A Canadian Tiktoker Went Viral With Her Travel Hack For Scoring Cheaper Hotel Rooms

A Canadian Tiktoker has gone viral after sharing her travel hack for booking cheaper hotel stays. Dani, a former hotel worker who posts on the social platform as @danibeating, said it all comes down to skipping the middleman, aka. those 3rd party booking sites that claim to give you a deal.

"You know which ones I'm talking about… they're a scam," she said.

"They want you to think that you're getting the best rate booking through them, but they're taking you for a ride, sweetie."

Instead, Dani said it comes down to taking matters into your own hands and placing a direct call to the hotel you have in mind.

"Be like, 'hey, this website is selling your rooms for this amount of dollars per night. Can you give me $10 less than that?" she advised.

Since most booking sites charge hotels around $17 in commission per reservation made on their site, Dani said, any hotel worker who isn't 'an idiot or new' will jump at the chance to book you for less.

"It's a win-win situation," she reckons.

The bonus of booking through a hotel directly, she adds, is there's more flexibility to cancel in advance before you've paid any money.

Whereas, reservations made through third-party sites are often prepaid and non-refundable, "most hotels won't charge your credit card until you check out," she said.

"If you need to change dates for whatever reason, you're not going to be able to [after booking third party]. You can kiss that money goodbye."

Dani's video has been viewed more than 950K times and garnered over 103K likes.

While some people commented that they've tried the hack and it hasn't always worked for them, others claiming to work in the tourism industry backed up Dani's recommendation.

"I work for Hyatt and I can confirm we do offer a price match and/or you can apply discounts such as CORP, AAA, senior, etc. with us," wrote one commenter.

"Some hotel chains offer a price match guarantee as long as it’s the same hotel/room/date/package. Marriott does this but it’s tedious sometimes," wrote another.

A few users suggested signing up for hotel loyalty programs in advance so that when you call you're transferred to an agent "who cares" and will "follow the rules."

But others could not be swayed, saying a small discount wasn't enough to get them to place a phone call.

"I'd rather pay full price and not have to call anybody," read a popular comment with over 3K likes.

It seems that, for some folks, the real hack is dodging interactions with a real person.