$250 Hotel Credit Giveaway Ending Today!

This is a reminder that you have until end of day today (11:59pm ET October 17, 2016) to enter my $250 giveaway in hotel credits! As of now only 70 have entered, so your odds of winning are pretty decent!

The $250 giveaway is with the 3rd party booking site Club1Hotels. They allow you to book discounted wholesale rates at luxurious hotels around the world. This is a membership only site where you’ll have to pay a $675 annual fee to have access to these rates, BUT… Deals We Like readers are currently able to get a 1 year free membership. You do not need to enter a credit card number, so do not worry, you will not be automatically billed in a year for a membership that you might not want. You can sign up here. Additionally, the site is currently running two promotions where you can receive a Restaurant.com gift card and a free Priority Pass membership if you book a certain number of hotel rooms with the site by October 31st. More on those two promotions here. 

And as mentioned above, on top of the free membership, this site will give one lucky Deals We Like reader a $250 credit to apply to any desired hotel stay (more on the giveaway below)!

While I am typically skeptical of sites that offer discounted hotel rates, I searched the site myself to do some price comparison. I plugged in a random date in December for the Westin Copley in Boston. It is one of my preferred hotels in Boston since it is so centrally located and attached to Copley/Prudential. For the exact same room and cancellation policy, I did find the the Club1Hotels rate was significantly cheaper than booking directly with Starwood. However, if you are okay with a pre-paid rate that you cannot cancel, the booking through Starwood directly was slightly cheaper (Club1 Hotels did not have a fully prepaid rate to compare against for this particular hotel). 

The Club1Hotels rate came out to a total of $430.63. Keep in mind that when you book with this site they add a booking fee in the “Tax Recovery/Booking Fee” line to cover credit card processing fees and costs related to processing members’ bookings.

Booking through Starwood directly comes out to $497.97. This is about $67 more than booking with Club1Hotels. The only benefit you have with booking directly with Starwood (or another major hotel chain) is that you’ll earn points/stays towards status and your status will be honored. When you book with most 3rd party hotel sites (this one included), you most likely will not earn points for your stay, receive nights/stays towards status, and any status you have with the chain will not be honored. Although sometimes those things do slip through the cracks and you get them anyways. So you have to determine whether or not saving money is worth not getting the perks.

I did check a few other hotels and for the most part found Club1Hotels to be less expensive. Although there were a few boutique hotels where I found booking through the hotel directly was less expensive as they were running some special offers. Of course, with any hotel stay, make sure to check all options to ensure you are getting the lowest rate possible.

Enter to Win $250 Hotel Credit

Club1Hotels is giving sway a $250 credit to a Deals We Like reader. This credit can be applied to any hotel on the Club1Hotels website. This can easily give you 1 night free (if not more) at a nice hotel! To win:

• Register for a 1 year membership with Club1Hotels
• In the comments section of this blog post, let me know which hotels you’d use the $250 credit (there is no right or wrong answer!)
• All entires will be accepted until 11:59pm ET Monday October 17, 2016.

Let me know if you find any savings at any desired hotels!