A simple change to how I booked a hostel in Lisbon saved me over $100

I was planning a week in Lisbon and compared booking a hostel bed for the full seven nights versus booking three nights, then two, then two more as separate stays. The single week booking was 180 euros. The three separate bookings, all at the same place, came to 73 euros total. The hostel had different promotional rates for shorter stays that didn't apply to the longer one. I just had to check out and back in, which took five minutes. Has anyone else found that splitting your stay gets a better deal?

3 comments

3 Comments

simonh741mo ago

Wow, that's a crazy difference for just a little hassle. I've seen similar things with hotel booking sites where two nights are cheaper than a week rate. Good find, makes you wonder how they price these things.

cooper.phoenix1mo ago

Honestly, that's just smart travel hacking. The pricing systems for this stuff are totally broken. They set up these automated deals for short stays to fill beds, but the logic doesn't scale up. It's always worth checking the math on splitting the reservation. The only downside is if the place sells out between your bookings.

william_henderson21d ago

Actually ran into this issue in Portland last year where splitting the reservation backfired. Booked three separate nights at a motel to save like $80, but the middle night got canceled on me because they overbooked. Had to scramble for a room at 11pm and ended up paying way more than the original full stay would have been. So yeah, it works until it doesnt.