Buy Now, Check In Later
Hotels are offering enticing deals in the form of discounted gift certificates for future stays. Yes, there’s risk involved, but some of these bargains may be hard to resist.
In the absence of travel during the pandemic, hotels are asking travelers to plan future trips and sweetening the incentive by offering discounted gift certificates.
For those with the means to spend, the offers are enticing. For example, the beer-themed Painted Lady Bed & Brew in Albuquerque, N.M., is offering a $75 certificate redeemable for $150, enough for one night in a suite, including complimentary happy hour. A $250 gift certificate at the 10-room boutique Eco Lifestyle + Lodge on Barbados costs $200; spend $600 and the deal includes a free massage and yoga or surf lesson (email the reception to purchase).
Even luxury hotels like the Sixty SoHo in New York City are participating, selling $300 certificates for $200. (Rooms start around $275.)
"As everything happened so quickly and hotels went from open to boarded up the next week, we kept thinking: How do we provide value to hotels?" said Caitlin Zaino von During, the chief executive of Porter & Sail, a mobile concierge program, who helped create Hotel Credits, a website selling discounted hotel gift certificates for 21 hotels, from resorts in Thailand to the Sixty SoHo. "We wanted to bring cash flow to owners right now with the incentive to travelers that get a discount."
