Hands up, who would like a free night in a hotel?
Hotels.com has revealed that savvy travelers from Los Angeles beat out other U.S. cities when it came to snapping up a free night away.
The accommodation experts have looked back at the millions of free nights redeemed, to uncover who are the nation’s savviest travelers.
Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Chicago and Dallas top the charts as having the country’s savviest travelers and Las Vegas topped the list as the most traveled to destination for free night redemptions.
With a free hotel night up for grabs, more than one in eight booked their hotel stay the very same day and usually opted for a 4-star property. Additionally, a third booked their beds on their smartphone – a growing trend for today’s on-the-go travelers.
Top 25 savviest travelers who have booked a free night come from:
1. LOS ANGELES
2. NEW YORK
3. HOUSTON
4. CHICAGO
5. DALLAS
6. ATLANTA
7. SAN FRANCISCO
8. MIAMI
9. DENVER
10. PHOENIX
11. LAS VEGAS
12. SAN DIEGO
13. SAN JOSE
14. ORLANDO
15. WASHINGTON
16. BROOKLYN
17. SEATTLE
18. AUSTIN
19. TORONTO
20. PORTLAND
21. PHILADELPHIA
22. FT LAUDERDALE
23. SAN ANTONIO
24. SALT LAKE CITY
25. CHARLOTTE
Top destinations and hotel hotspots
The top five destinations where U.S. travelers redeemed their free nights were the tourist hubs of Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, Orlando and San Diego.
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. Of all the hotels worldwide, the top five hotels where free nights have been taken were in Sin City:
1. The Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino
2. ARIA Resort & Casino
3. MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
4. Bellagio Las Vegas
5. Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Treehouses, ranches and palaces
It wasn’t just hotels where free nights were spent, as hundreds of travelers 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!
One Night Wonders Study
Hotels.com also conducted a One Night Wonders global study to find out if travelers 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 percent of travelers.
• 50 percent would choose a super luxurious 5-star hotel.
• Travelers would splash the cash and pay on average $651 to spend 24 hours in their desired destination.
• The ultimate stay would be in a beach house (47 percent), a castle (46 percent), a house boat (40 percent) or an underwater hotel (37 percent).
• The dream 24-hour hotel adventure would be to eat at the chef’s table of a Michelin star restaurant (33 percent), party with a celebrity (32 percent), or automatically be able to speak the local lingo (31 percent).
