Category Archives for Hotels.
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.
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.
Hotels are ignoring chain rules. Guests book properties assuming they’ll get what the brand promises, and then the individual property doesn’t deliver, choosing to cut costs instead. That devalues the brand, while helping the bottom line of the individual hotel.
This often manifests in properties skimping on or ignoring elite benefits like breakfast. But it also covers housekeeping. And it’s certainly not limited to the best-known offender, Marriott.
Three guests staying at a La Quinta in Nashville found themselves running the hotel when staff abandoned the front desk. They answered the phones and even set up the hotel’s free breakfast for the rest of the guests.
Chatting through the Marriott app with the Residence Inn at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center, a guest says they requested a king bed but their reservation showed they were booked into a queen room.
Hyatt is out with their fall promotion and it’s for a very limited period of less than two months.
Hyatt “is adjusting how it markets its loyalty program to reflect new realities” of reduced business travel and increased leisure travel. Hyatt’s CEO says that experiences now matter, with leisure, more than points. But that isn’t correct.
American Airlines AAdvantage status members can register for 90 days of elite status with Hyatt, with an expedited path towards keeping or increasing that status next year.
A manager at MGM’s Aria hotel in Las Vegas has been arrested and charged with generating $770,000 in reservation refunds – that he put on his own personal credit card.
The 10 year operations manager with MGM Resorts spent the money “at Louis Vuitton and Versace, flying on private jets, doing spa visits, going to shows and even purchasing a home.”
Hilton and Tesla have entered into a deal to add up to 20,000 Tesla Universal Wall Connectors to 2,000 U.S., Canada, and Mexico properties, with a minimum of 6 per hotel. These charging stations will work with other electric vehicles as well, though consumers will need to download the Tesla app to use them. This project will begin next year and take several years to complete.
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 »
