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I covered hotel discount site Club1 Hotels when they first launched. They were offering free memberships for a year and many readers took advantage of it.
The website was a bit clunky, but there were plenty of deals. Because it’s a membership site they’re able to sell hotels for less than hotel websites and less than Expedia, Booking.com, and others.
(And you can’t price match using hotel best rate guarantees, either.)
I don’t write about them often since there’s a membership fee, you have to join just to search the site and see whether deals apply to what you’d be looking for.
- However they are offering free membership to readers, so there’s no reason not to sign up. Then you can search them for deals and book when they make sense.
- They want to make sure you find the best deals on their site, so they also are offering readers 5% off their deals with promo code VFTW18.
- And they have a best rate guarantee to start with where they’ll beat rates you can find elsewhere. There aren’t really gotchas on this either, just email memberservices -at- club1hotels.com and they’ll get back same day. They exclude reservations within 7 days of arrival.
They have a new booking engine and an app and booking through them seems easier and cleaner than before. There are also tons more top hotels than before, too, when I’m searching their site I’m generally finding the inventory I want. There are cruises and car rental deals, too.
Since joining for a year with this offer is free – something they usually charge for – I don’t see a downside to signing up just in case you have a use for their deals in the coming year. And search the site because any good deals are 5% better with my promo code. They appear to take their best rate guarantee seriously, too.
You’re generally not going to earn elite stay credit for bookings made through Club1 Hotels. Marriott is alone among the big chains in honoring elite benefits when booking through third party sites. However I often find myself staying somewhere that the chain hotel doesn’t cut it. Or the pricing may be so good that you aren’t going to worry about elite benefits (you’re saving a lot more than the cost of breakfast).
For avoidance of doubt I do not benefit in any way if you sign up for Club1 Hotels or make a booking through their site, however it seems to make good sense to register with the site while they’re allowing you to do it free.
I just checked 2 different locations for upcoming trips. There were substantial price differences, but not in Club 1’s favor. I’ve been using LMTClub . com for multiple bookings over the years, and they were much less expensive in ATL and LAS. I realize this is a discount site, but LMT was still less money. Of course, YMMV.
Looks like I signed up for something that I don’t expect to use.
@dhammer53: Thanks!
Yea the prices don’t seem particularly good here.
Just finished checking several Club1 rates and it seemed that Club1 rates were on par with the bigger, no-fee online TAs. I received a 15% discount code yesterday from Orbitz, so that would definitely make all my bookings with Orbitz cheaper than Club1. I know Club1 has a guarantee, but if I were paying a membership fee I wouldn’t want to go through the extra hoops to 1) spend time to research other online TA sites just to ensure I AM getting the best rate from Club1, and 2) spend the time contact them to honor the guarantee.
I signed up for the free membership when a whole bunch of the BA bloggers were giving it out a while ago and they never ended mine, I can still login and book. They consistently have lower rates than the other OTAs, from what I’ve seen. I recently had to book 3 rooms for a conference in Orlando and on that booking alone, saved over $600 more than even the negotiated conference rate (which would have been the next best rate). Earlier this year, they had king suites at the MGM Grand in Vegas for the same price that everyone else was charging for their basic rooms. I can’t say I’d ever pay a membership fee to use this site, but the free membership is pretty valuable.
My experience is similar to Mike L’s. A few times I have booked hotels at Club1 because there were savings vis-à-vis OTAs (even with coupons). A couple of times, savings were significant.
Other times I found it preferable to book directly with the hotel, when prices are almost the same and elite benefits were useful.
It is definitely worth taking the time to check the rates at Club1.
Ditto, same as Mike. I always check them, but have only actually booked once. Saved a substantial amount on that one booking, so it is a good site to keep checking just in case…..
@Wade: Someone should develop a bot to incorporate them automatically in hotel searches, etc.