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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?
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.
Shangri-La The Shard in London next April for 37th our wedding anniversary 🙂
Andaz Maui
Fairmont Maui
Park Hyatt NYC
St. Regis San Francisco
Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando.
PH Vienna
Shangri-La Hotel Singapore would be a perfect match for me and my little family on vacation this winter.
Fairmont Orchid, Big Island
Peninsula, Bangkok
Le Meurice Dorchester Collection, Paris
Velaa private island in the Maldives!
PH Tokyo
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
Ritz Carlton South Beach would be perfect for our planned, but not booked, holiday in Florida next year.
Four Seasons Las Vegas
Andaz Maui
Andaz 5th Ave
Le Meurice Paris
Andaz Maui
Park Hyatt NYC
Of course Andaz 5th Avenue!
Fairmont BANF Springs Hotel
I would use the $50″ credit at the Heritance Ahungalla in Sri Lanka – headed there for a wedding!
Park Hyatt NYC for me, thanks!
Andaz maui
Fairmont chateau Lake Louise
Ritz Carlton Palm Beach Aruba!
Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii, Big Island
Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit & the $500 will go a long way!
Four Seasons Florence
Four seasons maui
Ritz Carlton Cancun
Park Hyatt Tokyo
I’d definitely check out the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas.
The Wynn in Las Vegas would be amazing for a long weekend.
Andaz 5th Ave.
Fairmont Orchid on Big Island definitely !
I would use it at the andaz 5th avenue in NYC
Andaz on 5th ave
My second choice would be park Hyatt NYC
Park Hyatt NYC, thanks!
andaz maui
peninsula hk
Park Hyatt Fresno! (The dream continues…)
My 2nd choice, Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, thanks.
Andaz Maui
Conrad New York
Conrad Singapore