Everybody loves the thrill of a surprise and, what’s better than a top-notch secret hotel room at a discount price? Perhaps you’ve never heard of secret hotels and you’re a bit confused by the concept. If you’re eager to explore such deals, we’ve covered the ins and outs of what to expect in our guide below!

Before we advise as to how best to find these hotel deals, we’re going to give you an idea of what they are in depth, why hotels offer them and the pros and cons of booking these discounted hotel rooms.

What are SECRET HOTEL DEALS?

Bagging bargain mystery hotel deals might sound like the dream, but you’re likely left questioning a few things. Is there a catch to these ‘secret hotel rooms’ and why are they discounted? We’re going to answer all possible questions, so you can decide whether to take the plunge with the surprise factor yourself.

Many hotels fill up their rooms quickly enough, however, there are particular days of the week or periods of the year where this just isn’t the case. That’s where the top hotel deals come into play. StayPromo is an awesome place to find deals. In a bid to fill rooms, even 5* hotels reduce their rates to those of say 3* hotels, but you have to act fast to benefit!

More often than not, you’ll find such offers available by searching the day before you want to book. Hotels will advertise their discounted rooms on popular booking sites without revealing their identity. This is so that they can maintain their reputation while offering a select number of customers discounted rates at the same time.

A number of the top hotel booking sites offer secret deals hotels as part of their search option. Users can choose to view the deals on offer buy refining their results, the only catch being that the hotel is truly a surprise. Unlike other overviews of hotels, you’ll be booking blindly with no images to view.

Would you book a mystery hotel?

NORMAL vs SECRET HOTEL ROOMS

Wondering what the pros and cons are of booking a these type of rooms as when compared to a normal hotel? The truth is there is no difference when it comes to a top secret hotel and normal hotels! The exact same level of hospitality, comfort and quality is offered as it would be with a standard hotel booking.

In fact, the only differentiating factor is that you’re sure to save money on these hotel deals. Offering fantastic value for money, there are a number of websites that you can use to scout out hidden hotel deals. The information available to you will be limited, but more often than not there are ways to uncover mystery hotels if you really need to know where you’re staying.

Pros and cons of top secret hotel deals:

  • Benefit from great value for money – looking to save costs? Go for a hotel mystery deal. You will be presented with the best value room for that particular room.
  • You can reveal the hotel rather easily – if blindly booking a hotel room induces anxiety, there are easy ways around this. With a bit of simple research you can reveal a hotel’s identity.
  • Leading websites offer a price match guarantee – by finding the hotel room at a cheaper rate on a competitor’s site, you’ll be offered a reimbursement of the difference.
  • Usually only available last minute – while you can benefit from lower costs all round, you will have to leave booking until the last minute.
  • Presents limited information only – some information that may be crucial to your trip could be omitted altogether.
  • Fewer hotel options will be on offer – your choices won’t be as extensive as if you were to book a normal hotel.

As you can see from the list above, the pros of a mystery hotel booking outweigh the cons. If you’re hoping to experience this type of deal yourself, why not try out a short stay in the UK?

Where to Find the Best Secret Deals

Perhaps you’ve decided that you’re ready to take advantage of top secret deals for your next getaway or during business travels. Lots of different hotel booking websites offer a range of hotel rooms deals. And, you can even go as far as uncovering secret hotel rooms before you stay at them with a bit of basic research. Be sure to check out hotel forums too for top tips on snatching the best secret hotel deals out there.

The top sites for finding the best deals:

Booking.com – you’ll find the secret hotels set out very clearly when you begin your search inquiry and with plenty to choose from, you can choose your location and budget easily.

Lastminute – this website is trusted and used regularly by those travelling across the globe. You’ll come across hidden hotel deals that offer excellent value for money!

Myhotelbreak – browse the extensive selection of mystery hotels on this website for a surprise mini break or a welcoming spot to rest your head after a day of work.

(https://www.myhotelbreak.com/last-minute-hotel-deals)

HotelDirect – again, this website effectively lists out all accommodation options as per the information that you input, you’ll be able to access mystery hotel rates with ease.

A Recent Experience in the UK

Most people are skeptical when it comes to trying out hidden hotel deals and for good reason too! The idea of not knowing all information before spending money comes with its risks. However, for those looking to bag a bargain when it comes to a hotel stay, there are definite financial advantages to not knowing all the information beforehand.

You may want to try this approach to staying in a hotel in the UK prior to jetting off to surprise accommodation. Deciding on a hotel without access to images and customer reviews certainly requires a bit of gut instinct. If you want to access secret hotel room prices, you should be as specific as you can with your requirements. Lots of hotels in the UK are high-quality and just as you would with selecting a normal hotel, the more information you input the more likely you are to find what you desire.

