HotelTonight has launched their own loyalty program called HT Perks. HotelTonight is designed for last minute hotel bookings, the concept is that users can get cheaper than normal rooms and hotel rooms can book out rooms that would have gone unsold. Before we get to the nuts and bolts of HotelTonght, there are a few important differences between this and other loyalty programs:
- Any books you’ve previously made will count towards your status
- Your status is for your lifetime and never expires
- Spending requirements are also based on your lifetime
Status Levels
There are three different levels you can reach with HT Perks.
Level One
This requires you to spend $100 or more with HotelTonight. The only benefits you receive are extra-discount rates.
Level Two
This requires you to spend $750 or more with HotelTonight. This offers you an extra 5% discount on Level 1 rates and also gives you exclusive offers and surprises.
Level Three
This requires you to spend $5,000 with HotelTonight. This gives you an extra 10% discount on level 1 rates, more exclusive offers and surprises than level two and also VIP customer support.
Our Verdict
It’s also possible to stack these discounts with other offers and coupon codes (and those can be stacked with the Capital One partnership to get 10% off bookings), unfortunately it doesn’t look like all hotels are eligible for HT Perks as those hotels need to opt in. If a hotel has opted in then they will show up in the search with a badge saying HT Perks.
Personally I’m not a huge fan of this, I generally use third party sites to avoid having to worry about loyalty programs (and if they do have a loyalty program it’s usually something basic such as Hotels.com). I’d much rather receive the discount upfront that be locked in to spending $5,000 to receive the biggest discounts, especially when that isn’t even on all hotels.
There is likely to be some value here as you can stack this with other discounts and then stack that again with a coupon code – but personally I don’t think I’ll be going to the trouble considering I’ve found that HotelTonight typically doesn’t have the best rates to begin with. Let me know your thoughts about the loyalty program in the comments below.
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This means they have to jack up rates up front to make it pencil out
Seems like a straightforward LOYALTY Program that actually rewards loyal customers. There isn’t anything to game or exploit, simply think of it as a bonus for being a loyal customer.
So just over time as you use the service (if you find it has the lowest price comparatively) you will earn towards status. Then if you get status it’s lifetime. Sounds like a great program to me.
The problem is that something like Hotels.com is the better from the get go, why would I ever put $5,000 of spend through HT when their program and rates are inferior? It might be worth it when you hit elite status, but should really just focus on making a better program and rates for everybody if you’re a third party OTA.