Category Archives for Hotels.
A man checking into a Holiday Inn Express in Bloomington, Minnesota became irate when the front desk agent wouldn’t upgrade him to a room type he had refused to pay for, and she decided to record it. We need more crazy hotel guest videos, please.
A pregnant woman showed up at her hotel reserved at Booking.com to find it was no longer a hotel – it had been converted to a homeless shelter. And the online travel agency’s customer service had no hoots to give.
President Biden has declared war on ‘add-on’ fees, including hotel resort fees. While we can all sympathize with the sentiment, his announcement is unlikely to do much to benefit hotel guests.
IHG One Rewards promised to run award redemption discounts for Platinum and Diamond members and the latest one is out. It includes co-brand cardmembers as well.
Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time reviewed the Hyatt House/Hyatt Place LAX and offered “I wouldn’t stay again, because I have issues supporting the owner and developer of the property (Aaron Schock).” He did not explain further, so I thought I would offer ‘the rest of the story.’
Schock is a former Illinois Republican Congressman who was indicted (but paid a fine as part of a deferred-prosecution agreement) for misappropriation of campaign funds. He came out as gay in 2020, but had a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign.
Most ‘how to get upgraded’ stories are filled with half-truths, falsehoods, and urban legends. That’s especially true for airlines, but it’s also true for hotels, too. But here’s something that works, more often than not, and that I’ve used successfully in the past.
Marriott has acquired the ‘City Express’ hotel brand an “affordable mid-scale” chain with 152 hotels across 75 cities in Mexico.
Best Western, Quality Inn, and Ramada are often considered midscale. But these hotels aren’t just midscale, they are affordable midscale.
Airbnb is taking on the worst features of hotels, without mirroring the things that make hotels attractive. Their cleaning fees are legendary, even while hosts give lists of chores for guests to complete (not just taking out the trash, doing the dishes, and washing the sheets but sometimes even mowing the lawn).
Sometimes Airbnb – and competitors like Vrbo – are the best option like when renting a house with a whole family or in a town without hotels. But it seems like they’re working hard to kill that advantage, as evidenced by this reported listing where the owner even charges you extra for booking with them and then adds on a resort fee.
Hilton is making two changes to Honors Gold and Diamond upgrades. Starting today they will be selling upgrades through the app. Beginning November 18 they will process automatic complimentary upgrades at Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn hotels with the technical ability for them to do so.
Just before 2 a.m. on a recent Thursday night the fire alarm went off at the Park Hyatt Washington. There was substantial smoke near the hotel’s gym. Guests fled the building to the street. And while no actual fire took place, everyone was out of their rooms for a full hour.
Does a hotel owe anything to guests rousted from their beds for an hour in the middle of the night, and of course also losing however long it takes them to fall back to sleep? I didn’t ask for something, but still felt that a follow up letter of explanation and apology the next day would have been appropriate. What say you?
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 »
