FREE Hotel Rooms for New Year’s Eve!

If you haven’t heard of citizenM, the Netherlands based hotel chain, now is a great time to get introduced. A relatively new chain, they opened their first property at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in 2008, and have added to the portfolio so there are now also citizenM hotels in Amsterdam city, Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, Glasgow, Rotterdam, London and New York.

Their focus is on “affordable luxury”. Here’s a blurb from their website about it –

Perhaps in part to increase their member base and visibility, they are giving away 500 free hotel rooms for this New Year’s Eve, on a first-come, first-served basis. This has got to be one of the coolest promotions I’ve seen in a long time. You don’t have to stay solo either, as the deal is for two people. New Year’s Eve is rarely an inexpensive time to stay at a hotel. Prices often shoot sky-high, especially in popular destinations. citizenM reminds us of that fact by way of a sample booking price for a Holiday Inn property in NYC.

Checking their own NYC Times Square property for random dates in November/December it looks like the average one-night rate is around $300. What a phenomenal steal the free nights are!

With their free offer you could take the money you save and splurge elsewhere, or go cheap and pay for almost nothing at all during your visit. The promotion’s T&C say the room is totally free of any charges.

It gets even better. The free rooms aren’t just for one night, but TWO nights. No taxes, no extra fees, just FREE. Plus, the free room New Year’s Eve giveaway is for stays at several of their properties, in New York, London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Glasgow; some of the coolest cities in the world.

The only tough part will be snagging a room!

Mark your calendars – October 30th is when the booking frenzy will be.

Here’s how to get a room.

If you aren’t part of their program yet, click here to sign up first. The free rooms will only be given to those who have signed up already. With many people trying to book at the magic hour, the precious extra time you waste signing up right then might cost you the freebie.

All you need is your name, email and you’ll create a password. Even if you don’t get in on the deal for the free rooms, you’ll still get a free welcome drink when staying at citizenM properties in the future plus you’ll be able to book their fully flexible rates.

Once you’re a member, all you need to do is get ready to book. Set your alarm depending on the time zone you’re in according to which property you want to try for.

Bookmark this link (www.citizenm.com/NYEforFREE) which will go live at the following times on October 30, 2015 –

2:00 pm CET or Central European Time (Amsterdam & Rotterdam hotels)
1:00 pm GMT or Greenwich Mean Time (London & Glasgow hotels)
9:00 am EDT or Eastern Daylight time (New York hotel)

If you manage to snag a free room, congratulations! You can make the booking for check-in on December 30th and check out January 1, or check in December 31st and check out January 2, 2016. Very cool that they offer two options.

Note that you are only allowed one free 2-night booking, so don’t try to make reservations for your family of 40. That gives others a chance too, plus their terms & conditions say that if you make multiple bookings all of them will get cancelled.

The maximum occupancy of the room is 2 people, and cancellations can be made for free up until December 20, 2015. There are penalties if you end up canceling after that or being a no-show, and you certainly want to be smarter than that. Win a free room that thousands of people were vying for and then end up paying? If you cancel your room in London, the penalty is 169 GBP, Glasgow is 99 GBP, Amsterdam is 159 EUR, Rotterdam is 129 EUR, and NYC is 199 USD.

Breakfast at the hotels is not included in the offer, but you can add it on at check-in if you want.

Also, you can tag on paid nights before or after the free booking and they’ll link the reservations together.

I got in on a deal similar to this once, at the Hoxton in Shoreditch. Rooms went for 1 GBP (including breakfast), and though I had to set my alarm to the crazy early morning hour of 3am it was totally worth it. The whole time I stayed at the hotel it really felt like I’d hit the jackpot, and I ended up enjoying a couple nice meals there as well which was good for both me and the hotel. Plus I got to try out a hotel that I wouldn’t ordinarily have stayed at since it was a bit off of my usual route.

Will you try to snag one of these free hotel rooms? If so, which property?

(HT to Eric M for the great tip)