Category Archives for Hotels.
Gondola.ai is an AI-powered hotel search and booking platform that compares cash and points rates, provides personalized recommendations, and tracking loyalty program balances.
You earn rebates on booking hotel stays through them – even though they are just passing you through to the chain’s website to complete the reservation. And they do a nice job helping you compare hotel redemption options swiftly.
The Aria Las Vegas charges guests so much for water that it strikes down a fundamental precept in economics that has held for 150 years. As one guest writes to me, a bottle of water in the room there costs $26!
Marriott is eliminating single use plastics when it saves them money toiletries, but they’re placing larger plastic bottles of water that have been shipped using fossil fuels from literally Fiji in every room because those sell for $9. You didn’t believe any of this was really about the environment though, did you?
Recently, Hilton set standard fees for late checkout. The goal is to upsell guests – including elite guests – for something that used to be offered to all Honors members for free. Increasingly, the free benefit for elites is disappearing from Hilton’s promotional materials, too.
It appears that the EconoLodge Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina only honors award reservations for active duty military members and only for those active duty military age 80 or above. The hotel cancels points bookings without actually checking if members meet that criteria because, of course, with military retirement rules no one can.
If you’re a Marriott member, you shouldn’t think of yourself as a guest. Instead, you’re the product that Marriott sells to hotel owners. That’s why the head of one ownership group refers to Bonvoy members as “leads.”
Hyatt is offering up to 16,000 bonus points for stays at Hyatt Place, Hyatt House and Hyatt Studios through September 7, 2025.
Hotel employees are trading stories of their worst guests, prompted by a front desk agent at a New York City Marriott. And some of the things guest incidents are just off the charts crazy.
The two were charged with “serving contaminated food and hurting people’s religious sentiments” the latter being a ‘very Indian’ charge.
A guest is suing the St. Regis Bal Harbour in Miami claiming an employee used his master key to access her room while she was naked in the shower — and stood there, watching, for several minutes.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
