I’m looking at a Denver hotel for Thanksgiving week, same trip as the Charlotte to Denver flights, check-in Wednesday, November 25 and check-out Sunday, November 29. When I pulled Google Hotels for Holiday Inn Express Denver Downtown, rooms were starting around $81 a night, about $94 with taxes and fees, so call it roughly $376 for the four-night stay. I’d rather not refresh that page every morning to see if it moved.
So in this walkthrough I ask Hermes to check that hotel once a day and message me if the stay total drops under $300.
Hermes is running on a NameHero VPS for this, so it’s always checking no matter if my computer stays on or not.
What we’re doing
We’re setting up a price watch on one hotel stay that we’ve defined. Hermes reads the Google Hotels results for those dates on a schedule, compares the stay total against the number you gave it, and only messages you when it’s under. Again, you can probably rely on Google to tell you this but whose to say they actually will?
If you read How To Use Hermes To Watch Flight Prices And Alert You When They Drop, this is the same notify-only habit.
Google Hotels (and most booking sites) already show a price.
What you’ll need
- Hermes already running on a NameHero VPS, with a working AI key so it can think. If you are still on the first hello, start with Your first conversation with Hermes. If the chat says it needs a brain, see Why does Hermes need a key from OpenAI or Anthropic?.
- Your hotel and dates. City and hotel name are enough. A Google Hotels link with the dates filled in is even better.
- A stay total you’d be happy to pay. Look once yourself first so the number is realistic. Remember nights times the all-in nightly rate, not just the big “$81” on the card.
- Somewhere for the ping to land: the Hermes dashboard, or Telegram or WhatsApp if you’ve connected one.
Ask Hermes first
You don’t need to set up the schedule by hand. Paste something like this into Hermes:
Ask Hermes: Watch Google Hotels for Holiday Inn Express Denver Downtown by IHG, check-in Wednesday, November 25, 2026 and check-out Sunday, November 29, 2026, 2 adults, 1 room. Check once a day. If the stay total with taxes and fees drops under $300, message me right away with the price, what you see on the page, and the Google Hotels link. Stay quiet when it is $300 or more. Do not book, hold, or reserve anything. Notify only.
Hermes comes with a built-in price monitor skill made for product, flight, and hotel watches. The clean path is one live check first so it knows what today’s page looks like, then a daily job on Hermes’ scheduler. After that, quiet days are the point. You only hear from it when the total is under your line.
That’s it!
On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, that Denver search showed Holiday Inn Express from $81 a night (a deal, about 15% under usual), with the card’s tax-inclusive line around $94 a night. Four nights at that all-in rate is about $376, so $300 is roughly 20% under today’s estimate. Thanksgiving weeks bounce around. If it never pings, you book a normal rate like you would have anyway.
One thing that trips people up: the big number on the card is often nightly, not the stay. If you set “$300” thinking nights, Hermes may never ping, or it may ping on the wrong thing. Say “stay total with taxes and fees” in the ask, the same way you’d say “round trip total” for flights.
What else can you do
It doesn’t have to be Google Hotels. Airbnb, VRBO, Booking, or the hotel’s own site work the same notify-only way if you can give Hermes a page to re-check. If your dates are flexible, ask it to also try Tuesday check-in or Monday check-out, since a day either side of a holiday can move the total a lot. And when it pings, I get that on Telegram on my iPhone so I’m not stuck at a desk to see it. You still open the link and book yourself if it still looks right.
What I learned
A hotel price watch is just a daily check with a rule: this hotel, these nights, under this stay total, tell me. The gotcha is treating a nightly teaser like the number you’re actually paying for the whole trip. Pick a total below today’s all-in estimate, say taxes and fees in the ask, and let Hermes do the refreshing.
Hermes Agent Hosting comes with Hermes preinstalled on a NameHero VPS. NameHero support is available by live chat if you get stuck.
John is the COO of NameHero and is an entrepreneurial, data-driven digital marketer and business operator with +16 years of experience across many different marketing channels, industries and strategies (B2C & B2B).
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