The Best Savings on Upscale Hotels

Cabin fever had already driven me to the brink of delirium well before #SnowJam2014 slammed into my southern city, Atlanta. On that fateful night of January 28th, as my bedraggled husband collapsed into bed after opting to trudge a few miles through the snow rather than remain in his car a moment longer, I served him a hot toddy and declared, “Hun, we need a weekend away, PRONTO!”
Our February wedding anniversary was approaching, the stars aligned and the childcare gods smiled, so we began a quest for last-minute travel plans within our budget … Oh, the budget. Always the boil on Cupid’s butt. With all the scheduling logistics falling into place, I thought for certain the pesky budget would be the piece of this puzzle lost in the sofa. Recently, though, I’d received some PR info about a hotel booking site called TravelPony and decided to check it out, as the lure of prices lower than those found on any other travel site out there was too tempting to overlook (yes, lower than the big boys: Priceline, Orbitz, Hotwire, Expedia, etc).

TravelPony.com gathers the best prices for a variety of hotel rooms and uses social media sharing as it’s only advertising tool (which means all the costs associated with typical marketing get passed onto us as added savings). To access the discounted rates, you need to be become a member, but it’s free — TravelPony just needs you to sign up with an email and password, or join through your Facebook profile. Members are encouraged to tell friends about their travel deals via social media as a way to help TravelPony grow and, thus, provide even more travel deals. The site allows you to search for a destination city and travel date and then pulls up a list of properties partnering for a deal at that time. Hotels fall into either the “Standard” or “Upscale” category and sort out by percentage of savings. 
Since our trip was totally last minute, I decided to focus on a destination within driving distance. No airline expenses adding to the tab or delayed flights ruining our weekend. While TravelPony doesn’t yet have properties in every city (the company just launched in summer of 2013), I wondered what the site had to offer in Charleston, SC. What a perfect romantic excursion — history, atmosphere, architecture, food, all in an easy, five-hour drive.
http://styleblueprint.com/southern-edition/everyday/travelpony-the-best-savings-on-upscale-hotels/