Meliá Black Friday Sales

[Tim416283]

Good morning all,

Quick question, are the Meliá black Friday sales a genuine discount on their normal rates, or do they inflate the rates leading up to the sale?

Also, if anyone can remember, what levels of discount have they offered in previous years?

Many thanks,
Tim

[meta]

They are currently running 30% bonus on buying points.

It was 50% + 5% on the app + 20% with the voucher I believe last year.

[Aston100]

Meta, maybe I’m doing it wrong but I can’t seem to get good value by using points + cash option, beyond like 3k points or something.

Do you get a better price when paying entirely with points, vs the cash price + cumulative 24% discount by using a voucher and the app?

[Tim416283]

Thanks for the info Meta, will look into buying points to see if this will be a benefit

[dundj]

It tends to be the cash plus 2,000 points which generates the largest savings, especially for longer stays as the points required does not rise.

Certainly booking via the app, and using one of the 20% discount vouchers would aid the maximisation of any discount too.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are very hit and miss against prices in the lead up to the sale they introduce so you may get a better price, and you might find it has risen. If you must book, check you can book a refundable rate at a low enough price, and monitor for lower prices in the run up and during the period of the sale.

[meta]

I only use points when there is a sale and sometimes sales are not advertised at all. You can then reduce the price even further by using the points. Also generally, using points on a suite rather than the base room is better value.

[Niall]

Tim416283 wrote:

Good morning all,

Quick question, are the Meliá black Friday sales a genuine discount on their normal rates, or do they inflate the rates leading up to the sale?

Also, if anyone can remember, what levels of discount have they offered in previous years?

Many thanks,
Tim

I plan to record a few prices before and after Black Friday to demonstrate this, but Melia’s sales are disingenuous. They will say x% off and even show you the % off per hotel (which will vary), but I have seen in prior years this being a complete lie. I have seen hotels claiming a discount of say 30% but the reality is it is a much smaller discount, even across a wide range of dates.

Having said that, it is still overall on average the cheapest time of the year to book Melia hotels. It just isn’t quite what it seems and I am amazed at how people, even headforpoints readers, seem to take Melia’s word on the savings and proudly boast of their eg ‘50% off with voucher and sale’.

I’m interested in what Meta said about use of points on suites being better value than rooms. I find there are really no bargains with MeliaRewards points left since they destroyed their redemption pricing a couple of years ago. MeliáRewards points rates now basically just discount a fixed amount of € per point against the normal cash rate. I say basically because there are still fixed reward rates but they are both poor value (approximately double what they were before) and rare to find. You can always tell if the point pricing is based on the cash rate OR a fixed redemption rate by searching with a 20% voucher. The voucher will discount the points rate (even though the T&Cs say it won’t) if it’s based on the cash rate but not on a fixed redemption points rate.

As dundj mentioned though, it is usually best to do points + cash with the minimum points contribution of 2,000. This does seem to offer a nice little discount with few points.

[ukpolak]

These now appear to be live.

We had booked a fully flex week in the Med over May half term (€1383.48) already discounted with Amex Plat. Now I got it to €987.81 + 2000 points. Family room, half board in a decent enough hotel so this works for me.

However we’re staying at the Gran Melia Rome in Feb and for five days in a junior suite, we booked for €1600 in early October which also includes Amex discount. For the last fortnight the rate has been €1800+ and no discount this Black Friday.

Worth checking over existing bookings to see if you can beat prices.

[Tim416283]

Thanks for the info, I’ve just been trying to book but the app keeps crashing, everyone wants the extra 5% discount haha! Will try again later

[Aston100]

Yeah can’t get in via the app at the moment.
Getting FOMO thinking of all that juicy fifty percent Black Friday goodness I’m missing out on.

[Aston100]

Melia app working again.
Black Friday deal has the same conditions as last year: urban hotels are only in scope until end of April 2025 (‘resorts’ until end of December 2025).
Oh well.

[rickm]

Some of the pricing I’ve been monitoring today exactly the same as previously, although there may be variations.

Note that I was told by Melia staff last year that the Wonder Week following the Black Friday sale tends to throw up bigger bargains, so may be worth continued monitoring post-BF…

[Niall]

I am so glad that this year people have looked at pricing before the Black Friday for comparison as I have long said that the sale advertised discounts are completely false. @ukpolak – when did you make the original May booking and have you moved from flexible to non flexible and from all cash to cash + points?

@Aston100 it’s still worth checking urban hotel prices after April as both this year and in the past they have said until end April, but the Black Friday rates and MINOR discount do show beyond.

I really wanted to set up some RPA/web scrapping to collate a range of prices for hotels over several dates and guest combination, but unfortunately I ended up travelling and really unable this year. I have taken a few screenshots of pricing from a few hotels and will post the findings shortly (spoiler alert, the advertised discounts are so far from reality, I don’t believe any combination would achieve in close to what is advertised)

[ukpolak]

@Niall the May 2025 booking was made 27th September (€1383 fully flex, Half board albeit no points to reduce cost) but was trumped by today’s €987 (also fully flex, half board) albeit I used 2k points to save a little on this booking.

