Category Archives for Hotels.
As part of Marriott’s move to dynamic pricing of free reward nights which raises award pricing, but will be worse next year, Bonvoy now allows you to add up to 15,000 points when redeeming a free night certificate.
This makes certificates fare more useful, but was done more for Marriott’s Chase and American Express relationships than for you.
Hotels frequently offer to store luggage when a guest arrives too early to check in, or when they aren’t leaving town until after check-out time. Some bigger hotels even charge for this. I’d never trust belongings that matter to a hotel’s luggage storage room, and you shouldn’t either.
Marriott should take the position that guests and their belongings are safe at their hotels and it isn’t appropriate for a hotel to dispute liability when giving away a guest’s belongings and the hotel’s own video demonstrates they did it.
I wouldn’t trust the Marriott Marquis San Francisco with my belongings, but I also wouldn’t trust them in my guestroom either.
Conrad Bora Nora Nui is one of Hilton’s most aspirational points redemptions, and free night awards can be extremely hard to get.
As of this writing though redemptions are available the first 10 days of December consecutively and the last 10 days of January And every day in March and April – as well as reasonable availability in other months.
The loyalty program for Shangri-La Hotels, the luxury Hong Kong-based chain with over 100 properties, is among the first of the major chains doing an across-the-board refresh as we emerge from the global pandemic.
I think the Shangri-La Circle program refresh gets a lot of things right. At the entry level, less frequent guests still get value out of the program by earning points that can be used in small amounts, and all spending (even online spend) earns. Even the first elite tier gets 11 a.m. check-in and breakfast while upper-tier elites get more special benefits. And the program’s treatment of the very top customers is just extraordinary.
The hotel is well-located. It is quiet, as they seem not to have the entire property open. My room was clean and comfortable. It used to be one of the best for elite treatment, but with the club closed no restaurant for breakfast it no longer is. Still, when this is where you need to be in the city and the price is right – it was less than 1/3 the cost of the nearby Andaz 5th Avenue for instance – it can be the right choice.
Hilton’s Canopy by Hilton London City created controversy driving for authenticity, and food and beverage revenue, by branding its bar after European socialist anarchists. The socialists were outraged by using their history to sell $18 drinks to “wanky City types.”
Hilton was forced to remove the edgy socialist branding from its capitalist endeavor. Even their website description as “a gathering place for writers, radicals, entrepreneurs and artists – a breeding ground for concepts that would go on to change the world” has been removed.
The hotel claims to have reduced their energy use by around 40%. They pocket those cost savings, and those savings are supposed to pay back subsidized loans – and they make money on the difference. So why are they imposing a fee, through drip-pricing, to charge guests for it – and mislead them about the program?
The lesson here seems to be, if you’re going to pull out a wizard wand and brandish it in a threatening manner, be sure to cast a protection spell first
The Westin Houston Medical Center adds a ‘sustainability fee’ onto guest bills. You’re supposed to accept a hidden add-on, that turns out to be a charge for building maintenance, because it’s impolite to question anything framed as ‘for the environment’.
Marriott did what they said they would do – limit the carnage in the first year, in much the same way they over-indexed Bonvoy value when the program first launched (they waited to add a higher tier category and launch peak and off peak pricing, even though they announced it as their plan).
The playbook is ‘announce a negative change but wait to fully implement it’ so everyone looks at the new program and says “great!” or “not so bad!” before it gets worse. We should believe Marriott when they say next year will be worse!
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 »
