Times are booming for luxury hotels. Properties are being sold for record amounts. Occupancy percentages and room rates are increasing.

Times are booming for luxury hotels. Properties are being sold for record amounts. Occupancy percentages and room rates are increasing. In the past year, the Baccarat in New York went for $2 million per room, while Montage in Laguna Beach sold for $1.4 million per key.

With the wind in their sails, hotel developers have been looking to drive extra profits, cutting expenses by going it alone as independents (with lower brand fees), and the industry has been working hard to incent customers to book directly instead of through online travel agencies, saving commissions and marketing fees.

Prices to consumers have been rising as well. In big cities like New York it’s not unusual to find starting rates at five-star hotels at $500 per night, sometimes much more on a busy weekend. With the price of staying in haute hotels sometimes breaking four figures, perhaps that’s why U.K.-based Secret Escapes has signed up over one million U.S. based subscribers since launching last June for its free email deals service.

U.K.-based Secret Escapes has signed up over one million members in the U.S. since launching here in June 2014. The company claims to offer luxury hotel deals at up to 70 percent off rack rates.

But why would hotels be interested in working a company whose basis is offering its product at 70 percent off rack rates, and even 30 or 40 percent below the OTAs? Rob Day, a founding member and head of content says, the answer is easy. Even during these halcyon days, luxury hotels are running around a 70 percent occupancy rate. That means 30 percent of rooms go unused. Like an airline seat, hotel rooms are a perishable inventory, and he works with the hotels to drive business during the nights and periods the hotel would not have been sold out.

The company recently launched its first television campaign in the U.S. on CNN. In the U.K. it is running commercials titled SmugFace, as in how can you tell somebody who just saved a bag of money by taking a deal from Secret Escapes. In its home base the firm has seven million people signed up and 10 million worldwide. The company is already selling its deals in Germany, Scandinavia and plans to add the Netherlands and Italy shortly. There are over 200 employees worldwide, and since launching in 2011 has registered 260 percent year-over-year growth.

Day, a former lobbyist, names properties such at the Taj Boston, Calistoga Ranch in Napa, Hotel G in San Francisco, Caesars in Las Vegas and the Epic in Miami as examples that its members get access to via regular emails. Each email has as many as 50 offers, many new each week. Secret Escapes claims 90 percent of the trips it generates were not planned, so for hoteliers the message is, this is business you would not have received unless you were in the program. At the same time, Day says the deals are valid during all but the busiest weeks. He notes during the past winter there were ongoing offers in Miami. “We aim to have a New York or Las Vegas deal every week,” he says.

The company does not have a price guarantee, although Day claims its deals are the best available in the market. He says if a customer brings an offer that is better from the same hotel on the same dates, they will strive to make the person happy, although he says in the company’s five year history the issue only came up a handful of times. He also says many offers include breakfast or extra amenities, so the service is more than a bare bones best rate. In the U.S., the sky’s the limit. Day believes potential membership is in the “tens of millions.” Cruise offers may also be in the future.

In a world where most hotels are operated by number crunching, financially driven investors, so long as Day and his crew can prove their customers are adding to the bottom line, there will be plenty of smug faces in the house, unless you were the one paying the full ride.