Save $85 per night on a room at the quaint Martha Washington hotel in Manhattan (Chelsea Hotels)
Last month we wrote about the brand new GoSeek.com website that finds super-low “unpublished” hotel rates and posts them online.
That was one of the most popular posts on TravelSkills.com this spring, so we took another peek at GoSeek.com mid-week rates at business class hotels for the upcoming peak summer season in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles– and found some real gems with savings ranging from 20% to 55% off.
We used July 14-16 to sample
Some examples for midweek rates in New York? (We used July 14-16 to sample) How about the 4-star Martha Washington hotel (in NoMad on E 29th St) for just $161 compared to $247 on the hotel’s website (a 35% savings). GoSeek has rates at the posh 5-star Surrey hotel on the upper east side for $347- that’s 25% less than what you’ll find on the hotel site. You’ll save 34% when booking the Wyndham New Yorker (near Penn Station) for just $176 compared to $267 on the hotel site. Check GoSeek.com to see the low rate at Andaz Wall Street!
We used July 14-16 to sample
GoSeek’s July midweek rates in Chicago include Hilton Doubletree (Magnificent Mile) for just $149 per night while the hotel website has it for $319– that’s a 53% savings! Get in the popular Trump for just $284 instead of $356 on the hotel site. The mod Hotel Lincoln on the park north of downtown is going for $161 on GoSeek, while it’s $249 on the hotel website. The Holiday Inn downtown on GoSeek is $139 while on the hotel site, it’s $281– a savings of 51%. Check for yourself!
The famously chic rooftop pool at the Four Seasons Bev Hills (Four Seasons)
How about LA? GoSeek can get you in the Four Seasons Beverly Hills for $448 per night, while the going rate on the hotel website is $605– that’s 26% off. How about the Hilton Doubletree downtown? GoSeek has it for $133 while it’s $269 on the hotel site. We also found the Westin Bonaventure for $319 per night vs $419 on the hotel’s site. Check for yourself!
How does GoSeek.com work? Here’s what we said in our original post:
Frequent travelers know that nearly every hotel chain now guarantees that you’ll find the lowest “published” rate on their own branded websites.
The “best rate guarantees” usually offer to pay the difference (and toss in some other bennies) if you find a lower rate elsewhere.
But the operative word in those guarantees is “published.”
These days, there are all kinds of hidden or unpublished rates available, but who has time to poke around looking for these? Not me!
GoSeek.com is a month-old website that sniffs out and aggregates these bargains and posts them online.
These unpublished discounts rates are coupons, mobile rates, AAA rates, senior rates, rates that you’d normally only find at paid membership clubs. Some of the rates are “subscriber rates” which require a free login to view, and are technically not published or publicly available.
GoSeek says that it offers lower rates on more than half the hotels you’d find on a typical metasearch site– with a savings of 20% or more.
So based on this quick look, GoSeek.com does seem to be able to find lower rates.
But what about getting those cherished loyalty points? We asked GoSeek and here’s what they had to say about that:
This is a complicated answer, and amounts to “sometimes”. You get hotel loyalty points when booking AAA and Senior rates. You get OTA loyalty points (e.g., Expedia or Orbitz) when booking a mobile rate. You get OTA loyalty points sometimes when booking a rate with a coupon. Two examples: On Cheaptickets you do. On Hotels.com you don’t. And you shouldn’t be getting hotel loyalty points for OTA bookings with coupons, ever. And you never get points – OTA or Hotel loyalty program – when booking a subscriber rate.
Check GoSeek.com for yourself!
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NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: United’s new 50,000 mile bonus + Which airline is most generous? + Starwood-InterContinental merger? + British Airways reduces August fares to London
