HotelTonight Will Offer Extra Discounts on Hotel Rooms — But You'll Have to Act Fast

Everything in life comes down to timing. Especially a good deal.

The booking app HotelTonight released a new feature this week that lets users in on personalized deals, if they can catch them.

Once a day, the “Daily Drop” will appear in the HotelTonight app. Based on the user’s booking and hotel preferences, they will be granted a deal, available for the specific dates and city users are searching for. The deals will be at least 30 percent off online travel agency (OTA) room rates, according to the app.

But it will only last for 15 minutes. Users have to snag the Daily Drop quickly, before it goes away forever — or until a new deal shows up in 24 hours. HotelTonight is calling this the travel industry’s first “ephemeral deal.”

“We've reimagined the opaque deals of the past (where travelers couldn't see what hotel they were booking) for the mobile era,” Sam Shank, CEO of HotelTonight, said in a statement. “Daily Drop hotels are personalized to the booker’s taste and often at prices that are better than opaque sites.”

About 1,000 hotels are currently taking part in the “Daily Drop.”

The feature can be used to book hotel rooms up to 100 days in advance — because not all spontaneity should happen immediately. The deals are non-refundable so make sure you’ve thought through the purchase (for at least a few of those 15 minutes) before booking.