Originally Posted by 1K Man (Post 31390684)

I'm the OP. Thanks everyone for the great information.

I'm strongly considering subscribing to the PASS. But one thing that bothers me (regarding hotels, not homes) the most and preventing me from jumping in....

Many of the stays are too short. For example, I'm heading to Vancouver in early Sept, and the only inventory I can see are all 2 nights at the Rosewood Georgia (great hotel), but I plan to stay 4 nights. So naturally, I would want to take advantage of my PASS, but that would mean checking out (or extending or changing rooms) after two days. Even if we extend, it's likely that the suite we'd be in has a rack rate of $1.5k per night for two extra nights, so it kind of defeats the purpose of the PASS to have to pay 2 extra nights, because I could probably book a lesser room for 4 nights for less than the cost of the PASS + 2 extra nights in a suite. And I can't think of anything more annoying in breaking up a getaway weekend than having to checkout. And I imagine this will be the case for almost all getaway weekends. You can only partially take advantage of the PASS, and then still have significant out-of-pocket.

I did a similar search for London UK for November (and again Rosewood London showed up, great hotel, stayed there many times) and again it was for 5 nights, instead of the 7 that I'm looking for. Same scenario as above. I'd have to extend a couple nights at ~$2.5k per night.

So I'm thinking two things:
1- When Inspirato negotiates these room rates, the hotels expect that the client will often extend a night or two at full rack rate. It's probably part of the strategy.
2- Inspirato reduces the number of nights available the closer you are to the arrival date... 5 nights if booking 3 months out, 3-4 nights 2 months out, 2 nights 1 month out. This would make sense since they don't want to lose money, they won't leave a 5 night inventory option with just 1 month left, I seriously doubt it. So that means that all "last minute" getaways will typically be 2 or 3 nights max, with no option but to extend.

So bottom line, the true cost comparison for PASS is that you have to factor extended nights, and compare that to booking a "lesser room" without PASS. Granted you may not get the fancy suite, but you are still staying in the same hotel without any of the planning commitments needed with PASS.

Just my thoughts. I would welcome feedback from people actually using PASS.

Originally Posted by Valveking (Post 31390931)

As an Inspirato member, I can only see this Pass deal working for someone is if they are empty nesters and semi retired with the ability to just pack up and go at anytime. I would just like it if Inspirato would stop raising their nightly rates on their properties so precipitously. The club's value proposition has been declining for years. Most of the time, I can easily find cheaper rates at the same properties just doing 5 minutes of internet searching. That is not even factoring in the yearly dues. They do put on great trips. That is for sure.

Originally Posted by cruisr (Post 31452223)

Originally Posted by SusanDK (Post 31452996)

Yes, but you cannot make your next reservation until you have checked out of the existing one. And all available reservations are at least 7 days in future. So at best you could perhaps book two 7-day stays per month if everything aligns (availability, your schedule, etc.). Or possibly 3 shorter stays per month, if you have to wait to check out of one before booking the next which will be at least 7 days later. It still can be a good deal if you are flexible and want to travel a lot to high end properties. Even one 7-day stay a month in some of the properties is worth far more than booking the standard nightly rate.

There is even some future availability of 21+ days at some nice properties, but the closer in it gets, the fewer days you can reserve. So, for example, if you want a long stay, you will have to book a couple of months out and essentially use your $2500 fee for a couple of months toward that trip without taking any earlier trips, since you can only hold one reservation at a time at that rate.

But they have some good options to do that. For example, right now you could book 21 days in Lake Tahoe, or Vail, or Florida beginning mid-October, admittedly not high season for any of those locations. And if you grab one of those reservations now, you are giving up anything else in September. So you'll pay Sep-Oct-Nov for one 21-day reservation and then your next availability will be at least 7 days after you check out of your 21-day stay. As you get closer to that date, the available nights will start to drop.

Originally Posted by SusanDK (Post 31453207)

Does the sharing add-on still limit to one reservation at a time in total? So you can't actually squeeze more value out of the fee, i.e. a greater number of nights considering the booking restrictions. It only allows you to pace your trips and share them with others, correct?

Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 31568844)

I wanted to bump this thread to see if anyone has other experiences that they want to share? Right now they have a promotion where you get one month free when you sign for the six month commitment, but apparently it expires tomorrow. I'm going to Hawaii in about two weeks for a week, but I can't find any rooms that would be available for my entire trip.

Originally Posted by SusanDK (Post 31568990)

I'm an Inspirato member but have not yet joined Pass although I've been monitoring availability closely and can see a pattern.

As you probably already know, the earliest availability will be seven days in the future (no options to book anything within fewer days than that). Also, the closer in, the shorter the stay. So as you have found, if you are traveling in two weeks, the most you will find is a 2-night or 3-night stay during your one-week trip.

If you search by length of stay, the earliest availability for a 7-night stay is a Maui residence checking in on October 26, so if you join at the $2500 level now (one reservation on the books at a time), you would essentially use two months of fees to snag that reservation. OTOH, the value if you joined Inspirato and booked that stay outright is $9,664, so still could be a good value.

For Oahu, the earliest 7-night stay has a check-in date of November 3; Big Island is November 8 for the earliest 7-night stay. Both of those are hotel partners, not residences.

Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 31593334)

Thanks for your thoughts. I ended up joining because with the promotion, I'm effectively paying $2,143 per month as I get a free month with the 6 month commitment.

Initially I only saw 3 night stays in Oahu, but they ended up adding Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach 10/10-10/14. So I'm going to take an interisland flight to do that. It was $310.25 per night for the same dates + taxes and fees comes out to 1,638.60 for the whole stay if I booked direct. I'm hoping to go beyond breaking even, but I guess we'll have to see what the options are for the next week.

Originally Posted by SusanDK (Post 31593540)

Sounds good - congrats! Please post back here and share your experiences. I would be ready to try Pass, but my husband is not yet convinced we'd get enough value from it. It would be great to hear some real world experience with it.