Category Archives for Hotels.
I have a hard enough time keeping up with The Facebook. I like to argue so I’m more at home with Twitter. But this Tik Tok advice from a flight attendant has been viewed over 4 million times, and liked about a million times. Is there anything here we didn’t already know?
These tips are great as far as they go, but the best flight attendant hotel hack ever is making grilled cheese in your room with an iron.
Anthony Michael Hall was Rusty in National Lampoon’s Vacation. He starred in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science – a John Hughes trifecta. When 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie sought to honor him, all the characters in high school ate at the Anthony Michael Dining Hall.
Now though he’s having to apologize for obnoxious behavior at the South Congress Hotel pool
Selena Rivera-Apodaca has been arrested for armed robbery after taking a man up to her room at the Hyatt Regency Boston. The two had met through a dating app, and she invited him to the hotel Tuesday morning. At around 11 a.m. they met in the lobby before making their way upstairs. They ‘spoke’ for half an hour before she “pulled out a taser and started to go through his pockets.”
In my own dating life this would never have happened.
A front desk security camera at a hotel in Brazil caught a beat down that occurred between a guest and a check-in agent Saturday night after the 24 year old reception agent insisted on taking the customer’s temperature as they entered the property.
The man, who apparently objected to contactless thermometers the way some airline passengers feel about masks, seemed as though he was going to walk away and leave. He comes back and hits the employee with a pedestal and threw hand sanitizer as well. That’s when the desk agent goes full on Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury on the customer.
Hotels need to work harder to please guests when they have empty rooms. Delivering less value than before is a recipe for lower rates and more empty rooms. Moving to a no housekeeping standard where it no longer makes sense to compensate guests for no housekeeping is the wrong equilibrium for recovery.
The practice, which dates to April, has mostly ended – but one Hyatt hotel in Seattle was found still asking guests to reach down deep and give extra money to the property’s owners just this week.
After being called out, the hotel is no longer asking guests for donations, but it’s still charging a resort fee without delivering any amenities so that is kind of the same really.
IHG is offering U.S. residents who join the program by September 30 and complete two qualifying stays by January 31, 2021 a free night worth up to 40,000 points that must be redeemed by April 30, 2021.
Similarly, joining their Intercontinental brand’s Ambassador program by November 15 (which is a paid program) and staying just once at an one of their premium brands (Intercontinental, Kimpton, Regent but not Fairmont) by January 31, 2021 earns a free night worth up to 40,000 points that must be redeemed by April 30, 2021. Ambassador benefits are even improved this year and next.
We aren’t re-using grocery bags right now, or dishware on airplanes – everything is moving towards single use because we’re in the midst of a global pandemic. Hotels need to recognize that and take it seriously and end this ill-fated experiment with getting guests to re-use each others’ shampoo.
I’m not suggesting environmental considerations aren’t meaningful – they just point towards single use biodegradable packaging, which have been in some hotels for years, not communal use.
Hilton says that their hotels shouldn’t be used to house children detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after it was revealed several franchised properties near the U.S.-Mexico border were housing children and their private contractor chaperones prior to deportation. These properties have hosted over 200 bookings of this nature.
Here’s a challenge for you: If you think an airline or hotel chain ought to decide whom they’ll do business with on the basis of their values, wouldn’t you also have to support bakeries choosing to provide wedding cakes only to heterosexual couples if that’s what’s dictated by their values? Or should businesses only make decisions about whom to serve based on your values?
IHG hotels has announced a face mask policy for guests in the U.S. and Canada. This follows similar moves by Marriott and Hyatt. Hilton says they’re going to get their act together and follow suit, while Hyatt says if you don’t have a mask they’ll give you one. But what will enforcement look like?
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 »
