Avoid this one expensive mistake when booking a hotel

If you regularly book hotels on your computer, you could be paying over the odds for your stay, Which? Travel has found.

It’s little-known that Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com offer mobile-only discounts on selected hotels - promising up to 40% off stays - but only if the booking is made on a smartphone.

A spot check on Booking.com revealed that 15 out of 50 listings had a cheaper ‘mobile-only price’. A pop-up announced: ‘You’re getting a reduced rate compared to the rate available on a computer or laptop.’ 

We slashed £270 off the price of an apartment in Amsterdam on Booking.com using this trick. We also saved £60 on a weekend in Edinburgh with Expedia. 

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These mobile-only prices are only visible if you’re using your phone. If you always browse on a laptop, tablet or desktop, you’ll have no clue they exist - meaning less tech-savvy customers are more likely to lose out.

Or perhaps you are happy looking for options on your phone but prefer to switch to a desktop to enter your payment details. After all, availability calendars and T&Cs are much clearer to navigate on a big screen. 

The risk for the booking site is that you might change your mind or find a better deal in the gap between browsing and booking.

One solution is to dangle an on-the-spot deal that creates a sense of urgency. The customer, convinced they are getting ahead of other shoppers, is far more likely to pounce there and then for fear of missing out.

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Misleading discount claims on Expedia and Hotels.com

Don’t automatically assume you’re getting a good deal. We found one so-called discount that was cheaper if you booked on your computer, and many others failed to offer the savings advertised.

Five out of 10 ‘mobile exclusives’ that we found on Hotels. com were the same price when we cross-checked them on our laptop. For Expedia, four out of 10 were the same price.

Even when mobile prices were cheaper, we found savings could be hugely exaggerated. A Hotels.com ‘40% off’ mobile exclusive for Ocean Drive hotel in Seville sounded appealing at £235. But, when we checked on our laptop, we were quoted £274 – a much smaller mobile saving of 15%. 

We believe these discounts could breach the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and have passed our findings to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

A spokesperson for Expedia Group, which also represents Hotels.com, told us: 'Expedia always aims to provide competitive rates and bring value to our customers. We are looking into the points raised by Which? and look forward to further discussions on the matter.'

Mobile app vs phone browser: which is better?

When using our mobiles, we were also prompted to download and book on an app instead. Hotels.com encourages this with a pop-up that reads: ‘Save even more on the app – get up to 20% off select hotels’. Yet our spot checks found no instances when its app prices were any cheaper than on a regular phone browser. So why do the platforms encourage it?

You must register for the app – which means giving away more personal details. This could help the sites market their products in a more targeted way.

Can you save more with Booking.com’s Genius loyalty scheme?

On Booking.com, we were able to save more money by signing up for its free-of-charge loyalty programme. 

A £206 weekend stay in Porto on our laptop fell to £187 when we switched to our phone - dropping further to £169 when we signed into its Genius loyalty program (you qualify for level three, the highest tier, if you make 15 bookings over two years). That’s a £37 saving. 

In contrast, Hotels.com and Expedia more commonly offer a loyalty or mobile-only discount - and the savings are often identical.

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Is it cheaper to book directly with the hotel?

Booking.com was the only site where the mobile-only rate was consistently cheaper than booking directly with the hotel. That wasn’t always true elsewhere. 

Hotel.com's 40% off mobile exclusive deal for Seville was £13 cheaper if we bypassed the platform altogether. The hotel even offers a direct booking guarantee: find a lower rate anywhere else, and it will not only match it but also throw in either an upgrade, a free breakfast or a bottle of cava.

To always get the best price for your hotel stay, we suggest comparing prices on your computer and mobile phone for several booking sites (preferably with a loyalty account).

That said, you should still contact the hotel directly to ensure you’re getting the best-possible price before parting with your cash.

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