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Ahead of an upcoming one-night stay in Toronto, for which I had decided to use my Marriott Bonvoy points, I changed my mind. I chose instead to save on my hotels with Hotwire.com. Here is an overview of the platform and how it works.
As its advertising banner says:
While Hotwire.com is an online hotel booking agency (where you will find roughly the same hotels as elsewhere), its strength lies in one part of the platform: the section where the hotel names are hidden!
In the example below for a search in Montreal, you can see that the city is divided into different neighbourhoods:
You can select just one neighbourhood, which will then be highlighted in red. For example, you can see that here I selected only the “Downtown Montreal – Festival area” neighbourhood.
You can see that, alongside the “hidden” hotels, some non-hidden hotels are also displayed.
And this example is particularly telling, and extremely easy to guess! Look at the number of Tripadvisor “Reviews” listed below the hidden hotels:
Chances are it is indeed the very same hotel!
Warning: once you have selected a “hidden” hotel and chosen to book it, it will be impossible to cancel. So it is something of a lottery. That said, you can often “guess” which hotel will come up, by choosing:
That way you make sure you get a quality hotel!
For an upcoming stay in Toronto, I had first chosen to use a free night certificate that I had in my account. I had settled on the Courtyard Toronto Downtown hotel.
The free night certificate has a maximum value of 35,000 Marriott points.
Given that I earned this certificate by paying the $120 annual fee on my Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card, it is excellent value! I would have paid about $229 for this room, taxes included, had I booked with cash.
Using my certificate was therefore justified.
A few days before this stay, as I always do, I took another look at the available prices. That is what points offer: flexibility. You can indeed cancel your stay up to 48 hours before arrival.
Prices had not really changed on the traditional platforms. So I took a look at Hotwire.com:
And there I saw that in the “Downtown Toronto West area” neighbourhood, a 4-star hotel, recommended by 95% of Hotwire users and with a 4.5 / 5 rating on Tripadvisor, was listed at CA$133 + taxes.
So I jumped on the opportunity and landed on the 4-star hotel: The Fairmont Royal York! The total price, taxes included, is CA$160.
It is not always worth using your hotel points to book hotels. In this case, I prefer to keep them for a better use, especially abroad given how weak the Canadian dollar is!
On the other hand, by using the right credit card, you can apply travel points to this type of booking. For example, by booking with the Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite + Card you can apply Scene+ points to the booking made with Hotwire. This is the best possible use of Scene+ points: 10,000 points = $100!
As always, you should compare the rates found on Hotwire with the other booking platforms. And with your points too!
Savings this way:
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