Category Archives for Hotels.
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.
Small Luxury Hotels of the World is a collection of independent properties, and it’s more of a booking relationship than a hotel chain. And Hyatt’s deal is something similar to what they have with MGM’s M life Rewards — let’s share customers, offering points-earning and redemption.
Hyatt launched the partnership in December with just 54 hotels participating. A month ago they added 56 more. Today they’re announcing 57 more properties added to the relationship, which gets them close to one-third of the SLH property collection.
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.
I’m not sure why Marriott didn’t announce a promotion to coincide with the launch of their new program name, why they are spending money on printing and postage to announce the promotion, or why they’ve failed to get up the promotion website that they’re mailing members about — other than to say of course that’s what happened.
Significant cash deposits are being required by some Marriott properties when booking an award. They say they’ll charge you cash up front and give it back at the end of your stay.
What’s more these are very poorly disclosed during the booking process, the credit card charges would come as a complete surprise to most people.
In the fall Marriott revealed one of the biggest data breaches in history, and certainly the biggest known breach in travel.
In all 383 million records were hacked including 5.25 million unencrypted passport numbers, 8.6 million payment cards (most expired). Marriott has not revealed whether the notes they’ve taken on you were revealed.
Basically all we know is that there will be a new loyalty program, probably mostly marketing changes but I believe some unspecified improvements too, and new partnerships that won’t be super relevant to folks in the US.
Over time we’ll see them better integrate their hotel investments and their non-hotel investments through the new program. For now though the program announcement seems… premature.
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 »
