£1 a night hotel rooms

£1 a night hotel rooms tomorrow - Thursday at 10 AM.

HotelConnect are going to be unleashing a load of £1 a night rooms on Thursday 26th Feb at 10 :00 UK time. When they are gone, they are gone - so get in quick.

Here is my advice on how to have the best chance with this deal :

1. Familiarise yourself with the HotelConnect website before the day so you know how to search.
2. Have your credit card ready.
3. Make sure you know which dates you can and can't go away, if flights are involved have an idea which dates cheap flights are available. Skyscanner might help you there.
4. Have a look at the terms and conditions of the offer ( I have copied them below )

HotelConnect £1 rooms Terms & Conditions :

1. The £1 rooms are available to book online only at www.hotelconnect.co.uk until sold out. 2. The offer is for room only in a twin/double room and does not include breakfast. 3. There is a maximum stay of three nights per booking. 4. One booking per person. If you do book more than one - there will be trouble and we will cancel the booking. The hotel and HotelConnect reserve the right to cancel any bookings which we suspect, with good reason, to be fraudulent. 5. A charge of £15 per person will apply to cancellations. 6. Any name amendments to your booking will be charged a £15 administration fee. 7. Bookings are not transferable. You may not change your booking to any other dates or hotel. 8. 5% online discount does not apply to the rooms in this promotion. 9. All offers are subject to availability and specific arrival dates and travel restrictions may apply. Prices subject to change. 10. These conditions are in addition to our standard booking terms and conditions which also apply and which you must read before booking.

Very cheap hotels in Prague

Just got word that the £1 a room deals from Hotel Connect on Thursday are going to be in Prague.

Here are the top tips from the HotelConnect website on how to get the Prague hotel bargains.

				be prepared with a list of dates you know you are available to travel, remembering you can only book one room for a maximum of 3 nights
				research flights in advance and have them ready to book when you have secured your £1 prague hotel
				the hotels will be available for dates in March & April on a selection of star ratings - 2 star to 4 star
				if prague doesn't take your fancy, look out for our next £1 promotion in a new destination coming soon
				put a reminder in your calendar for 10AM on thurs 26 feb - see you then!!

Good Luck !

Trip to Paris - no hotel required

Fancy trying out Eurostar ? Check out this Day trip to Paris from £69. Perfect for Londoners or those from outside London could combine the trip with a stay in the capital.

Start your day the in true style by sipping a glass of Champagne in the Searcys Champagne Bar and then board the morning Eurostar train for a daytrip with a difference

You will have to be quick though. This is a limited deal and only available on two set departue days. Feb 24th and March 3rd.

Arrive in Paris at lunchtime and the rest of the afternoon is yours to enjoy to your hearts content. Be it strolling along the Seine, exploring the many the sights or simply sit back in a local Café and watch the world go by. Maybe take advantage of the amazing French Cuisine before joining the evening train back home.

This is how it works:

• Arrive nice and early at London St Pancras on in the morning
• Head to the main check in area and collect your Eurostar Tickets
• Prior to Check in to the departure lounge take your Voucher to the famous Searcys Champagne bar and exchange you voucher for your glass of bubbly
• Then stroll down to check-in
• Board the train and sit back and relax aboard Eurostar
• Spend the day in Paris at your leisure
• Return to Paris Gare du Nord for your Journey home

Here are the important bits:

When: February 24 & March 3
Carrier: Eurostar – Standard Class
From / To: London St Pancras to Paris

Outbound Journey
Depart: London St Pancras 09.01

Return Journey
Depart: Paris 1913

Price includes : Return Adult Standard Class Tickets with Eurostar and Voucher for 1 glass of Champagne per person prior to travel at Searcys Champagne Bar

Claiming you Free Glass of Champagne
Please note the following:

• Location: Searcys St Pancras Grand Champagne Bar, St Pancras International, Upper Concourse.
• You will receive your Champagne voucher(s) separately by email once the reservation is confirmed.
• You will be given 1 voucher only to exchange to for 1 glass of Champagne per person.
• To redeem you free glass of champagne you must present your Passport, Champagne Voucher and confirmation email.
• The Champagne bar opens from 7am.
• Please ensure you leave plenty of time to your free glass before check-in.

