We often hear from you about the difficulty in finding hotel nights for award stays. This is especially true if you have a set time to book your stay. Flexibility is key to booking flights and hotel stays on the cheap with miles and points. But what do you do if you can’t find award nights at the hotel you want to stay at? Enter Open Hotel Alert – a website that will let you know if a room opens up at the place you’d like to stay at.

How It Works

Put in the hotel you are looking to stay at, along with the desired dates, and press search. It brings up the available rooms along with the rooms that are not available (the ones you are looking for). The key is to find the room type that the hotel allows you to book on points and then set the alert for that. It is usually the most basic room with a garden or resort view. The just press the alert me button and you are set.

Once you have given them the information to contact you, they will alert you if that option opens up and you can book it with your points. 

In The Meantime

There is no guarantee that your room will open up but many people swear by Open Hotel Alert. In the meantime, I would book a backup stay. If the hotel that I want opens up, I would cancel the backup. This is a completely free app. The hope from them is that they make money if you book your stay through booking.com.

I got an alert 2 days after the search that I did (above) that a room had opened up. This is definitely something I will plan to use in the future.

Bottom Line

Open Hotel Alert is a way to be alerted when a room at your desired hotel opens up. This increases your odds of you being able to stay at the place you desire to stay at. Let us know how this works for you!