Hotels

Category Archives for Hotels.

Redemptions for Kimpton Hotels Now Live at IHG Rewards Club

by Gary Leff

Jan 10 2018

IHG folded Kimpton and its Karma Rewards program into IHG Rewards Club. In the process they sanitized the benefits offered to elites, although they’re maintaining Kimpton’s top ‘Inner Circle’ level as an invitation-only program similar to Intercontinental properties and Royal Ambassador, with no public criteria for how members will earn it.

The upside to all of this is supposed to be for IHG Rewards Club members generally, more nice and interesting properties to use there points at. And that is now live on the IHG website.

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Torture Prison Ritz-Carlton Riyadh Re-opens to Guests for a Very Special Valentine’s Day

by Gary Leff

hotel lobby
Jan 10 2018

In early November Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia moved to consolidate power, arresting senior princes, the wealthy, and former government leaders under the banner of a new anti-corruption campaign.

The high profile prisoners were held inside the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh. All guests on property were unilaterally kicked out, reservations dishonored. But guests will apparently be welcomed back for Valentine’s Day.

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IHG Guts Best Rate Guarantee, Eliminates Free Nights, Gives 24% Back in Points Instead

by Gary Leff

skyscrapers in city
Jan 10 2018

Hotel Best Rate Guarantees are mostly vaporware. Hotel chains want you to book directly through them because it costs them less to make a reservation themselves than it does to pay a commission to Expedia or other online travel sites (or travel agents). So they want you to believe you’ll get the best rate booking direct.

Best rate gurantees are largely a marketing claim rather than a promise, and they generally contain so much fine print and so many hoops as to be meaningless (on purpose).

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Hilton Introducing Faster Elite Points-Earning, Roll Over Nights, and Gifting Status

by Gary Leff

hotel room
Jan 08 2018

Hilton wants guests to stay with the program and have spent a lot of time making small points balances useful. And this month they’re introducing a suite of new American Express credit cards with really strong benefits.

However today they’re announcing improvements for elite members — how they earn points, earn status, and gift status as well.

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How to Destroy a Hotel’s Online Reputation in Under 24 Hours

by Gary Leff

pink hotel with palm trees
Jan 01 2018

While the Waldorf=Astoria Boca Raton Resort and Club isn’t really my personal style (I’ve never been a big fan of The Breakers, either) it certainly receives its share of plaudits and pulls high room rates in-season.

Since the YouTube video went up last night over 650 one star reviews of this property have been posted to Yelp. It’s overall Yelp rating has dropped down to 1.5 stars.

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How Long is Too Long for a Hotel to Wait to Charge You After a Stay?

by Gary Leff

cityscape
Jan 01 2018

A year ago the Hilton San Francisco Union Square double charged guests checking out on a single day. A few days later they corrected the problem by double-refunding guest credit cards. So those guests weren’t charged for their stay.

These two countervailing errors, generating four credit card transactions, sat for a year. Then a full year later Hilton charged everyone’s cards again.

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Review: St. Regis Bangkok

by Gary Leff

Jun 30 2016

Bangkok is city where it’s difficult for me to pick hotels. Most everything is above average. Even the Holiday Inn Bangkok, at Gaysorn Plaza, is attached to the Intercontinental and practically the same hotel.

On the other hand there are very few properties that are so good they’re clearly better than all the others. It’s not a city where I stick to Hyatt, either, because while the Grand Hyatt Erawan is fine I don’t find it special.

The St. Regis was priced extremely reasonably for my dates and although the hotel is known for being great with suite upgrades, I decided not to just chance it or use a Suite Night Award but to pay for the suite. Long odds, as reported by others, but I hoped for a further upgrade.

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