At the end of last year, I wrote about Service, an app that monitors your upcoming flight reservations to get you compensation for delays and cancellations. Well, Service also offers a different sort of assistance—but just as helpful—for people making hotel reservations. When you book a hotel and are signed up for Service (see below), you’ll be automatically rebooked if the room you’ve booked becomes available at a lower rate. The following hotel brands are currently supported: Best Western, Carlson Rezidor (Radisson & Park Plaza), Choice Hotels, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, Starwood, and Wyndham.
Service offers two types of plans:
- An annual membership of a flat rate of $49. Pay once and everything they earn or save you within the year is yours to keep. Membership includes the automatic hotel-rebooking function and automatic claim filing with airlines to get you compensation (usually vouchers or miles) for delayed or cancelled flights.
- If you don’t travel that much or don’t want to pay an annual plan then the best option is their “as you go” plan. For hotels, if they’re able to rebook you at a lower rate, they charge 30% of what they saved you to your credit card on file. If they’re not successful, there’s no charge. If you go with the pay “as you go” plan you do still need to register a credit card up front.
With either plan, the first step is to sync your inbox (currently only Gmail or Hotmail). I primarily use Outlook mail, which they don’t support, but I wouldn’t have a problem with granting them access to my Gmail account. (Actually, it would be smart to create a Gmail account that’s exclusively for travel. That way, it’s easy to organize and you don’t have anything to worry about granting a service like this access.) What’s nice about how they scan your email is that you don’t have to do anything. You just sit back and let them find upcoming hotel reservations (or past flight disruptions).
They also have a refer-a-friend program so you can send a friend $20 off their first charge and get $20 off your next! Here’s my link.