Category Archives for Hotels.
In the 60’s and 70’s the original Diplomat was frequented by Rat Pack types. The hotel closed in 1991 and was acquired by the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters in 1998, torn down, and rebuilt at a cost of ~ $800 million in construction costs and $40 million for the property. That’s about what it was sold for last year – without adjusting for inflation.
Free breakfast is a common feature of many hotel brands, especially in the limited service category. You’ll find it at Hampton Inn, Best Western and Holiday Inn Express among numerous others.
Here’s the thing: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hotel actually check that you’re a guest before giving you access. If you look like you belong there, you can park in the lot, walk in, and eat.
Marriott recently updated its terms and conditions for its Uber partnership, removing details of how many points you earn and referring you to their partnership page for that instead. It seemed pretty clear that they’d be updating points-earning with their Uber partnership. Now those details are live.
Honors points are normally low value, but since the points cost of SLH Hotels is capped at the most expensive pricing for Hilton properties, you can get outstanding value – 3 to 4 cents per point in some cases, as opposed to less than half a cent per point normally. And the hotels are much nicer than most Hilton brand hotels.
The Warsaw Marriott Hotel, once a symbol of post-communist transition in Poland and a landmark of international hospitality, quietly ended its affiliation with Marriott in recent months.
You may be seated in a high-end hotel lounge, ensconced in a refined atmosphere, and it’s interrupted by another guest’s loud FaceTime call. Or picture a five-star dining room where athleisure has become as common as formal attire. Public spaces have been transformed into personal living rooms, including guests in their underwear or worse.
There are hotels where this is fine! But each brand needs to know who its customers are, and what it’s trying to achieve, and then take a firmer stance upholding the standards it settles on.
GHA Discovery is the loyalty program across 40 hotel brands and over 800 properties such as Viceroy, Pan Pacific, Outrigger, Kempinski, NH Hotels, Marco Polo, Anantara and Capella.
They’re just wrapping up one of the boldest earning promotions I’ve ever seen offering up to a 94% rebate on stays (excluding taxes and fees). They’ve been adding elite benefits like breakfast at several brands since the program’s relaunch three years ago. And they now have an exceptionally broad status match campaign.
One of the more egregious examples of hidden, undisclosed fees I’ve seen has to be the Hyatt Place St. Augustine / Vilano Beach which reportedly adds a “Mandatory Valet Parking Fee” of $25 per night.
Hyatt ended free, full breakfast at Hyatt Place properties as a brand standard guarantee during the pandemic.
They dropped the requirement that you book direct to get breakfast, but also started charging non-elite guests for breakfast at some properties as a test. I hadn’t realized until recently that – four years later – this test continues, with the future of free Hyatt Place breakfast still uncertain.
I checked into the Grand Hyatt in DC earlier this week. Or, should I say, I tried to check in. There was a long line at the desk, but no line for elite check-in. Of course, there was nobody working elite check-in, either.
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 »
