Category Archives for Hotels.
Hyatt’s Andaz brand launched 15 years ago, and first gave us the Andaz Liverpool Street in London, the Andaz West Hollywood, and Andaz 5th Avenue in New York. One of the core elements of the brand has been that non-alcoholic beverages and snacks in the room are complimentary. That’s no longer the case.
Aloft isn’t one of my usual brands. In fact I hadn’t stayed at one in nearly six years. I needed a one night stay near Dallas Love Field for Southwest Airlines Media Day and the Aloft seemed like a reasonable choice at $144, while reacquainting myself with Marriott’s brand.
This one is a combined Aloft and Element in the same building, with separate entrances. Aloft is a limited service, lower-scale chain with modern aesthetic that was dubbed ‘a vision of W Hotels’. Element is an extended stay chain with Westin branding tie-in.
Marriott Bonvoy offers breakfast to Platinum members, but the benefit is confusing. At Courtyard hotels in North America and Europe it’s actually a choice between 500 points (total for the stay) or a $10 food and beverage credit (x2 for two guests registered to the room) that can be used any time of day – not just in the morning.
But as I’ve documented extensively, hotels seem to do what they want with impunity, published benefits of the Bonvoy program notwithstanding. One customer found this out when the hotel called the cops after they asked for their $10 credit – and when it was refused they invoked Marriott’s guarantee of $50 cash for having the benefit denied.
IHG is ‘entering the metaverse’ by offering NFTs for auction bundled with stays and benefits. Oddly, they spent actual money to create the NFTs engaging British contemporary artist Claire Luxton. They’re doing this as though Facebook isn’t right now laying off 11,000 employees, and Justin Bieber’s ‘Bored Ape’ hadn’t fallen in value 92%.
IHG One Rewards has released their Cyber Week offers and some of them are actually quite attractive.
Forty nine hotels reported mattresses being stolen in a two year period. Not towels. Actual mattresses, and I imagine many hotels don’t admit the thefts so the real number is higher. How does a guest even do this without getting caught? (Most reports are that it happens in the middle of the night.)
What do you take from hotels, and what seems like crossing the line?
Chains have housekeeping standards for their properties, which include offering more service than they did at the depths of the pandemic, but that also offer a lot more leeway in not providing it. And some hotels take them up on these opportunities, though I’m not sure I’ve seen quite an aggressive stance, though, as the one taken by the Hyatt Place Frankfurt Airport.
If you don’t care about the environment, and are happy with Greta Thunberg scolding you for the rest of your days, then you can have your room serviced.
Expedia spends a lot to acquire one-off customers. They’re realizing it can be cheaper to sell subsequent trips to people that have already purchased from them (loyalty matters) and they’ve gutted their loyalty program throughout the years.
Meanwhile if Accor is ‘early in’ with this partnership they may gain higher purchase likelihood from Expedia’s eyeballs than other chains.
Marriott has the most exclusive top elite tier with published earning criteria. The Ambassador level requires not just 100 nights in hotels but also a minimum of $20,000 in spend, nearly impossible to achieve in many parts of the world with low hotel rates. Marriott is keeping the 100-night level, but increasing the spend requirement to $23,000 for 2023.
With that they are bringing back dedicated Ambassadors.
A review of Marriott’s Autograph Collection Watermark Baton Rouge flagged an interesting issue. On a peak demand date – LSU football against Mississippi State, which LSU came from behind to win in the fourth quarter – the hotel was charging higher room rates than the posted maximum on the back of room doors.
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 »
