Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Greyhound offers special member-only hotel deals for those signed up for Greyhound’s loyalty program (yeah, they have that… who knew?). I’ve posted about this before (see: Excellent hotel discounts via… Greyhound), but this is the first time I’ve taken advantage of it.
I wanted to book a stay at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City. Hyatt’s member rate was advertised as $254, but it was really $288.41 after taxes.
Their government rate was slightly better at $279.57 all-in. Since my wife technically works for the state of Michigan, she’s eligible for state government rates.
Even better was Hyatt’s AAA rate at $264.86 all-in.
Another option was to pay with points: 20,000 points per night or Points + Cash for 10,000 points plus $125.
I didn’t really like any of the above options. Compared to the AAA paid rate, the point options wouldn’t give me as much value from my Hyatt points as I’ve come to expect.
So, I checked aggregator sites like Kayak and Google Maps (did you know you can search for hotel prices via Google Maps?). They showed the same or worse prices found through Hyatt.
Finally, I turned to Greyhound. Guess what I found there? The Hyatt Regency was advertised for only $104 before taxes:
Greyhound charges more for taxes & fees than Hyatt does directly, but still the final price was waaaaaaaay lower than the best price I could find through any other channel: $145.97 all-in.
I booked it. $145.97 is almost $120 less than the best alternative I could find. This meant a real savings of 45% compared to the AAA rate. Sort of. I have an Amex Offer for Hyatt Regency that would give me a $60 rebate on $200 spend, so I really saved only about $60. But that just confuses things here. In most cases you won’t have an Amex Offer for exactly what you need.
Note that Greyhound member deals are non-refundable. So make sure your plans are set in stone before pulling the trigger.
It’s also worth noting that you won’t always find great savings. Look for hotels with % off banners and I think you’ll find that those prices are often quite good, but you do need to look at the final price after fees to get the full picture.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Greyhound Road Rewards: Sign up for Greyhound’s free rewards program to get access to their member-only hotel deals. See: Look to Greyhound for hotel deals (yes, Greyhound). […]
You aren’t really loyal to Greyhound you just have no alternative but walking.
Will the hotel be refundable if you are unable to check in due to the Greyhound bus breaking down? 😮
I think since Greyhound corp with Priceline, they probably just use Priceline”Expressdeals” but with Hotel name revealed…..that’s why Greg find tax is higher, because priceline “Nameyourownprice” “Expressdeals” tax is higher than regular OTA
This is exactly the case. I was even able to leverage greyhound pricing to request price match guarantee. However, I have stopped using them since Hilton, MR and SPG seem to have pulled their properties out of Greyhound.
That’s what I thought, but I tried to match up the pricing on Greyhound with the pricing for the same city and dates on Priceline Express deals and found that they didn’t match. Maybe they’re a few dollars off to throw us off the case 🙂
Here’s my data point. I needed a 1-night room at EWR. Best hotel website rate was $120 (AARP). Greyhound is offering same room for $86. Only downside is that all room options are non-refundable.
Nice. Is this after taxes? If not, the final difference may be smaller.
Wow, you learn something new every day!
Why would the taxes and fees be higher on a lower rate? They must be hiding their commission in the fees so that they can advertise a lower rate which seems disingenuous.
Yes they do. That’s why I stressed comparing after tax rates. Here’s what they say about their “extra” taxes and fees:
“The balance of the charge for Taxes and Fees is a fee we retain as part of the compensation for our services and to cover the costs of your reservation, including, for example, customer service costs. “
Since this is online, would this be an OTA and therefore not an eligible night/rate?
Not worth giving up globalist benefits or night credits at that price…
Wondering the same as James. Is this an OTA that prevents status or the completion of Hyatt Brand Explorer?
I’d expect no elite benefits or credit. Personally, I’d trade free breakfast and late checkout for $120 about 90% of the time. If you had the Amex Offer and were also in need of parking, that would likely tip the scales. But on an average night, I don’t value status benefits and credit at $120.
Yes this would be an OTA. In fact it uses Priceline’s technology behind the scenes. In my case, the hotel doesn’t have a Regency Club and that’s about all I would get with Explorist status anyway so I’m not worried about it.
Not sure of your dates, but did you try signing into the OTA sites like Priceline to see if they had some member only deals? I’m guessing Hyatt doesn’t have a best rate guarantee?
Yes I tried a few of those. Hotels usually won’t honor Best Rate Guarantees with sites like these where you have to log in to see the rate, but in the comments of my prior post on this one reader said she was successful
Interesting, how’s their selection of properties vs. something like hotels.com or booking.com? This may be handy for my national parks trips…assuming their options aren’t too limited.
Btw I have used google maps for hotel searching…works great, at least in US and any country where hotels aren’t in the stone age and off the grid.
I’m not sure about their selection of properties overall. Keep in mind what really matters is just the properties that are available with significant member discounts. Usually there are just a few of these.
I think I was more referring to selection of cities. Are they like a normal booking portal or have only specific hotels in a small selection of cities? I don’t suppose they have anything abroad? I may join their program to check it out either way.
I see. Since they use Priceline technology under the covers, I’d assume that they have the same inventory of hotels overall, but I haven’t tested that theory
I signed up and looked at their selection, looks like a normal hotel booking platform. They have pretty much all the regular hotels that you’d find on agoda/expedia etc..even abroad.
I haven’t been able to find any steal of a deal though. Searched some hotels near national parks during summer, as an example, and just got the usuall rip off high season prices. They probably give discounts on otherwise grossly overpriced hotels who agree to come down to a reasonable level in slower season….similar to what you found.