Category Archives for Hotels.
The Westin Tempe narrowly avoided foreclosure. Now it’s hawking condoms to guests, as well as paid upgrades and late check-out, even to elite members of Marriott’s Bonvoy program.
Resort fees usually include collections of useless items, or small discounts or credits that the hotel benefits from when you spend more than the allotted amount. In the case of a $15 food and beverage credit, much of the time the hotel comes out ahead if you use it. Denying it to the guest is a mistake. But it’s also a scam layered on top of the resort/destination fee scam itself, because the hotel is getting compensated for it – and has to provide the same benefits to redemption guests as cash ones.
It’s a 41-room 1930s-era motor lodge with neon sign that attracts locals to its pool with day passes. And, since Austin really isn’t centered around a downtown, it’s actually quite a good location for tourists. The property maintains the ‘Keep Austin Weird’ vibe of the early-2010s (from long before the Californians arrived during the pandemic).
Last fall Hyatt launched a short-term rental booking platform called Homes & Hideaways by World of Hyatt. It’s similar to Marriott Homes & Villas.
Glass windows – or no separation at all – between bedroom and bathroom was a trend in hotels for awhile. It was stylish, but awkward. No privacy at all! But there’s a hotel that has a room with all glass to the outside where people can see in! If you stay there, it’s free – but you’re the entertainment.
You can’t even turn off the lights, since there’s basically a spotlight on you.
When you unlock the door it will close without slamming. Now you leave your room quietly. Use this whenever you leave, if you don’t like the loud slam reverberating down the hall.
Once I started doing this a few years ago, I stopped waking my daughter up when I headed out for coffee.
Long check-in lines are de rigueur in Las Vegas. People go to Vegas for a break, and the start of their trip is a queue – probably first for the ride from the airport to their hotel, and then to get into their room. What could be more of a mass experience, and what could make an upscale hotel feel more like Circus Circus than this?
This is reportedly a bigger problem at Caesars hotel properties like Caesars Palace and Planet Hollywood than at MGM hotels, and something that really began in earnest over the last couple of years due to insufficient staffing.
A year ago rumors began that Phish was launching a festival in Dover, Delaware. People booked hotel rooms for August 15 – 18 in advance of 45,000 fans swarming the town.
That got them regular rates on rooms. These aren’t mistake rates. They paid what a hotel normally cost.
2,500 points per stay is better than not 2,500 bonus points but I view that as a weaker offer heading into a weaker travel period.
Not only are people generating unearned status for club lounge access (and lounges are far nicer in Asia) and other benefits, but Bonvoy elites no longer have an incentive to stay to requalifying for status since they can just buy it cheap. They can even merge the new account they create for this with their existing one.
Marriott sees they’re getting plenty of new signups through Fliggy, when they’re getting plenty of short-term elites – and the same members opening new accounts over and over, it seems.
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 »
