Was it worth it to book a hotel via Luxury Escapes?

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To soak in Slovenia’s nature, I booked a trip to Lake Bled after a stop in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s cozy capital city. I ultimately booked Hotel Triglav Bled through Luxury Escapes to take advantage of an American Express offer that provided a $200 statement credit for spending $1000 or more with this booking platform.

Hotel Triglav Bled is an upscale boutique hotel that has been welcoming guests since 1906 and is steeped in history and character. What truly sold me, though, was its location. Perched above the iconic Lake Bled, the hotel offers rooms with stunning lake views.

Luxury Escapes – At a Glance

Luxury Escapes is an Australian-based online travel platform for booking hotels, resorts, cruises, tours, car rentals, flights and travel packages at discounted prices worldwide. They predominantly specialize in luxury and boutique hotels, featuring both independent hotels and international chains.

Luxury Escapes negotiates with its travel partners and purchases bulk deals to offer exclusive deals. This is especially the case for its “Limited Time LUX Exclusive” for hotel and resort bookings that include perks like:

• Daily breakfast
• Dining credits
• Drink vouchers
• Spa credits

They also offer:

• Best Price Guarantee: if you find a better price elsewhere, they’ll match it
• Flexible Bookings: allows you to change or cancel your booking
• Referral Program: receive a $50 credit if your friend uses your referral code when they book their travel

Luxury Escapes – Loyalty Program

Last year, Luxury Escapes launched its own loyalty program, Société. Similar to other loyalty programs, you earn points on cash bookings and status credits each time you book travel through them. It’s a revenue-based program, so the more you spend, the higher the status you’ll earn to enjoy more perks.

Points can be redeemed to partially or fully offset the cost of your future travel bookings. You can also use them towards upgrades to hotel room stays and on flights. Luxury Escapes runs promos to earn bonus points and status credits on certain travel bookings.

Earning status credits helps you progress through each status tier. It’s free to enroll in Société loyalty program, which has four tiers:

• Bronze (entry level):
• Earn and redeem points on bookings without restrictions
• Silver (200 status credits, 10 nights):
• Bronze benefits
• 1 room/package upgrade
• 5% travel protection discount
• 24/7 priority phone support
• Extra credits for tour options
• $200 Travel Shoot credit

• Gold (600 status credits, 20 nights):
• Silver benefits
• 2 room/package upgrades
• 15% travel protection discount
• 2 airport chauffeur services

• Platinum (1,000 status credits, 30 nights):
• Gold benefits
• 4 room/package upgrades
• 25% travel protection discount
• Unlimited airport chauffeur services

Spending about $5,000 AUD ($4,650 CAD) helps you climb from entry-level Bronze tier to Silver, around $15,000 AUD ($1,932 CAD) to Gold and roughly $25,000 AUD ($23,220 CAD) to top-tier, Platinum status.

You earn both status credits and status nights for booking hotel stays, cruises and tours. Flights only earn status credits, though you can add your frequent flyer number to earn status and miles with the airline. It doesn’t appear that you can add your hotel loyalty membership number if booking with a chain hotel like IHG.

Points are awarded on checkout date and expire in 36 months from that date. Any subsequent bookings made do not extend the expiry date. So, it’s wise to redeem points early, even if it’s just to partially offset the cost of your booking to avoid losing your points to expiry.

Separate from Société is LuxPlus+, a paid subscription that offers discounts on certain travel bookings. In Canada, joining LuxPlus+ costs $500, and there is an annual fee of $229.

The benefits that come from this membership include:

• Early access to discounted and hidden offers
• Member-only pricing on select hotel packages and tours
• Bonus perks at select hotels (e.g. hotel credit, breakfast, upgrades)

I found the published discounts via LuxPlus+ aren’t really enticing. One would need to book frequently or put in some significant spending to extract enough savings to make the membership fee worthwhile.

Luxury Escapes – The Fine Print

Best Price Guarantee

Luxury Escapes advertises a Best Price Guarantee on its website. Yet, when looking closer into the FAQ, they note that this does not apply to matching the hotel’s own website. The Best Price Guarantee also doesn’t apply to Ultra Lux, Last Minute Escapes, tours, cruises, Lux Premium Collection and Lux Partner Property packages. It only applies to Limited Time Lux Exclusive packages. So, it’s more limited than it first appears.

Flexible Rate

It is standard that hotel stays booked with a flexible rate typically allow free cancellation 48 – 72 hours before arrival. On Luxury Escapes, many of the hotels that have exclusive offers or limited-time deals advertise a flexible rate. Reading the fine print, the flexible rate showed that free cancellation applies if you cancel 22 or more days before the date of your stay. I wouldn’t consider that flexible!

7-Day Change of Mind Refund

Luxury Escapes also advertises a “7-day Change of Mind Refund” that offers a full refund, but comes with exclusions. For example, on certain safari packages, you are required to pay a $199 deposit to secure the package. The deposit, hotel stay, travel protection and optional experiences have to be paid upfront. If you change your mind later and decide to cancel your booking, the deposit, fees, travel protection, and any payments made as per the payment schedule are non-refundable. Ouch.

