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Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

press.airbnb.com

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Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#101

Post by dmix »

tspike wrote: post #91
jonknee wrote: post #4

> The HotelTonight app and website will continue to operate as they do today I really hope that's the case, I love Hotel Tonight but will absolutely stop using it if I end up getting someone's condo. Regardless, I'm worried that hotel selection will go way down. They keep emphasizing boutique hotels, but that's not people go to Hotel Tonight for. I could definitely see large hotel chains not wanting to do business wi…

This is boilerplate new acquisition-speak. Even if they wanted to, they couldn't immediately integrate everything. 1. Buy company 2. Draft press release saying "nothing to see here, folks" 3. Wait a year 4. Company absorbs what they like, discards the rest

There are also plenty of examples where this didn't happen...

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#102

Post by jonknee »

jfk13 wrote: post #92
jonknee wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In prison? That's exactly how all hotel bookings work. I agree resort fees are a scam, but that's how it works and it's always charged directly by the property.

> That's exactly how all hotel bookings work. It is? In some countries, perhaps. It shouldn't be, and it needn't be, given just a little bit of consumer-friendly regulation of how prices are advertised.

Yes, try booking a resort from Hotel Tonight, Hotels.com, Booking, Expedia or whoever you want. You'll always pay the resort fee at the property. I agree that it's a scam, my point is just that it has nothing to do with Hotel Tonight.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#103

Post by jak92 »

jonknee wrote: post #94
Alex3917 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, it's unfair to characterize it as a scam if it's printed clearly in the costs. It isn't, which is why I posted the video showing that. On the screen you can very clearly see: Room (1 Night): $180 Taxes & Fees: $32 Total: $221 The resort fee isn't included in any of those. They put it in fine print thats hidden below the Apple Pay button. But they designed the UI to make it so that the Payment button is flush…

Well it's because they aren't charging you the resort fee, the hotel does that. They itemize what you're actually paying for... Just like they mention, but don't charge you for parking ahead of time. That's up to the hotel. Anyway, the UI is different now and in big type it says "Due Now" with the resort fee mentioned under that. I personally didn't find it confusing before, but it's now quite clear.

Parking is optional Resort fee is not.

This isn't a difficult concept.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#104

Post by lotsofpulp »

jonknee wrote: post #26
linuxftw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By how much? I suspect they simply were operating at a loss to build up their brand. Jet.com did the same thing.

Well literally their entire pitch is that you book last minute and get savings. It would be weird if it wasn't at a discount... I just pulled it up for Seattle and the Kimpton Monaco is up for $115, $140 after taxes and fees. From the Kimpton website it's $208 or $264 after taxes and fees. So about half off, pretty good deal! This was just the first one in the list, there may be better deals.

I am surprised to see that Hotel Tonight is cheaper than the ihg.com Kimpton website. Although, I wonder if IHG leaves themselves wiggle room to offer different pricing to different channels by saying their price guarantee doesn't apply within 24 hours of checkin:

5. Find a Lower Rate. If you find a lower rate on an eligible, non-IHG website within 24 hours of making your reservation on the IHG direct channel, and it is more than 24 hours before the standard check-in time for the hotel where you made your reservation, tell us about it by completing and submitting the online claim form (“Claim Form”). We will verify the lower rate by comparing the rate found on the IHG website or mobile app with the rate found on the non-IHG website for the same hotel, room type, stay dates, number of guests, and cancellation policy.

I'm actually shocked that they would do that, because now I will definitely shop around, I had erroneously thought their best price guarantee would save time.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#105

Post by jmspring »

HeavenFox wrote: post #31

Those who have used HotelTonight, can you comment on your experience? For me, there have been several rare occasions when I needed a room at last minute, but HotelTonight was never actually cheaper than any other aggregators or booking directly with the hotel. All being equal I vastly prefer booking direct so I get my points and elite benefits. I guess they have a fancy interface, and that's... it? Maybe it's market…

I've used it a fair amount of the last few years. It worked quite well and found some good deals -- as others mentioned -- when it was last minute only. Stayed on place in Carmel at a price that I had never seen for that particular property.

