1.21.2016

why to book your hotel early | reason # 2



Yesterday's blog post provided the #1 reason to make that hotel booking early, as soon as you know you might need a hotel room for several nights. Here's reason # 2 (of the five reasons I'll be providing):

Reason # 2: the room category you want will be available

Say you're planning a vacation at Four Seasons Hualalai, the fabulous beach resort on the Big Island of Hawaii, and you have particular room preferences. Consider the following scenarios:

You need connecting rooms. There is a limited number of connecting room possibilities. The earlier we make your reservation, the greater the chance that we can get you the connecting rooms you want.

You want a lead-in room. Some guests want to book an Ocean-Golf View room because it's the most reasonably priced room category. Guess what? That category is the first to sell out. Six months ahead, you're very likely to be able to book what you want. Six weeks out, especially during a busy period, you're likely be out of luck.

You want an Ocean View or Prime Ocean View room, say in the Palm Grove crescent. While no hotel can absolutely, positively guarantee a specific room location, we can usually get you what you want ... if you make your request early. One week before arrival? It's a lot more difficult.

You want a room with an outdoor lava rock shower. One of the special things about the ground floor rooms at Hualalai is that they come with an outdoor shower (in addition to a regular indoor shower). While views are better from the second floor rooms, there's something very special about an outdoor shower, and it's a common request.


When you shop for rooms early, all of the room categories are there, and you get to choose the room type you want. When you wait until the last minute, your only choices are "what's left." The room you want may not be available — and with dynamic pricing, you may end up paying more than if you hadn't left your hotel booking to the last minute.

copyright (c) 2016 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

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