HotelTonight and Expedia Offering New Twists on Hidden Hotel Deals
Skift Take
It's so rare to see something new in online travel. Expedia's Add-On Advantage appears to be a new wrinkle, and HotelTonight's Today's Daily Drop is a flash sale variation that disappears within 15 minutes. Both gives hoteliers new ways to target travelers, who may find some good deals in the process.
Suddenly there is a flurry of innovation — or at least ample twists on traditional practices — when it comes to the ways online travel players are delivering price-hidden, or opaque, hotel deals to consumers.
The new features come separately from HotelTonight and Expedia.
HotelTonight announced on Tuesday the global launch of Today's Daily Drop, which offers users once daily — and for 15 minutes only — a discounted hotel stay for an initially unknown amount. Users have to swipe within the app to unlock the deal, and if they don't book it within the 15 minutes, with a clock clicking down toward zero, then the deal is gone.
After that window closes, the only choice from HotelTonight is to book another regularly priced property, or wait for another Daily Drop to appear for 15 minutes the following day.
HotelTonight co-founder and CEO Sam Shank characterized Today's Daily Drop as "our reinvention of opaque deals for a mobile era." Traditionally, sites such as Hotwire that offer opaque h
