Big Hotel Savings

[hvsteve1]

I travel just about every week for my company and I was told, today, they are experimenting with a new hotel discount card. I googled up the name of the card and find truckers and others raving about this card. It is the CheckINN card offered by Corporate Lodging Consultants, a company that has specialized in booking travel for corporations and has now branched out to the smaller business traveler. I joined today and checked on line for an upcoming trip and found hotel rates, through them, to be about half of what I could find on line for the same hotels. You don't even have to book through them, just give the hotel your membership card. You can even do it as a walk-in, assuming there's a room available. They do charge $4.95 per night, but your savings should be way in excess of that. There is a $19.95 enrollment fee which is waived if you use the discount code "friend" when you enroll. As I say, I haven't used the card yet, but the prices are on a par with Priceline blind bidding and they let you choose from a list of hotels, including many of the big chains. While I travel on business, they did not insist on a corporate or business name when I enrolled. I used my name for the business and "other" for the type of industry. It is, however, supposed to be for "business" travelers.
The web address is www.checkinncard.com and you can check some rates in a given area without joining. They will give you the rates without naming the hotels.

[x3 skier]

Wish it was for overseas as well. I searched the web site and it looks like US only and for "budget" tier hotels.

Cheers

[Lisa P]

Steve, this looks good for our small business. We signed up. How do you find out the prices at particular hotels for the nights you'd want?

[hvsteve1]

When you do a search, they tell you what hotels they have under contract. The site shows the price range of their contract. You, then, call the hotel and book the room, telling them you have a corporate card. The hotel gets paid through the card. Having the card is not expected to effect room availability as you do not use it until the room is booked. If you're on the road and need a hotel, you can call their toll free number and they will do it for you. As to types of hotel...yes, they have a lot of Motel Sixes and Super Eights, but they also have quite a few Holiday Inns, Radissons and Crowne Plazas. Those places are easily $150 and up per night if you don't have the card. People who stay at the really high end hotels are usually executives who have corporate book it (often through this same company), or have enough money they don't care about a big discount or people traveling enough to emass a ton of points and get a lot of free stays.

[Parkplace]

Having just come back from Honolulu and using Hotwire, I tried going to your suggested website to do some comparisons.

I could not get past typing in Honolulu, HI. The service came up blank.

Don't know why. Perhaps they don't service Hawaii or what.

But thanks for the tip.

[glenmore]

Thanks for the tip. I signed up too and will use it as another resource on our travels!

[Hoc]

Careful. This could be a scam. I did a search in a number of cities, and the best prices returned were the exact same as the Travelocity price for the same hotels.

[John Cummings]

We travel a lot for leisure and stay in upscale hotels such as Hyatt, Hilton, etc. With the exception of Priceline where you are buying a pig in a poke, I have always been able to get a better price by dealing directly with the hotel. I will use the various travel sites first to find out what is there if I am not familiar with the area. I also always check Trip Advisor for reviews. I use sidestep, 123 Travel.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, and a few others. After I narrow it down to a few properties, I then go to the Hotel's web site and will also call the property. I have always received a better price by dealing directly with the hotel.

[hibbert6]

Originally Posted by John Cummings

We travel a lot for leisure and stay in upscale hotels such as Hyatt, Hilton, etc. With the exception of Priceline where you are buying a pig in a poke, I have always been able to get a better price by dealing directly with the hotel. I will use the various travel sites first to find out what is there if I am not familiar with the area. I also always check Trip Advisor for reviews. I use sidestep, 123 Travel.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, and a few others. After I narrow it down to a few properties, I then go to the Hotel's web site and will also call the property. I have always received a better price by dealing directly with the hotel.

I do the same process. Then, when I crawl into bed at midnight, my wife asks "Why didn't you just do that in the first place???"

Of course, if I actually do find a deal, she then asks "Was it worth 3 hours of sleep to save that $20?"

She just doesn't understand how much FUN it is!

Dave

[hvsteve1]

Originally Posted by Hoc

Careful. This could be a scam. I did a search in a number of cities, and the best prices returned were the exact same as the Travelocity price for the same hotels.

The corporation I work for (as an independant contractor) is trying them out. They are the same company that does bookings for large corporations. When I applied on line, they called to make sure I was legit. I haven't used them yet, so can not vouch for how good the service is, just that it seems promising. One difference with the on line sites is you are supposed to get the same deal if you walk in off the street and show your card (assuming a room is available). You can also call the 800 number while on the road and tell them what you need and they will search.