Jul
16
2018
Like last year, 2016 and in 2015, Hyatt is offering co-brand credit card cardmembers a rebate on points redeemed.
Hotels
Category Archives for Hotels.
Starwood Is Losing a Third of Its Dubai Portfolio in One Shot, Which Chain Will Get These Great Hotels?
Jul
10
2018
Marriott is losing the St. Regis, W, and Westin in Dubai all at once. That’s a one-third hit to the number of legacy Starwood rooms in Dubai, including the same owner pulling the St Regis Habtoor Polo Resort and Spa in recent days.
Dubai was one of Starwood’s most important markets, they had a legacy Emirates partnership similar to their Delta partnership in the US and a UAE co-brand credit card.
A Lucrative Hotel Rewards Strategy is Hiding in Plain Sight
Jul
02
2018
A valuable rewards for hotel stays seem to me a function of where you book and how you pay rather than where you stay. That’s surprising to some because we’ve been taught to stay on the hotel loyalty program treadmill. And because hotels are trying so hard to get customers to ‘book direct’ you’d expect their loyalty programs to offer the best rewards for staying at their properties. But that isn’t always the case.
Fuzzy Math: Marriott Raises Redemption Prices in Order to Say They’re Lowering Prices
Jul
02
2018
Marriott increased points prices at a ton of hotels in March, only to lower their prices in August with the new program. This gave them a higher baseline from which to claim they’re lowering more redemption prices than they’re raising.
Even accounting for this, the number of hotels going up in price is roughly equal to the number going down in price. But comparing Marriott redemption prices in February to pricing in August is a more reasonable take than ‘reductions outnumber increases’.
When Does the New Marriott Program Really Begin? (It May Not Be When You Think)
Jul
01
2018
Yesterday writing about Marriott’s new list of hotel redemption pricing that will go into effect in August I mentioned the new Marriott program starting August 1.
A Marriott spokesman e-mailed quickly to correct me to say we don’t know when the new award chart will start, because we don’t know when the new program starts. But that’s not what their website says.
Marriott IT Failures Cost Them Money, Force Them to Blame the Customer
Jun
30
2018
Marriott is apparently cracking down on people booking hotels that haven’t yet opened — speculatively, hoping for compensation when the opening date inevitably delays — and in particular warning people trying to do this while using credit cards “that will not authorize the forfeiture amount.”
Rather than temporarily disabling customer accounts, Marriott needs to fix its IT and better manage construction projects.
Can You Book Rooms Now and Get a Marriott Points Refund in August?
Jun
28
2018
Despite some information out there to the contrary — you can book award rooms now to lock in availability, and then get any points price difference for the same room back in late summer or fall if the points price of the hotel drops. And that’s true even if the hotel is sold out or is sold out of standard rooms.
Marriott Guts Travel Package Redemptions
Jun
28
2018
Marriott offers ‘travel packages‘ where you redeem points for airline miles and a seven night hotel stay (there are also 5 night packages, intended for timeshare owners, these have become tougher to get if you aren’t a timeshare owner).
The value here is that you get transfers of points to miles at a rate that’s good enough you’re more or less getting a free hotel stay thrown in.
Caution: Marriott’s New Chart is Good for Top Hotels, But Not As Good as You Think
Jun
28
2018
I’m seeing a ton of coverage of Marriott’s new award chart lauding the top points price of the most expensive hotels. For instance, Dan’s Deals: wrote AMAZING! Marriott’s New Award Chart Is A Dream Come True For Aspirational Hotels. This is indeed good news, but it needs to be tempered.
In many cases this won’t actually be a price cut of two-thirds like it appears at first glance.
Marriott’s New August Award Charts Are Online
Jun
28
2018
Marriott has finally released hotel category assignments, letting us know the redemption pricing of hotels starting sometime in August. Hotels only received what category they’d be assigned to two weeks ago.
They’re highlighting that “Nearly 70 percent of all participating hotels can be redeemed for the same or fewer points.” That doesn’t actually sound good to me, though they point out 52% of hotels go down in price while 31% go up which is a little better.
