Pro Tips: Find the best last minute hotel deals in Australia
Booking last minute hotel deals is not a strategy that we regularly recommend – or use – at Hack Your Trip.
This is because eleventh-hour bookings are not guaranteed to be available at your desired property, let alone cheaper.
Some hotels may offer discounts to fill empty rooms at times, but this really depends on the location, season, and demand.
Hotel occupancy rates are generally quite high in Australia's major capital cities, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth.
Therefore, finding cheap hotels at short notice – particularly over weekends – is not always easy.
However, if you do not have a choice but to make a late booking, here is how to go about it.
Finding last minute hotel deals in Australia
OPTION 1
A comparison website like Trivago is an excellent place to start if you are searching for a room at short notice.
These sites compare prices across many booking websites, including Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Trip.com and many more.
This can help you quickly find the best deals – whether you need a room tonight, tomorrow or next week.
OPTION 2
If you are looking for a fuss-free way to find a super deal, our other recommendation would be to check out Super.com.
This is consistently one of the cheapest hotel booking websites you will find - including for last minute bookings.
We have used Super.com multiple times before without issue and have saved hundreds of dollars on some occasions, compared to prices on other booking sites.
Testing last minute hotel deals in Sydney
It is hard to say whether last minute bookings are cheaper because prices fluctuate.
However, at Hack Your Trip, we like to test the waters – so we did.
When we conducted a search on a Friday for a stay in Sydney the next night, 346 results were returned from 239 websites on Trivago.
A selection of well-known properties included:
Sydney Harbour Marriott - $499
W Sydney - $559
Rydges Sydney Harbour - $599
Intercontinental Sydney - $599
Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour - $569
We did a new search, again for a Saturday night but precisely two weeks later, which returned prices of:
Sydney Harbour Marriott - $616
W Sydney - $639
Rydges Sydney Harbour - $424
Intercontinental Sydney - $658
Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour - $664
Four of the five surveyed hotels in this test were cheaper to book at short notice.
The Rydges Sydney Harbour was the odd one out, being $175 cheaper to book 15 days ahead than one day ahead.
This is just one small survey, and there are many factors at play, but it does show that you can save a little bit on some last minute bookings in certain situations.
We found you can get a last minute hotel deal in Sydney at the W.
Testing last minute hotel deals in Melbourne
Perhaps the second-most expensive capital city to stay in Australia behind Sydney, we thought we would try another test for deals on rooms in Melbourne.
We picked two of the best hotels in Melbourne – Sofitel Melbourne on Collins and Crown Metropol Melbourne – and looked at the cheapest pricing on Trivago for every second Saturday night for four months.
The results were as follows:
Sofitel Melbourne on Collins
October 26, 2024: $445
November 2, 2024: $540
November 9, 2024: $395
November 16, 2024: N/A
November 23, 2024: N/A
November 30, 2024: $393
December 7, 2024: $386
December 14, 2024: $305
December 21, 2024: $279
December 28, 2024: $345
January 4, 2025: $274
January 11, 2025: $450
January 18, 2025: $651
January 25, 2025: $694
February 1, 2025: $347
February 8, 2025: $419
February 15, 2025: $435
February 22, 2025: $435
Crown Metropol Melbourne
October 26, 2024: $627
November 2, 2024: $797
November 9, 2024: $396
November 16, 2024: $451
November 23, 2024: $367
November 30, 2024: $599
December 7, 2024: $367
December 14, 2024: $367
December 21, 2024: $367
December 28, 2024: $387
January 4, 2025: $372
January 11, 2025: $372
January 18, 2025: $376
January 25, 2025: $745
February 1, 2025: $372
February 8, 2025: $372
February 15, 2025: $372
February 22, 2025: $372
As you can see, pricing varies considerably based on demand.
January 18 and January 25 are during the Australian Open in Melbourne, resulting in higher prices.
However, spontaneous bookings aren’t always cheaper than booking a few months ahead.
There is also the risk of your desired hotel being unavailable, with the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins showing two sold-out Saturday nights within five weeks of this search.
You could get a better deal on hotels
At Hack Your Trip, we’ve written before about our 11 Top Tips to snag a cheap luxury hotel.
If you don’t have to book a last minute hotel, you could save more money by booking in advance and using some of these tips.
They include making flexible hotel bookings and booking your hotel and flights together.
Securing travel package deals from websites like Luxury Escapes can also be a big winner for multi-night trips.
Some of these package deals allow you to stay in luxury hotels at cheap prices across Australia and the world.
Summary
Finding last minute hotel deals is possible, but it isn’t guaranteed. If you need to secure urgent hotel bookings or are a spontaneous travel lover, we recommend searching a hotel comparison website like Trivago to find the best deals. However, if you can book earlier, we recommend doing so. There are ways to find cheap hotels in advance while avoiding the stress of finding a room at short notice.
Written By: Chris
Updated: October 2024