The truth is that hotels do regularly sell rooms cheaper through third parties than they do on their own website, they just work really hard to disguise it and to gate off consumers from accessing those cheaper rates – because they want to fill incremental rooms that would go unsold, but without undercutting the prices they can book the rest of their rooms at.
Hotels
Category Archives for Hotels.
Hotels Are So Scared of Airbnb They are Lobbying to Kill the Entire Internet
Hotel industry lobby group the American Hotel and Lodging Association sponsored a push poll to support eliminating or undermining protections of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
As the lobby shop – which represents “9 of the 10 top U.S. hotel brands” including Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, and Hilton – explains, “Online web sites and social media platforms have claimed that CDA Section 230 gives them protection from any third-party user publishing information or content to their website.”
Lil Wayne Bonvoyed at the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis
Two competing narratives are developing over an altercation between Lil Wayne’s entourage and hotel staff in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis. In both versions Mr. Wayne and crew departed the hotel under duress, and the rapper and record executive blew off his show Saturday night with Blink 182.
Marriott Peak Award Pricing is Live, But Some Hotels May Offer Lower Award Rates for a Few Hours
Marriott tells me though that “it may take a few hours to fully update our servers” so there may still be hotels not yet showing peak pricing. And it’s still possible to book awards at those properties as they roll out the changes. I’m not saying to go look for a needle in a haystack, but some glitches and delays in raising prices may be out there.
Marriott IT Is Still the Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight
The internal e-mail address that Marriott is using to process claims is changing. The old one is set to expire. However the website hasn’t been updated to use the new e-mail address, and this generates a message to the customer. Oops.
Here’s hoping Marriott IT can update the web form before IT expires the old address, or else Best Rate Guarantee claims will go into the ether the way so many customer service requests did last fall after Marriott, Starwood, and Ritz-Carlton loyalty accounts got combined with the launch of the new program.
Hyatt’s New End of Year Promotion is Out: Register Now for Double or Triple Points
Hyatt is out with double points – triple for Hyatt Place properties – starting with your second stay. There are at least 5 different limited-time offers that this new promotion stacks with.
The Executive Who Brought Us Bonvoy is Out at Marriott
Marriott Chief Marketing Officer Karin Timpone will step down at the end of the year to “pursue new opportunities.”
She said “Having completed the Marriott Bonvoy launch with key marketing benchmarks ahead of estimates, this a perfect time for me to thoughtfully plan my next move.”
How Marriott Bonvoy Became Part of Getting the President’s Personal Assistant Fired
he President’s personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, was fired on Thursday. On Friday the story came out that she had made comments at an off-the-record dinner with reporters August 17th hosted by deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley which got back to the White House.
Apparently Ms. Westerhout, after “a couple drinks and in an uncharacteristically unguarded moment,” made comments which – once reported back to the White House – made her continued employment untenable. That’s not the part of the story I’m interested in.
Offensive: Hotels.com Implementing a Fee to Redeem “Free” Hotel Nights
You earn a Hotels.com free night after staying 10 nights, and that’s an effective 10% rebate on hotel stays. As a result Hotels.com offers a useful program for two types of people. It’s great for those who do not stay regularly enough to earn elite status in a loyalty program. It’s also good for those who don’t concentrate on a single chain.
That rebate will become worth a little bit less in three months.
Paris Homeshare Owner No Shows, Company Tells Reader to Pound Sand
Homesharing sites, which are really just a marketplace for rooms, don’t do much to take care of you when owners cancel.