TESCO CLUBCARD: HOTEL DEALS. Advice welcome!

codger

We use Tesco Clubcard Deals for magazine subscriptions and our RAC annual membership. In the past we've also used the deals vouchers at Goldsmiths. So we've no complaints.

Now though, we're mystified with ClubCard Deal voucher bookings for hotel breaks. On the face of it, you have to order the deal tokens without knowing what the price of the break is because almost every hotel group associated with the Tesco scheme states that "ClubCard Deals do not relate to prices available on the Internet.

Hilton, however, at least makes it plain: ClubCard deals relate to "Fully Flexible Bed & Breakfast" rates. We've checked availability online and found that the hotel we want on the required dates charges £120 per night per room, 2 adults, bed and breakfast. That's £240, or £60 in Deals tokens.

The same hotel charges £106 per night, including dinner for two people on the first night, for the same break on the same weekend --but that ain't available with ClubCard tokens.

We're now wondering whether to forget the deals thing altogether and risk it on Laterooms and other similar sites nearer the time, but of course it's a bizarre equation to make anyway, viz:

£60 in non-real money (ClubCard Deals tokens) versus a likely £140 in real money (LateRooms) versus the £240 "charged" by the hotel until the ClubCard rules. Does my head in.

We did wonder though what was the experience of other MSErs where Deals tokens for hotel accomm are concerned: did you ring the hotel group BEFORE ordering your vouchers, or what?

The system Tesco seems to be recommending is plainly daft: order the tokens, receive them, then ring the hotel group -- perhaps to find that not only have you not ordered enough, you'd have been wiser not to bother in the first place, seeing as how there are much better ClubCard deals around on which your vouchers could've been spent on.

taff007

I've been put off using my clubcard vouchers after reading a few of the comments on this website. A recurring problem seems to be that there a better prices to be had through various websites (such as laterooms and also the hotel sites direct), rather than paying the 'full price' less clubcard discount.

The system Tesco recommends does seem ridiculous, and doesn't really encourage you to use the hotel or holiday deals. On the positive side, did I read somewhere that if you don't use the vouchers tesco send you they can be returned and re-credited to your account?

aah

I do it quite a lot, and yes the deals prices are more expensive than you can get on the internet. You have to get the brochure for the weekend breaks from the hotel company - that is the price they charge.

It is fairly straightforward, and yes I usually do ring the hotel chain before ordering the vouchers, sometimes this works, sometimes not, but at least you can check availability. I have never yet booked a Tesco room at Macdonald hotels - there never seems to be availability.

Yes, by all means, book on the internet and get it cheaper - and spend your own money; or pay the brochure price in deals and spend Tesco's money - your choice.

thepearce

When you book with the Marriott you don't need your vouchers.

You're always going to have to pay the full whack in Tesco vouchers. Annoying....but there you go.

taff007

Fair enough, but I think you need to weigh up each offer and compare it with whatever else you would spend the clubcard vouchers on. I've just bought 4 adult tickets to alton towers for £33, which would have cost £100 if bought in advance (£136 on the gate). Therefore I haven't spent my own money on tickets, and I will spend my own money on a hotel offer which I think will give a better saving. Obviously the clubcard offers will vary, and if there is nothing else you would spend the vouchers on then why not use them for a hotel.

There is a separate thread which goes into this in detail at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=754271

Jem8472

thepearce wrote: »

When you book with the Marriott you don't need your vouchers.

You're always going to have to pay the full whack in Tesco vouchers. Annoying....but there you go.

I am looking at using my tesco vouchers for the marriott later in the year.

Do you mean that you have to pay for the full stay with vouchers? Or can you pay some vouchers some cash?

In what form do the tesco vouchers come to use in the marriott?

taff007

I believe you can make up the difference in cash, but the total price (vouchers plus cash) will generally be the full published rate and not any special offer price.

codger

taff007 wrote: »

Fair enough, but I think you need to weigh up each offer and compare it with whatever else you would spend the clubcard vouchers on.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts / advice! We're actually going to ring a hotel group called "Mercure" tomorrow -- never heard of it before, but compared to the Hilton "deal" it seems (emphasise: "seems") to be offering standard B&B for 2 nights at the same time, and in a similar 4-star hotel in the same area as the Hilton, for a total of £190, thus requiring only £47.50 instead of £60 in ClubCard deal tokens.

Taff: I guess that's my point, really. ClubCard Deals tokens are a kind of "alternative currency". Now, if one compares this currency with "real money", then there's no contest: no-one is actually spending, er, anything at all. . . just a few bits of paper. So everything is a saving.

Except: it starts to get complicated when exploring the comparative values of the different things that can be bought with this "alternative currency". So as your post points out, the Alton Towers deal is excellent.

Seems to me, the essence of determining the actual value of a ClubCard Deal is whether that to which it ostensibly relates has a value that can be pinned down.

Admission tickets are definitely easy to pin down, and similar fixed price items and services; these 'bargain break' hotel deals, however -- and, possibly, holiday packages, though I've no experience of them -- do seem highly suspect if the real-world prices involved turn out to be far higher than they would if one paid cash.

So as yet, we still haven't ruled out ignoring the Clubcard Deals vouchers altogether for hotel accomm, and using 'em instead for other stuff like, for example, English Heritage membership, where at least the pricing is transparent.

Which begs the question: why can't Tesco ensure that pricing is similarly transparent where these much-vaunted hotel deals are concerned? It's annoying!

northern_star

We have just had a very positive experience using Tesco Deals on hotel rooms. We booked with Novotel in a city centre hotel. The weekend break Tesco Deal price was the same as their own - £64 per room per night (incl breakfast). We stayed Fri and Sat night using 95 pounds of Tesco Deals Vouchers and 33 pounds cash. We used 23.75 in vouchers to get the 95 pounds Deal vouchers, so in real terms the cost of our two-night stay was 23.75 + 33.00 = 56.75 (for two of us). On top of this the hotel upgraded our room to a suite at no extra charge. The suite was excellent and the bed was HUGE. Would do it again anytime.

codger

Thanks NS for that -- very reassuring (am off to look up Novotels in their UK directory)

Jem8472

taff007 wrote: »

I believe you can make up the difference in cash, but the total price (vouchers plus cash) will generally be the full published rate and not any special offer price.

Oh right ok, but the marriott dont often have deals for their hotels. The say on their website that you cant find cheaper than their own website for booking rooms.