If you have to fly on business last minute, there’s a fair chance you do not have a hotel booked. Whereas most people would worry if they didn’t have a hotel pre-booked before arrival, unless there’s a huge event in the city, it’s never easier to find a last minute hotel room.
Step up One:Night. This app, available for iOS and Android, is designed to present you with some luxury hotels, available last minute, from 3pm the same day. You’ll see a number of offers within your city, as hotels know that it’s highly unlikely they’ll get people walking in off the street after 3pm, thus want to fill their rooms.
The result is, hugely discounted room offers. As an example, we saw a hotel room in a luxury hotel in Austin, Texas, down from the usual $395/night to as little as $195/night, through the app. Effectively half price and we’d never seen a hotel room at the same hotel anything close to this price when we considered prebooking from regular discounted hotel websites such as Expedia or Booking.com
Of course, the downside is, you need to wait until 3pm before you can book, but there’s no reason you couldn’t start looking at the app as soon as your plane hits the runway. Let’s face it, it can easily take a further 15 minutes before you deplane. Plenty of time to browse the offers. Alternatively, just grab a coffee in the airport, whip out the app, browse the options and make a booking.
One:Night is particularly prevalent in US cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and others, where there are quite a few options to consider. Outside the US, you’re rather limited. London is supported, but that’s about it. So don’t expect to land in Barcelona, get the app and start a booking.
Need a discounted last minute hotel room? Use One:Night for your booking.
The other thing to consider is whether it’s just as easy, and potentially more productive, to simply call a hotel and ask for their best price for a same day booking. One of the arguments against the app, although the prices are very competitive, is that people say they can get a cheaper rate by going direct. Possibly true, as hotels would prefer someone in a room rather than leave it empty overnight and, with no commission involved, they might offer the best rate possible. And you might be able to negotiate further.
One other issue is that One:Night does not offer you much information about the hotel you see displayed within the app. You either must be aware of the hotel you want to book or just hope the reason it’s included is that it meets certain criteria. You do get to see the location and address of the hotel, so you’re not booking blind and we can certainly vouch for the quality of the hotels available.
Still, the app does the hard work for you and makes the process of finding a last-minute luxury hotel, affordable. You could always use One:Night further into your vacation. If you decide you want to switch hotels, you could always decide to look at the One:Hotel options, whilst in a city and decide if there’s a better option.
Download One:Night for iOS and Android.
