Hotels

Category Archives for Hotels.

Make a Green Choice Program Still Generating Protests By Marriott Housekeepers

by Gary Leff

marriott poster
Aug 07 2019

Back in the fall when Marriott was facing housekeeping strikes, guests were getting flyers under their doors protesting the Make a Green Choice program.

Marriott encourages you to fly out and visit their hotels, eat beef in the restaurant, extend your stay by flying your family out too, but what you’re really doing that’s harming the environment is having your room tidied. I’ve always found it odd that a hotel chain promotes the idea that their housekeepers are bad for the environment.

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Hilton Says Honors Engagement is Up: Giving Members Less Works

by Gary Leff

hotel
Jul 30 2019

Two and a half years ago Hilton reported 60 million members. Then at the beginning of 2018 they reported 70 million. Now they say they are up to 94 million Honors members.

Hilton was the first to aggressively advertise ‘member rates’ which are small room discounts that require you to join the loyalty program. Unsurprisingly that’s just what guests do. And since the number of members has gone up recently, driven by this savings, these are ‘engaged’ members with recent Hilton activity.

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AWFUL: IHG Hotels Will Move to Bulk Toiletries Across All 17 Brands

by Gary Leff

soap dispenser bathroom
Jul 30 2019

When you ‘make a green choice’ to let hotels save money on housekeeping, at least they’ll usually give you points so you can share in the savings (but not at the Hyatt Regency Seattle).

Marriott revealed that wall mounted toiletries save a couple thousand dollars per hotel each year. That’s a big savings across all of their managed North American properties who are making the switch from individual bottles.

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Family Caught on Video With Stolen Items From Their Hotel: What’s OK to Take?

by Gary Leff

toiletries
Jul 28 2019

A video going viral on social media shows a family caught by their hotel in Bali with items in their luggage stolen from the hotel. The family got into an argument with hotel staff, and the property demanded they open their bags for inspection. They were caught with stolen items from their room. One stolen piece after another gets revealed.

A former Starwood GM reports the theft of a grand piano from his lobby. Some guests walk out with the TV from their room. Another GM reports a guest unscrewing the room number off their door for a souvenir.

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Now Hilton is Being Sued Over Resort Fees, Too

by Gary Leff

hotel
Jul 24 2019

Washington DC is suing Marriott over deceptive resort fees.

In some sense it was strange to go after just Marriott whose practices are no worse than the rest of the industry. It turns out that while the attorneys generals of all 50 states and the District of Columbia were investigating resort fees, they had broken out the work and D.C. was directly involved with investigating Marriott. Now that D.C. broke away from the group and filed a case on its own, it’s not surprising to see additional defections.

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Watch Out for Non-Cancellable Hotel Rewards: Reader Got a Surprise $7000 Charge

by Gary Leff

Jul 20 2019

A reader contacted me several weeks ago about a fairly traumatic situation. She had booked an award stay over the phone at the Andaz Papagayo in Costa Rica for the end of December. She made the reservation by phone nearly a year in advance. Then in May she figured out she couldn’t make the trip work, so she cancelled the booking. A month later she discovered a $7000 charge on her credit card from the property.

While we think of most award reservations as fully cancellable, in fact awards usually carry the same cancel rules as paid rates. So if standard paid rates at a property come with a 60 day cancellation policy, not uncommon for remote resorts during peak season, award stays may also. I do not recall ever seeing an award stay that wasn’t cancellable at all booked 11 months in advance.

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