Google Offering Significant Hotel Discounts Through New Subscription Service
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
On Wednesday, Google launched its Google One cloud storage plans to users across the US. Google One is really just a rebranding of Google Drive but with some new features and payment plans, including a nugget that may help travelers save on their next hotel booking.
Google One is offering cloud storage plans from $2/month for 100 gigabytes to $300/month for a whopping 30 terabytes. If you're a paying Google One customer you may be eligible for discounts from 15%-40% for hotel reservations made through Google search. These seem to be real discounts, not fluff prices that other OTA's advertise when you can find the same price anywhere else.
Twitter users have been sharing the discounts they're seeing. Az Respes shows the Yotel in New York city advertised at a "1 Member price" of $57/night in September. A search on Hotels.com and Yotel's website for the same date shows prices at $98 a night. That's a 42% savings.
Masaki Okazawa shows the Hotel Milo Santa Barbara with a "1 Member price" $65 lower than the list price.
It's unclear how you access these deals right now. But the two screenshots appear to indicate that you need to be using a Google Android phone and be a Google One member to receive the discounts. TPG has reached out to Google for clarification.
If these rates are real, it could mean serious competition for websites like Hotels.com, even when factoring in using a credit card like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card that earns 10x miles at the website (when stays are booked and paid via Hotels.com Venture through Jan. 31, 2020) . Just always make sure to use a credit card that earns points on either hotel or travel purchases regardless of where you shop.
Google's move may be a way to preempt Amazon, which many analysts predict will soon enter the travel booking space.
Lifehacker reports that Google One subscribers will receive other "special perks" like Google Play credits and more, although the company wouldn't go into more specifics.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
