This Free Service Stalks Your Hotel Reservations and Alerts You If the Rates Drop

By Mike Richard Published December 19, 2019

hotel bed beach view — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Not long ago, in-the-know travelers could score dirt-cheap hotel rooms and overseas airfares using a bit of “secret sauce” knowledge. Sadly, those days are mostly gone. Now, wise budget travelers rely on metasearch engines (think Kayak and Google Flights) to find the lowest prices. However, one free service is rethinking budget travel booking by going to work after you’ve already made your hotel reservation.

Pruvo is a unique, money-saving service with a deceptively simple concept. Book your hotel stay and forward your confirmation email to Pruvo. The service then automatically monitors the rates for your exact hotel room during your confirmed dates. If prices drop before your trip, the service emails you with a link to their rebooking wizard. From there, you can rebook the same hotel room at the cheaper rate, and simultaneously cancel your existing, pricier reservation. If the price doesn’t drop before your trip starts, nothing happens. Pruvo never makes any direct changes to your reservations, but rather facilitates the process to allow you to do so more easily.

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The only catch is that you must book your travel using a refundable option. This can be a real gamble, but in the face of saving upwards of 70 percent on your initial booking, it seems a worthwhile one.

Founders of the Israel-based company were inspired to create the service after noticing dramatic changes in hotel rates — sometimes in a matter of minutes. After booking a hotel stay a few years ago, they immediately logged back in to find the rate had dropped more than 30 percent. In the words of the late, great Billy Mays, they knew “There has to be a better way!”

These dramatic price fluctuations are surprisingly common. The company reports that 40 percent of hotel rates drop after travelers book a stay. That means two in five travelers are leaving money on the table unnecessarily. While the service has flown under the radar since launching in 2016, they already report saving their users a total of USD $800,000. There’s a reason they’ve been called “the Robin Hood of the hotel industry.”

Pruvo earns affiliate revenue when you rebook your travel, but the service is 100% free for users. Register now at Pruvo.net.

Contributor

Mike Richard has traveled the world since 2008. He's kayaked in Antarctica, tracked endangered African wild dogs in South…

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