Hotels

Category Archives for Hotels.

Hyatt Place Ending Free Breakfast for Non-Members and Extending Early Check-in to Explorists

hotel breakfast food
Jun 04 2018

Hyatt’s biggest challenge is scale. They have 10% the footprint of Marriott, which makes it hard for guests to stay loyal. Their coverage doesn’t meet all guests’ needs, and it’s often necessary to stay at a less convenient property in order to stick with Hyatt. As a result the program needs to work harder — give guests a reason to go out of their way — to be loyal Hyatt customers.

These are the major challenges faced by the chain. They’re announcing changes at Hyatt Place which largely do not address these challenges.

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Marriott Courtyards, AC Hotels, and Moxy Aren’t Included in Free Elite Breakfast After All

hotel food
Jun 01 2018

We were promised these hotel brands would offer Platinum breakfast benefits. They don’t. They offer a food and beverage credit, which can be used any time during a stay.

That credit won’t cover breakfast at all of their properties, but the news isn’t as bad as it appeared at first — Marriott is updating their chart, which suggested the credit would be only once per stay rather than once per day (for the member and guest).

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New Hyatt Promotion for Grand and Regency Brands: 2500 Points Every 5 Nights

hyatt hotel
Jun 01 2018

Hyatt is offering 2500 points every 5 qualifying nights at Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency hotels starting today through checkouts August 31. That’s not very strong.

Hotels are full and room rates are up, the effect of last year’s hurricane season notwithstanding we should hit all time records for 2018. And that’s why hotel marketing programs aren’t spending a lot to put heads in beds — there aren’t many empty beds out there to start with.

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Hyatt Changes How Suite Upgrades Expire, Here’s How to Really Fix World of Hyatt

hotel office
Jun 01 2018

Hyatt is extending the validity of the suite upgrade awards members already have through February 28 of the year following when they’re earned . The same applies for the four club lounge access awards given to Explorists each year.

Over the last six months Hyatt has been fixing some of the pain points in their new program. At the end of 2018 they announced free night awards for achieving status would last 180 days instead of 120, and award nights would count towards status.

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Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo

cityscape through hotel window
May 28 2018

The Park Hyatt Tokyo is a great value property for Hyatt’s top tier elites. I used a confirmed suite upgrade and got nice value from breakfast which can be taken in the restaurant or via room service (or both). I enjoyed the complimentary happy hour for top elites as the sun set.

This is a property that appeals to me emotionally because years ago I really enjoyed Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, much of which takes place inside of this hotel.

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Marriott Thinks They Can Out-Airbnb Airbnb Even Though Their CEO’s Never Tried One

outside marriott hotel
May 11 2018

Arne Sorenson thinks Marriott can out-Airbnb Airbnb by offering consistency, products, and service. His daughter tried an Airbnb once and assures him there’s nothing to worry about there.

If this is a growing piece of the market, Marriott needs to be in it. And they think that they can leverage their loyalty program to make it more attractive to customers.

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Yours is a Very Bad Hotel — or At Least You Have a Very Bad Desk Clerk

photo of man
May 11 2018

Probably the most famous hotel complaint ever is the 2001 Powerpoint Yours is a Very Bad Hotel created by Tom Farmer and Shane Atchison from Seattle who showed up at what was then the Doubletree in Houston. Though they had guaranteed reservations they were being walked and the desk clerk couldn’t have cared less.

I was reminded of that complaint when I saw this video of a front desk clerk losing it at the Country Inn & Suites in Newport News, Virginia last week.

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An Updated Simple Model Ranks the Best Hotel Programs

building overlooking water
May 10 2018

Loyalty has two primary components: recognition and reward. That’s your elite program and your earn and burn proposition.

Hotel programs are tough to compare because you earn a different number of points per dollar spent, and redemptions vary wildly as well — the most expensive Hyatt redemption is 30,000 points while the most expensive Hilton redemption costs 95,000. We can normalize that by looking at the number of points earned, and the value of each point.

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