Do I get a better deal if I use ShopBack to book a hotel room?
I am going on an overseas trip and I was looking for hotels on popular hotel booking apps like Agoda, Booking.com and Expedia. After looking at the prices on these apps, I decided to turn on the Shopback app on my phone, hoping that I could snuff out a better deal with cashback on the same hotel booking apps.
Screenshot of the main page of the ShopBack app.
How does Shopback gives you rebates for making a hotel booking? First, you need to open the Shopback app on your phone or go to the Shopback website on your laptop. Find the hotel booking link in the app or website to activate the tracking. In order to ensure Shopback knows you have made a genuine booking, one has to stay within the link to complete the booking.
Usually, it would take two days or more for Shopback to send you an email to notify you that the cashback has been tracked successfully. Do note that you will not get the cashback immediately but a number of days after you stayed at the hotel. For example, Shopback credits the cashback 100 days after you have stayed at the hotel - one way for them to reward for genuine stay.
I noticed something interesting when I saw the price before and after I activated Shopback. Take for example, this hotel in New York is advertising on Agoda their 1 king bed - Non smoking for $435 a night. It comes with free cancellation up until the day before the stay and do not need to pay anything from now until three days before the stay. After I activated Shopback, which was having an upsized 6.5% cashback for Agoda at the time of writing this blog, the price of the same room type has increased by $75! Even if you take into account the 6.5% cashback you can get after the stay, it’s only a $33 discount.
However, doing the same thing on Booking.com before and after Shopback activation, which has a basic 5% cashback, for the room with similar cancellation policy like Agoda costs the same at $373 a night. In this case, it seems you get a better deal if you use Shopback when making a hotel booking on Booking.com.
For Expedia, Shopback needs you to use the website only to qualify for cashback. Similar to Booking.com, the price for the hotel’s 1 king bed - non smoking costs the same but more expensive at $511 a night. They also offer an option to pay directly to the hotel. But be mindful of the credit card you planned to use to pay for the booking. Some cards like UOB Krisflyer card only give three times bonus miles (provided you have spent $800 on air tickets from any Singapore Airlines group in a card membership year) on online transactions on these hotel booking apps/websites. Hence, card payments at the hotel does not count as an online transaction. Pairing with an Amaze card could count as an online transaction but will not qualify for the bonus miles. So please check your card’s terms and condition before deciding the mode of payment.
In addition, the difference here is, there is an upsized cashback for Agoda but not for Booking.com and Expedia at the time of writing this blog. Typically, the percentage of hotel booking cashback on Shopback range between 5 and 5.5%. I will follow-up with another blog to show if the price changes whenever there is an upsized cashback on Shopback for Booking.com and Expedia.
What could we see from the comparison above? Agoda does offer the most competitive price for booking a hotel room without using the Shopback cashback option. On the other hand, Expedia offers the most expensive option. With the Shopback cashback option, Booking.com offers the most rewarding and competitive rates. The conclusion for now is, you may not get a better deal using the Shopback option, possibly with an upsized cashback running on the app. It is always best to compare the price, in this case before and after activating the Shopback cashback, cause you never know if the best deal happens to be the one without the cashback. Do note I also see the prices are generally better on the apps than on the websites.
Then you may ask how to deactivate the tracking if the better deal is without the Shopback cashback on the phone? Be patient and wait out for around two to three hours or try closing the Shopback app. If you cannot wait, you can access the websites directly instead.