Hotels

Category Archives for Hotels.

NYC Ban On Airbnb Created Massive Black Market In Home Rentals

by Gary Leff on October 10, 2023

Oct 10 2023

When you make a product or service illegal that doesn’t mean it goes away, it’s just no longer legal. See also drugs, prostitution. And that brings with it a whole host of other problems. New York City’s housing supply issues have nothing to do with Airbnb in any case. The problem is that it is too costly and cumbersome to build new housing! While other cities are looking at New York City’s Airbnb ban as a model they’d love to emulate – and hotel lobbies are pushing them to do so! – it should be a cautionary tale.

New Hotel Scam: Employee Asks Guest To Prepay Reservations, Pockets Money?

by Gary Leff on October 9, 2023

Oct 09 2023

A guest booked Marriott’s Hotel La Semilla and wound up getting solicited by the hotel to prepay their reservation via Paypal for a discount. Only the hotel later claimed to have no record of the payment. Did an employee of the hotel scam them? And is this something new to watch out for when you travel?

Hotels Cancelling Reservations During Army-Navy Game To House Migrants

by Gary Leff on October 9, 2023

Oct 09 2023

The Army-Navy game will be held December 9 at Gillette Stadium – the first time in its 133 year history that it will be held in the Northeast. And people that have booked rooms for it are seeing their reservations cancelled.

Starting Next Year, Hotel Hidden Fees Are Expressly Illegal In California

by Gary Leff on October 8, 2023

Oct 08 2023

California’s Governor signed SB 478 on Saturday. It bans hidden fees, though airlines and car rentals are excluded from the ban. That leaves hotels as the major offender in the travel space which will feel the brunt of the impact – and online travel agencies which sell hotel rooms, too.

How Hotel Front Desk Staff Took Revenge On An Entitled Elite Guest

by Gary Leff on October 6, 2023

Oct 06 2023

A hotel clerk wrote about taking sweet revenge on an abusive guest. They were an elite member of the chain, staying at a hotel that had recently been reflagged to become a part of it. And they’d made front desk staff cry, with two women working in the morning leaving with smeared makeup.

Airbnb Guest Demands $100,000 To Leave After Squatting For 500 Nights, Because California

by Gary Leff on October 5, 2023

Oct 05 2023

A California dentist put his home’s ‘in-law suite’ on Airbnb and lived to regret it. Their guest booked a six month stay at $105 per night for $20,793. They’ve been there for about two years, rent free for 18 months. And they’re demanding $100,000 to leave – with California law on their side. She even wants a refund of her twenty grand for the first six months of her stay, too!

Plus-Sized Travel Advocate Demands Wider Hallways In Hotels And Larger Elevators

by Gary Leff on October 3, 2023

Oct 03 2023

Back in April, Jaelynn Chaney started a petition demanding additional free seats for plus-sized passengers which, she acknowledged, would mean that everyone else would have to pay more to accommodate her.

Now she’s back with demands for hotels. She wants wider hallways; larger elevators; and retrofits to bathroom toilet seat, shower heads, and sturdier beds. And she thinks it’s discriminatory for hotels not to stock bathrobes up to size 6XL.

Hyatt Loses Tax Court Ruling With Huge Implications For Loyalty Programs, IRS Sought To Tax $250 Million

by Gary Leff on October 3, 2023

Oct 03 2023

The IRS audited Hyatt for the tax years 2009 – 2011 and found that it wasn’t paying tax on loyalty program revenue. It didn’t include the revenue received for what was then Gold Passport (now World of Hyatt) in income, and didn’t include payments from the program as expenses. It just ignored the program, even though it collected money and invested it earning a return.

The IRS wanted Hyatt to not only pay up for those years but to go all the way back to the beginning of the program in 1987, with a quarter of a billion dollars of income at issue and a tax deficiency of $65 million.

More Hyatt Hotels Are Ignoring Elite Breakfast Benefit Rules, And Getting Away With It

by Gary Leff on October 1, 2023

Oct 01 2023

A chain’s most valuable customers are its elite members, who deliver an outsized portion of room nights to hotels. To entice them, they’re promised benefits like upgrades and free breakfast.

Knowing that hotels are going to try to cheat, Hyatt spells out in its terms and conditions what the breakfast benefit is for Globalist members when no club lounge breakfast is offered.

Marriott Has A New EV Charging Solution For Hotels In U.S. And Canada

by Gary Leff on September 19, 2023

Sep 19 2023

The ultimate takeaway from Hilton’s announcement, and Marriott’s need to do something here, is that hotels see being prepared for EV’s – whether for road tripping guests or those renting the vehicles – as an important must-have in the future.