Whether you buy early, shop last minute, are traveling far away or keeping it close to home, there’s one truism to travel right now: It’s crazy expensive. So it may be counterintuitive that the best way to snag a deal these days is to stay somewhere brand-spanking new.
“New hotels sometimes underprice themselves when they first open,” explains Becky Pokora, travel rewards staff writer at Forbes Advisor. “It’s part of an effort to attract more attention and to determine what customers are willing to pay,” she continues. Take the brand-new 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay in Hawaii. Its opening discount was 30% off — plus $100 to $500 in resort credits, depending on length of stay.
The strategy works whether you’re paying with cash or points, but the savings can be more profound with the latter. For one thing, points are an opaque currency, which means that hotels can manipulate them without reputational risk. Points pricing can also be adjusted without affecting industry benchmarking figures like average nightly rates.
