$500 Hotel Credit Giveaway: New Luxury Discount Booking Website

by Gary Leff

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Club1 Hotels Free 1-Year Membership

Hotels set their price, and generally they have to offer the same price through their chain’s website that they offer through online travel agency sites like Expedia or Hotels.com. (There are also member discounts where chains now offer a few percent off so that their prices show up lower than at online travel agency sites.)

Online travel agencies get a commission, but usually aren’t able to reduce the hotel’s price. If they did, you could claim the chain’s ‘best rate guarantee’ (though those are usually ridden with holes).

But a membership website isn’t going to be subject to a best rate guarantee. And the new membership website Club1 Hotels plans to charge people a fee to join and then rebate commissions to consumers in the form of lower room prices.

Their pitch is that they offer wholesale rates, and as a membership site they can do it. Luxury Travel Diary explains,

Club1Hotels is a private Global Luxury Hotel Club and the cheapest way to book 4, 4.5 and 5-star hotels. Most hotel booking sites (Expedia, Kayak, Trivago etc) take a cut of the rate that you pay for your stay. Club1Hotels offers you wholesale rates with NO mark up. They instead make their cut with their annual membership fee.

I’m seeing some great prices on their site, I’m glad to be able to test drive it (for a year even) without having to pay a $675 membership fee because they’ve offered to give away 1 year memberships to their beta and also to sponsor a giveaway of $500 in credit to a blog reader in this post as well.

With the trial membership the normal $675 price is waived, although these memberships don’t come with Priority Pass benefits or airline discounts.

I’ve had a quick look around and sometimes see great deals although not every hotel search yields major savings. For instance I plugged October 26-28 in New York at random. They were only offering a savings of ~ $45 at the Andaz 5th Avenue. But it’s a savings of hundreds of dollars at the Andaz Wall Street.


Andaz Wall Street

Hyatt wanted $1143 all-in for those two nights:

Club1 Hotels was offering them for $861:

November 10-15 at the Shangri-La The Shard in London priced at $2200 through Club1 hotels vs $2950 direct – a savings of about $750.

They have car rental discounts as well.

Chain hotels don’t generally give points or elite night credit for third party bookings, and as a general matter Starwood, Hilton and IHG don’t honor elite benefits on third party bookings while Marriott and Hyatt will.

For a big enough savings, giving up points is fine. And for bookings with Four Seasons and other luxury chain properties it wouldn’t much matter anyway.


Four Seasons Maui

Giveaway: Club1Hotels will give away $500 to spend on any hotel through their site. (Book any hotel worldwide through Club1Hotels, the first $500 will be covered by them.) The credit must be used by May 2017.

Details:

  • To enter: leave a comment on this post with which hotel available at Club1Hotels you’d spend their $500 at. You may enter two times if you wish, with a different answer each time in separate comments.

  • Contest deadline and drawing winner: Entries close Sunday, October 2 at Noon eastern. I will draw winner with the assistance of random.org.

  • The fine print: Terms and conditions apply. Winner will have one week to respond to email notifying of the prize, otherwise the prize will be forfeit and made available to another reader. Club1Hotels is solely responsible for providing prize to winner. All decisions made in the course of running this giveaway are final and unappealable and your entry signifies your acceptance to these terms. The goal here is to make readers aware of an interesting opportunity, and to give away a stay credit. So please don’t make it hard on me for doing so!

So which hotels would you use a $500 credit at?

Club1 Hotels Free 1-Year Membership

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  3. Interesting idea. I signed up for the beta membership and would use the credit on our 20th anniversary trip to San Francisco.

  16. We hope to visit the Big Island of Hawaii for our anniversary and $500 would really help us out with a stay at the beautiful Mauna Kea Beach Resort. Thanks for the opportunity, Gary!

  17. Probably the Four Seasons Los Angeles. Seems to be one of the few upper-scale LA hotels that comes well under the published rate.

  27. Would love to stay at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

    (side notes, figuring out a way to get hotel elite benefits would make this a slam dunk in my book for all bookings, though I understand that’d be tough)

  32. Or maybe the MO Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai…. (although the club1 rate for FS is much more attractive than for the MO)
    decisions decisions!

  45. Westin Grand Central, NYC. I have always enjoyed staying in the general vicinity of Grand Central, so this would be ideal, assuming it’s a part of the program, which it looks like it is.

  47. Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay. I’ve driven past dozens of times, but never been within the mysterious gates!

  89. Why do you take down entries? I have submitted twice just to see if you would and you removed them. Just curious.

  132. Four Sesons Maui for a family of 4 ! Bucket List is going a bit slower these days, need some inspiration ( like a givesway)

  169. Has anyone booked a flight or at least seen the quotes for flight bookings through this site? That will make or break whether I want to join this site.

