My Experience Saving Money With Travel Pony Hotel Booking Site

March 17, 2014

•

3 min read

This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.

A few weeks ago I first heard about the new hotel discount booking site, Travel Pony. These hotel booking sites are a dime a dozen, so I didn't take notice of it at first. However, when I realized how lucrative the stacking discounts were on top of their pretty good rates, I pulled the trigger and booked a stay via at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport as part of our recent family trip to Whistler. I got the night for $133 after all was said and done via Travel Pony instead of the $250 I had secured directly with the hotel...and that $250 price was after re-pricing several times as the rate dropped.

Worth every penny to not have to leave the airport to sleep

The Stay Booked Via Travel Pony:

I was a little nervous about the stay since I so rarely book via third party hotel sites, but it was just fine and uneventful. The hotel had the booking correct, and added our child once we got there (two was the max booking capacity on the room online, but since it was for two beds I figured it would be fine with a small child as the third). The hotel did need to see and retain the printed confirmation from Travel Pony (which to them came across as a tour package company). I don't know if that is common, but I had a copy of the printed confirmation for them so it wasn't a problem. I did not owe any additional money directly to the hotel for the stay other than for the food we ordered.

Received the room type booked via Travel Pony

Received Elite Stay Credit:

This is absolutely not guaranteed via this or any other third party hotel booking service, but I not only received the perks associated with being a general member of the Fairmont President's Club (like free internet), but I also received stay credit for the night since I provided my Fairmont number to the front desk.

How to Save Money on Hotel Booking Via Travel Pony:

Travel Pony requires you to join in order to make a booking (so it won't work for Best Rate Guarantee matches with other hotel sites), but you can potentially save some real money if you do join. First, you get $25 credit for joining right now, however if you are referred by someone then you get an additional $10 for $35 credit (my link, feel free to share yours in the comment section). The coupon code I used to book my stay is not available currently, but there is a different code PONYPOINTS10 that will take 10% off the cost of the reservation through the end of March. This will stack with the $35 off for new referred customers.

As always, do your comparison price shopping, but I came out way ahead thanks to this site, and will use it on similar future stays. In fact, while doing some shopping for a stay I need to book for this summer I noticed Travel Pony has expanded the city options. They still are far from everywhere, but certainly more options than a few weeks ago.