Category Archives for Hotels.
There’s a rumor on FlyerTalk that status matching from Hyatt to MGM Rewards will terminate mid-year. It’s unclear what would happen to future earning of Hyatt points and elite status nights, or redeeming points for free stays (plus resort fee..) at MGM hotels in Las Vegas, if this were to happen.
I’ve written about the risk you run booking an award stay with Hyatt or Marriott, that if you cancel after the cancellation deadline (say, for instance, your flight is cancelled) you don’t lose your points – you lose a cash forfeiture amount instead.
And your cash penalty can be really high. Most people think you lose your points if you make a points reservation and fail to cancel by the deadline. But that’s not how it works.
Hotels are getting rid of single use plastics, by offering bulk wall-mounted toiletries. And this is all about the environment, not cost savings. So why do they still have plastic water bottles and plastic-wrapped plastic cups? Oh, wait…
Hilton’s Conrad Maldives has standard room award availability nearly every day from mid-May through September. And for anyone with any elite status, even Silver, fifth night is free on awards.
Whenever a hotel chain adds a brand, like Marriott’s bringing on City Express as their 31st brand or Hilton launching Spark – a cheaper version of Hampton Inn, with splashes of light purple! – consumers react with confusion. How can we possibly need more hotel brands? Don’t the big chains already have more than enough?
Customers simply do not know which hotel brands are part of which chains, or what each brand stands for. This confusion must mean there are too many brands, yet brands continue to expand which must mean chains must believe doing this is profitable. After all, more brands means being able to open more hotels and attract more developers and owners.
The Hyatt Regency Aruba has a history of playing games with free night award availability. They made it nearly impossible to spend Hyatt points, assigning only 22 out of their 357 rooms as potentially eligible for redemption. This hotel is actually owned by Hyatt, and after I brought their shenanigans to corporate’s attention they adjusted the practice.
However Aruba redemptions again became a problem. Some time in the second half of December all award night inventory at the property for 2023 zeroed.
You can often still move hotel points to airline miles, but some programs actually let you move airline miles into hotel points. By offering transfers in both directions this does create the opportunity to launder airline miles through hotel programs from one airline to another as well.
There’s no current first quarter promotion from Hyatt that all members can take advantage of across their brands. However Hyatt is running a series of targeted promotions. You can check whether you’re eligible, and offers include free night certificates, suite upgrade awards, bonus points and triple points.
By putting the bed on top of the sofa, Marriott is able to offer smaller rooms with the same features. And smaller rooms mean more rooms in a hotel. That’s good for revenue, and will let them compete for owners looking to maximize revenue per square foot of their real estate.
The open question is how guests will receive the idea.
Did you know that you don’t have to check out of a hotel (most of the time) but that you still should anyway?
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 »
