Upon first impression, Roomer might look like just another hotel booking site. But behind the typical interface, there’s a pretty smart idea that will not only help you save money, but also help a random stranger save some money too.
While Roomer does provide hotel deals through regular searches on your upcoming trip’s destination, the site shines with the presentation of hotel booking from other travelers who have been forced to cancel their vacations, but are stuck with the non-refundable hotel booking. What Roomer does is display these specific hotel availabilities and allow you to book them for a fraction of the price.
How it works
There are two ways in which you can use Roomer, as a “buyer” or as a “seller.” As a Buyer, your booking experience is similar to most other booking sites, so you can go through the search, review, and payment process as you would do normally. But, if your desired destination and travel dates happen to match with a “former booking,” then Roomer presents that to you with a huge saving. Should there not be any match, the site will still show you excellent discounts on any hotel available at your destination.
As a Seller, you can place your existing non-refundable booking that you’re sure you’re not going to use, and list it on the site with the exact dates, hotel name, number of people, type of room, and booking number. Then, you have the option of setting your desired rate for the total stay (all nights). After your room is booked by another traveler, your booking will be transferred to their name by Roomer, and you will receive your payment through your desired payment method. Pretty simple!
Does it work? Or, how you really find these existing non-refundable bookings for a great deal
I gave a brief look at how it works, but will you be able to truly take advantage of these previously booked hotel rooms? In theory yes, and when it works, it works very well! But I believe it depends on how flexible you are with your travel dates and destination (or how lucky you are to fully match it randomly). Roomer seems to be a pretty young site, which has a lot of potential to grow, but at the moment, the number of “existing non-refundable bookings” from other travelers is quite low (an average of 150 hotel rooms per month at the time of writing). So, in order for you to take advantage of any of those bookings, you should head directly to the Roomer Stories tab, or Hotel Stories.
This is sort of like a blog where people share their stories of why they can’t travel and are currently stuck with that non-refundable hotel reservation. In addition, there you’ll see the dates, number of people, the destination, the specific hotel, and desired rate per night. Should this be a hotel reservation you could use, you just have to go through the booking process like in any other site, and Roomer will transfer the booking to your name.
What this means is that in order for you to take advantage of this, you should be flexible with your travel dates, the destination, and be able to book your trip last minute since currently most of the bookings available (under the transfer scheme) are listed for the upcoming weeks or up to two or three months (in few cases). Naturally, most cancellations happen closer to the trip or last minute, so more options are available for upcoming weeks. Below is a screenshot of some testimonials currently found on the site:
There’s one comment I want to make from my experience, for some reason, Roomer puts a red “unavailable” on top of the hotel pictures in each Hotel Story. Well, at first I thought the unavailable sign meant the room was no longer available for booking, but they are available indeed. Maybe it’s just saying that the original traveler is unavailable? Rooms that have been rebooked have a big “sold” sign on top of the image, and those I couldn’t book, but instead, was shown the next best rates for the same hotel on the same dates, which clearly showed how Hotel Stories can save you 50% or more on your accommodation!
Other booking options…
If you’re flexible, but maybe not that flexible to match a Hotel Story, Roomer also presents their Top 100, where they show the top 100 cities with the best deals and lowest prices on the site. At the moment, most of the top 100 destinations were in the US/Canada, but there were a few Caribbean and European cities that are interesting destinations worth visiting – in addition to three Asian and one Brazilian city. I think the top 100 idea is good, but it would be great to offer more variety in destinations. But, maybe that’s just my thought as a world traveler and Roomer might prefer to focus on the American market. They might know better.
Would I use or recommend the site?
I would, but this site is not for everyone, or at least, the Hotel Stories are not for everyone – the regular booking interface is, though. The savings advantage, and the main purpose of the site is the Hotel Stories, so, like mentioned before, this is a tool I would only recommend to very flexible travelers who are traveling around for a good experience abroad, no matter where they go, and are not fixated on a destination, or fixed on a specific time. Or at least, that’s the way it is working now. Maybe in the future, when there are more users, the availability might improve substantially.
