Category Archives for Hotels.
With everyone nervous about what a combined program for Starwood and Marriott will look like, and a 1:3 transfer ratio in place, the idea of 950,000 Starpoints for the Residence Inn in Arlington, Texas for a $94 room right.. jarring, amiright?
Hotels these days are all about the environment, which means their fiscal environment, reducing costs and increasing profit margins. So if they can convince you not to have your sheets changed and to reuse your towels that saves on housekeeping expense and on laundry. Hyatt even took away promised turn down service from top elites.
Hyatt has eliminated free breakfast at some Hyatt Place properties in what they’re calling a ‘test’.
At the very least the Hyatt Place Dallas North/by the Galleria and Hyatt Place Detroit-Utica are no longer offering a full, free breakfast. They’re testing a $10 price point.
In 2016 I spent almost half the year in hotels. I earned Hyatt’s top tier status and I earned 100 night Starwood Platinum status.
said at the time that I wouldn’t hit 100 nights with Starwood again. I just wasn’t going to travel as much, and I still wanted to earn top tier with Hyatt too. I also knew that I could keep Starwood Platinum by signing up for the Ritz-Carlton credit card and spending $75,000 on it.
Just over a year ago Carlson Hotels was purchased by Chinese travel conglomerate HNA. And the loyalty program has now rebranded.
Hyatt explicitly lets members gift their elite status to friends when they book awards in someone else’s name.
But booking a paid reservation for someone else using your own account is verboten. Frequently some members will book a stay in their own name and add a friend as a second guest on the reservation.
Back in September I wrote that as a result of Hyatt’s minority investment in Oasis, the home sharing site would join Hyatt’s loyalty progam. That’s now happened. And you can triple-stack promotions with it.
So while Airbnb talks notionally about what a loyalty program might look like (for both home owners and for guests), Oasis already has one for guests. Hyatt’s. Because effective today Oasis is now part of Hyatt’s ‘Unbound Collection’ brand. And much of the rest just follows logically.
In September Hyatt named Mark Vondrasek as their new head of loyalty ‘and business platforms’. Tellingly at the time he reported directly to the chain’s CEO — and not to the Chief Marketing Officer, who was most responsible for Hyatt’s loyalty program revamp that launched last year. That CMO has since been departed.
Starwood lets you transfer points free to someone else’s account but your account and theirs must be registered with the same home mailing address. It’s actually even easier with Hilton and Hyatt.
That means you can get friends and family to sign up for cards and give the points to you. In fact they can sign up for cards you may not be able to get yourself.
Last week I wrote about the games Hyatt Regency Aruba was playing to avoid offering award nights.
Whereas a week ago there were generally no award nights available during low season when this category 6 property was pricing in the $200s, you can now use points when it’s far more expensive.
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 »
