Vacations are always expensive. After all, a vacation is a luxury and flights alone are increasingly going up. If you go during the off-season, you can save on airfares and hotel rooms. If you want to go the luxury route, hotels can add up but if its your annual vacation, you shouldn’t be compromising on the quality of your trip. Don’t give up on a comfortable yet reasonable trip — you can travel big if you follow a few key tips. There are plenty of high quality rooms but the key is to find them when they’re standing empty.
You can probably remember a time you had to cancel a trip at the last minute. It might have been the opportunity you’d long been waiting – and saving – for. But a celebration, emergency, or business opportunity made taking that trip impossible. It was just your luck – the universe was not on your side. But the truth is, that scenario is happening to millions around the world In the U.S. alone, 220 000 hotel reservations are cancelled every day! You’re definitely not the only one.
One of the frustrations that goes with cancelling a trip is that the hotel won’t give you your money back. Most hotels have non-refundable policies, and you end up paying for a room you’re not going to use. But when it happens to others, you can use it to your advantage. You can buy other people’s non-refundable hotel rooms.
A company called Roomer saw a unique opportunity stemming from these situations. People who are about to cancel a non-refundable hotel room are willing to sell their booking for much less. Meaning that budget travelers can buy their hotel room reservation at a fraction of the price. They created the “hotel-marketplace”, a directory where buyers and sellers can be matched, benefiting both parties.
We spent ages browsing the various locations and hotels available, and were amazed at the sort of deals you can get such as a 4-star hotel for $71 per night. Hotel rooms are often offered at 75% discounts.
Hassle Free and Secure
The process is far easier than we expected, both to sell and to buy a hotel room. The seller inputs the details of his/her non-refundable room – amount of beds, dates, etc. When you search for the same criteria, your perfect hotel room will come up on your screen, or you can simply browse through the hotel-marketplace, ordering your options via location, price, or discount.
Roomer takes care of all the logistics, meaning you never have to exchange details with the seller. They also ensure, using their advanced automated authentication system, that you’re getting what was promised. There’s no need to stress about fraudulent listings.
Hotels Are Verified
Unlike other booking services, Roomer takes it upon themselves to ensure that what you’re being offered by the hotel itself is accurate. Roomer actually partners with hotels, which makes it even easier to ensure transparency and quality guarantees. The hotels themselves benefit from their empty rooms being used – when someone cancels, they lose out on revenues generated during the stay. You don’t have to go to any extra effort to find sellers nor do you have to deal with the hotel.
Guest Post Contributed by Nicole Marks
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
