How I spent £432 in 4 minutes on my iPad

Last night I was on the phone to my father catching up on the week’s excitement. Of course, the Christmas period is arriving fast and one of his particular tasks this weekend is to pick up Gran. This means driving from Essex to Glasgow, staying overnight and then driving back with Gran. My father quite enjoys the opportunity, I think, to free his mind from BAU (“business as usual”). And as one of the last weekends before Christmas, the big roads should hopefully be reasonably clear of holiday traffic.

When he’s been working hard, my mother likes him to take a few days off up in Scotland before picking up Gran. This helps him get into a bit more of a relaxed mood in the run up to the festive season and also gives him the opportunity to rest before doing the return journey.

On the phone to me last night he explained that he’d not yet had the opportunity to book anything. Time is running out before we approach the weekend and I urged him to sort something out.

“Let me have a look,” I said, reaching for the iPad.

I tapped on the Kayak app, selected “Hotels”, entered “Glasgow” and waited. 10 seconds later, all the results had populated. For the fun of it, I had Kayak remove all the results except for 5-Star. I was expecting a bit of a shock.

However, one of my favourite hotels in Scotland — Mar Hall — was listed there at the top. Total cost for three nights? £432 or £144 per night. Good deal, especially given that the official Mar Hall site was quoting a minimum of £225 for the same Deluxe room.

I consulted my father. Predictably he was delighted. He read his card details over the phone to me and I booked it right there-and-then. It took me about 4 minutes in all. Very, very easy.

Nice work Kayak and nice work eBookers (who processed the transaction)!