Gondola is a free hotel search and booking platform that allows you to compare cash and award stays easily. This tool enables you to find award prices across multiple brands simultaneously, helping you decide whether to use cash or points to book a hotel stay.
Gondola offers various features such as price alerts for cash or points price drops, fast results, and historical price data for specific properties. You can even sort search results by redemption value, providing more detailed information than other platforms like PointsYeah and Rooms.Aero.
Additionally, you can book hotel stays with cash through Gondola, earning hotel points, elite status nights, and credit card points directly from the hotel. Gondola also offers its rewards system called Gondola Cash, providing 3 to 7% back for future cash bookings based on your status.
While Gondola is a useful tool for comparing cash and award prices across brands and stacking rewards when booking with cash, it does have a few drawbacks. There are no availability alerts, and to use price drop alerts, you must either forward confirmation emails to Gondola or give the platform access to your inbox or loyalty accounts, which may raise data privacy concerns for some users.
Gondola does not charge a membership fee, and you can access all its features on desktop or through the iOS and Android apps. To use price drop alerts and point-tracking features, you need to give Gondola access to your email hotel reservations. You can choose to forward emails to Gondola or manually track your points without granting access to your email.
One of the standout features of Gondola is the “Explore” tool, which allows you to see the best value stays across the globe for both cash and points bookings. The platform’s filters are robust, enabling you to select credit card and hotel loyalty programs, vibes, property ratings, and total points costs.
In conclusion, Gondola is a convenient and efficient tool for comparing cash and award prices, finding the best value for money or points, and planning your trips effectively. It provides fast and accurate search results, offering the same prices as booking directly with the hotel and additional rewards in the form of Gondola Cash. No other tool simplifies this information in such an easily understandable way. The Gondola has become my preferred tool for searching for hotels, whether I am paying with cash or points. Its user-friendly interface allows for easy navigation and provides all the necessary information quickly. I particularly like how fast the searches are and the color-coded redemption values that make it easy to scan through the results. This tool stands out from others by offering detailed property information, all for free. With the ability to see both cash and points redemption values in one search, users can quickly find the best value for their points without having to conduct multiple searches or open multiple browser windows. It truly maximizes the user experience and helps users make informed decisions when booking hotels.