even hourly based on demand. Sometimes one website may give you plenty of best hotel deals in Delhi NCR while at other times, you may struggle to get a room in the same area even at regular rates.

Luckily, there are many ways to score the best hotel deals for your next trip. Some of the simple and quick ways to grab 5-star hotel deals are mentioned here.

Search Online: The best place to find excellent deals on hotels is the internet. With the rise of various travel websites, the old and traditional way of booking hotels has fallen out of favour and has been replaced by internet booking systems. There are plenty of websites that help you find great hotel accommodations at low prices. These sites also provide various hotel booking offers online in addition to discount coupons as well. Some of the better sites allow you to specify your price also and select the hotels you like.

Compare Prices Online: With the abundance of online travel booking websites, it becomes a little daunting to hunt for the best hotel deals. The best way to go about this is to narrow down your search by shortlisting a few sites and then comparing the prices. Various search filers on the site can also assist you. If you are looking for luxury hotel deals, then all you need to do is select the option of luxury hotels. For instance, if you are looking for 5-star hotel deals in Delhi then follow the same procedure to compare the prices before booking a room. Some sites also allow you to classify deals based on location or holiday theme. These sites work better as they have already done their homework in what suits a traveller and thus provide holiday options that are financially sensible and yet memorable.

Be Flexible with Travel Dates: If you are ready to alter your travel dates, you may be able to avail the best discounts. Sometimes, apps and travel websites that tell you the best time to stay at a particular destination and also help avail the best hotel deals. All you have to do is search with parameters for your budget, desired travel dates, and geographic limits using filters and it will give you a list of hotels to consider. The last minute booking engines allow you to book only for a few days in advance – this ensures you can always find the best deals in such websites.

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The Add-On Services You Can Avail in a Hotel But Never Do

If you are one of those regular business travellers who stays in a hotel every few days or if you travel and stay in a hotel every now and then for purely personal reasons, you would have probably noticed certain services that hotels provide but you never use. These services vary from hotel to hotel but certain services like airport / station transfers, buffet meals, in-room dining and drinks, and spa and sauna services are usually common for all hospitality players.

The fact that hotels provide these services at a discount but travellers do not use them is quite paradoxical. This is something that this piece will try to rectify. Let us quickly look at these few services to understand why using them makes sense and also saves some money:

Airport / Station Transfers

These are transfers between the airport / station and the hotel where you are staying. These services are provided at a discount by the hotel but most people avoid them assuming them to be expensive. Nothing can be further from the truth. This service actually helps you save.

Let us illustrate by an example: suppose you are staying in a metropolitan city like Delhi or Mumbai, and have to take a flight late in the night or early morning. You obviously try to get a taxi from taxi service firms like Ola or Uber. Now, if you have tried this out, you know how hard it can be to get a taxi to come and pick you up at the dead of the night or early morning. Not to mention peak-hour fares, additional fees for the duration of travel, etc. that ensures you do not get a bargain from these cheap taxis. If you do some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations, you would notice that you have to shell out more for an app-based taxi service than what you would by taking a taxi from a hotel. Most 5 star hotel deals in Delhi or Mumbai offer this service as an add-on feature when you look at hotel booking offers online.

Buffet Meals

Most hotels offer buffet meals at a discount. These may be breakfast, lunch or dinner. In most cases, when you book a good hotel, they offer complimentary breakfast. However, if you book a room at a discount, the hospitality firms may not be able to provide you free breakfast. They do, however, offer coupons at significant discounts to get you a breakfast. Again, just like the taxis, this proves to be considerably cheaper than eating outside. Just like the airport transfers, these are again available when you opt for hotel booking offers online.

In-Room Dining and Drinks

The restaurant, cafes and bars in hotels need to pay certain charges and taxes to operate as such. Add to that the operational cost of running the place such as cost of the staff, cost of tables & chairs, etc. this directly results in a higher food bill. All these can be avoided if you have meals and drinks in your room. The hotel passes these savings directly to you as discounted food coupons, etc. Just like the above two services, this also works out to be considerably cheaper for the guest as compared to eating or drinking outside in a high-end restaurant or bar. The best hotel deals usually allow you to buy hotel discount coupons that offer these in-room dining and drinking services.