  172. You must cancel your FREE 1 Months trial within 30 days or you will be get charged:( what a Scam.

  192. WARNING: Club1Hotels stores your password in PLAIN TEXT. You can verify this by using their Forgot Password feature. You will get an email containing your exact password, in plain text. Massive security hole here that will mean your password will be hacked. If you do use this site, make sure you use a throw away password that you dont mind getting stolen.

  259. Gary I just tried to register and only get an error message- I even tried multiple email addresses some of which are new and are not used for travel purposes. So I think there is something wrong with their website.

    Unable to create account.Email already exists.
    Thank you for register with our company.
    Unable to create account.Email already exists

  277. Checked for hotels in Durban, SA and surprisingly a large number of hotels to choose from, some rates looking very decent too. The one property I like is Protea Edward boutique hotel – may spend winning credit over there next year.

  427. The Four Seasons Biltmore – Santa Barbara, CA! Stayed across Montecito at San Ysidro Ranch several years ago for a second honeymoon with my wife and would love to go back!

  428. Ritz Carlton Montreal – just got back from a guys trip to Montreal and have to take my wife back!

  444. I would spend the money at one of their properties in Manhattan!
    My God-daughter turns 21 on NYE and would love to take her there shortly after !!
    Thanks for the chance to do this !!!

  467. The Andaz Wall Street is one of my favorite hotels out there, so I’d love to stay there with the help of the credit.

  486. I could pick many-Four Seasons Bora Bora. However, I go to NY every spring so would probably use it for The Palace.

  503. I have never seen the Grand Canyon and would like to bring my family there and stay at the Gateway Canyons Resort.

  524. Looks like I am in the minority, since I am truly not a “Hawaii person” (yes, I know I will probably get flamed for saying this..)

    I would use the $500 at Andaz Amsterdam — in my opinion, the best hotel in the city!!

  525. Since my next planned trip will not touch the Netherlands, I would also be happy if my bill at the Berkeley (London) can be taken care of.. 🙂

  529. I’d love to take my fiance to the Four Seasons Bora Bora for a surprise trip soon, and this would be great!

  579. Hi Gary. I think that the Sunshine Suites on the East End of Grand Cayman would be a very relaxing choice to enjoy the drinks.

  581. I would like to stay at Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill.

    I have done really well at times using LMTclub which is a similar service but always book with a Citi Virtual Card number when booking so that they can not use it to convert my “free” trial membership to paid. if I forget to cancel. Most of these outfits auto renew your membership. You can also use this trick by setting a $1 limit on a virtual card number to book a room directly with a hotel and not have to worry if they try run a charge after you have canceled the reservation

    I have often gotten my elite benefits such as club room access ( but of course not the points) when booking through discount channels by simply being nice to check in desk staff and using the “secretary screwed up and did not book direct” story.
    I sleep like a baby

  596. I’d live to stay again at the Andez in NY. It’s an amazing hotel. Any discount makes it even more special.

  601. I tried using the site and the problem I see is that the hotels all have different size and type rooms available, and this site does not differentiate. Also it is not clear whether that includes taxes or not. All you get is a “total price” with an “email for quote.” I tried that on one and only got the most basic room, with no breakfast. So I’m not sure how useful this site would be for me.

  609. Shangri-La Hotel Singapore would be a perfect match for me and my little family on vacation this winter.

  615. It doesn’t truly matter where, Hooghly is like to stretch it out for the longest possible time on the beach. So perhaps the Intercontinental Bali

  616. Ritz Carlton South Beach would be perfect for our planned, but not booked, holiday in Florida next year.

  625. I would use the $50″ credit at the Heritance Ahungalla in Sri Lanka – headed there for a wedding!

  659. My choice would be a gorgeous old palace in Sintra Portugal such as the Pousada Palácio De Queluz !

  666. My second choice would be an amazing resort like the Hyatt Zilara Cancun. Thanks for the opportunity!

  683. I’m dying to get some time in Maui and my eyes lit up seeing Fairmont Maui on the list of hotels they have. That $500 would make it happen.

  686. I would be spending this $500 for Andaz Tokyo! Going to be there next weekend! Can’t wait to win!

  703. Another option would be to use the credit to stay at the wonderful JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort and Spa in Arizona!

  710. I’ve been looking for an excuse to stay at the Mauna Kea Beach Resort ever since I first read about it.

  714. I’m also planning a Vegas trip soon, and checking out the Nobu Hotel in Caesars would be pretty great.

  718. I have had my eye on the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek for a few years, would love to explore the property for a ski weekend and $500 sure would help make that a reality!

  856. I too would have to say Four Seasons Bora Bora. I can’t imagine a more romantic place to relax 🙂

  857. A stay at the Terrace at Purobeach Club in Mallorca seems like a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

  858. It has to be the One&Only Reethi Rah in the Maldives. Booking the resort via Club1 Hotels is saving me 700USD per night.

Comments are closed.