Category Archives for Hotels.
Hyatt is offering triple points on spending at their hotel restaurants when you are not staying as a guest through December 20, 2022. You can earn points on dine-in, delivery and takeout as long as the charge is made by hotels set up to award points, and you provide them with your Hyatt account number.
Marriott began work on a new corporate headquarters before the pandemic. They had 4000 employees based in the Maryland-DC-Northern Virginia area including their existing headquarters building. They’ve shed some of those employees, and more work remotely now, but the new building is open and up to 2800 employees are supposed to be working on-site at least some days of the week.
They didn’t bring all the old furniture over from the headquarters they’re replacing.
There are towns without suitable hotels, and for family trips where multiple bedrooms and a kitchen make sense, timeshare properties and home sharing sites have a business that’s distinct from the traditional hotel.
You’re going to be in the lurch if Airbnb bans you from their service, and they’re increasingly doing that for stupid reasons.
In September 2021 a reader made a reservation at the Holiday Inn LaGuardia Airport for the nights of August 28th at 27,000 points and August 29th using a credit card free night. The reader shared, “we were so excited to be at the US Open this year, we booked almost a year out at a hotel I’ve stayed at and liked.”
This hotel apparently closed – yet they went into their account to print a copy of their reservation to have it with them on arrival a day before check-in. The bookings were there.
Online travel agency sites will rebate you free stays regardless of chain. It used to be that hotel programs let you earn rewards regardless of where you booked, but that’s no longer true. Now the programs are a reward for where you book – and the hotel programs themselves specify both where you book and where you stay. But they’re a lot less rewarding than they used to be!
Hotels are full and hotel promotions are less generous. But since we’re past the packed summer months, with kids back in school, we at least do have hotel promotions. Marriott is now out with theirs for stays between September 21 and December 15.
Several readers asked me yesterday what to make of IHG hotels’ systems being down. I figured “it’s just poor IT” and things will return to normal eventually. That remains true, but the hotel giant acknowledges they’ve been hacked.
Marriott actually makes hotels pay them for the right to charge you a resort fee. Having just audited the franchise agreement for their AC Hotels and Westin brands, I found it fascinating that they charge a one-time $1500 fee, plus $550 per year, to hotels that bill customers resort or destination fees. Marriott also has the right to exempt elite members from paying resort fees, under their franchise agreement, but doesn’t do this.
Marriott claimed over 140 million members at the end of 2019. At some brands members represent about two thirds of revenue. Based on franchise disclosures, the average Marriott Bonvoy member pays AC Hotels a $200.74 daily room rate and at Westin hotels it’s a $185 daily room rate. Guests aren’t customers, they’re Marriott’s product – and the product that all hotel chains sell to hotel owners. While hotel chains push ‘book direct’ as a way of lowering costs, distribution isn’t free. Franchisees pay more for Bonvoy members than non-members, on the theory that Marriott is delivering these “leads” to hotels. And those fees fund points that members earn. For Westin in 2021, Marriott is charging 4.2% of “qualifying revenue generated by customers earning loyalty points or miles” for the cost of Bonvoy, not including bonus…
may not be how things work in practice and the housekeeping you receive may not be the housekeeping you’ve come to expect.
They will make the bed (not change sheets), replace towels, and take out trash. They’ll restock the coffee, but ‘supplies’ are pretty limited since most properties are using wall-mounted toiletries 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 »
