Hong Kong travellers named world’s savviest savers

TORONTO – Hands up, who would like a free night in a hotel? Hotels.com, whose Rewards program allows travellers to collect ten nights and get one free, has revealed that savvy travellers from Hong Kong beat the rest of the world when it came to snapping up a free night away.

 

The Hotels.com Rewards program has hit 25 million members this year, in the same year as the company celebrates its 25th birthday. The accommodation experts have looked back at the millions of free nights redeemed, to uncover who are the world’s savviest travellers.

 

Holiday lovers based in Hong Kong, Seoul and Los Angeles topped the list, with New Yorkers coming in fourth and Texans from Houston completing the top five savviest cities list.

 

With a free hotel night up for grabs, more than one in eight travellers globally booked up their hotel stay the very same day and usually opted for a 4-star property. A third booked up their beds on their smartphone – a growing trend for today’s on-the-go travellers.

 

 

The top five destinations where all global travellers visited were the tourist hubs of New York, Las Vegas, London, Paris and San Francisco. 

 

When it came to the hotels themselves, the draw of spending a free night in a five star abode on the Las Vegas strip was impossible to resist. All of the top five hotels where free nights have been taken were in Sin City:

Top 25 savviest travellers who have booked a free night come from:

It wasn’t just hotels where free nights were spent, as hundreds of travellers opted for something a little quirkier and chose to stay in a castle, in a palace, on a house boat or on a ranch – with one lucky adventurer even staying in a treehouse in Swedish Lapland!

 

Katie Junod, Loyalty Director of Hotels.com Brand said: ‘To hit 25 million Rewards members in our 25th year is a great achievement and since the program launched over 9 million free nights have been redeemed. With thousands of properties to choose from, we’ve also seen members venturing far and wide, to enjoy their free night away, none more so than the savvy travellers from Hong Kong. If you’re looking for inspiration on where to spend your free night, follow our customers’ lead and try 24 hours in a riad in Morocco or a night in a picturesque castle in Prague!’

 

Hotels.com also conducted a One Night Wonders global study to find out if travellers could jump on a plane tomorrow for just one day, where they’d go and what they’d do.

 

Paris came out as the top dream destination, according to 29 per cent of travellers, with New York (26 per cent) and Tokyo (26 per cent) following closely behind.

 

Travellers would splash the cash and pay on average $984 to spend 24 hours in their desired destination. They’d also be prepared to travel 12 hours on average to get there and the ultimate stay would be in a beach house (47 per cent), a castle (46 per cent), a house boat (40 per cent) or an underwater hotel (37 per cent).

 

50 per cent would choose a super luxurious 5-star hotel and 51 per cent would take their partner to enjoy their one night experience. Travellers would cram as much into their 24-hour stay as possible, with 58 per cent wanting to spend the whole time awake and sightseeing, 41 per cent would eat all the local food in sight, 20 per cent would party like there was no tomorrow and one in ten would live stream their entire trip.

 

The real dream though would be to arrive in style in a private jet (30 per cent), automatically be able to speak the local lingo (31 per cent), eat at the chef’s table of a Michelin star restaurant (33 per cent), party with a celebrity (32 per cent) and have a super power for the day (25 per cent).

 

 

Photo caption: Introducing Hotelsville … Celebrated international artist Jeremyville captures the top 25 cities that are home to the world’s savviest travellers, who have booked the most free Hotels.com Rewards nights. (CNW Group/Hotels.com)