There are lots of beautiful UK locations for weekend retreats or summer getaways. From coastal Brighton which boasts streets adorned with colourful boutique stores to the peace and tranquility of the Lake District, the island really is blessed! So, what better way to trial out the concept of a secret hotel booking than a short break in the comfort of the UK?

Search online and you’ll find lots of positive reviews surrounding top mystery hotel deals in the country. And, if you’re looking for a first-hand account of what to expect when in the UK we have you covered.

Our team experienced a mystery hotel for the first time when booking online using Lastminute.com. We found it was easy to apply some room search filters, such as the bed size, en-suite facilities and wider filters such as the location of the hotel and whether there is on-site parking. When refining the results in this way, we were presented with some basic information to help us make a decision as to whether we wanted to book any of the secret hotel rooms offered.

We were able to dig out revealing information for some of the hotels to take away the mystery factor altogether. When finalising our choice however, we opted for a surprise. Staying in the hotel for just one night was an all-round pleasant experience. Accommodating, comfortable and excellent value for money, the hotel far exceeded our initial expectations given its low-end price.

Tips Predicting Your Secret Hotel

Can you really not stand a complete surprise but want to reap the benefits of secret hotel rates? There is a way around revealing the identity or predicting your secret hotel prior to booking. Using the information on the website you’ve chosen to use, you can carry out the following actions to help:

  • Copy and paste parts of the hotel description into Google. Google really knows its stuff. With millions and millions of search queries being entered into the engine everyday, you’re bound to bring up results. When our team tried this we had come across a 4-star hotel in a small village, nestled in the peak district. Google presented us with several possible hotels, however, it was only when we entered further information about the room itself we found a matching description with images on a hotel booking site confirming the identity.
  • Use the map facility to confirm. Some hotel booking websites display a map that will outline the zone of your mystery hotel. You can check that the hotel you’re hoping to stay in is located in that area prior to booking.
  • Refer to special ‘reveal sites’.People are passionate about secret hotels and with a bit of digging you can have a pro track down your hotel in seconds. Be sure to visit various forums if you want to know where you’ll be staying ahead of the date.

How popular are secret hotel deals?

Secret hotels are growing in popularity, particularly amongst those that regularly book accommodation for business trips and young couples looking to save money on holidays. In fact, the idea has become so popular that it has been applied to entire holiday deals, which present only a location and restricted information about a hotel to those who book. The thrill of arriving to a hotel and it being a complete surprise isn’t quite accurate. Rather, once the payment has been taken for the accommodation, a customer is presented with the details of their hotel booking.

Hidden hotel deals are popular across many money saving sites that are visited by millions of online users daily. However, as mentioned the trick to taking advantage of such offers is to browse around and leave bookings until the very last minute to save the most. More and more hotels are taking advantage of this type of offering for customers. While being able to conceal their identity and secure full-paying customers, a certain number of guests can benefit from discount deals. Hotels fill their rooms and receive more reviews, keeping them at the top of their game.

How ‘secret’ are secret hotel rates?

Secret hotel prices are available to everyone who uses the websites that allow customers to book them. However, the concept of the hotel’s identity remaining completely secret isn’t in fact true all of the time. As pointed out above, there are many ways in which you can uncover the name of a mystery hotel simply by carrying out some basic internet research.

There are implications for hotels as people have found new ways in which to reveal the identity of the hotels participating in such offers. If customers find out that the hotel offers slashed price rooms as part of a hotel mystery deal, they will naturally be less inclined to book at the full nightly rate.

Some hotels participate in the deals due to brand perception. Hotels may be actively looking to increase their positive reviews and what better way to do this than offer discounted rates? However, this has proven to have a negative consequence with many customers further suspecting that a hotel may have something they want to hide.

In short, secret price hotels are not that secret afterall. While you can still access such websites and book a hotel blindly, more often than not you can reveal the hotel’s details before booking.

What to expect when booking a mystery hotel deal

We hope that the guide above is useful to those who want to book a secret hotel. Informing yourself of what to expect is the best way to avoid any unexpected surprises beyond the hotel itself! You can expect discounted nightly rates that become available at the last minute, meaning it’s best to book the day(s) before you want to travel.

If you want to reveal the identity of your hotel, use the steps we’ve laid out above in order to help. For customers that don’t need to know the information beforehand, once you’ve made abooking through one of the sites that offer such deals, you’ll be presented with the hotel’s information.

Overall you can expect the same as you would from a ‘normal’ hotel!

Author

Northern girl Laura is the epitome of a true entrepreneur. Laura’s spirit for adventure and passion for people blaze through House of Coco. She founded House of Coco in 2014 and has grown it in to an internationally recognised brand whilst having a lot of fun along the way. Travel is in her DNA and she is a true visionary and a global citizen.

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