UK days out, kids clubs and meals out during June half term week soon adds up, so €987 hotel (inc food) + £1500 flights for 7 nights away is well within appetite.

FWIW we did a fortnight in the same hotel over August 2024 after having booked two weeks, fully flex half board in Black Friday November 2023. I monitored pricing every single day from the Black Friday 2023 booking date, to just before departure in August 2024, and on no other occasion did pricing come anywhere close.

Btw with this level of discounting and this far in advance, I just don’t bother with non-refundable rates.

My only downside now is that I have used the 3 x 20% Amex discounts, so have to use my wife’s login to price check now.

[Niall]

Brief background – there have been multiple comments over the years here especially in daily chats where people announce the Melia Black Friday sales and countless people proclaiming they saved e.g. 30% on Black Friday, plus the 20% Melia Gold Discount, plus the 5% app discount. Way too many have also foolishly added up the percentages to say they made e.g. a 55% saving in the above! On the other hand I have observed the discounts were way way less than advertised and have got worse over the years. I also observed prices last year at Melia Sevilla literally increase under the Black Friday sales and decrease after.

Some price comparisons from standard rates on the Melia app before (Wednesday) and after Black Friday rates (today), all for booking with 2 adults on B&B non refundable rates unless stated otherwise:

Gran Melia Palacio de Isora – Tenerife

5 – 12 March 2025: Deluxe Room – €1,596 –> €1,525.54 – 4.41% discount

22 – 29 May 2025: Deluxe Room – €1,295.80 –> €1,228.92 – 5.16% discount

17 – 24 July 2025: Deluxe Room – €1,843.00 –> €1,758.27 – 4.60% discount

10 – 17 September 2025: Deluxe Room – €1,403.15 –> €1,322.02 – 5.78% discount

5 – 12 December 2024: Deluxe Room Partial Ocean View – €1,621.48 –> €1,513.56 – 6.66% discount
5 – 12 December 2024: Deluxe Room – €1,756.00 –> €1,345.32 – 23.39% discount

(Something was very weird here with pre Black Friday standard room prices being higher than the superior room! Perhaps like electronic stores putting up prices on particular products before a sale to be able to advertised a set discount. In this case though, they aren’t matching their advertised discount.)

Advertised Discount: 40%, Real Discount: Average 5.32% excluding odd December outlier, or 8.33% including it.

Paradisus Palma Real Gold & Spa Resort – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

9 – 16 April 2025: Junior Suite Garden View – €2,932.65 –> €2,641.12 – 9.9% discount
10 – 17 September 2025: Junior Suite Garden View – €2,187.85 –> €2,377.48 – 8.67% INCREASE

Advertised Discount: 40%
Real Discount: 0.62%

Gran Melia Palacios de los Duques – Madrid

9 – 16 April 2025: Classic Room – Room only – €3,061.85 –> €2,613.45 – 14.64% discount
11 – 18 June 2025: Classic Room – Room only – €3,667.00 –> €3,019.10 – 17.67% discount

Note that this is an urban hotel in Madrid but the Black Friday rates are loaded beyond April (as shown above in June).

Advertised Discount: Not shown (but shows as a participating hotel in the conditions of the Black Friday offer)
Real Discount: 16.16%

Melia Sevilla – Seville

20 – 27 March 2025: Melia Room with Terrace – Room only – €1,366.00 –> €1,469.00 –
11 – 18 June 2025: Melia Room Twin Beds – Room only – €840.78 –> €840.78 – No change, but beyond the applicable period for urban hotels.
10 – 17 September 2025: Melia Room Twin Beds – Room only – €887.76 –> €887.76 – No change, but beyond the applicable period.

The increased rate in March does not show as a Black Friday rate (under conditions) so perhaps does not apply to this room type, but the black friday rates cannot be seen on those dates.

Advertised Discount: Not shown
Real Discount: None observed.

I also searched for Innside New York for two personal trips but failed to screenshot the rates from earlier in the week, but I am quite certain that the prices in both March and May are the same to those pre Black Friday rates (well £2 more, but just due to fx conversion in the app). For May I do have screenshots but didn’t include as technically outside of the date range for the offer despite showing they are Black Friday rates, so not included above. Immediate correction! Despite the rates showing as Black Friday earlier at no price difference, the rates have now updated and show a pretty reasonable 19% discount, again extending outside the advertised dates for urban hotels. I would probably give Melia some more time to update rates if you aren’t aware of pre Black Friday rate pricing.

You can see that generally the discounts are minor and, worse, there were 2 increases in this relatively small sample. It is more likely than not that there will be a small saving booking at these Black Friday rates, but it is uncertain and minor. Unfortunately Melia charge quite a lot additional for flexible/cancellable rates and so my only advice is for future years do check rates before Black Friday. Hopefully I can build a much bigger data set next year.

Finally, there is no need to rush to book in this Black Friday booking window. Every year for several years the Black Friday offers were immediately followed by Cyber Monday rates at the same discount (or increase) level.

[MattB]

We booked for May HT next year a few months ago, the same room is now 80 EURO less so not exactly a wonder sale.

[Niall]

Apologies – missed the last bit on the top line for Melia Seville, which is a 7.54% INCREASE