Impressions of Hotel Triglav Bled

Getting to Lake Bled

There are several ways to reach Lake Bled from Ljubljana. Renting a car or arranging private transport are convenient options. A more romantic option is taking the train whic is especially convenient if you’re staying at Hotel Triglav Bled, as the Bled-Jezero Railway Station is right across from the hotel.

We opted for the bus since the main terminal was within walking distance from the InterContinental Ljubljana (Review), where we were staying. If you do take the bus, I recommend ordering a taxi to get you to the hotel. Otherwise, you’ll have to walk uphill for 30 minutes to reach Hotel Triglav Bled, a major hassle if you have luggage. The cab ride cost 15 € for a 5-minute ride, significantly more than our round-trip bus tickets, but it was worth the convenience.

Booking and Arrival

I booked three nights at Hotel Triglav Bled for of $1,438. With the Amex offer on booking with Luxury Escapes, I received a $200 credit. The net cost came out to $1,238, with the nightly rate averaging about $413.

This rate was for the room with a balcony with a lake view and included breakfast. Had I booked directly with the hotel, I would’ve paid slightly more as I wouldn’t have benefited from the Amex credit.

The hotel’s distinctive yellow and green façade with a red roof is hard to miss. Inside, it was like stepping back in time with antiques, chandeliers, accent rugs and a grand piano that created an old-world atmosphere.

An elderly gentleman completed our check-in. He told us about the breakfast hours, the Wellness Centre, and access to the lake from the hotel. He handwrote the Wi-Fi password on a piece of paper and handed me a set of keys hanging from a very heavy key holder.

Comfort Double Room, Balcony Lake View Room

Hotel Triglav Bled had three floors of guest rooms. Our room was on the top floor in the centre between two rooms. Every space of this boutique hotel is decorated, including the walls around the staircase. We took the elevator up to our room and found the décor echoed the rest of the property.

This hotel prides itself on having Green Key environmental certification. They make efficient use of electricity and heat energy. For example, while air conditioning is available, it is centrally controlled by the hotel, and they only operate it during the summer, while lighting relies on motion sensors.

This is why I was surprised when I walked into the bathroom and noticed that the bath amenities were in small disposable bottles rather than the refillable dispensers. The bathroom itself was very simple, and it disappointingly had a tub instead of a shower.

One thing I didn’t expect was that they didn’t have any bottles of water for us, not even glass bottles. When I inquired about it, they told me the water is fresh here, and I can drink from the tap in the bathroom. If there was a kitchenette in the room, then I would be okay with it, but from the bathroom sink? No, thank you!

I found our assigned room to be comfortable, but the amenities were limited. There was no coffee machine, no complimentary bottled water, only a kettle and tea bags.

The highlight was unquestionably the balcony. We would breathe in the fresh air and enjoy uninterrupted views of Lake Bled, including Bled Island.

Restaurant 1906

On our first evening, we decided to try the Slovenian cuisine at the on-site Restaurant 1906. This fine dining restaurant is open for both breakfast and dinner. The menu consisted of various multi-set menus, ranging from four to nine courses. It wasn’t what we were expecting, so we opted to just have dessert.

We had our breakfast daily here and enjoyed the picturesque scenery. Each morning began with a table set with walnuts, butter, honey, apples, croissants and an assortment of breads.

The menu had various dishes, such as the buckwheat struklji, oatmeal, homemade granola, a sausage dish, tofu and eggs cooked to preference. They also had an assortment of side dishes, including fresh fruits, veggies, cheese and cold cuts available to order. Beverages were self-serve, with a choice of drip coffee, tea, water and juice.

I always liked to order the cheese board, and one morning, I decided it would be no more. When the guests at a table across from us finished their breakfast, the server came to clear the table and started picking up all the cheese with his bare hands. I couldn’t believe I’d see that at a fine dining restaurant.

Despite that one incident with that server, I enjoyed the leisurely breakfast each morning while watching paragliders descend onto the grounds near our hotel.

Facilities

Lake Bled is also known as a wellness destination. The hotel’s Wellness Centre, located below the restaurant and reception, includes an indoor swimming pool and Finnish sauna. Both are complementary for guests.

For treatments, it’s limited to massages, but prices are surprisingly reasonable, ranging from 45 €  to 100 €. I didn’t take any pictures of the Wellness area as photography is restricted to preserve guest privacy.

Takeway

I previously covered alternatives to having hotel status, such as booking through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR). Luxury Escapes is another option, allowing you to book a hotel with perks, without the need to hold status. In my case, booking Hotel Triglav Bled through Luxury Escapes only made sense because of the $200 Amex statement that reduced my net cost.

Luxury Escapes can offer strong value when:

• You secure a genuine “LUX Exclusive” package with meaningful perks

• You stack an Amex  offer

• The bundled inclusions (breakfast, dining credit, spa credit) would otherwise be out-of-pocket expenses

It’s key to comparison shop. The Best Price Guarantee is limited, flexible rates may not be as flexible as they sound, and loyalty benefits are modest unless you’re a high spender. For this stay, I came out ahead and enjoyed a beautiful lakeside retreat with breakfast included. But the value wasn’t automatic. It required stacking with the Amex offer.

The takeaway? For the right destination and the right deal, Luxury Escapes is worth a look, but always read the fine print and comparison shop.