Category Archives for Hotels.
One guest tweeted a photo of the breakfast coupon at the Courtyard By Marriott Halifax Downtown where the pre-printed US$10 has ‘US’ blacked out, and the property would only honor 10 Canadian dollars (US$7.21) a 29% devaluation.
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hudson I-94 surprisingly has an amenity fee, which is the same thing as a resort of destination fee. And it might just be the most honest resort fee, ever.
Marriott’s Courtyard by the Venice airport blocks guests from turning the air conditioning down even to 73 degrees, and charges US$5.47 (5 euros) for a second room key. It’s a deposit that they promise to refund to you when you return the room key at checkout.
An internal document outlines that name changes on award stays are not to be handled directly by properties especially within 48 hours of check-in. If a property is asked to change the name on a paid reservation, they should remove the loyalty number and require payment details from the new guest.
A decade ago IHG completed its acquisition of Kimpton Hotels. They outbid Hyatt for the asset, and promptly destroyed it.
Kimpton could have been a fabulous acquisition but IHG never understood what to do with it, and they were the wrong chain to pull it off.
With today’s announcement dubbed “If It’s Yellow Let It Mellow, If It’s Brown Flush It Down” the global hotel giant will encourage guests to flush in-room toilets less frequently.
When Marriott took over Starwood and then launched the Bonvoy program, they told owners that the economics would work out better for them. Part of how they did it is by forcing these scam charges on their customers. Yet their owner contracts explicitly allow Marriott to halt these fees.
There’s a reasonable chance that if the project is ever sold the building could even be demolished and started over and the concept could change. There’s no reason to think at this point that if the property ever gets completed that it will be, in part, a Park Hyatt hotel.
I’ve given a lot of thought to what makes a hotel great, and how simple design flaws can ruin a property. More often though great physical properties can be ruined by poor service execution or short-sighted cost cuts.
Hoteliers: ever wonder why a property with great facilities and a competitive room rate in a good location isn’t getting the level of midweek repeat business it might expect? It may come down to something simple.
Are expensive hotels “that much better” to justify their extra cost? A modest price over cheaper accommodations may buy you a better stay, but once you get past a few hundred dollars does the extra money really buy you very much?
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 »
