Category Archives for Hotels.
Hyatt has started offering different benefits or state levels every 10 nights stayed instead of attaching benefits to qualifying for elite status.
Club lounge access awards are given after 20 and 30 nights stayed to all members. That means top tier Globalists earn them even though club lounge access is a benefit of Globalist status.
North Island, one of the world’s top private island resorts in the Seychelles, announced it was joining Marriott’s The Luxury Collection. There are only 11 rooms (starting at 5000 square feet) and rates can hover above $7000 a night.
I’ve just learned that the property will participate in Marriott Bonvoy.
arriott is no worse than it used to be, except for IT issues that seem to be gradually getting sorted but remain frustrating. Starwood properties are mostly the same, although with lower points redemption prices at the best properties come more restrictions on availability.
Eventually we should see improvements in Marriott availability, compared to what we have seen in the past, starting next year with fewer ‘high demand dates’ at some hotels. Perhaps Flueck’s commitment that we’ll reach the Starwood model of availability for legacy Marriott will come to pass in the future as well.
Major hotels chains have been in and out of experimenting with homesharing products, even as they engage in dirty tricks to get the practice banned in some jurisdictions. Online travel agency sites have expanded their product suite by offering access to homesharing, and not just traditional hotel rooms. And now Airbnb itself has acquired online hotel booking company HotelTonight. Airbnb said it plans to acquire HotelTonight, a service that offers last-minute hotel bookings, in a deal that will expand the online room rental company’s offerings with traditional and boutique hotel listings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition values HotelTonight in the range of its last private valuation, $465 million, said two people who were briefed on the deal and were not authorized to publicly disclose the price. That would make it Airbnb’s…
T-Mobile and Sprint executives didn’t stay much at the Trump Hotel in DC before they announced the merger but as soon as the deal was announced their spending ramped up to 14% of their total DC hotel spend.
Amazon decided to split up its proposed “HQ2” facility between New York and Northern Virginia, promising about 25,000 jobs for each. New York politicians chased Amazon out of their New York plan.
The payments that Amazon will get for their Northern Virginia headquarters (in addition to tax reductions) are many and varied, coming from all levels of government. Arlington, Virginia will direct a portion of its hotel tax to Amazon.
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.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson famously dismissed customer frustrations with his chain’s IT failures and problems delivering promised benefits as ‘noise around the edges.’
During Marriott’s earnings call the CEO addressed the new name for the loyalty program, how he sees it as part of the chain’s strategy, and whether hotels are frustrated.
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.
Back when Priceline was at it’s most useful, in the early 2000s, there were deals ot be had in major cities for nice hotels in the $30s and $40s per night. There was a frequent flyer living at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. Back then you’d earn stay credit as long as you charged something to your room, like a phone call and you would receive elite benefits even on Priceline stays.
For about $32 a night he had a San Francisco apartment complete with daily housekeeping and club lounge access for breakfast and evening snacks.
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 »
