Procrastinators are about to get the last laugh. Turns out you can save 10 to 40 percent if you book a hotel at the last minute through an app.
According to an , more than 65 percent of people who book a hotel room within 24 hours of their stay do so from a mobile device. Big-name booking-engine apps have sections devoted to last-minute travel, while other apps specialize in the service. Here are some of our favorites:聽
Booking.com Tonight
Priceline owns , so travelers searching either one get the best of both Priceline and . With its extensive directory, this app excelled in the number of options provided (210 hotels during my recent San Francisco鈥揵ased test) and offered plenty of filtering options at the outset, such as most popular, nearest, best price, and star rating, to refine a search.
Discounted rates on the app are generally 10 percent lower than those on a hotel鈥檚 website. Booking.com also has a standard app (simply called Booking.com), through which it鈥檚 also possible to book same-day reservations. However, the Tonight app is dedicated to this type of search. So even if you have the former, it鈥檚 worth doubling down on the second for ease of use.聽
Hotels.com
聽searches more than a quarter-million hotels worldwide to find you the best deals. In-app booking is available via your account or as a guest user. Reservations are then available off-line. Although the app advertised savings between 10 and 40 percent off standard rates, when I cross-checked these prices against the each hotel鈥檚 website, the savings were between 5 and 15 percent. Still good, just not as good as advertised.
Hotel Tonight
Perhaps 聽in this category, Hotel Tonight curates deals from area hotels and lists only those offering the best values. It delivers what it promises: Listed rates are indeed heavily discounted, at 10 to 40 percent off the rates available via each hotel鈥檚 website. Each property listing provides a user rating as well as a curated 鈥淲hy We Like It鈥 list. The app also features a sleek, user-friendly interface.
Jetsetter Now
On , day-of deals appear in the 鈥淭onight鈥 section, but only after noon in the city of choice. The app鈥檚 strengths lie in its panoramic photos and insights from Jetsetter鈥檚 team of expert correspondents. It鈥檚 limited in two respects. It covers just a handful of U.S. cities (New York, Miami, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles). Also, when I tested the app in San Francisco, it returned only one result and didn鈥檛 offer any savings over the price listed on that hotel鈥檚 website.
Last Minute Travel
聽delivers deals for more than 100,000 hotels in 4,500 cities. It culls TripAdvisor info, so each listing includes user-generated star ratings, reviews, property descriptions, and photos. The biggest benefit of this app is that many of the rooms it lists aren鈥檛 available to book via the hotel鈥檚 website, so travelers will have a greater selection鈥攁nd save time鈥攂y launching this app instead of conducting individual searches.