Category Archives for Hotels.
New York’s rent control laws are truly bizarre and now a man who checked into a hotel and as a result claimed to own the hotel has even managed to get a housing court to agree.
Fortunately the hotel in question, the
Washington DC is suing Marriott over its resort fees. “Resort fees” are extra charges, on top of a room rate, that aren’t optional. In other words they’re part of the price of a room, but the hotel advertises a lower price instead. That’s on face deceptive.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson, who thinks you have to enter a passport number to make a reservation at Marriott.com (so their unprecedented data breach was just the result of saving information for your booking convenience) and who thinks problems with the Bonvoy program were just “noise around the edges” gave an interview where he defended the undefendable resort fee. Naturally he did so disingenuously.
Forget the TWA Hotel as an avgeek’s paradise, the Haneda Excel Hotel Tokyu attached to terminal 2 at Tokyo Haneda airport has them beat, hands down.
The property has just introduced a “Superior Cockpit Room” which includes a full sized Boeing 737-800 flight simulator. And they offer one of the best deals anywhere for experiencing a sim.
“Resort fees” are extra charges, on top of a room rate, that aren’t optional. In other words they’re part of the price of a room, but the hotel advertises a lower price instead. That’s on face deceptive.
Marriott hasn’t talked about the really valuable data that’s been breached, preferring to focus on expired credit cards and passports. The EU proposes to fine Marriott for a criminal hack of their systems, which is how the law works, but it’s not clearly the best way to drive collaboration between large companies and government agencies protecting against nation state attacks.
And indeed it’s government agencies that are the biggest violators of data privacy.
So far only 8 out of three dozen Destination Hotels have dates set for joining, and there’s no list of properties which won’t become part of Hyatt. Of course some Destination Hotels will become part of other Hyatt brands.
I’ve reviewed this property several times, and a review (there’s a great pool!) isn’t the point of this post. Instead it’s elite benefits on a simple trip that I didn’t have to go halfway around the world to take advantage of.
There’s an important lesson for airlines, too. Increasingly airlines treat you based on how much you’re spending on a given ticket. But when you’re spending a lot on a ticket, at least when it’s not transatlantic business class where you need a night’s sleep before going straight to work on the other end, you may not even care much about the treatment. Real loyalty is secured on cheaper stays or points redemptions when you’re creating moments with family.
The introduction of a new top Diamond tier doesn’t take anything away from existing Platinums (like club lounge access). Most hotel chains don’t offer confirmed suite upgrades, but Accor is driving towards this unique benefit.
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.
On the one hand a new highest price is always concerning, since it creates a path for other hotels to creep up in price as well. On the other hand these properties aren’t ‘really’ part of IHG, and perhaps the agreement that brought them into the chain just makes them expensive (IHG has to overpay to get these redemption nights, and is charging members accordingly).
Nonetheless prices of 75,000 and 100,000 points per night are concerning to say the least.
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 »
