Category Archives for Hotels.
Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano gave an interview and the whole thing struck me as.. strange?
He incorrectly claims Marriott had the first hotel loyalty program. He talks about resort fees as incredible for customers. And he talks about how much control is necessary over hotel stays, even as they defer more and more to individual owners.
HotelSavers is Air Canada Aeroplan’s new product offering hotel redemptions, leveraging the airline’s buying power and ability to offer lower than public rates.
While the federal government’s proposed rules for airlines say it’s not acceptable to disclose even optional fees like those for seat assignments and checked baggage during the purchase process – they must be available at the first instance a price is shown in a search – the government (through the Federal Trade Commission) says resort fees are fine as long as they are disclosed prior to confirming the reservation.
IHG One Rewards calls their fall promotion ‘pick your points payoff’ for the alliteration but I think of it more as ‘choose your own adventure’. You actually choose which of two promotions to register for, and you can only have one or the other.
New Jersey passed a law requiring daily housekeeping during the pandemic. It goes so far as to require that sheets are changed daily. Hotels have become a dirty mess to save costs – checking guests into rooms that haven’t been cleaned and letting trash pile up in the hallways.
Yet the justification for New Jersey’s law was always absurd.
It began with phishing, with an employee downloading an attachment from an email. Apparently systems were broadly accessible by employees, so they had a wide surface for attack. The password they needed once gaining access through an employee? Qwerty1234.
Hotel chains aren’t pushing guests to tip out of affection for their lowest-paid employees. They’re doing it as a way of controlling owner costs. The CEO of one hotel group even says they need guests to tip more – so they don’t have to raise wages.
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.
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 »
