Greyhound is now offering discounted hotel bookings to those who either book a bus trip or simply join their Road Rewards program. I joined the program this morning to see if their prices were any good. I found that they did indeed have some excellent deals. Here are two examples:
Real 22% Discount
Via one search if found the best room rate at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress was $131 per night via Kayak (this matched the best price I could find by logging into Hyatt.com and trying various discount codes):
The Greyhound site found the same hotel for just $102 per night. That’s a 22% discount off the best alternative rate I could find:
Real 25% discount
Via a search during high tourist season in Florida, I found the best room rate at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes was $279 per night via Kayak
The Greyhound site found the same hotel for just $209 per night. That’s a 25% discount off the best alternative rate I could find: 
Not all good deals
While I only ran a few searches so far, I tentatively learned the following:
- Most of the hotel search results that indicated a % discount really were cheaper than options found on Kayak (and yes, I did log into Kayak first)
- In a few cases Kayak found better deals than the discounted Greyhound options
- Search results that do not indicate a % discount are no better priced than the same hotels found elsewhere
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This seems to be gone. Any ideas where else to access the same discounts? Obviously Greyhound had access to some kind of platform, it wasn’t their own discount site.
[…] program (yeah, they have that… who knew?). I’ve posted about this before (see: Excellent hotel discounts via… Greyhound), but this is the first time I’ve taken advantage of […]
[…] Score Great Discounts on Hotels with Greyhound […]
[…] Excellent hotel discounts via… Greyhound […]
Careful with this… I don’t know what trick they’re pulling, but I’m not sure this is on the up-and-up.
I booked a hotel yesterday, and my card was immediately charged, however I never got a confirmation email of any kind. I emailed Greyhound and called a couple different phone numbers on their website, and they told me they don’t book hotels, only buses…..
I guess I’ll be disputing the CC charge. Just bizarre.
My guess is that the reservation simply took a while to process. Did you ever get the email? Also, Greyhound doesn’t directly book hotels — this is a 3rd party service provided by Greyound through their website. It’s new and sounds like they haven’t informed all of their employees.
Update on this:
The charge showed up as PLN*HOTEL-BOOK-ONLINE (which is Priceline), and stayed pending for about a week — longer than normal. It finally cleared, although I still got no email confirmation.
Here’s the good news: I called the hotel directly to confirm, and they can see the reservation with no problem!
So I guess all is OK… just think of the nonexistent customer service as the price you pay for big hotel discounts.
Thanks for the update!
Just an FYI, I got Hilton to honor this rate on a best rate guarantee claim. It was in a different currency and everything. FWIW, a try is warranted.
Sweet! I’m really surprised!
[…] Apparently the Greyhound Road Rewards site offers good hotel discounts […]
[…] – Apparently the Greyhound Road Rewards booking page has 20-30% discount on many chain hotels (after you become a member, not helpful for a BRG claim) (HT FrequentMiler) […]
I did some spot checking at LAX and found that if the Greyhound page showed a discount percentage, there was savings over the hotel website. As stated above, the taxes sometimes alter the percentage amount of the discount, but the discounts are real. Can be a good option if not interested in a chain hotel and maybe for a night or two.
[…] Deal found on FrequentMiler. […]
FYI, they charge a flat taxes and fees rate of about 30%. If you read the T&Cs, they keep whatever of that 30% isn’t actually given to the hotel for their real taxes and fees.
In the end, most cities only charge 15% or so (at least the ones I visit; many are even less), so you’re paying a 15% premium for these rates (since Greyhound keeps whatever of the 30% they don’t pass on). If the room is more than 15% off, it’s technically still a good deal, but this isn’t nearly as great as it first appears.
Yikes. Thanks for that safety tip. When I compared the hotels shown above after fees, the results were similar, but maybe there are extremely high tax rates in FL
I was also mainly searching Philadelphia (where I often travel for work), so perhaps Greyhound adjusts that rate based on city? But it was 30% for Philly when actual charges are 15.5%
FWIW, there were still 2-3 hotels with “40%” off, so even after this tax and fee discrepancy it’s still a good deal. Thanks for the great post!
Logging into Kayak will show better pricing?
Yes, sometimes they’ll offer kayak member rates that are very good.
I believe it is powered as a Priceline affiliate site. Like you, I’m generally finding some good rates. My main beef is that it doesn’t seem to properly reflect search results based on # of guests. I searched NYC for 4 guests and most of the good deals it returned were for room options with max double occupancy. That’s not helpful. It even lets me select that double occupancy room and will change the number of guests to 2 on the checkout page without drawing any attention to it. I mean why stop there? Why not just change dates as well to something with a low price and not draw my attention to that either?
That’s not good!
You could try booking it for 2 and then contact the hotel directly to see if they’re OK with you bringing 4
In doing a little further poking and comparing to Priceline search, it looks to me like the “Member Deals” on Greyhound site could be same as the “Express Deals” on the Priceline site, but with clarity as to the specific hotel you are booking. And PCLN “Express Deals” have a limit of 2 people per room, so it all starts making sense. Nice find if this thesis proves out (and frankly nice find either way).
That would be awesome 🙂
I think you’re right! I was able to book the great Philly rate I found on Greyhound via Priceline Express Deals. Ended up being the same hotel (you just have to match the price and star level, essentially).
The plus of Priceline is you can earn cash back on it AND the taxes and fees are closer to actuals. Well done!
Matt B: Great sleuthing, thanks!
* i guess we dont get stay credit with OTA or greyhound right?
* can you book hotel without buy a bus ticket?
good questions…. I was wondering the same thing…. Til now, I’ve made 95% of my hotel reservations via the brand web sites (hyatt, wyndham, ihg, etc) Yet this is intriguing….. (same issue with making much discounted promo offers via Chase Ultimate Rewards too….. at off-peak times, often 50% and more less than you can get elsewhere….. and thereto, presume with not earn stay credits for the brands)
1) Correct: Most chains won’t give you stay credit. Some will at least give you elite perks if you have elite status
2) Yes you can book without buying a bus ticket as long as you join their rewards program first.
Wow, I thought at first this might be an “April Fools Day in September” joke (it’s funniest when they don’t see it coming!). But I made an account, did some searches, and you’re right: they have some amazing prices.