Becky and I joined this network marketing company that has a travel club, skin care products from the Dead Sea and some great nutritional products. It costs us $49 a year to join the company as an agent, then we spent another $300 for their travel package 
(a one-time purchase) that allowed us to be in their travel club for $50 a month. At first glance, that seems like a pretty expensive travel deal when there are so many travel sites on the Internet today.
You don’t have to buy the travel package that also includes a travel bag and a bunch of products to get started as a company agent. It’s really just $49 to join for the year and then it’s $65 a month for the travel club and you’re done. I wanted the $15 a month discount, though, and I like nutritional products. If you don’t travel much you probably don’t think you’ll see the benefit of being in a travel club like this. If you own a timeshare, though, like we own two of them, then it’s definitely worth turning it into a part-time business. Owning a timeshare and paying annual fees, exchange fees, the original purchase price, etc. is not cheap. It can be an expensive real estate purchase and most people do not have it tied to a travel business.
Even if you travel a little bit, I think you will find this article helpful because I’m going to show you some of the savings we’ve already received in the short time since joining this company. In fact, the savings at one hotel in Huntington Beach, CA for a marathon we are going to be running in September has already covered the cost of joining.
Our friend Daniel, who we run a bunch of marathons with, talked us into running The Surf City marathon this year. He’s ran it before and he said it’s a fantastic venue. There are about 2,500 runners for this event, so it’s not huge, but it’s down on the beach in a popular location. You can check out the marathon website by clicking here if you’re interested in finding out more about it.
Daniel told us that one of the biggest challenges is parking and getting to the start line, so we wanted to book at hotel that was close to the race. If you’ve ever ran a marathon or other event with a bunch of people, parking can be a pain. You don’t want to end up a mile away and trying to get to the start line. It can be even worse after the race when there are tons of people. You just ran 26.2 miles and now you’re having to walk forever looking for your car. Not that this has ever happened to us before! I started shopping around and found a great hotel close to the start and finish line, right across the street from the beach. It is the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa and it’s a really nice hotel.
In case you don’t know this about Becky and I, we’re not campers. Our idea of camping is staying in a Holiday Inn, so if we’re going to fly to California, rent a car, run 26.2 miles then we want to stay in a nice hotel. I went on Expedia first because I have used that site for years to book short stays for our marathon adventures. If you look to the right, you will see that for a 3-night stay using Expedia for the September dates we selected, the cost is $1,521 for three nights or $409 a night.
Our $50 A Month Travel Club Booking
Yeah, that’s a bit rich for three nights even for John and Becky tastes. We really wanted this hotel, so I went to directly to the Hyatt website. I figured they would have a better deal than Expedia since they have a membership program for most of their frequent travelers. I stay at the Hyatt by my dealership in Lone Tree quite a bit when I go back and forth from Rio Rancho, NM, so I figured that would be a better deal. It was a better price than what Expedia had to offer for the same room. They have the room on the same dates listed at $402 a night and that’s their member price. I included a large graphic here for you to check it out.
TRAVEL CLUB SAVINGS
I logged into our travel club and put in the same dates as above. I was surprised to see that it was a substantial savings. I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be as large of a savings as it was, but the price was $276 a night or about 38% less than Expedia. We booked it for $944.16 for three nights instead of $1,521 that it was going for through Expedia.
That’s a savings of about $577 for one trip that we are taking to California this year to run a marathon. That’s pretty significant. Granted it’s not as good of a deal as some of our timeshare adventures that we can take for a week, but it’s a smoking deal for a three day stay at this hotel. We’re excited about this upcoming trip.
After we booked this trip for ourselves, I logged in again and I was able to get Daniel and his wife the same deal. I entered him into the system as a guest, so you can use this for other friends and relatives, as well. They are staying for just two nights, but they still received the same nightly rate compared to what was available at the “discounted” travel sites.
By the way, this $50 a month travel club isn’t just for hotels. As an agent, you can also book cars, cruises, airfare, week stays, homes, lifestyle activities, luxury residences, plus much more. Some things are going to be a better deal than others, like the Huntington Beach hotel that I booked above, but it’s pretty cool to know you have options available to you. I’ll write another article about my thoughts on the lifestyle activities that are available through the travel club. I found some pretty cool things to do that I wouldn’t have thought of when I was cruising through some different locations. I think it’s worth writing an article about in the future.
If you want to check out the website where you can join, just CLICK HERE (a new tab should open in your browser). After you join or check out the site and the opportunity, reach out to me for more information on how you can do what I do as a Share Merchant and “Travel Through Timeshare“.
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