Half-Off Program Is No Deal If You Can’t Book a Room

On any reasonable list of top strategies to save money traveling, you’re likely to see mention of half-off hotel membership programs. You pay $20 to $100 yearly for a year’s membership and a booklet that lists thousands of hotels. On nights that those hotels are expecting less than 80% or 85% occupancy, they give cardholders discounts of up to 50% from their published “off the rack” rates. In one night, a traveler can easily save as much money as the booklet cost.

But there’s a catch, and it’s growing larger by the day.

The hotel business is going gangbusters. Occupancy nationwide is at its highest rate since 1980 and demand is outracing supply. Especially in major U.S. cities, travelers are finding fewer and fewer nights available at those half-off discounts.

“I’m hearing from some hoteliers that they’re thinking of dropping out of these programs because they don’t need them anymore,” says Bruce Baltin, a senior vice president with the hotel consulting firm PKF Consulting. “It’s only good for anyone [consumers] as long as there’s reasonable access.”

At Entertainment Publications, the most prominent of the half-off hotel discount programs, spokesman Bob McHenry acknowledges that “flexibility is more important [for travelers] than it ever has been before. . . . But there still are empty rooms out there.”

Companies selling booklets include America at 50% Off ([800] 248-2783), Carte Royale ([800] 847-7002), Encore ([800] 638-0930), Great American Traveler ([800] 331-8867), International Travel Card, also known as ITC-50, ([800] 342-0558), Privilege Card International ([800] 236-9732) and Quest International ([800] 638-9819). But the best-known is Entertainment ([800] 445-4137), which for more than 30 years has sold booklets aimed at varied geographic areas.

Since the company’s principal product is discounted hotel nights and all evidence suggests that there will be fewer of those in 1997 than in 1996, has Entertainment dropped the price of its nationwide booklet? No. Its National Hotel & Dining Directory, which includes about 3,500 hotels, remains priced at $37.95. (The company expects its biggest seller this year to be its Hotel & Travel Ultimate Savings Directory, which sells for $62.95 and includes about 5,500 hotels worldwide, along with cruise, rental-car and airline discounts.)

Meanwhile, demand and hotel rates keep growing. In 1995, PKF Consulting estimated an overall 72.5% occupancy rate among hotels in 60 major U.S. cities. In 1997, the firm is projecting a 73.7% rate, and authorities expect those high numbers to last out the decade. A hotel averaging 80% occupancy, says PKF Research Director Robert Mandelbaum, is likely to offer its 50%-off rate on fewer than 60 days a year, most of them weekdays.

At the Hotel Reservations Network ([800] 964-6835), President Bob Diener says his operators are taking more and more calls from “people who need a room, and they don’t care what the rate is.” In those big-city, high-demand situations, Diener says, hotel consolidators like his firm are more likely than a half-off program to have rooms available, because consolidators have taken the risk of reserving large blocks of rooms as far as a year in advance. The trade-off for consumers in those cases, Diener concedes, is that his discounts are usually about 20% to 30%, rather than 50%.

In Honolulu and Waikiki, PKF projects hotel occupancy at 85% in 1997, with average room rates of $125. In New York: 1997 occupancy of 81%, average rates of $181. In San Francisco: 1997 occupancy 79%, average rate of $119.

To see what these figures meant for discount availability, I chose a pair of upcoming weekends (Oct. 26 to 27 and Dec. 7 to 8) and a pair of hotels near San Francisco’s Union Square shopping and theater area, and went discount-hunting.

At the tony Clift Hotel on Geary Street, the reservationist had no discounted rooms on either of my chosen weekends, but she did volunteer that the Dec. 14 to 15 weekend was still available. The rates: $130, half of the hotel’s “rack” rate of $260. (To see what discount I could get without the card, I called back later and haggled for a room that same weekend. The reservationist quoted me $260, then $225 and finally $195.)

At the more affordable Savoy Hotel across the street, there were no discount rooms on Oct. 26 to 27, and a reservationist warned that the hotel bans those discount rates during the convention-heavy months of September and October and on most weekends, “because we’re usually full.” On the weekend of Dec. 7 to 8, however, the Savoy did have rooms. Without any membership discounts, a room would have run $125; with an Entertainment card, it was $99. Not half off, but not bad.

Bottom line: Whether you buy discount booklets or not, it’s vital these days to compare prices, be flexible on dates and reserve as far in advance as possible.

Reynolds travels anonymously at the newspaper’s expense, accepting no special discounts or subsidized trips. He welcomes comments and suggestions, but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053 or e-mail chris.reynolds@latimes.com.