Category Archives for Hotels.
Add this to the list of changes Marriott has made to the brand new program since launch, that is negative for affected members and that members weren’t notified about.
Now when Marriott Bonvoy Silvers and Golds call, it seems, they are no longer elite.
Hyatt has launched its new promotion, double points after your second stay, with an extra bonus for co-brand credit card customers on weekend stays. Registration required.
While I don’t favor promos that start bonusing after the second stay, double base points from Hyatt is more generous than double base points from Hilton or IHG.
In mid-January I reached out to Hyatt after hearing from several folks that they were unable to book rooms at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar and apply club level upgrade certificates.
Another game of whack-a-mole, and fortunately this is one where the hotel was actually out of compliance with a rule and the chain was able to do something to fix it.
Yesterday we learned that Marriott is going to let former Starwood hotel brands limit award redemptions on high demand dates during the year, matching what legacy Marriott brand hotels could do.
There’s been a lot of misinformation spreading since the change became public (on blogs, Marriott still hasn’t told its members) so I wanted to correct these misimpressions.
Marriott has an award chart with each hotel assigned a category from 1 to 8. That determines the price you’ll pay in points for a standard room, as long as that room is available.
Every year Marriott re-categorizes hotels, moving them up or down, largely based on whether the rates are expected higher or lower than the previous year. There’s some wiggle room for adjustment, but changes largely track the hotel market. Here’s what’s happening March 4, 2020.
Marriott doesn’t have blackout dates. Award redemption is permitted on all dates. However hotels are allowed to have significant capacity controls for a handful of dates each year. Marriott is increasing the number of hotels that are allowed to limit award redemption at their busiest times.
Marriott made a change to its terms and conditions and it’s no longer only Marriott brands that can declare high demand dates where award redemption is limited. These redemption controls are now available in 2020 to all hotels within Marriott, including ex-Starwood properties.
At the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani in Waikiki the $33 per night resort fee includes a keiki (child) gift upon request.
It turns out the gift is a book“Dinosaurs Divorce, a Guide for Changing Families.” That’s right, the resort fee includes a ‘surprise’ gift intended to let children know their parents are breaking up. Hawaii used to be a romantic destination, but resort fees at the Princess Kaiulani turn it into something far darker.
I suggested in December that they’d kill the benefit entirely and then days later a memo leaked that it would end December 31, 2019.
There are two lingering issues, however. Marriott never told members about the change, and they made the change retroactive.
Atari is planning to build a video game hotel in Phoenix. Construction is set to begin mid-year.
If all goes well there are plans to expand hotel locations to Austin, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. That would give Atari a chain of 8 properties offering “retro favorites as well as modern touches.”
A year ago Wyndham doubled the points price of their best hotels abandoning flat 15,000 points per night pricing across all properties and moving to three redemption tiers: 7500; 15,000; and 30,000 points per night.
At the time they shared that hotels would be recategorized annually though they did’t anticipate significant shift. A year has passed and on February 11 they’ll be making annual category changes.
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 »
