How To Travel & Save with Hotel Tonight

HOW TO TRAVEL & SAVE WITH HOTEL TONIGHT

How many of you out there are procrastinators? How many of you like to save money when traveling? How many of you can resonate with the idea of procrastinating and saving?!

Well, guess what?! If you like doing both, there is an app for you!

I have been using a travel app called Hotel Tonight for four years. I most recently took advantage of the app to book a last minute weekend stay at The Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, WA. By booking my stay via the app, I was able to obtain a waterfront room with a balcony that overlooked Elliot Bay and Puget Sound for $210 a night! This was huge because the waterfront room I snatched up goes for $320-430 USD a night! Keep reading to learn how I saved on my trip using Hotel Tonight and get a promo code as a bonus.

The Rundown: App FAQ

The creators of the app preach their slogan, “Book in the moment.” Only through them can you find great hotels with fantastic prices. When hotels have a surplus of unsold rooms, we, the consumers, can find unbelievable deals because those extra rooms are discounted and loaded onto the app for us to buy. You don’t have to worry about any sketchy listings! You can rest assured knowing that any booking you make through Hotel Tonight will turn out great because the company screens all the hotels listed.

In addition to being innovative, the app is also convenient. Anyone can “book wherever, whenever on your mobile device for tonight, tomorrow and next week.” The best prices, however, are always listed on same day bookings. See the app's website for more details.

Finding a Hotel

Using Hotel Tonight is ridiculously easy. All you have to do is download the app and sign-up. The app is purple in color and has a wide “h” or a bed shaped symbol on its face.

See Photo 1

After you have downloaded and completed the formalities, click the home page and type in the city you want to stay in the search box. The company offers its services in hundreds of cities across 20 different countries. The possibilities are endless.

For me, I wanted to stay in downtown Seattle. Thus, when I was booking a hotel for my trip last week, I typed in Seattle. Once the app searched the city/area I selected, I was presented with a list of hotels. If you look at the top right-hand corner, there is an option for you to set which dates you want to book. Bookings can be searched up to 7 days beforehand. The available hotels and prices will change based on availability, rates, date, and number of nights you pick.

See Photo 2

To help Hotel Tonight users locate a hotel that suits their needs, the company flags each listing with a category. The app says, “To save you time, we wanted to use something more illustrative than star ratings. So we handily devised our categories to highlight not just the service level or each hotel…”

Hotel Tonight uses seven different categories to describe their hotels:

See Photo 3 & 4

Luxe – An upscale hotel with stellar service, lavish amenities, and serious comfort, for when you’re feeling swanky.
Hip – A stylish, sometimes quirky hot spot that’s as popular with in-the-know locals as it is with travelers.
Solid – A comfortable, reliable hotel with all the gotta-have-em amenities.
Basic – A modest hotel with limited extras, perfect for when you need a place to lay your head.
Charming – A hotel, B&B or guest house that’s quaint, intimate and delightful.
Crashpad – A budget hostel or inn without many amenities, for those nights you don’t need ’em.
High Roller – An over-the-top, tricked-out suite or penthouse for VIPs and high rollers.

You will also notice a hotel that is greenly marked as a GeoRate. When you see “GeoRate” in the app, it means that Hotel Tonight is offering a special, limited-time offer for this particular hotel. The price you see is lower that the already discounted Hotel Tonight rate. If you see this category, I would recommend that you snap that bad boy up! Not all users are presented with GeoRates and they often go very quickly.

I saw a GeoRate on my app, but last week I wanted to splurge and go for a “luxe” hotel. I choose to stay at The Edgewater Hotel in Downtown Seattle because all of the rooms feature gas fireplaces and pine furnishings. I also thought it was cool how the hotel hosted some of the most famous names in music: The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, The Supremes and more!

See Photo 5

Anyways…Once I was convinced that this was the hotel for me, I clicked on the listing to be taken to the hotel’s properties page. All pages, despite the listing, will provide you with a photo gallery, relevant booking information, list of amenities, room size, WiFi access, etc. You can read comments left by other Hotel Tonight users who have stayed at the listing.

As you conduct your research on the properties page, you will notice that a “book now bar” will remain at the bottom of your screen. This just means that you can book your stay at any time. If you decide to choose a different hotel, you can always tap the “back” button and it will take you back to the original search screen.

See Photo 6

Last Details

If you’re looking to have same day checking, you have to get the room before 2 am.
You can add multiple guest names to your booking account. Doing this will ensure that all members of your party can check in.
You cannot book multiple rooms in one swipe.
The app does not provide refunds. All purchases are nonrefundable. Be certain of your choice!!
A receipt is provided to you in the “booking tap.”

All in all, the app is reliable and I have never had a horrible experience. I used this app in multiple US cities as well as when I was traveling abroad.

Save More, Get Money

All new HT members who download the app can get $25 off their first booking using my code TMOSLEY27. My gift to you for being such loyal subscribers/readers of the What Taylor Likes blogary.

What I Did With the Extra Cash

With all the moolah I was able to save using the travel app, I manage to schedule more fun activities for my mom and me to enjoy during our trip. Check out our Seattle itinerary and pictures down below.

Seattle Itinerary and pictures

Saturday

Café Flora | Vegetarian Brunch

2 Hour Bike Tour of Seattle | Seattle Cycling Tours

Tilth | Veg/ Vegan Five Course Dinner

Sunday

Bang Bang Café | Veg/Vegan-Friendly Breakfast

1 Hour Pike Place Market Tour | Seattle Free Walking Tours

Pike Market Adventure

El Borracho: Taqueria & Cantina | Happy Hour in by Pike Market

1 Hour Cruise of Elliot Bay

Plum Bistro | Vegan Dinner)