Edinburgh business travel · NovaBid
Edinburgh business hotels for London teams
Your London team has people in Edinburgh most weeks — for client meetings, partner visits, candidate interviews, conference overflow. Instead of grinding through Booking.com for each trip, post one request and have Edinburgh hotels bid for the booking. Free for your team. The hotel pays the commission.
The booking pattern we hear about
Time. Every London team that touches Edinburgh spends 20-40 minutes per trip on Booking.com — comparing rooms, comparing rates, second-guessing whether the property is right for the guest. NovaBid takes 90 seconds.
Money. Booking.com inflates rates 12-18% to fund its own commission. That cost sits inside the rate your team sees, so it looks like the going price — but it isn't. NovaBid hands that 12-18% back to you, because the hotel saves it and shares it.
Amenities. Booking shows fixed listings. NovaBid hotels throw in parking, breakfast, late checkout, meeting room, room upgrades to win your bid — because they're competing for your specific booking, not buried on page 5.
Discovery. Edinburgh's best boutiques (the kind your team would actually enjoy staying at) are buried on Booking. On NovaBid they surface on equal footing with the chains.
How NovaBid fixes it
01
Post one trip
City, dates, budget, star rating, any specific needs (parking, meeting room, gym). Takes 90 seconds for your EA or office manager.
02
Hotels bid
Edinburgh hotels see your trip request and submit competing offers on their own terms. You compare them side by side — names, locations, inclusions, full terms.
03
Pick one, pay via Stripe
Choose the offer that fits. Pre-pay through Stripe before the guest arrives. The hotel gets the booking, you get the receipt for your accounting, no further admin.
Pricing
Free for SMBs. Hotels pay 12% commission on confirmed bookings.
No markup on the rate. No subscription. No per-booker fee. The hotel covers everything as the cost of winning your business.
Frequently asked
Is NovaBid free for our London team?
Yes. NovaBid is free for SMBs. There is no markup, no booking fee, no subscription. The 12% commission is paid by the hotel as the cost of winning your booking, and it never gets added to the rate you see.
How is this different from Booking.com or Expedia?
Booking.com shows you fixed prices in a static list and takes 15-20% from the hotel — a cost that gets pushed into the rate. NovaBid flips it: you describe what you need, and hotels compete for your specific booking. Often beats Booking.com by 10-20% because the commission is lower and hotels know they're bidding against each other.
How long does it take to get offers back?
We don't promise a fixed response time — hotels review requests on their own schedule, and the answer depends on the city, the dates, and how far ahead you post. The further out and the more flexible your brief, the stronger the selection. Same-day or 24-hour requests still receive offers, but with a narrower spread. You set a deadline when you post; nothing happens until you actively accept an offer.
What kind of London teams use NovaBid for Edinburgh trips?
Financial services firms with Scottish clients or Edinburgh offices, law firms with Scottish practices, tech companies with Edinburgh engineering teams (Skyscanner alumni, fintechs), management consultancies with Scottish Government work, life sciences companies partnering with Edinburgh BioQuarter, and recruitment firms placing candidates into Scottish roles.
Which Edinburgh hotels are on the platform?
We're onboarding a founding cohort of independent and boutique Edinburgh properties — from city-centre design hotels to country-house estates in Stockbridge and the New Town. The verified list grows weekly as hotels are admitted; you can see who's currently live at novabid.co.uk/partners.
What happens if we don't like any of the offers?
You simply don't accept. The request expires after the deadline you set and nothing is charged. There's no obligation either way until you actively confirm a booking.
Try it for one trip
Post the next Edinburgh trip your team needs. See what hotels offer. If the bids aren't right, you simply don't accept — nothing's charged until you confirm.
Post your first trip