Category Archives for Hotels.
The property has literally one job, providing a clean hotel room to sleep and shower. This is clearly not something that popped up between room servicings. And aren’t the rooms inspected? Too many hotels see this and do not care.
A guest was banned from a Southern California DoubleTree hotel while visiting Disneyland after ruining towels that were in the bathroom. Their sister “cut herself while shaving her leg [and] used a towel to wipe and stop the bleeding.”
Marriott appears to have added a new benefit for ‘overachieving’ Ambassadors who spend at least $40,000 in a year – at least it is a benefit for 2024 spend.
Ambassadors who spend $40,000 are being invited to extend the same status to a spouse, significant other, or other member of their household.
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.
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.
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.
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 »