Ticketing information : You will be contacted by the tour operator after making your booking, to confirm your reservation.

Additional Notes, Terms and Conditions
Please note:

• Eurostar Check in time is 45 minutes prior to departure (please arrive in plenty of time).
• This is an adult day return ticket only.
• Compulsory Return.
• This is a non-exchangeable and non-refundable product.
• All train times are subject to change.
• Please collect Eurostar Ticket in the main concourse, unless advised otherwise.
• This a strictly Adult only ticket and not applicable for Children or infants, who will be refused travel or Cancelled.

Check out the Day trip to Paris from £69 now.

discounted 4 and 5 star hotels booking well

5 Star selling well

4 star too

( Press Release )

Figures published today indicate that consumers are visiting accommodation specialist websites such as LateRooms.com and taking advantage of good value, high luxury deals, trading up while they can to enjoy the 5-star rooms at excellent rates.

Compared to January 2008, booking numbers for 5-star accommodation have risen by a staggering 99 per cent and 4-star rooms have seen bookings increase by 51 per cent.

New figures from LateRooms.com show that while Britain was entering a recession in January 2009, they enjoyed a 39 per cent rise in bookings compared to the same time last year.

Coupled with the fact that visits to the website rose by over 17 per cent in the last six months of 2008, LateRooms’ figures suggest that a new generation of savvy travellers are taking advantage of the wealth of great deals available.

Hotel relationships director Kathy Gwinnett said: “Getting value for money has rarely been as important in all aspects of life as it is now. Holiday-makers and business travellers are increasingly searching for great deals when booking accommodation. With a great range of deals available across the board, including in the 5 star category, figures show that customers are certainly getting impressive value for money when it comes to accommodation.”

Lastminute.com secret hotels review

"Top Secret Hotels"

Last weekend I booked a "top secret" hotel with Lastminute.com

I was on their website because they were running a "when it's gone it's gone" promo and had an amazing 5 star hotel in Madrid with 50% off. I was on the site at 10:00 - the official start time - and was unable to find any availability at the advertised hotel so they were lucky to keep me on the site but I guess this is how they make money out of these promotions.

So, disappointed but not completely dettered I looked at their normal hotel search and was offered a "top-secret hotel". This was presented as having such a big discount the hotel didn't want it's name associated with it. You get told the hotel name on your confirmation email. I hadn't got a problem with that and was completely used to it having done plenty of allocation on arrival deals for beach holidays with the likes of Thomson. Also I had done something similar to the lastminute top secret hotel with a website called priceline a few years back where you could name your own price and London area and hotels would bid for your custom ( or not ).

The thing is with the lastminute.com secret hotel, apart from the star rating, they actually gave two clues about the hotel. One was the location description, the other was the supposed % discount. I used the location description to match the hotel from the list of "proper" hotels and the % discount gave me confirmation of my educated guess. The location was one I wanted as I was arriving to Madrid by train and this hotel was right in the train station so I thought it would be easy.

So apart from the % discount, the fact that I thought I was being clever by working out the exact hotel and the fact that the hotel happened to suit me had me hooked so I went ahead and booked.

However when I looked at the hotel official website (to try and find more information on charge for breakfast etc) I saw I could have saved another 10% by booking direct. Well done Lastminute.com - your canny booking process and branding managed to get you another sale. even a travel industry veteran like me who normally prides himself on getting the best deal. Fair play to you.

easter city break deals

Expedia has some interesting deals on flight and hotel Easter City Breaks 2009:

It's good to look at these because by booking the flight and hotel together at Expedia you get the holiday ATOL bonded.

Here's an example of what Expedia are offering for Easter city breaks departing the ninth of April :

• Budapest- Flight and 4nts hotel from £177pp
• Amsterdam - Flight and 4nts hotel from £205pp
• Barcelona - Flight and 4nts hotel from £196pp
• Berlin - Flight and 4nts hotel from £195pp
• Istanbul - Flight and 4nts hotel from £278pp
• Vegas - Flight and 7nts hotel from £438pp

Check out all the Easter offers on the dedicated page here

2009 the year of the mega deal

Great deals available for hotel only.