I'm concerned, like others, that contracts and deals will evaporate as they end (as part of AirBnB)

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#106

Post by Alex3917 »

jonknee wrote: post #94
Alex3917 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, it's unfair to characterize it as a scam if it's printed clearly in the costs. It isn't, which is why I posted the video showing that. On the screen you can very clearly see: Room (1 Night): $180 Taxes & Fees: $32 Total: $221 The resort fee isn't included in any of those. They put it in fine print thats hidden below the Apple Pay button. But they designed the UI to make it so that the Payment button is flush…

Well it's because they aren't charging you the resort fee, the hotel does that. They itemize what you're actually paying for... Just like they mention, but don't charge you for parking ahead of time. That's up to the hotel. Anyway, the UI is different now and in big type it says "Due Now" with the resort fee mentioned under that. I personally didn't find it confusing before, but it's now quite clear.

> don't charge you for parking ahead of time.

But hotels don't charge you a parking fee if you don't park there. Whereas they won't let you check into the hotel unless you pay the "resort fee".

Again I have no problem with hotels charging part of the price upon check in, but it's super unethical for Hotel Tonight to:

A) advertise hotels based on prices you can't actually get a room for

B) do everything possible to hide the fact that the hotel won't actually let you check in without paying an additional fee (sometimes hundreds of dollars) until you've already made a large non-refundable payment

C) lie to people's credit card companies when they dispute the charges

This isn't a legitimate business, it's a criminal enterprise.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#107

Post by splonk »

yesimahuman wrote: post #48
randomacct3847 wrote: post #2

pretty interesting. My hypothesis is that there’s a large cohort of people (myself included) who hesitate to use airbnb because there is still a real issue of inconsistency with back and forth with host, key hand off, etc that people who are attracted to hoteltonight (extremely last minute bookings) would hate and that airbnb is trying to figure out how to appeal to that base.

Especially for business travelers. The quality of the average listing has gone down quite a bit (lots of crappy quick flips with no amenities), combined with the inconsistent experience, means I've pretty much stopped considering airbnb for business travel (I did used to enjoy it compared to being stuck in a hotel for work which can get pretty depressing)

They're aware of this, and are in some stage of building out a business travel product. I believe part of their product roadmap includes identifying/segregating some of their more reliable inventory that's more suitable for business travelers. No idea exactly what's launched beyond what's at https://www.airbnb.com/work, though.

(Not affiliated with AirBnb, but I had a chat with the tech lead of their business travel team last year).

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#108

Post by redunculous5 »

csallen wrote: post #85
Joe-Z wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know the GP's intention, but coming from a small tourist-heavy city, it can really fuck with the local housing market and make an already dire situation even worse. Also: What are the rules for flagging on HN? Can people not express opinions here? For reference: GP was expressing worry that she can't use HotelTonight anymore because of not wanting to support AirBnb. Glad nobody needs to read that anymore...?

Post I saw from GP didn't give any reasoning whatsoever. Merely said, "I loathe Airbnb." Perhaps it was edited after I saw it and before you did?

Oh, was it you that flagged my comment? I wondered why. Your comment is disengenuous (actually a straight up lie). I did not edit the comment at any point. For ref, since it's been removed it said (if I remember) "I absolutley loathe Airbnb and will not make a booking with them. Does this mean I can no longer use HotelTonight too?" or something like that. I'm fairly new to posting on HN. Maybe the comment was a little political but it was merely expressing an opinion and a concern. Are those absolutely forbidden here? (This does not seem strange on HN, even looking through your comment history)

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#109

Post by Joe-Z »

csallen wrote: post #85
Joe-Z wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know the GP's intention, but coming from a small tourist-heavy city, it can really fuck with the local housing market and make an already dire situation even worse. Also: What are the rules for flagging on HN? Can people not express opinions here? For reference: GP was expressing worry that she can't use HotelTonight anymore because of not wanting to support AirBnb. Glad nobody needs to read that anymore...?

Post I saw from GP didn't give any reasoning whatsoever. Merely said, "I loathe Airbnb." Perhaps it was edited after I saw it and before you did?

Maybe. I'm pretty sure I remember the "can't use HotelTonight anymore"-bit. Well, too bad we deleted this information because someone was uncomfortable with someone else's opinion...

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#110

Post by linuxftw »

jonknee wrote: post #59
linuxftw wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just compared this exact hotel for tonight on hoteltonight.com and hotels.com and travelocity.com Same price across all 3 sites. Chances are, if you see a price lower than the major travel sites, they're losing money. In this case, they're the same price.

Or chances are it really depends on where you are and if they have properties they have negotiated with vs general inventory that all the travel bookers use. Sometimes there are deals, sometimes there aren't.

Seems they're 'just another booking site' IMO.
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