I’ve been loving Hyatt, their benefits, and Diamond elite status ever since I started their challenge. A few months ago, however, I snagged a fantastic deal on a suite at the Fairfax, a Luxury Collection Hotel in DC. The rate was only around ~$70 a night. The room has fairly “dated” decor, but certainly it’s great for what I paid.
Suite
Bed
I wanted to mention a few things before a review (if I do manage to get there).
Staying Online is Key
I try to be online as much as I can because you never know what might happen while you’re away from your phone. For example, I unfortunately was offline when there was a significantly discounted fare on Qatar business class for just under $500 from Bangkok to Chicago. Tahsir luckily managed to book it. This deal I got from Extreme Hotel Deals, which I strongly recommend putting on your RSS.  You have to keep in mind while these are perfectly legitimate fares and rates, the companies may choose not to honour them, which is unfortunate. But if you do snag a deal like this, the accompanying adrenaline rush is very nice. These kinds of deals usually only last for a couple of hours. I’m also subscribed to the Premium Fare Deals on the FT Thread, as well as the MR and Hotel Deals FT sub-forums. You can also find me on Twitter as a lot of deals circulate in the Twitterverse as well.
On a side note, Twittering with brands online is quite useful, as for example with my stay the room wasn’t ready yet when I arrived at noon. I sent a tweet to SPG while I was at Starbucks waiting and they told me that it’d be ready in a few minutes. That was really impressive.
SPG Tweet
The other part of getting these deals are making connections. The best way to do that I’ve found is just to reach out to people and have as wide a network as you can, so deals that others in your network hear are quickly passed to you. My BBM groups (currently not accepting new applicants) as well as other private forums and groups are very useful in sharing sensitive information you might not want going public or even on Flyertalk.
It’s great when you are able to catch a significantly discount fare/rate when you travel.
Thanks for your posts.
What you call a “significantly discounted fare or room rate” is actually a mistake fare & none of these rates should ever be honored!