Much like airline fares, hotel room rates are constantly changing — and they typically keep moving up and down long after you book your reservation.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could be alerted each time there’s a price drop on your exact hotel room? You could then rebook and keep the savings!
Well, now you can…
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Pruvo: An easy way to track hotel price drops after booking
Pruvo is a new service that uses artificial intelligence to track hotel rates and then emails you when there’s a price cut on your existing reservation. Here’s are a few things you need to know before trying this service.
1. It all starts with an email…
All existing hotel reservations with free cancellation policies can be forwarded to [email protected]. Once Pruvo gets your email, then they go to work tracking your reservation. When Pruvo finds a lower rate on the same type of room with the same amenities, they’ll shoot you an email back.
The email contains a link to Pruvo’s rebooking wizard, which lets you easily book the new lower rate they’ve found and cancel your existing reservation.
But note this well: While Pruvo automatically finds better deals for you, this service won’t automatically change your reservation. Both re-booking the new rate and cancelling your old reservation are left up to you.
Meanwhile, there’s also a Chrome extension that you can download to your browser to automatically track new reservations after you book them. No need to forward future reservations to Pruvo anymore!
2. Pruvo is 100% free to use
Pruvo makes it money as an affiliate partner of major travel sites. When you re-book on a third-party site like Booking.com, Hotels.com, Expedia or Orbitz, among others, Pruvo earns a commission for bringing them customers. That’s what keeps this service 100% free.
3. You don’t have to give Pruvo your credit card info
Because the rebooking wizard directs you to well-known third-party sites to book lower rates, there’s no need to share any of your credit card info with Pruvo.
4. Price drops occur about 4 out of 10 times
You should temper your expectations before using Pruvo. No service like this is going to save you money every single time.
By its own admission, Pruvo will save you money somewhere in the neighborhood of about 40% of the time you use it.
But no matter whether you only book a hotel once or twice a year, or you’re a road warrior who lives out of hotel rooms, any money you can get back is good money, right?
5. How much can you expect to save when it does work?
The amount you can save varies.
And the nice thing is that Pruvo keeps working to find you a lower rate even after any initial price cut.
The service also works internationally. But remember, your individual results may vary from what you see here.
6. Pruvo isn’t the only game in town
We’re aware of at least one other competitor that offers a very similar free service. It’s called tripBAM.com.
You can either book a hotel room through tripBAM or submit an existing reservation. Either way, tripBAM will also continually re-shop your rate. If a better deal pops up on your same room, they’ll email you to let you book the new and cheaper reservation. You keep the difference in savings.
Final thoughts
Isn’t automation a wonderful thing? What Pruvo really does is take money expert Clark Howard’s analog hack for getting the lowest car rental rate and reinvents it for the digital age in the world of hotel reservations.
“When I book my flight weeks or months before the actual date of travel, I also book my car rental at the same time. Then a week before my travel date, I reshop the car rental rate,” Clark says. “At least 90% of the time, I find that I can book a new car cheaper at the last minute, so I just let my old reservation go.”
Pruvo makes the whole process seamless, only in this case it’s a hotel room and not a rental car we’re talking about.
Editor’s note: For rental cars, AutoSlash.com is a free service that tracks your rental rate and re-books cheaper rates for you. So AutoSlash basically automates the process that Clark describes above.
Do you have experience using Pruvo? Let us know in the comments!
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