Cheapest way to stay at Holiday Inns - save up to 50%

vwanorak

Booked the Friends & Family rate at Taunton - a great way to break up our trip to Cornwall.

Thanks for this information!!

misa.blue

Hi guys, just booked 2 nights at Easter Holiday Inn Express in USA San Diego Downtown using Friends & Family link from first page of this thread.
Rate we got was $87 full price would be $119 that is including breakfast:T
Including taxes it works out £110 for 2 nights while on Hotels.com and elsewhere it is £150 for those nigths.
Many thanks for this thread!

brian2834

Friends and Family rate is a bad idea because the payment is deducted from your card between the time of booking and time of arrival. It is also non refundable. Every front desk employee has the ability to lower the rate. I work at a holiday inn express, and I always start the rate higher than it actually is so that if the guest asks for a discount, I just bring it down to what the rate actually is. During our peak seasons, I normally will not sell a room for at least 30 bucks more than the actual rate. I have sold many rooms double the price during our festivals. So don't think that your gonna outsmart a hotel by trying to negotiate. When people try to overplay this method, I stand firm. The best way to get a good rate is to geniunly be nice.

Doc_N

brian2834 wrote: »

Friends and Family rate is a bad idea because the payment is deducted from your card between the time of booking and time of arrival. It is also non refundable. Every front desk employee has the ability to lower the rate. I work at a holiday inn express, and I always start the rate higher than it actually is so that if the guest asks for a discount, I just bring it down to what the rate actually is. During our peak seasons, I normally will not sell a room for at least 30 bucks more than the actual rate. I have sold many rooms double the price during our festivals. So don't think that your gonna outsmart a hotel by trying to negotiate. When people try to overplay this method, I stand firm. The best way to get a good rate is to geniunly be nice.

Thanks - I think you've just disproved the opening few words of your post by what follows.

misa.blue

brian2834 wrote: »

I work at a holiday inn express, and I always start the rate higher than it actually is so that if the guest asks for a discount, I just bring it down to what the rate actually is. During our peak seasons, I normally will not sell a room for at least 30 bucks more than the actual rate. I have sold many rooms double the price during our festivals.

Ok, so your advise is for me to turn up on Easter Good Friday in San Diego to be given double the price of the room (2x$119=$238) and then by being nice getting $30 of that doubled made up rate?
So if I was "lucky" and had you at check in desk in Holiday Express, we would end up paying $208 per night as opposed to "bad idea Friends and Family rate" of $87 per night.

Great moneysaving advice;)

littlereddevil

Yes it was a very strange post!

misa.blue

Hi,
just booked one night at Pismo beach in HI Express, price was $69.49 as opposed to full price of $109 using Friends & Family link.:j
Printed and filled my voucher, ready to go next week!

niktheguru

Hey guys, just to let you know I just came back from a holiday in New York. Used the friends and family deal to stay in hotel indigo in new york and the holiday inn hotel in newark airport. All went without any trouble. They didn't even want the vouchers.

Good luck.

misa.blue

Hello guys
just to report, we have now returned from our California holiday.
Booked 2 nights in Holiday Inn Express San Diego downtown using the Friends and Family link, when checking in we gave them our printed confirmation with the voucher, all ok, no problem at all and hotel was great, free breakfast and wi-fi.
Then we stayed 1 night in Holiday Inn Express Grover / Pismo beach, asked for name when checking in and forgot voucher in car, the receptionist politely asked for credit card and the voucher, which we provided right away, again no issue there at all, went smoothly :T And the prices we paid were great, £55 night in SD and £43 in Grover Discount was about 35% to 40%.
Will definately use again!

Vikki_74

Thanks so much for putting all the details of this up OP.

We have just booked 2 nights in Page, Arizona for September at the Holiday Inn Express using the F&F link. Cost us $88.50 + tax per night for a king room including breakfast compared to $118 + tax for the cheapest advance purchase rate on the hotel's normal website...I make that a 25% saving, not bad as Page is only a small town so unlikely to see any better deals come up nearer the time, and for a similar price to the $88.50 we've paid the only other option I could find was a Motel 6 or similar.

Cheers!
:beer: