I'm interested to see what other people's experiences were like staying at mystery hotel particularly the 5 star options, you know the ones offered by priceline, wotif etc?
Have You Stayed at a Mystery Hotel?
bettina44 on 19/03/2017 - 20:27
Comments
exactly what I wanted to say. I found some mysterious hotel deals on Groupon, and since I researched too many hotels on Wootif, Booking.com etc. before making decisions, I could tell exactly what hotel is that based on photos about rooms, furnitures, car parking and stuff… So no mysterious anymore.
I booked a mystery hotel 5 years ago, before I became savvy about booking hotels. it was advertised as being valued at 4 times the listed price. CBD location and magnificent. so I booked it.
it was just outside the CBD, tiny room, no way was it worth what they were stating it was worth.
I felt ripped off and swore never to book a mystery hotel again.
had I known what I would be getting then i would have paid a little more to get a guarranteed nice room in a good hotel.
You can often figure out pretty easily. If you look at features, indoor pool etc
I have.
Booked a 5 star place on Priceline last year. Unlike the other guys that have commented so far, I couldn't figure out which hotel it was!
Having said that, it was a somewhat interesting (positive) experience. The hotel was good, and in addition to that I was given an additional 20% discount on top of the price. This was because it was advertised as including airport transfer, but I was told by hotel reception that this was not included. Priceline offered me either a full refund (not normally offered) or a 20% discount. I took the discount.
However, although it was advertised as 5 star it felt more like a 4 star place. Still good though!
my hotel was advertised as 5 star. definitely just scrapping in at 4 stars
I have found if you google specific looking phrases from the description you can work out which hotel it is as they will use the same phrases when advertising the actual hotel
Booked a Wotif 4 Star mystery hotel a couple of years ago, they stated it was worth $250 a night and the going price was $130.
Turned out to be a 4 Star Millenium which was ok, but the normal price was actually $150 for the same period and they gave me a ground floor room with a view of nothing.
I did ask for a better room but they said they could not (no reason why, could have been fully booked)Would not do it again
It has been 50/50 for me too. sometimes a real shit view other times an upgrade. just depends but too much uncertainty for me. rrp based on the rack rate and not the actual rate.
mystery hotel in lastminute or wotif - expect less than description and you will be ok. read closely as some no car park. sometimes you think you know all the hotels around, but you get surprise what you may end up having.
They are mystery and cheaper for some reasons - eg some rooms have no views, hotels under renovation, …-I recently booked a Wotif mystery hotel in Southhampton, UK. From the description it could only have been one of two hotels, but one was cheaper than the mystery price. So thought it must have been the more expensive one. But it wasn't! So I complained to Wotif via phone and the call centre was only going to refund the difference. Pushed then on FB and quoted their price guarantee and their mystery hotel blurb, something like 'up to 40% off price' not more expensive..and they refunded me 40% back! So I am happy, but haven't stayed there yet. We have booked other mystery hotels in England for this upcoming trip and they were certainly cheaper than the list price on Wotif and on other sites and also stayed in mystery hotels in Melbourne and Surfers through Wotif and they were great bargains.
I book them when I'm not particularly concerned about where it is and I can get a decent discount.
I recently booked one through Wotif for this weekend. I had worked out what hotel it likely was by the description and looked up the price on other sites. This was a 50% discount on that, so snapped it up.
I've done this many times when travelling to US.
The most memorable one was booking a mystery hotel from bookIt. Based on the picture and description I could guess what the hotel was, and so I got a very nice 4* Japanese hotel in NY.
Another one was using PriceLine, and got the Intercontinental right in the middle of magnificent mile Chicago.I've never done it anywhere else, but definitely not hesitant to book mystery hotels. You would have to do some due diligence if you want the hotels not to be so mysterious, though. There are plenty of website that can get you that information especially if booking through priceline or hotwire.
But anyway, I'd prefer priceline anytime.One tip I can suggest, don't choose anything below 3* hotels when booking mystery hotels
I was close to staying at one through Groupon.
I've found with a lot, it's pretty easy to find the hotel through the description/pictures.