I am off to London in less than 2 weeks and booked my 6 night hostel accommodation in YHA London Central mid February… I just did a quote on their website and the total is coming in 30 pounds cheaper than what I paid… I was under the impression that hostel accommodation gets more expensive as it gets closer to the date, but this is clearly not the case :(
Has anyone experienced this before?
Are you sure that was not because of the exchange rate?
No, both values are in GBP
Did you use hotels.com?
They have a price match guarantee, used it twice, simply fill in their form, send screen shot and they refunded me.
I booked direct with the hostel :(
Perhaps contact them and say you're disappointed that it is much cheaper now and how you and your friends have supported them in the past by making sure they get the business earlier, etc etc. They may offer a reimbursement?
They probably have a number of vacancies they'd like to fill. Given it is close to the date and the demand isn't there so they're discounting them more heavily.
On the flip side, if the demand was high the price would increase closer to the date.
As a general rule, book early for flights, and late for hotels. If you don't have a particular hotel or area you HAVE to stay in, booking within 2 weeks means you get lots of last minute/secret/mystery hotel deals.
yep, that's why I also go for fully refundable bookings.
Booked a few nights Bangkok last years many months before, still at a good discount, cancelled and booked again a few days prior at a better discount.
Saved about 10% more (on about a $300 booking)