I just took the advice of a blog I read called View from the Wing and signed up for a free 1-year membership with Club1 Hotels. Their service usually costs $675 and comes with a Priority Pass membership but the free version just allows you to search for hotels through their portal. I found that it can actually save you a good amount of money.

I did a brief search for the New York Marriott Marquis at Times Square the evening of an event my wife and I will be attending. I found that if you search on Marriott’s site directly the minimum cost (even with a AAA discount) is $256. Whereas, the Club1 Hotel website shows a listing for $236.10.

The one snag is that you are likely not going to receive points from this booking as many loyalty networks don’t give points for third-party reservations. But, if your goal is to save money, this would certainly be helpful!