Hotelclub.com: Nothing Exclusive at This Club Except High Prices
Written: Jul 17 '08
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I have always loved travel. I look forward to long vacations and even short getaways and I am especially fond of finding new places to visit for the first time.
The internet has been very helpful in finding travel deals on lodging, airfare, car rentals, and cruises over the years and one site I have used a few times but with only limited success is Hotelclub.com, a web site that pays members back with reward dollars.
What Does This Site Have to Offer?:
Hotelclub.com is a semi- full service travel web site that offers deals on travel services such as:
Lodging
Flights
Sightseeing
Car Rentals
A special section exists with special offers, including last minute deals and discounts on group bookings.
Other Services:
Hotelclub.com also offers services like travel insurance and transfer/chauffer services to and from the airport. The site offers these different services for United States locations as well as worldwide locations.
Final Thoughts:
Travel is one of my favorite activities and I have been traversing the United States and select foreign countries for the past twenty years. Travel way back when was a little more complicated than today because reservations had to be made by phone and it was more difficult to make quick and simple comparisons. But in the 1990’s, this new invention called the internet changed the way we do travel, making it very easy to book a full vacation and make price comparisons to find the best deal.
I have tried out most every travel site on the internet at least once and I continue to have my favorite sites that I visit when the itch to travel will not leave me alone. Hotelclub.com is one site I have used only sparingly. I got to know this site from an e-mail invitation a couple of years ago and I decided it was worth a visit. I liked the name of the site, “Hotelclub.com” because it sounded like it was going to be an exclusive travel “club” complete with great deals and generous discounts. I
But I quickly learned that names can be deceiving and Hotelclub.com is certainly not the travel service I was hoping for. When I logged into Hotelclub.com for the first time, the site seemed promising because I noticed that it offered travel rewards for its members: Reward dollars that could be traded in at some point in the future for money off a hotel stay. These are not points that have to accumulate to some astronomical number before they can be cashed out. No, these reward dollars are worth the actual dollar amount they indicate and they are subtracted from your next trip. Each purchase made through Hotelclub.com earns these reward dollars at the rate of four percent (last time I checked it was four percent, but this could change at any time) of the total purchase price. Thus, if you stay at a hotel for a week and the cost is $700, you will earn $28 in reward dollars. When you visit Hotelclub.com in the future, you will have the opportunity to cash in any dollars in your account- even if you have only $1.00- and deduct them directly from your next hotel stay. On the surface, this sounds like a very tempting offer. Who can argue with getting hotel stays free of charge?
Unfortunately, the party ends at Hotelclub.com as soon as you see the prices and compare them to other web services. Yes, Hotelclub.com gives its members reward dollars that can be used for free hotel stays and it computes the dollars at the rate of four percent. But a quick price comparison with other web sites shows that the prices at Hotelclub.com are between five and fifteen percent more than other web sites. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to see the problem here. Going back to my example above, a $700 weekly stay is worth $28 reward dollars. If you net these out, you get a final cost of $672. But the same weekly stay at the same hotel, booked through another travel web site, can probably be obtained for a price of about $630 for the week. Thus, the reward dollars idea is a sales gimmick and nothing more. Reward dollars mean nothing when the prices are higher than other travel sites. And, more often than not, the prices for domestic hotel stays booked through Hotelclub.com are more expensive than other travel sites.
Does Hotelclub.com offer anything worthwhile on lodging? I can think of only one: Its special offers. I have found special offers on hotel stays that were very close to the prices offered at competitor travel web sites. The prices were still higher at Hotelclub.com, but only two or three percent higher. In these instances, the prices at Hotelclub.com are worth considering because the four percent discount makes them, in effect, less expensive than other sites.
Hotelclub.com offers members the chance to cancel their reservation, but members need to be aware of cancellation fees. If cancellation is made four days (or more) before the check- in date, a fee of fifteen dollars will be assessed (or equivalent foreign currency- see table in the site). If cancellation is made less than four days before the check- in date, a cancellation fee equal to the cost of the first night’s stay will be assessed.
As for the other areas of Hotelclub.com, I have found them to be lacking also, but a little better than the lodging, at least in price. Flight deals are reasonable, or at least they appear better at first. They are offered by Travelstoremaker.com and they are competitive with other travel web sites. But keep in mind that the price you see does not include a service fee (presently $15 per ticket issued) that will be added to your cost when you check out. The added service fee might make Hotelclub.com more expensive than another travel web service, but it might be less. The rate of success with finding good deals on flights at Hotelclub.com- even with the service fee tacked on- it better than finding good deals on lodging. The same thing can be said with the car rentals. Sightseeing services, however, are not very good at Hotelclub.com. With minimal effort, you can find better deals someplace else.
Judging the search functions of Hotelclub.com, it seems a little inadequate. With lodging, Hotelclub.com allows you to search by destination, by map location, or by hotel name. The results can be sorted by hotel name, price, location, availability, or location. This is okay, but the service is still very lacking. For one thing, there is little information contained in the overview on each hotel. Often, the photos of the hotel and its rooms offer more information than the overview, assuming you are willing to look closely and decide if the hotel has what you want. The flight and car rental searches are also inadequate. They are too simplistic for a first- rate travel web service.
Overall, Hotelclub.com is a below average travel web service and I doubt I will use them again except to check the special deals section. I love the idea of getting free hotel night stays, but not if the “free” stays will cost me more in the long run. The site could use updates in many areas, but the bottom line is price and Hotelclub.com does not offer good enough deals to make it worth a visit.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Hotel stay
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