Category Archives for Hotels.
The Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands announced a plan to re-open the Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort and along with it a government plan to increase hotel taxes from 12.5% to 17.5% — the highest in the United States and the highest in the Caribbean.
The governor describes higher taxes as an “economic recovery fee.” And the extra 5% will be given back to the hotels, plus interest.
This week Hyatt launched a new points-earning, redemption and new elite status benefits for members at Exhale Spas, a brand they’ve acquired.
There’s a new promotion offering Explorist status with annual Exhale membership.
Two well-placed sources tell me that Hyatt is a finalist to acquire Two Roads Hospitality which manages and operates Alila Hotels & Resorts, Destination Hotels, Joie de Vivre Hotels, Thompson Hotels, and tommie Hotels.
Yesterday I wrote about Marriott hotel employees in Boston walking out.
Now 2300 employees have walked out at several San Francisco properties.
Hyatt purchased Miraval not because they wanted a standalone wellness resort, but because they want to extend the brand and create an association with wellness across their hotels. They purchased Exhale spas as part of the same strategy.
To date they’ve offered discounts and bonus points, getting their feet wet, and today they’ve rolled out Exhale Spa benefits as a feature of the World of Hyatt program.
Last month Marriott introduced its first big promotion since launching their new program.
However not everyone was able to register for it. Marriott even said this was intentional. Now they’re saying it wasn’t, and they want to help folks get registered that weren’t able to earlier.
About 1500 Marriott employees at Boston properties have walked off the job including groups “from housekeepers to bartenders to bellmen” across 7 properties. All remain open.
A year ago Hyatt took a stake in Oasis and then in March launched points earn and burn, elite stay credit, and very limited benefits when members stayed at any of the Oasis homesharing options (which were in 20 cities).
However Oasis has been sold and is no longer associated with Hyatt.
Hyatt introduced a pretty revolutionary partnership with MGM 5 years ago with reciprocal points earning, redemption, and status matching. Hyatt didn’t have a significant presence in the Las Vegas market, while this became an opportunity for MGM to reach affluent customers whose choices in Vegas might otherwise be brand-independent. This was a tighter relationship with more value than we had seen from other chains, something almost akin to the kind of codesharing airlines do with each other. Since then the status match has been made less generous for Hyatt members, but there’s still valuable recognition. And the Hyatt-MGM M life deal isn’t ‘either-or’ you receive MGM recongition while still earning Hyatt points also. Through the end of the year there’s a promotion to earn double Hyatt points (an extra 5 points per dollar) at MGM…
George Clooney was loyal to Hilton in Up in the Air and really underscored the benefits of the Honors program.
Hilton has now enlisted Clooney’s co-star Anna Kendrick to do the convincing going forward. Will she convince you to book direct?
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 »
