Category Archives for Hotels.
What becomes an even worse practice is charging a 5% add-on service fee for workers and not actually giving the money to those workers which is what the Los Angeles City Attorney suggests seems to be happening at Hyatt’s Thompson and tommie Hollywood hotels.
The iconic Park Hyatt Tokyo, location for the Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson film Lost In Translation, is a favorite among World of Hyatt members. Globalist breakfast here is incredible, both in-restaurant and through allowable room service. And standard suites which are eligible for upgrade are lovely.
However it has become generally no longer possible to redeem points at this hotel.
The problem for hotels with dropping daily housekeeping is that they’re eliminating the things that make them different than an Airbnb and Airbnb has been their primary competitive threat. At some properties it also just cashes out as gross.
Marriott’s AC Hotel in Downtown Minneapolis tells guests just leave your trash in the hall.
Hotels can make deals to undercut the prices available on a chain’s website… as long as those rates aren’t available to the general public (and therefore also not eligible for use against that chain’s best rate guarantee).
The Hyatt Centric Sacramento adds $17.43 per night for an “historical commitment fee.” This fee does not cover anything related to historic preservation. It’s just a resort fee, re-named, so that it sounds more reasonable and so they can charge Hyatt elite members who would otherwise be exempt from this fee.
My first thought on seeing this: If you get all of those for the destination fee at least you could resell them?
Indeed you could take one or two every time you walk by, or even 10? I bet some people do. And as long as the hotel is restocking often enough there’s a nice opportunity for profit.
A Four Seasons near Walt Disney World is going to be a sanctuary away from Disney, just as the Four Seasons in Vegas is a sanctuary from Vegas. And compared to other Disney properties it’s going to stand out. The Grand Floridian, even, is in desperate need of refurbishment and will get it. So what are your luxury options? As a result modest luxury is going to seem more special.
Several changes that have been made to the IHG One Rewards elite benefit terms and conditions. These have been published to their website, but they haven’t otherwise told anyone about them which always strikes me as a poor practice.
Some hotels don’t want award guests. They might think they can sell all of their rooms not at their average rate but at a premium, at least some nights of the year. Or they may just have a negative view of program members – they like getting paid nights from these members, but not having to host them on points.
Here are four Hyatt hotels that currently do not let members spend their points for free nights when searching the chain’s website or mobile app.
Hotels have eliminated daily housekeeping in many cases. All except the top luxury brands won’t automatically clean your room every day, or if they do it’s a ‘light service’ making the bed and swapping out towels on the floor. That means they don’t need to hire as many housekeepers, and a single housekeeper can service more rooms.
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 »
