Market Friday - How to Make Your Money Go Further if You Don't Like Sitting at Home.

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I've been giving this some thought over the last couple of days.

Holiday Clubs, Time Share, Point Systems, etc...

Any program/system that can provide more value for your money. You will end up spending money if you like to get out often. How can you make your money go further?

So, I started looking at some plans/programs/systems...or whatever you want to call it.

Are they worth it? Is it worth spending money on any of these? Can you actually save money in this way? Can you make your money "go further"?

I guess it all depends on how often you would be using it. But I decided to start looking into it and get some information.

Just before we all went into lock-down during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of our last outings was to the Protea Hotel at Karridene Beach in Illovo, on the Southcoast just below Amanzimtoti, South Africa.

Not that we booked in for accommodation at the hotel or anything... It was just an outing for the day, going to the beach. It's approximately a 50 KM drive from where we stay. That makes it a drive of about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on traffic conditions.

We love taking a drive to that area and to visit the Protea Hotel on the Karridene Beach. We would park the car, go for a nice walk on the beach and then go for something cool to drink at the hotel after the walk.

Leaving the parking area at the hotel, we would go down to the beach using this walkway.

As you can see in the photo above, the last time we went there, was a cool, cloudy day, but it was the perfect weather for a nice walk on the beach.

Arriving on the deck, just above the beach.

The beach is inviting you for a nice walk from there...

This is the view of the hotel from the deck.

I zoomed out in the next photo to include the walkway in the same photo, giving you an idea of the walking experience between the beach and the hotel.

If you feel you need a break after the walk on the beach, there are benches along the walkway, where you can sit down and relax for a while if you feel like it.

As usual, we went to the lounge in the hotel to have something to drink before leaving.

When I wanted to settle our bill, I was asked if I would like to present my membership card. I didn't know what they were talking about and they provided me with some information.

It was something about earning points and getting discounts... I was interested to find out more, but shortly after that, we had to deal with COVID and lockdown...so I never paid any further attention to it.

But lately I started thinking about it again. So, Let's start talking about money...

At the time of writing this post, the exchange rate is R18.37 for $1.00.

Looking at Ways to Make Your Money Go Further.

I couldn't remember the name they gave me of the group issuing the card... I thought it was something like Premier.

I started some searches on Premier and I found some information but I couldn't find this particular hotel in their list of resorts and hotels.

I could remember there was something about specials when enjoying meals at restaurants, hotels, etc., and earning points on each transaction and getting one night accommodation free. But I couldn't remember the details.

I kept digging and found that the Protea by Marriot Hotel (as it is known) is part of the Marriot group. They have, what they call a "Prokard". But, according to their

, it will cost you R1850.00 ($100.71) to join. I assume this will be an annual fee.

Immediately, my first question would be... "How much money would I have to spend to justify that kind of a joining fee?"

On their

, here are some of the benefits they offer...

Accomodation and Entertainment (Dining) with Prokard:

"COMPLIMENTARY & DISCOUNTED ACCOMMODATION VOUCHERS.

Valued at up to R12 000, enjoy a number of free nights at any participating Protea Hotels by Marriott, Autograph Collection, Westin, AC Hotels by Marriott & Marriott Hotels across Africa."

Then they describe some really nice (upmarket) destinations which I am familiar with.

Then, on the same page, they give more detail regarding the accommodation offers...

"1 x Free Night, At any participating Protea Hotels by Marriott (South Africa only)

3 x Classic Vouchers, ‘Stay 1 Night, Get 1 Free Night’ at any Participating Protea Hotels by Marriott

2 x Premium Vouchers, ‘Stay 1 Night, Get 1 Free Night’ at any Participating Marriott, Autograph Collection, Westin & AC Hotels by Marriott"

Then they move on to entertainment, in the form of dining out, where you can get discounts that range from 25% to 50%. The specials vary from dining alone, to entertaining 4 to 12 people.

Next up are more discounts (up to 10%) on accomodation for urban breaks and seaside breaks.

If you are into entertaining clients or guests on a regular basis, and you often have to pay for luxurious accommodation, you might find this worth your while. But I think you'll have to have a healthy budget (annually) to really justify this... That's just my opinion.

Bonvoy:

Bonvoy seems to be another loyalty program offered by the Marriot group.

The Bonvoy Loyalty program is free to join at a basic level. You then start earning points while spending money on various activities.

I still need to investigate a bit more, but it seems to me as if you level up to higher levels (with more benefits) as you earn more points through your activities.

This might be worth looking into. The site gives you all the information on how to earn your points and then how to spend it. But this seems to be less risky in my opinion, as you don't have to pay any money upfront.

Conclusion.

With what I have in mind for the future, it might be worth looking into something like this. But unless you are someone who does a lot of entertaining, and travel to destinations where you need luxurious accommodation, I think the second option (Bonvoy) is a better option for me to get started with.

I have also looked at some other options based on another venue we have visited quite recently. I will share more about that in next week's post.

But, in the meantime, do you belong to such a program? Do you have timeshare? Do you belong to a holiday club? Or do you belong to any such program that benefit you in any way?

If so, why don't you share it with us? I would love to hear from you and I'm sure so would many other people too.

And that's it for today, folks!

Thank you for reading my post!

I do appreciate it!