Luxury for Less - Article
 

Yesterday, I got the April issue of Conde Nast Traveler in the mail. There's an article about getting top rooms for less. They looked at various online sites and found the best to be Luxury Link (its auctions) and Andrew Harper. I did not know about Andrew Harper.
They also give tips on bidding wisely, like shop around, etc..
Good stuff.

Have used Andrew Harper multiple times for many years and found that the membership more than pays for itself. The staff is very well informed and are extremely helpful.

Good to know someone who's used it successfully.
The article does mention that at first they thought the membership fee was a little steep but when they looked at the savings, it was recouped right away.

I find CN Traveler becoming less relevent with every issue for the same reasons I stopped taking Travel+Leisure some time ago. I am not a cheapskate and like to stay in nice places when I travel but I really find it tiresome to read of these "great bargains" in lodging at only $1250 a night and the "wonderfully inexpensive meals" at some spot that are "a steal at $200 a person". The real problem is that these writers have never paid any of these rates out of their own pockets. Yes, when I used to travel on business I stayed and ate in these kind of places on the company's tab and it was wonderful. But I sure would not tell someone that was paying their own way to do it. These kinds of travel mags put a very odd twist on travel and are surely not intended for the person of average or even slightly above average means. CNT will not be renewed at my house.

Since it's owned by American Express,
Travel and Leisure might be easily dismissable as an ad rag, high on promoting luxe advertisers or would-be advertisters and low on fact-checking
and much info new of use, aside from the rare hidden gem. It's a hype medium.Conde Nast Traveller (and even more so, it's UK edition, even more journalistic and opinionated) are still pretty much the benchmarks out there.
It is irritating to see a preponderance
of US$1,000 bargain suites/rooms, but
the nature of the market is going upscale and it takes lots of research
or just pure happenstance to find accomodations beyond the ordinary not
at extraordinary pricing.

Curt, I couldn't agree with you more. I no longer even look at them. Owa