.png)
Where did you sleep last night?
Tell me where did you sleep last night?, It sounds like a Nirvana´s song but it is not...
It all started with an invitation to test a new-to-me travel app called HotelTonight. Simple, spontaneous and safe – the app seems like the ideal tool for a savvy frequent traveler who likes their trips just like that – simple, spontaneous and safe. HotelTonight is a last-minute hotel booking app – the furthest you can book ahead is seven days, hence the name. Whenever you get stranded in a foreign city because your train broke down, or your flight was cancelled, or when you decide to spend a night away from it all real spontaneously – with this app you can find vacant hotel rooms for the night. Seeing that these rooms would otherwise go unsold, the hotels offer some really rad deals through the app.
Recently, I had a business meeting in Edinburgh, and it was weekend and the sun was shining bright, so I decided to take a spontaneous city break to enjoy a little more of the Scottish capital. More on my top tips for a short trip to Edinburgh will follow soon.
But now, back to the logistics. Setting up an account with HotelTonight is really easy – you simply download the app (it’s free!), create an account and fill in your credit card details. From then on, booking a hotel room is as simple as calling an Uber taxi – three taps and a confirmation, that’s all.
You can search for hotels in over 500 destinations around the world – the database is far from complete, but still growing. The hotels on offer are personally selected and tested by the HotelTonight team, meaning that you don’t have to dig through hundreds and hundreds of hotel reviews, but get a handful of reliable quality suggestions. The hotels are tagged with different categories, like basic, charming or hip, to make it easier to find the kind of vibe you’re looking for. For my night in Edinburgh I wanted a cool, stylish hotel in the city centre and luckily Hotel Indigo (category: solid) on York Place had an unsold executive standard room available for me. The room sold for £101, which is roughly £15 less than the standard rate for a double room quoted by the hotel and on other booking platforms (£117). The price did not include breakfast, but as I prefer eating out for break anyways, that was no issue. What was included though, was everything in the mini bar – yay!
While browsing the app showed me everything I needed to know about the hotel – a map with its location, photos of the rooms, review ratings, details on amenities and facilities, and additional information, for example how to reach it from the airport and check-in/-out times. Convinced, I tapped ‘Book Now’ and was surprised to see that the quoted prize was just the average rate for the room – under ‘Room Type’ I could choose between ‘selected by hotel’, ‘room with 1 bed’ (each £83) and ‘room with 2 beds’ (£101) – another few pounds saved.
As I had saved my credit card details in the app already, all I had to do next was tap ‘Confirm Booking’ and agree to the terms by tracing the shape of a bed on my screen – a nice interactive finishing touch. Done! Edinburgh, here I come.
(Note: the prize per night changes each night depending on availability – that’s why the prizes in my photos vary.)
As always with new booking methods, I was a little nervous as I rocked up at the front desk. Will they have registered my booking (an irrational fear, as I of course had received a receipt and booking confirmation)? Would I need to show the booking in the app? What if my phone dies? Worries about nothing – check-in went smooth, all I needed to say was my name and the friendly staff at the reception knew what to do. So far, I was very happy with the hotel suggestion HotelTonight had offered me. The happiness grew when I entered my room on the third floor – large windows, lots of daylight, a massive TV, a chaise longue to rest without messing up the bed, a bathtub and a huge walk-in rain shower. Can I stay longer than one night?
Unfortunately, that was not an option, because the hotel was fully booked the next night and I had to return to my own, not so fancy flat in Glasgow… I need a rain shower.
*This post is a cooperation with HotelTonight, but the opinions expressed are entirely Kathi’s own.
All photos by Kathi Kamleitner.
All photos by Kathi Kamleitner.
Published by: Travelers
April 27th, 2015
Source: www.travelettes.net
0 comments: