Hotels

Category Archives for Hotels.

Marriott Increasing Points Prices of Over 1000 Hotels Should Strike Fear in the Hearts of SPG Members

by Gary Leff on February 8, 2018

Feb 08 2018

Devaluation just seems to be in their bones on the Marriott side, and the Starwood merger and Starwood Preferred Guest leadership appear not to have changed that. While they announced a reasonable set of category changes for Starwood the changes at Marriott are absolutely brutal: 21% of hotels are going up in category while just 5% are going down in category. The number of points required to redeem for a free Marriott hotel night is going up at over 1000 hotels effective March 6th.

Starwood is Reducing Their Booking Window, Changes Award Prices at 17% of Hotels

by Gary Leff on February 8, 2018

Feb 08 2018

Starwood is reducing the booking window — how far out you can make reservations — on February 11.
You’ll only be able to make reservations 350 days in advance instead of 550 (not all hotels loaded inventory 550 days out previously).

In addition Starwood has announced award category changes for 2018 which will go into effect March 6th.

How World of Hyatt Creates a Perverse Disincentive for Elites to Stay at Their Hotels

by Gary Leff on February 3, 2018

Feb 03 2018

When confirmed suite upgrades were introduced they were awarded at the beginning of an elite year, expired after 12 months, but could be applied to future reservations after their expiration date as long as they were confirmed prior to expiration.

Then with the new CRM Hyatt implemented an unintended consequence was that suite upgrades expired 12 months after being awarded without the ability to apply them to future reservations.

Hyatt Dumping Cash and Points Awards Below Published Prices at Several Hotels

by Gary Leff on February 2, 2018

Feb 02 2018

Earlier this month Hyatt was pricing several hotels below their normal published cash and points award prices. Most of those deals are no longer available.

However several hotels are again charging less than they are ‘supposed to’ for cash and points.

Hyatt Moving Two Hotels to Higher Award Category Tonight

by Gary Leff on January 31, 2018

Jan 31 2018

Hyatt reached out to let me know that two hotels would move up in redemption category at 9:00 p.m. Central this evening, meaning that redemptions will cost more points.

I love that Hyatt is proactively sharing changes even when those changes affect just two properties. I don’t love that Hyatt is sharing that information only with me and not with all members, and that they’re sharing it the same day the change is going to go into effect.

IHG PointBreaks Changing, Some ‘Discounted’ Hotels Will Cost 3x As Much

by Gary Leff on January 27, 2018

Jan 27 2018

IHG Rewards Club has been offering discounted hotel night redemptions for just 5000 points per night for more than a decade.

At the beginning there were some high value hotels included in the discount properties list. Over time there have been fewer and fewer premium hotels. The ‘good ones’ are almost always swept up and disappear from the list within a couple of days. These deals have been so good that in China people were automating PointBreaks bookings and reselling them.

Hyatt Retroactively Counting Award Nights for Status and Threshold Bonuses

by Gary Leff on January 24, 2018

Jan 24 2018

Hyatt now counts free night awards towards elite status. But they’re doing more than that. They’re re-calculating 2017 status as though free nights counted last year, and they’re sending out emails to members who would have achieved a higher level of status or earned additional suites and points.

Do Hotels Make You Prove You’re Eligible for AAA or Corporate Discounts?

by Gary Leff on January 22, 2018

Jan 22 2018

Five years ago a couple of commenters noted being asked to show their AAA card at hotel check-in when staying on a AAA rate. I have never seen this happen myself.

Later that year when AAA sent me a renewal notice with the card I asked readers whether I should just pocket that to show ‘just in case’ or actually pay for the membership, universally the sentiment was ‘you use the discount you pay for the membership.’

Hyatt’s Chief Marketing Officer is Out

by Gary Leff on January 18, 2018

Jan 18 2018

When Hyatt hired Mark Vondrasek – formerly of Starwood – as Senior Vice President for loyalty and business platforms it was announced he would circumvent the CMO and report directly to the CEO. At the time I noted how unique that was.

Though Hyatt tried to dissuade me of the significance that their head of loyalty wouldn’t report to the Chief Marketing Officer the handwriting seemed to be there.

Marriott Removes Banned Book From Chinese Hotel

by Gary Leff on January 16, 2018

Jan 16 2018

Marriott had to take down their website and mobile app after Shanghai authorities were notified the hotel company listed Tibet and Taiwan as separate countries on a survey.

Then after a Marriott employee working the Marriott Rewards twitter account ‘liked’ a tweet by Friends of Tibet the company was letting everyone know that employee was being fired rather than the usual corporate response of not commenting on personnel matters.