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Central Calif. Coast: Breaking down a Travelzoo deal

There was another Travelzoo deal out this week that caught my eye. It was a “special offer” from the Cambria Pines Lodge near Hearst Castle: any double room listed for $79/night and any suite for $99/night, plus taxes and fees. But when I deconstructed this so-called deal down to the nitty-gritty, it didn’t look so attractive.

Deal: I followed Travelzoo’s directions for making a booking on the Cambria Pines Lodge website, but ended up finding different rates than those quote in the Travelzoo advertisement, which said that “When the list of rooms appears, all are available at $79 except those described as suites, which are $99.” The Travelzoo ad had also mentioned a conflicting caveat that the special rates only applied to standard rooms, fireplace rooms, garden cabins, and large suites. In the end, I found online rates of $89 being charged for a superior room or a small suite and $139 for a deluxe suite.

As stated, Travelzoo deals rarely include taxes and fees, which in this case turned out to be 9%. That means paying at least $86.11 for a double room, or $107.91 for a large suite. But there are more reasons for not booking this deal, too.

Caveat: There are plenty of other disclaimers that Travelzoo admits to in their e-mail, some of which may be surprising. They warn subscribers that “[s]ales and promotions listed in this newsletter may have expired, may have changed, or may not be available anymore at the time you receive the newsletter” and “[t]he information provided in this e-mail may include inaccuracies and typographical errors.”

The two most revealing caveats, which you should beware of when booking any Travelzoo deal, are “[c]ompanies listing offers on Travelzoo may charge a service fee,” and “[t]his e-mail contains editorial information as well as advertisements.” This means that Travelzoo deals may be advertorials. With this deal, although there were no additional service fees, the Cambria Pines Lodge property isn’t one that I’d independently recommend. My own personal experience touring the property, as well as various online reviews (including from Yahoo! Travel and TripAdvisor), show that it’s not one of Cambria’s best bargains.

When: The Travelzoo offer is only valid for Sunday to Thursday night stays between August 26th and October 30th, 2007 (subject to availability).

Why Go: You could pay just as much for an average chain hotel on the coast near Cambria.

Why Not: It’s definitely worth paying $25-50/night more for attractive, even luxurious lodgings on Moonstone Beach Drive instead.

Contact: Travelzoo: $79 — California Lodge over 50% off, w/ Free Breakfast
Cambria Pines Lodge, (800) 966-6490

Have you ever successfully booked a Travelzoo deal before? Tell us how you did it, and whether or not it was a good value, by posting in the Comments section below.

– Sara Benson, L.A. Times Travel Deal Detective

[Photo credit: Courtesy of Cambria Pines Lodge]

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17, 2007 at 7:38 am by Sara Benson and is filed under Fall, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

6 Comments on “Central Calif. Coast: Breaking down a Travelzoo deal”

Anthony Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 8:17 am
I’ve booked several things through Travelzoo before. I really like to travel, but to do so cheap, and have found some good deals on their that I could not match in any way. I stayed at the Las Vegas Renaissance Hotel for considerably cheaper than their internet rate, and for a weekend at that. In addition, I just bought tickets to see Spamalot at the Wynn this weekend for 50% off the late show.
Sara Benson Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Hey Anthony,

That’s good to hear. Almost all of the times that I’ve tried to book a Travelzoo deal, it hasn’t been possible. But I, too, was able to get discount Vegas show tickets recently through a Travelzoo tip (for The Producers at Paris-Las Vegas).

Thanks for your comment,
Sara
Ben Says:
February 9th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I’ve booked several deals through Travelzoo.com and never had a problem. I even stayed at Cambria Pines Lodge and the large suite at $99 was a steal (it included a full breakfast buffet for everyone), and the room was fairly new and really large. Great for families.

I stayed there another time and only got the 2 queen normal room, much older room…guess it is hit or miss?

One other deal I got was a Holiday Inn in SF for $65/night on a Saturday night. I was able to get 4 rooms all next to each other. I am a true believer in Travelzoo and highly recommend their site.

There aren’t any hidden costs, all of their deals tell it like it is, you just need to be on there every other day to monitor them…
Courtney Says:
February 11th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I’ve also booked this Cambria Pines offer without any problems at all. Plus all Travelzoo deals say “Travelzoo Tested” because they have a huge Test Booking Center dedicated to making sure these deals are accurate and bookable.
It looks like your wrong again Sara!!!
dave corley Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
i found this site because i was just looking up a few MORE places to write a rave review of the Cambria Pines on. I booked the TravelZoo deal for 3 nights and got the $71 rate each night — are you sure you know how to use an online booking Web page? even if you don’t there was a phone number in the ad… I don’t get it. You don’t seem like a very crafty “Travel Deal Detective”

Anyway, the hotel was great and the service there was actually well above what I was expecting considering the low price. Just because people charge taxes for items (um…doesn’t everyone do that?) doesn’t make them deceptive. Sheesh…time to look for a new gig, Sarah
Robin Myers Says:
July 9th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I recently used Travelzoo to book tickets for international flights for 3 people to catch a scheduled cruise. We discovered that the company had cancelled the tickets without notifying us when we got to the airport on the day of the flight. We had no phone numbers to call Travelzoo, and therefore had to pay another $4500 to purchase new tickets to fly that day in order to make the cruise. Now the company will not re-imburse us for expenses or even refund the initial cost!! I will never do any business with Travelzoo again!!! Does anyone have any suggestions as to any government agency that I can contact about this fraud??!!