Category Archives for Hotels.
Earlier I wrote that tons of Hilton Honors redemptions appeared to go up 10,000 points per night indeed the bulk of 10,000 Honors point per night properties have become 20,000 points.
Under Hilton’s system they do not tell members that this is happening. I asked Hilton about it.
Earlier in the week I wrote that customers were transferring points from Marriott to Lufthansa and they were just getting lost in the ether. There seemed to be a broad issue with Lufthansa transfers, and that this was a sudden decision on Lufthansa’s part that applied pretty broadly.
In this case Marriott is coming under criticism for how they’re handling Lufthansa’s withdrawal from points transfers because their points transfers are actually useful. Who would transfer Hilton points to Lufthansa miles if they had any other option?
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Hilton Hotels CEO Christopher Nassetta told Andrew Ross Sorkin during a panel for the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference that he does not tip hotel housekeepers. He said “I typically do not leave a tip.”
The truth is that tipping is a terrible way to pay housekeepers. And the more guests tip, the less hotels have to pay to attract workers.
Mark Brugger, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Diamondrock Hospitality, spoke about how Marriott’s new loyalty program is affecting his hotels during the company’s earnings call.
When asked by analysts to provide color on the Bonvoy transition, he noted lower costs and some positives and negatives depending on the property but where he zeroed in on a problem it’s providing breakfast at resorts to elites.
If this is true it’s monumentally stupid on the hotel’s part. If the rapper believes it’s true then he shouldn’t settle for an apology, he should sue the hotel for no other reason than to be able to subpoena documents and emails and depose witnesses. And assuming the subpoenas aren’t quashed the hotel would be in a position of having to pay out in a significant way to avoid embarrassment (and then presumably make copies of emails and documents disappear so to avoid a rinse, repeat scenario).
Last month I needed a hotel not far from Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood for a date night with my wife. It’s largely devoid of decent properties, but it turns out The Robey in Wicker Park is really quite nice. It was my first stay at a Design Hotel.
This past week I needed a night in Manhattan and I almost always choose my hotel based on location. I had an evening where I needed to be in Chelsea followed by a morning meeting by the Empire State Building. Prices in Manhattan were sky high, so I opted for a reward stay at the New York EDITION. It was my first EDITION property.
In both cases Marriott Bonvoy had me covered. Goodness knows I’ve had my frustrations with the program but they do have nice hotels in the places I’ve needed to be that are more convenient than what competitors are offering.
A reader writes in that he’s staying “at a no-name, forgettable Sheraton in a medium-sized city” where there are “3 full-service Marriott properties nearby.” A housekeeper “left her manifest.. out on her cart” and there are “3 ambassador elites on a single floor.” He thinks that says there’s something wrong.
There are rumors that some Ambassadors working for Marriott may be assigned as many as 300 top tier elite members, and there are reports of some Ambassador elites not hearing anything at all from their personal agent for months at a time.
Priceline’s Booking.com, the major competitor to the Expedia group’s behemoth of online travel booking sites, will start charging hotels commission on resort fees.
They believe the shift away from selling consumers a total rate, and moving money into the resort or destination fee bucket, cheats them of revenue. And of course it has reduced commissions that hotels pay.
When things go wrong, either because a hotel doesn’t deliver promised benefits or because something doesn’t work right on the back end with an account, it’s almost impossible to get swift any resolution from Marriott Bonvoy. Customer service is a problem.
When things go smoothly – as they do the majority of the time – Marriott has, in my opinion, a better program than Hilton or IHG. But when they fail the issues are magnified because these failures are primarily happening to their highest volume most loyal members and because there’s no mechanism to fix the issue. That’s a problem, but it’s one that can be fixed.
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 »
