Category Archives for Hotels.
Two years ago police stormed the Westin Denver airport room of a United Airlines pilot, arresting him for “dancing, gyrating and waiving” naked in front of the TSA screening checkpoint below the window of his room.
Police entered with guns drawn. He was naked. You cannot see out the hotel room window at the people below. But they can see into the room.
When Marriott acquired Starwood they also acquired the Ambassador program which offered a single point of contact for the chain’s top customers, to make reservations, interface with hotels on requests, and act as a concierge more broadly.
First Marriott had mass layoffs of concierges. Now they’ve decided emails to individual concierges can no longer be answered – everything goes into a single customer service pool.
IHG Rewards Club has launched its first quarter promotion, reduced elite status requirements for 2021, rolled over 2020 to count towards earning status this year, and extended the pause on points expiration and the validity of free night stay certificates.
Service Properties Trust, which owns 329 hotels across numerous brands, has had disputes with IHG and Marriott and is transitioning those properties to Sonesta Hotels where it’s a one-third owner. Hotel chains often guarantee minimum revenue to property owners, and Service Properties Trust had a dispute over those payments.
Hyatt hasn’t refused to make payment, but has reached its full $50 million guarantee on the 22 hotels under its Hyatt Place brand owned by the company. That gives Hyatt the right to terminate its agreement with 90 days’ notice. Hyatt sent this notice of termination which is effective April 8, 2021.
Marriott has continued to promote its elite benefit guarantees despite suspending them during the pandemic. Fortunately the cash guarantee compensation is back for when hotels fail to deliver specific promised benefits.
Extended Stay America has had a customer-friendly policy dating back years of not charging for local calls. They’ve advertised this since when in-room phone revenue was a thing (before everyone had cell phones with unlimited domestic calling) and the chain stills promote ‘free local calls’ on their website.
Yet for several months they’ve been charging for local calls. The chain tells me that’s not a mistake.
Before the pandemic there was no greater loyalty program with a gap between what it promised and what it delivered than Marriott Bonvoy. On paper it took the best features of Starwood Preferred Guest with the scale of properties of Marriott and merged them together. And yet the program has simply failed to deliver elite benefits consistently at the property level.
The irony of course is that before acquiring Starwood, Marriott Rewards wasn’t very generous with elites but they were consistent. The Marriott brand across the board was consistency. Now they’re the Forrest Gump of loyalty: you never know what you’re going to get until check-in. This have only gotten worse.
Just because a room is available for sale doesn’t mean a member requesting a Suite Night Award will be upgraded to it if Marriott forecasts that the room will be sold.
A room can be available 24 hours prior to check-in, but Marriott’s systems will still hold back the inventory to possibly sell to someone rather than upgrade the member into that room.
The Ritz-Carlton Maldives presidential suite runs 4.3 million Marriott points per night, though standard villas are better value. Some hotels offer premium room redemptions for more points, but those are generally going to give you about half a cent per point.
Two hotel guests BASE jumped off the 25th floor rooftop bar at the Grand Hyatt Nashville on Friday evening as other patrons caught the scene on video.
The jumpers parachuted “across the road and landed in an adjacent parking lot.” They then got into a car that was parked in the lot and headed off. They’re now banned from the hotel, and remain at -large according to a police report.
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 »
