Recently Groupon began expanding their deal offerings to include travel options. Bed and Breakfasts, hotels, and other resorts are offering significant discounts in off-season times for Groupon customers. Sarah and I took advantage of one deal over the summer, and this past weekend finally were able to use it for a long weekend in Cape Cod. Would we try this again, and recommend the experience to our friends? Read on to find out!
On the Groupon side, the experience was as simple as it always is. The deal unlocked, and Sarah shot me an email with it, suggesting it would make a nice way to celebrate our anniversary. I pulled out my credit card, and we were done. Once I had my Groupon confirmation, I called the B&B where we stayed (the Brass Key) and set up our reservations. To sweeten the deal the Groupon came with a gift certificate worth $30 towards a local restaurant, as well as $25 towards a nearby spa. It was incredibly easy to work with the Brass Key, and they were very eager to accommodate us and our Groupon purchase.
Once we arrived at the Brass Key, we were treated just like any other guests. Quite a few people were there through the Groupon deal, and we all uniformly were very pleased with the purchase. Like any other deal, our positive experience was due to the quality of the place and not anything Groupon could control, but it was a really great weekend. And it was beneficial for both us and the B&B. On an otherwise sleepy weekend in November, they were packed with guests, who drank in the bar, ate in the restaurant, and generally brought business to the local economy. Meanwhile, we paid significantly less than we would have otherwise for one of the nicest places I’ve ever had the pleasure of staying. Win-win!
One of the quirks of the Groupon deal was that we were somewhat restricted in dates. If we wanted to come during the week we could book for October, but if we wanted a weekend it had to wait for November. It also meant we needed to be flexible about when we wanted to go away; we couldn’t push the trip out to winter or head up early. So this type of deal is funky, in that you need to plan ahead but not have your vacation carved out a year in advance. If you can roll with that sort of uncertainty, though, I wouldn’t hesitate to jump on a Groupon travel deal!