Things hotels won’t tell you

Your hotel is your home when you’re away from home. But, unlike your real home, there are sneaky things about hotels that you might want to know.

“In tough times we have to discount – creatively.”

The year 2009 was the worst year for the hotel industry. Last year was just slightly better. Undeniably, the recession hit the industry real bad. Because of this, hotels cut back on little amenities to stay afloat. Some hotels, for example, stopped replacing soap and providing body wash and mouth wash, but compensates by offering free parking, gift cards, and other little perks.

“Book with us to get an upgrade.”

The hotel typically pays a commission of up to 30% when you book a room via third-party sites, such as Expedia and Travelocity. Thus, taking out the middleman in the picture will lower down the cost. Booking directly, on the other hand, gives you a better chance of getting upgrades and other fancy perks.

“We can be sneaky about our best deals.”

Most hotels are franchises. This allows individual owners to offer the best deals the way they want. Hotel Indigo, for example, once offered its $185 rooms for only $99 to its followers on Twitter. In two hours, 45 rooms got booked.

“Your room won’t really look like this.”

Hotel marketing can be really deceiving. Obviously, hotel owners want to make their rooms appear as captivating as possible. But even if there’s a move to ensure that images in websites, brochures, leaflets, and the like, are accurate, the problem is that there are no specific written guidelines for regulation.

“Kiss your credit card data goodbye.”

Hotels are data mines for identity thieves. Statistics from digital-security firm Trustwave explain that almost 38% of credit card hacking cases were from the hospitality industry. The good news is that more and more hotels are getting concerned and are putting a lot of effort and energy toward data security.