Is it too much of a stretch to say that, with perks, my hotel stay cost $10?

Read on for three tips to help you score similar savings for your own getaways using Groupon and Ibotta together.

(And a bonus tip #4 in which my error worked out for the best.)

Below is an example of how I maximized vacation savings. (Your own results may vary depending on the Groupon and Ibotta offers available at the time.)

To celebrate my mother-in-law’s 75th birthday in June, my sister-in-law planned a nice getaway for all of us to Niagara Falls. She found a Groupon for our one-night hotel stay – the Four Points by Sheraton Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel.

I then earned savings beyond the already-good Groupon price – by choosing (1) how I purchased the Groupon and (2) how I used it.

(All prices listed below are in US dollars.)

The Groupon package cost $99 plus tax of $28.71 for a total of $127.71.
By comparison, the same “city view” room with a King bed is running $163 – $255 (with tax) for a Sunday-night stay.

The package included C$25 slot play credit for two at the adjacent Fallsview Casino (attached to the hotel by an enclosed walkway) as well as some other perks that I’ll discuss below.

All in all, this was a good deal.

But here’s where the savings really kicked in…

By purchasing the Groupon through the Ibotta app, I was able to get cash-back for the stay. (As I explain here, just be aware of the wait time on Groupon cash back.)

On the day that I investigated the deal, Ibotta was offering 20% cash back for Groupon purchases. But, by luck, by the time I logged on the next day to purchase the Groupon via the Ibotta app, the offer had improved — I ended up getting $60 back!

Tip #1

Ibotta usually offers 10% cash back for Groupon purchases. But if you can wait before purchasing, you may find that the rebate has jumped temporarily to 20% cash back or more.

When the percentage jumps, jump on your pre-selected Groupon.

For example, at one point in July Ibotta was offering 40% cash back for Groupon purchases. So I nabbed a voucher to a favorite local restaurant.

But here’s what I didn’t realize – once I made the purchase within the app, I was locked out of purchasing Groupons through the app for a few days. And when Groupon reappeared as a choice within the Ibotta app, the percentage had dropped back down to 10%.

Is it possible to purchase more than one Groupon at once within the app? I will try this next time to see if I can nab more than one Groupon at 40% cash back.

Don’t have the Ibotta app yet? You can sign up here and learn more here about how I use Ibotta to boost my Travel Savings Account.

Getting back to the Niagara Falls stay…

The Groupon had also included the following “perks”:
C$100 dining credit at Ruth’s Chris Steak House and approximately $10-$20 dining credits at a nearby Italian restaurant and the Ihop inside the hotel.

Tip #2

Read the reviews by other Groupon users.

That’s what tipped me off that the $100 dining credit wouldn’t cover even half of our bill for dinner for two. Yikes!

Having never eaten at a Ruth’s Chris Steak House, I was curious – had the Groupon reviewer ordered extra-expensive menu items? A quick search of Yelp reviews found multiple diners lamenting bills at that particular location – $300 for two steaks with ala-carte sides. Definitely, definitely out of our budget.

And the Italian restaurant and Ihop? Reviews clued us in that no big savings were to be found compared to the tourist-trap menu prices.

Tip #3

Just because the hotel Groupon includes food options, you don’t have to redeem them. You may reap better savings by not using the dining credits and eating elsewhere.

We ended up enjoying a reasonably-priced (for a touristy area) dinner at the Margaritaville a block from the hotel.

And the next morning, we enjoyed the casino’s all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet – as nice as one found on a cruise ship. Our slot play the night before even earned us $2 off!

Trip Wrap-up

The additional perk with the Groupon were vouchers for wine tastings in nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake. We didn’t have time to visit all the wineries (needing to scoot back home to pick up our girls from the kennel), but the passes are good for a year. Not sure if we will get back up there by then, but it is nice to know it is an option.

With the point of this trip being to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday (and I did luck out in life in the MIL category), I would have paid full price for the stay without complaint.

But as it worked out, I ended up making money from the stay thanks to that casino visit.

Here’s what I gained:

• $25 free slot play (yes, yes, it was in Canadian dollars… but because currency exchange rates hurt my brain, we’ll leave it at $25 US)
• $30 free parking at the casino*
• $60 Ibotta cash back
• $80 winnings at the casino (my all-time biggest win on slots!)
• $2 off breakfast using my casino player’s card

My perks above are worth $197 – more than covering the $127 Groupon hotel price.

Ok, ok, I won’t count the casino winnings in my calculations (because really, results on the slots are out of any traveler’s control).

Not counting the casino winnings, I still gained $117 worth of perks, making the entire $127 hotel stay (not counting meals) valued at $10. Score!

*Bonus Tip #4

To be honest, we accidentally parked in the casino’s parking garage, thinking it was the parking lot for our adjacent hotel. I was pretty annoyed when I found out that the casino parking garage would cost $30 compared to the hotel’s $20 parking lot. But the fun surprise was that our slot play earned us free casino parking. (And there were no discounts available for parking in the hotel’s lot.)

So our error resulted in savings.

Hope this bonus tip helps you if you decide to stay at the Four Points by Sheraton Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel. (Is it just me, or is that a really long name for a hotel?)

Thank you to…

• the Fallsview Casino for being entirely non-smoking
• my hubby for lining up our dog sitter for Ned and driving us around
• Ned’s dog sitter, a nice young lady who he adores, and without whom I wouldn’t have been able to join the rest of the family on this overnight trip
• my sister-in-law for planning such a nice getaway for all of us (me, hubby, MIL, my sister-in-law, her husband, and my niece and nephew)

It took awhile for me to gather the gumption to write this post. Unknown to us, this would be the last trip in which the seven of us were together – we faced a family tragedy a week after we arrived back home. I’m not ready to write about that yet, but I will some day.

 

Let’s make the most of our vacation days!