Staying in Vegas? Monitoring Your Hotel Reservation Could Save You $$
Why should you periodically check on a hotel or car rental reservation you’ve already made? Prices fluctuate, particularly with car rentals and Las Vegas hotels, and you could save a lot of money by cancelling an existing (refundable) reservation and rebooking at the lower rate. I’ve written about “gardening your reservation” in the past, but since I just saved $120 on an upcoming night at a Vegas hotel, I figured it couldn’t hurt to remind folks.
I booked the Bellagio for a one night stay later this summer through the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program. $299 for a fountain view room wasn’t cheap, but since it came with the AMEX perks of a $100 dining credit, free breakfast, guaranteed late check out, and the potential for an upgrade and/or early check in, I figured what the heck. Knowing how hotel prices in Las Vegas can vary wildly, I set a reminder to periodically check if the prices dropped.
Last week it did, from $299 to $259. It took a few minutes to make the new reservation and cancel the old, but it was well worth saving $40. Then this morning I had a fantastic surprise — the fountain view room rate had fallen even more to $179!
A few extra minutes to book the new rate and cancel the old and I saved another $80. 😀 I’m guessing that price is as low as it might get, but I’m still going to check every week or so just in case.
There are also reasons other than saving money why it makes sense to monitor your car rental, hotel, and even flight reservations. Systems glitch, schedules change, inventory shrinks. Everything might have been fine when you first made the reservation but could be terribly off by the time you show up to check in. An aircraft swap might negate the perfect seat you chose for your flight, the airline upgrade system might not be working properly. The sooner you identify the problem, the more time you have to figure out a solution.
But back to the saving money part…what’s the most you’ve ever saved by rebooking your hotel room?
