Category Archives for Hotels.
Elite earn at 500 more hotels is potentially very useful for a chain that today has only 700 of its own hotels compared to Marriott’s 6500.
Earlier in the month it was reported that Marriott-Starwood would be losing the St. Regis, Westin and W hotels in Dubai all at once. The same owner of these hotels — Al Habtoor Group — also pulled the St Regis Habtoor Polo Resort and Spa out of the chain.
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. Marriott’s loss, though, appears to be Hilton’s gain.
Hyatt’s major problems are that their footprint is so much smaller than major players IHG, Hilton, and Marriott (they’re about 10% the size of Marriott), and that they’re building a high-end strategy while their growth has come largely in the limited-service sector.
But they may be about to grow their number of properties by 50%, centered in Europe and Latin America.
Club1 Hotels has a new booking engine and an app and booking through them seems easier and cleaner than before. There are also tons more top hotels than before, too, when I’m searching their site I’m generally finding the inventory I want. There are cruises and car rental deals, too.
Since joining for a year with this offer is free – something they usually charge for – I don’t see a downside to signing up just in case you have a use for their deals in the coming year. And search the site because any good deals are 5% better with my promo code. They appear to take their best rate guarantee seriously, too.
Three months ago Marriott shared details on how they’d be bringing their three loyalty programs together with Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest all operating on a single platform and single set of rules starting in August.
The new Marriott program launches August 18. I spoke with David Flueck, Marriott’s Senior Vice President of Global Loyalty, on Tuesday to talk about the transition and get several more questions answers about what to expect.
For a company invested in being an experiential brand outside of hotel stays, trying to earn a revenue premium by ‘helping you be a better you’ through acquisitions live Miraval and Exhale Spas, Hyatt has been behind its competitors in offering experiences outside of its hotels through its loyalty program.
More options are better, and it’s worth giving these a scan. There isn’t the exceptional value, scale, or true scarcity to the bulk of these experiences. But some of them are going to be interesting, and the value per point is fair though not outsized.
On a mission to recover radioactive materials, two Department of Energy employees from the Idaho National Laboratory drove to San Antonio. Materials had been loaned to a private research lab, and their job was to get it back and transport it security to a government facility.
They brought with them specialized radiation detectors. And to calibrate the detectors they have to bring along some plutonium, too, and also cesium. These are the materials used in nuclear weapons or dirty bombs.
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 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.
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 »
