When it comes to traveling, hands down the largest expense has to be accommodations. When we first started traveling, I have to admit that we were less picky about where we would stay. However, now, being comfortable is a HUGE deal for us since we usually work wherever we stay for the night.
Because we travel full time, finding good deals online is a must for us which is why we usually spend a lot of time scouring the net for hotel websites and online deals. With that in mind, we decided to test our Last Minute Travel to see what kind of deals we can get using their platform.
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Last Minute Travel
What started off as a husband and wife website to book travel deals has now turned into a massive online marketplace for people to book flights, hotels and more. Essentially, it pulls data from various places allowing you to visually compare the prices of various hotels.
We were heading back to Thailand and needed a place to stay while we were looking around for apartments so I figured it was the perfect chance to test Last Minute Travel to see if they really help us find good accommodation deals.
While Last Minute Travel has multiple facets, we just used their platform to book hotels so I cannot comment on the other services that they offer like flights, cars, etc.
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The User Interface
First things first, the platform itself was very easy to use and provided readers a clear idea on how to search and book hotel rooms. I placed the dates for when I was looking for a place and was able to quickly browse through search results.
As there are literally hundreds of hotels in Chiang Mai, I loved their feature where you can indicate a specific area where you want to stay in. Although this is available in some hotel booking platforms, you usually have to navigate through the maps listing.
With Last Minute Travel, I merely wrote down the neighborhood I wanted to stay in and it quickly started populating the search results. From the initial search results, I could quickly see which hotels have ongoing promotions as they indicate the percentage of how much I can save including the average room price per night.
This to me is an awesome feature as I can quickly decide on what hotels to help narrow down my options based on ongoing promotions.Â
Discounted Rates
After looking over a few hotels, we decided to stay in Art Mai Gallery located in Nimmanhaemin area. To those that don’t know Chaing Mai, Nimman is the hip digital nomad hotspot which has a lot of cafes, restaurants, co-working spaces and more. We love this area and have always lived nearby.
Being able to instantly narrow down to this neighborhood was amazing! When we first looked at the site, Last Minute Travel indicated us a savings of 32%, discounting the rate from $138 to $94.
I compared this rate to Booking.com and if I book directly with the hotel website and true enough, this was the best deal that I could find in terms of price.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by this as I always think that booking directly with the hotel is cheaper. Yes sometimes booking directly can get you perks but it was still a better deal at Last Minute Travel.
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Art Mai Gallery, Chiang Mai
After we booked our hotel, fast forward to a few weeks after, Tom and I check in to our hotel and was absolutely thrilled at the discounted rate that we got. The staff in the hotel were lovely, making us immediately feel welcomed!
The room itself was stylish and had a few fun touches. Apart from the awesome discounted rate, one of the things that attracted me the most to the hotel was the fact that the rooms had different themes. While our bedroom was bright and simple, our bathroom had a beautiful teak door which was painted bright red giving the room a big pop of color.
The receptionist informed us that our door was an antique piece which came all the way from India. This, together with the bold white and black tiles in the bathroom and big bathtub added so much character to our hotel room.
The other rooms in Art Mai Gallery were all uniquely decorated which I loved. When booking hotels, I hate staying in places that have zero personality! I do admit to spending waaaay to much time in the bath tub in the hotel room. After walking around the city looking for places to stay, relaxing in the tub was such a treat!
Last Minute Travel Club Membership
If you want to try out the platform yourself, here is a free membership promo code (ANNABFF) allowing you to create an account where you can access special deals and more. This is usually valued at $50 but I negotiated a special deal for our readers to be able to try out the platform.
Once you join, you can also accumulate points which you can put to use towards future bookings! Listed below are a few of the membership perks that you will receive once you sign up.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, I had a good booking experience with Last Minute Travel and saw the benefits of why to use the platform. It simplifies the process of finding a place to stay and is a great find for bargain hunters. I did notice that some of their listings only contained a few photos.
Coming from someone who decides on where to stay only after I’ve looked at a hundred photos, this is definitely something I would like improved on. However, as mentioned, this was only for a few listings as some of the others that I saw were pretty spot on and accurate.
What are your experiences booking hotels using Last Minute Travel? Would love to hear from you.