Category Archives for Hotels.
When a Hyatt property charges a destination fee that is not even disclosed during the booking process that’s especially egregious, and clearly illegal. If you don’t check your bill prior to check-out, you wouldn’t even know you were being charged more than the price you were quoted for the room.
Hotel loyalty programs like Marriott Bonvoy promise upgrades to their frequent guests, if rooms are available at check-in, but getting those upgrades can be tough. There are too many elites – anyone with their premium credit card is a Platinum – but hotels play games also.
Marriott appears to be testing a requirement that guests give up housekeeping during their stay in order to get the cheapest room rates.
The Line Hotel DC is housed in a historic neoclassical church building in Adams Morgan. It was originally built in the early 1900s as the First Church of Christ, Scientist. The property was launched 7 years ago, and has sister hotels in Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Owners couldn’t make loan payments during the pandemic, and ceded control to their lender.
A hotel like this shouldn’t just be telling you ‘we won’t honor your stay for the dates booked, choose different dates’ and leaving it at that. While that may be their rhetorical starting point (they don’t want to show weakness and reveal that they are going to wind up doing much more), that likely isn’t what’s going to happen here.
Marriott Autograph Collection properties in Mexico seem to take the autograph part seriously, and love NDAs. The Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun reportedly required non-disclosure agreements by guests before “allowing medical assistance or letting them leave” the property over Christmas, after becoming ill over the holidays.
“Underrated” can mean (1) a luxury property at a surprisingly low points category, or (2) a solid, under-the-radar hotel in a city/resort area that people rarely talk about but consistently exceeds expectations.
Hyatt has launched its winter promotion. Registration is required to earn double points on qualifying stays, and triple points at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands, January 27 – March 28, 2025.
Marriott promises a lot to members, and frequently doesn’t delivery. Hilton doesn’t promise much, and so it rarely disappoints. Some Marriotts have even figured out a new way to avoid handing out upgrades, and I have to say that it’s really clever.
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 »
