http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/travel/finding-last-minute-deals-on-upscale-hotels.html 2014-09-20 02:41:13 Finding Last-Minute Deals on Upscale Hotels When trying to score savings at the eleventh hour, it pays to shop around. === If last-minute hotel booking apps make you think of impetuous travelers on a budget, think again. The market for such apps and websites is becoming increasingly crowded, making it easier for those looking for upscale hotels to find 11th-hour discounts. During recent searches I found a room at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami for about $157 (compared with $259 on the hotel’s website), a room at the Westin Resort & Spa, Cancún for $75 (as opposed to about $200), and, in Maine, a room at the White Barn Inn & Spa in Kennebunkport, for $300, down from $630. Which sites will check you into the lap of luxury? I spent days with new apps and old standbys to determine the best tactics for nabbing a high-end hotel room at a (somewhat) down-to-earth price. Let’s begin with some guidelines: 1. LOOK OUT FOR TAXES AND FEES. 2. CHECK THE DATES AND THE FINE PRINT. 3. SHOP AROUND. Next, I searched for the Gramercy Park Hotel on Nope. On Later that afternoon, I decided to see if I could do a bit better on I did. At 3:30 p.m. Expedia.com was offering a room at the Gramercy for $540.31 — 77 cents less than the rate on Hotels.com. (You could make 77 wishes in a Bryant Park fountain with those savings.) Over all, that rate is nearly $82 less than the lowest price on the hotel’s website ($622.01). As it turned out, Is saving $82 significant when you’re talking about a $500 room? Yes. And there’s a larger point: Shopping around can whittle down the cost of any class of hotel room. Even though Expedia and Travelocity offered the lowest prices on a room at the Gramercy that particular day, no one site or app will always turn up the best deal. Let’s say you want a suite for a last-minute celebration such as a job promotion. Remember I mentioned that on Hotel Tonight there was another available room at the Gramercy? It was a “park view” suite with a king bed and a living room for $1,092.47 with taxes. On the hotel’s website, however, I found a special rate that lowered the cost of that suite to $820.52 with taxes — about $272 less than the Hotel Tonight price. In that instance, the hotel’s website had the better deal. If you like to gamble, the new app and website It was, alas, a swift negotiation. “Sorry,” a message said, “your bid was declined.” I can’t say I was surprised. Perhaps the best way to incorporate this app is to research everywhere else first, then bid lower than the best price you’ve found. By their nature, last-minute sites deliver uneven results, particularly when there’s a convention in town and rooms are at a premium. In general though, what’s available in the morning may disappear by lunch, while new options from brands such as Viceroy and InterContinental can appear at any moment. And don’t expect one site or app to be consistently superior. Sometimes they’re equal. On a recent Tuesday night I found the same price for a room at the Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park ($745 before tax) on Hotels.com, Expedia.com, Priceline.com, the Ritz Carlton website and the app So what’s a formula for last-minute success? Balance cost savings with research time by comparing just three tools: Hotel Tonight or Booking.com Tonight (because these apps are intuitive and have some high-end hotels), your favorite third-party site (such as Expedia) or