An interview with travel industry veteran Bill Guerin
Inflation be damned; Americans need a road trip! And it appears many of us are indeed planning one right now. Online travel sites like Booking.com have never been busier.
“We’ve been confined by Covid for so long, Americans are feeling like they’ve got to break out and go somewhere – anywhere,” says 20-year travel industry executive Bill Guerin, CEO of RoomRocket. With gas and food prices at all-time highs, Guerin says vacationers will be spending their dollars very carefully to get the most bang out of their summer vacation buck.
To help us book the rooms we want at a bargain price we can afford, Guerin offers a few tips:
- Book your hotel room 15 days in advance:
A good time to book a hotel room is 15 days before your trip, according to a 2021 NerdWallet study. Looking at more than 2,500 hotel room rates between 2019 and 2021, the study found rates were 13% cheaper when booked 15 days before compared to four months before. On average, travelers saved $30 per night booking 15 days out.
- 2.Call after 4:00 pm to book your room:
If you want to increase your chances of getting a great hotel room at a reasonable rate, you must call at the right time. One strategy is to call the hotel at 4 p.m. on the day that you want a room. “Hotels know the odds of selling a room are pretty slim at 4 in the afternoon, so they are more likely to give you rock bottom rates and nice upgrades.”
- Request an upgrade at check-invs. online for the best deal
Prices keep decreasing throughout the day of check-in. So, in theory, the longer you wait, the better your chances of an upgrade.
- Book the same day if you can
The same-day rate of a hotel room is on average 10% cheaper than booking it in advance. So if you are willing to take the chance of hearing “Sorry, we’re booked up” wait until the last minute before you purchase a room.
- Check the hotel’s reputation on social media and trip advisory sites :
Before booking a new destination hotel, check independent social media sites for hotel guest reviews and former staff comments about the hotel’s service, treatment of guests, condition of rooms and common areas, ambient noise levels, etc.
SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- Prices of rooms can change several times daily. How do you know when it’s the best time to buy?
- 2. Do you get a better price if you purchase your room from a travel site or from the hotel?.
- 3. You say the hotel industry is about to be disrupted and that consumers could expect to see a dramatic reduction in room prices when hotels begin using the RoomRocket electronic transaction processing service. Can you explain what the Room Rocket service does and why it’s capable of lowering prices throughout the hotel industry?
- How many hotel rooms in the US could conceivably be serviced by RoomRocket?
- What is the dollar value this service can put into the pockets of consumers?
- How can listeners learn more about RoomRocket and take advantage of the upcoming US launch?
ABOUT TODAY’S GUEST: BILL GUERIN
CEO ROOMROCKET
Bill Guerin is a technology entrepreneur with twenty years of travel and hotel industry experience. Bill has participated in launching several companies and provided mentoring and financing solutions for European and U.S.-based early-stage technology and travel-related companies.