Spa and Sauna Services

The better hotels offer spa and sauna services for their guests. The highly qualified staff here is usually trained in Ayurveda, acupressure, yoga, pranic healing, etc. and can help the tired body rejuvenate from the stress of everyday life. As such, a hotel can easily provide luxury spa and sauna services to guests who want the necessary treatment to heal their bodies. Moreover, being a part of the hotel’s existing services (means they do not have to procure these services separately from outside for the guest), these spa and sauna services can be offered at a significant discount to what one will get for a luxury spa experience outside. Nearly all luxury hotels in India offer this service.

These services are ideal to use if you book luxury hotel deals at the last minute. The services can usually be availed from the hotel’s website or an aggregator that provides hotel discount coupons also in addition to helping you book rooms. Most last minute hotels deals allow you to buy hotel discount coupons for other add-on services, in addition to those mentioned above. You can visit the hotel or aggregator’s site to know more about what a particular hotel offers.

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The Magic is Here!

One of my friends recently shared her funny experience with an online shopping portal. She ordered an outfit at a “steal deal” as she quoted, and paid some INR 750 for it, after a great discount. The delivery was timely but she got a shock when she saw what was inside. Nope, there were no bricks or stones, but the outfit came with a price tag that said MRP INR 599!! I am guessing the company made the ‘mistake’ of not removing the original price tag. On complaining, the online retailer did offer her credits via a gift card to buy something else, but did it help buy back her trust or loyalty? I doubt.

Another story, another friend, another undelivered promise. Friends booked a hotel stay ‘deal’ in Goa. Elated at booking at 5 star stay for the price of a 3 star, the group reached Goa high already on hopes of good food, booze, party and an awesome place to crash after it all. But lo and behold, they are greeted by a 3 star accommodation far from what the pictures on the website looked like! What ensued was a ruined day 1 of the already short weekend plan!

Hey, if there is something worse than your relationship not working out, then it is probably a great bargain not working out!! LOL!!

Although these experiences may seem funny, but at the back of my mind I can relate to the situations, because I too have had similar experiences but with food discount coupons. In fact, most of us would have faced this with some or the other deal on hotels, restaurants, coupons, promo codes, etc. What is astonishing is that if you go by the advertisements, you are literally buying everything almost free or getting cashbacks on them. I wonder, where then is my salary disappearing?

Clearly, there is much more to it than what meets the eye with these promo code deals, cashbacks, deep discounts etc.

If you really think about it, it is not that difficult to crack the code on who ultimately bears the cost of these discounts… IT’S US – The Customer! You and me. Think about it – how would anyone be able to offer 70% - 80% discounts? With the manufacturers or service providers’ operational expenses and the online portal’s huge overhead costs, businesses actually have no room to offer such large discounts – unless they want to go bankrupt!

Then, who is really paying for these discounts? The answer is obvious.

What is worse is that we feel really cheated after the experience. I mean, if you are like me, by the time you realise that either the deal has expired or your coupon doesn’t qualify for the discount, you are probably so sold with the product or service that you end up buying it anyway at a much higher price.

The result after the initial euphoria?

A bitter after taste that stays.

Such experiences are unfortunately becoming more commonplace than before, especially as more and more online firms and apps join the great Indian retail bandwagon.

We think it’s time the tables are somewhat turned towards the person who is supposed to be and is the king – the consumer... you, me, us.

To do so, we have identified certain areas where customers can actually get some great discounts and businesses too do not suffer any losses or adverse effects on their brand. We have created a site (and an app for mobiles) that lets you access such deals. We have, in fact, taken the process one step further – with our site, you get to choose the price you want to pay and see the percentage chance of landing that deal. You also get to readjust your price if you think you have quoted too low or too high.

Sounds good? We think so too.

It is high time we, the consumers, get to decide what we want and what we want to pay for it. And get the deal at that price.

It is time to create that little bit of MAGIC.