Hotels

Category Archives for Hotels.

What Hilton Is Letting Hotels Get Away With During The Pandemic

by Gary Leff

hotel
Apr 07 2021

With the greatest drop in travel demand in history, hotels in many parts of the world have struggled mightily – although in the U.S. and some other regions business has been coming back – especially in popular leisure destinations that have been largely open during the pandemic like Florida and Cancun.

Hotel chains have relaxed the rules that their properties have to follow, limiting how much each has to spend on forward-looking investments and during each guest stay. Hilton recently updated its brand standard waivers, including outlining when some services have to return.

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Radisson Rewards Splitting Into Two Programs, Your Address Determines Which You’ll Be In

by Gary Leff

hotel lobby
Apr 06 2021

Radisson Hotels was purchased from Carlson by Chinese conglomerate collapsing HNA Group, and then sold to Jinjiang International.

Come June Radisson in the Americas (United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean) will be separate from Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. And they’re splitting the rewards program in two. This satisfies a U.S. government demand to separate U.S. customer data and firewall it off from its Chinese ownership.

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Abandoned Resort Town Sits Empty After Developers Sent To Prison For Fraud

by Gary Leff

Apr 03 2021

There’s a partially-built out resort community in Branson, Missouri, sitting abandoned for years, with well over a billion dollars left behind to decay since the Great Recession. It’s called Indian Ridge and it was supposed to “have one of the country’s largest water parks, golf courses, hotels conference centers and shopping.”

Developers went to prison over fraudulent financing for the project and it was never completed. A visitor to the ghost resort has gone viral on TikTok showing her visit.

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The Andaz Bali Opens In A Week, Here’s A Preview

by Gary Leff

Apr 02 2021

The Andaz Bali was originally slated to open in 2016. It’s finally on the cusp of becoming available to guests – in just a week. Right next to the Hyatt Regency, it’s a smaller and more boutique property. The hotel features low rise buildings, as is common in Bali, meaning ocean views are somewhat obscured. The main pool is an infinity pool facing the beach.

Plenty of photos have been made available by those that have toured the property. It looks gorgeous.

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This Marriott Hotel Charges A $30 Resort Fee – But Only If They’re Redeeming Points For The Stay

by Gary Leff

Mar 28 2021

The Renaissance La Concha Resort in Puerto Rico charges a resort fee that’s a percentage (18%) of the room rate. For award guests, then, the resort fee should be zero – since 18% of zero is zero.

Not wanting to lose out on hidden fee revenue from points guests, they charge Marriott Bonvoy members redeeming points a $30 resort fee for each night of their stay. There are two problems with this.

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Hotels Want To Take Your Money Without Even Having To Give You A Room

by Gary Leff

Mar 27 2021

The hotel industry is asking for a $15 – $29 billion bailout, with 40% earmarked for hotel investors to make mortgage payments to big lenders. This is being pitched as something that ‘goes well with infrastructure’ which the federal government is preparing to spend $3 trillion on. Of course, the hotel buildings already exist and aren’t new infrastructure.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association’s chief lobbyist complains, “You have whole segments of our industry that did not receive any financial assistance whatsoever.” It’s not fair that everyone else has been taking your money and hotels haven’t been able to do so yet.

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