Category Archives for Hotels.
Check your credit cards for erroneous charges billed by Marriott.
Marriott started letting members ‘top off’ free night certificates at the end of April. You can add up to 15,000 points to a certificate, making it easier to book rooms. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work, but Bonvoy members have been reporting that it’s gone very wrong.
Remember when some chains were putting stickers on the doors and co-branding their procedures with with cleaning product companies? It wasn’t that long ago. Now it seems we have the worst procedures of the pandemic – full services often not restored, but pandemic cleaning practices loosened.
Housekeepers represented by the union UNITE-HERE want guests to request housekeeping every day of their stay. More work for housekeepers means more jobs for union members.
But they aren’t wrong that without daily housekeeping, trash, dirt and debris builds up in guest rooms – and that makes it harder to clean, and often rooms don’t get thoroughly cleaned as a result.
You’re not a hotel chain’s customer, you’re the product. They sell your eyeballs to the hotel owners that pay them fees to use the brand. That’s why the head of Diamondrock Hospitality, a large hotel owner, calls Marriott Bonvoy members “leads”.
Marriott is offering a third anniversary bonus of 30,000 points for bookings made through its Homes & Villas network from today through Wednesday, May 18. The bonus requires a stay of 5 nights or more between June 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. It stacks with a $100 rebate Chase Offer that many readers should be eligible for.
Securing a confirmed suite here is tough because they have only a few on property, so I decided to book my 2022 stay a year in advance as soon as I’d returned home from my last visit.
Two weeks prior to arrival I received a voicemail and email from the hotel’s Front Office Manager asking me to call him. That couldn’t be good.
Many of the crimes here just happened to occur at hotels, or happened because of the specific things guests chose to do while at hotels. As long as you don’t engage in exceptionally risky behavior, they probably won’t happen to you.
Legionnaires disease, of course, is another story entirely. And always sweep your room for hidden cameras if you’re someone that’ll mind being videotaped naked.
Despite adding the minimum spend requirement (which Starwood didn’t have) on top of staying 100 nights, Marriott has stopped providing an actual Ambassador to Ambassador members. They’ve said they’re going to make an investment in the program and they’re sending out emails asking for members to give stay preferences to an online form, instead of to an Ambassador agent.
IHG One Rewards is offering up to quadruple points on stays May 18 – August 31, 2022. There’s additional bonus points for credit card customers, too.
The new IHG One Rewards elite program offers a huge improvement in elite benefits.
Diamond breakfast doesn’t start until June, but some hotels are rolling it out early, giving us a window into what to expect. Benefit delivery is always tough, and some hotels are going to be more generous adhering to the spirit of the program than others.
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 »