Interesting times for hotel deal seekers. There are a number of mega deals available at the moment, partly because of the credit crunch, partly because of the marketing and PR value that hotels get when giving away hotel rooms for nothing or practically nothing . .

• HotelConnect are going to be unleashing a load of £1 a night rooms on Thursday 26th Feb at 10 :00 UK time. When they are gone, they are gone so get in quick. Experience with the mega deals at Lastminute.com and £1 rooms at The Hoxton in London leaves me with this advice :
  

1. Familiarise yourself with the HotelConnect website before the day so you know how to search.
2. Have your credit card ready.
3. Make sure you know which dates you can and can't go away, if flights are involved have an idea which dates cheap flights are available. Skyscanner might help you there.
4. Have a look at the terms and conditions of the offer ( I have copied them below )
   

• Lastminute.com is having regular sales with rooms as low as £10 a night. Stay tuned to HotelJungle and I will tip you off about the next one.
  

• An emerging trend in the travel industry is to let customers pay what they want for hotel stays. A new hotel in Singapore is doing just that for stays until mid - March.
  

HotelConnect £1 rooms Terms & Conditions :

1. The £1 rooms are available to book online only at www.hotelconnect.co.uk until sold out. 2. The offer is for room only in a twin/double room and does not include breakfast. 3. There is a maximum stay of three nights per booking. 4. One booking per person. If you do book more than one - there will be trouble and we will cancel the booking. The hotel and HotelConnect reserve the right to cancel any bookings which we suspect, with good reason, to be fraudulent. 5. A charge of £15 per person will apply to cancellations. 6. Any name amendments to your booking will be charged a £15 administration fee. 7. Bookings are not transferable. You may not change your booking to any other dates or hotel. 8. 5% online discount does not apply to the rooms in this promotion. 9. All offers are subject to availability and specific arrival dates and travel restrictions may apply. Prices subject to change. 10. These conditions are in addition to our standard booking terms and conditions which also apply and which you must read before booking.

Singapore hotel lets you pay what you want

Pay what you want for hotels !

A newly opened hotel in Singapore is letting customers pay whatever they want for stays. The Ibis hotel on Bencoolen is running a promotion for stays until the middle of March where some lucky guests can pay what they want for their stay. The hotel has a massive 538 rooms so it's easy to imagine they can afford to give away rooms in this way. The free marketing they will get in newspapers and blogs like this will more than pay for what they are "losing" on the room revenue.

It would be interesting to see how much people pay and whether people who stay for free are more inclined to pay for meals and mini-bar etc. I think I would.


Curious to see how much I could build my own package to Singapore for I had a quick look at Singapore Airlines just now, it will cost around £500 all told for a return flight to Singapore. Maybe I will wait until airlines start letting customers pay what they want for flights !


Hat tip : The pay what you want phenonenom first published on affiliate marketing for travel industry

Reccommended Paris Apartments

Apartments in and around Paris

If you are looking for apartments in Paris for a holiday PV-Holidays website deserves a visit. I hadn't heard of them but a friend of mine used an apartment from them for a Disney trip last Autumn. Staying in an apartment or aparthotel beats a standard hotel room hands down. I should know, working in the travel industry all my life I have lived in a few hotels in my time, and the novelty soon wears off. I am even writing this from an aparthotel in Spain. What's great with an apartment is the extra space ( in general ), but most of all having a kitchen.

Having a kitchen, fridge and microwave is especially important when you have kids. You can save a lot of money doing your own food and snacks. When travelling as a family I find it's the snacks and drinks that mount up so if you can e.g. boil a couple of eggs before you go out for the day it really helps.

Anyway the PV-Holidays website is well worth a look, they have videos of all their Paris apartments / aparthotels featuring great music ;-)

Win Free Flights

Win free flights

Thanks to the Win a holiday blog, I just entered an online game where there are flights as prizes. You have to answer multiple choice questions to get your plane to progress and your passport filled. It's a bit like Who wants to be a millionaire with 50/50 or stop the clock to help you out.
I got to New York, if you play let me know how you got on !

