Can you discover higher lodge, rental automobile offers with a VPN? We examined it.

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Using a digital non-public community (VPN) to seek out journey offers is a much-hyped journey hack.
Flight searches yielded minimal financial savings, with a value distinction of only some {dollars}.
Experts warn that vacationers might have to show residency in a rustic to safe sure offers.

When looking accommodations and flights for a summer season trip to London, I made a decision to do because the locals do – kind of.

I used a digital non-public community (VPN) to alter my location to the U.Ok. in hopes of discovering a deal, a much-hyped journey hack.

“Travel sites often use dynamic pricing, meaning they show different prices depending on your location or browsing history,” a December 2025 blog post on NordVPN’s web site reads. “If you switch to a server in another country or region, you can get the cheapest international flight deals with a VPN. Especially during the holiday season, when prices surge before Christmas and New Year, this trick can make a real difference.”

I made a decision to offer it a go myself, however my search didn’t yield the outcomes I hoped Here’s why.

Can you discover journey offers by utilizing a VPN?

For the needs of my experiment, I searched Hotels.com for journey dates on an early June weekend utilizing NordVPN. Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch was listed at about $910 for the two-night keep. While the costs had been displayed barely in a different way on the U.S. web site, the entire was almost the identical at $906 (and seemed to be costlier by reserving throughout the pond).

I figured I’d strive my luck with rental vehicles and browsed choices from Hertz for pickup at Heathrow Airport (LHR). A small automobile – a Ford Fiesta or comparable – was equally costlier on the U.Ok. web site, priced at roughly $229 as in contrast with about $222 on the U.S. model.

I traveled – nearly – to Mexico to run the numbers there, too.

The Westin Resort & Spa, Cancun, was listed at about $300 for a two-night reserving on the Mexican model of Hotels.com, whereas the U.S. web site listed it at $297, a modest financial savings. Hertz’s Mexico and U.S. websites, in the meantime, confirmed the identical value – $41.96 – for an Intermediate 2/4 Door automobile rented from Cancun International Airport (CUN).

I additionally tried the identical comparisons for each journeys utilizing one other VPN supplier, ExpressVPN. Hotels.com requested me to finish a digital puzzle to show my humanity, however even after doing so, it wouldn’t let me by (I’ll ponder what that claims about me later). This time, I used Booking.com for the lodge searches.

Even so, the outcomes had been largely the identical, with solely slight variations. The Cancun lodge was even nearer in value on the Mexico and U.S. variations of Booking.com, for instance.

Marijus Briedis, NordVPN’s chief know-how officer, mentioned costs might differ “a lot depending on the website, time, and where your server is located.”

“If you keep trying different options, you can find better deals online,” he informed USA TODAY in an electronic mail. “Some sites change prices more based on your location, and sometimes the best savings come from connecting through less obvious countries. In our 2025 research, using servers in places like Turkey, Poland, Croatia, or Moldova sometimes led to better deals than connecting from the country you’re traveling to.”

However, after I set my location to Turkey and reran the London lodge and automobile rental searches, the lodge was priced the identical in Turkey and on the U.S. Hotels.com web site. The rental automobile was additionally extra inexpensive on the U.S. Hertz web site, at roughly $245 in contrast with about $273.

ExpressVPN, Hotels.com, Hertz and Booking.com didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Can you get cheaper flights by utilizing a VPN?

My flight deal searches had been marginally extra fruitful. The U.Ok. model of Google Flights confirmed an Iberia flight as the most cost effective from the New York space to LHR. The round-trip journey from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) – with a cease in Madrid – was displayed at just below $583 utilizing NordVPN. The U.S. model confirmed the identical flight as $583.

The least expensive flight to Mexico from the New York space was barely extra inexpensive with my location set to that nation. A United Airlines flight from EWR to CUN – with a cease in Houston – was $411.42 round-trip on the Mexico model of the positioning, and $413 when considered from the U.S.

I obtained roughly the identical outcomes when viewing the flights with ExpressVPN as properly. Google declined to remark.

Does utilizing a VPN to ebook journey work?

Robert Cole, Senior Research Analyst, Lodging and Leisure Travel at Phocuswright, beforehand informed USA TODAY that completely different price constructions will be utilized to completely different distribution channels and areas.

For occasion, a lodge might give a third-party reserving platform a inexpensive value however ask that it solely checklist that price in a selected place. “They go, ‘That’s great, but do not sell that in the U.S.,'” he mentioned. “You know, ‘We are (a) Miami Beach resort or we’re a resort in Cancun (or) the Dominican Republic, we want German business.'”

To get hold of a sure value, vacationers may additionally be required to current a house handle or a driver’s license from that nation (when renting a automobile). “My words of warning are, yes, you can do it, but you have to be very careful knowing who you’re dealing with,” Cole added. “So, it’s very much traveler beware.”

Is utilizing a VPN to ebook journey price it?

That relies upon. I got here up largely empty-handed, however spent cash within the course of. A month of entry to NordVPN and ExpressVPN price me about $14 every (although subscription costs differ).

I could have simply had dangerous luck, although.

“When there are price differences, they can be significant,” NordVPN’s Briedis mentioned. “Our research found savings of up to 40% on some flights and hotels. A family of four booking flights from Mexico City to Disneyland Orlando saved almost $600 by connecting through Moldova. These savings don’t happen every time, but for expensive bookings, even occasional discounts are worthwhile.”

Nathan Diller is a client journey reporter for USA TODAY based mostly in Nashville. You can attain him at [email protected].

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