What can you Win:
There is two sets of prizes. First a pair of return economy tickets to Hawaii with 7 nights accommodation (room only) at the hotel Hyatt Waikiki. The second is a pair of flights only to a destination depending on where you reached in the game.

How to Enter:
Visit the game website www.ebookersquest.com
You have to answer travel questions to progress through the game.
For the Hawaii prize you just have to refer a friend.

Enter before:
Game closes on 4th March.

Radisson SAS rebrand to Radisson blu

Radisson SAS rebrand

Radisson SAS will be replacing the SAS part of it's name with "blu" as it drops it's association with the SAS group which it split from a couple of years ago when it became part of Rezidor.




Radisson Blu’s Senior Vice President and COO, Thorsten Kirschke, explained that the change from SAS to Blu will be a gentle evolution taking at least one year. “We currently have more than 200 hotels in operation or under development, so the name change has been designed in such a way that it’ll avoid any unnecessary disruption but still create an impact.”

The hotel chain is keen to point out that none of their business objectives have changed -

"Radisson Blu aim to become the fastest growing, most innovative and dynamic, upper upscale hotel brand in the world.”

Lastminute.com hotel sale Friday

6 February only

lastminute.com will be offering 50% off on selected top name UK, US and European hotels this coming Friday for one day only.

Here are some hints from the press release :

"Top deals up for grabs include four star London hotels from £56.00 such as the Radisson SAS Portman, three star hotels in Edinburgh including the Capital hotel from as little as £30.00 and five star Barcelona hotels such as the ME Barcelona from just £85.00."

The offer is available on selected top name hotels across the UK and Europe and valid on stays on selected dates.

Nothing on the site now but worth a look on Friday morning then : Lastminute.com

Hotel Booking Tips

Hotel and holiday booking tips

Because I have been a travel industry insider for all my working life, I am quite often asked what tips I can give for booking hotels or holidays.

Booking your flight & hotel together at an online agency such as flex holidays or Expedia may save you money compared with separate bookings. More importantly though, by booking flight+hotel in one package gives you more protection should either element get cancelled for some reason. ATOL protection is important right now as unfortunately one of holiday suppliers could stop trading thanks to the credit-crunch.

Normally the big companies like Thomson have the best prices, and normally their best prices are had by booking online. Though sometimes agencies such as The Co-operative do get exclusive deals so it's always worth shopping around, or online window shopping as I call it. The reason Thomson are often cheapest despite their, in general, high quality products is firstly that they buy in bulk and can basically bully hotels into accepting their rates. Secondly they guarantee contracts with some hotels and most of their flights so they are committed to them, and this is why you sometime see crazy prices like £2 a night for a hotel. They figure any money is better than nothing if it looks likely to be otherwise empty.

Couple more tips:

If you spend a reasonable amount of money online it is well worth signing up to Rpoints where you can get cashback on hundreds of e-retailers without it costing you extra.

Use Kelkoo hotels to search multiple hotel booking websites at the same time. One hotel search is all you need.

If you have any tips on booking holidays please do share by leaving a comment.

Win a holiday of your choice worth £1000

Guest blog from win a holiday blog.

Credit crunch getting you down, can't afford a nice holiday in 2009 ? Don't despair you could be a lucky winner of a free holiday. We list hundreds of free to enter online competitions with holidays as prizes. The below is an example of how we post the comps. Also have a look at free holidays to Australia, free UK holidays and much more at our site www.winholiday.co.uk

Prize:
In this free to enter monthly competition you can win a £1000 voucher to spend on a Thomson holiday of your choice. You can spend up to £1000 or put it towards a more expensive holiday.





How to Enter:

Go to the Win a Thomson holiday page on the Thomson website and enter your contact details. You will be registering to recieve email updates from Thomson.

Once you have registered on the site you will automatically be entered into the prize draw. No purchase is necessary.



Closing Date:

There is one prize draw for the £1000 holiday voucher every month. The winner will be selected at random by computer on the last working day of each month.