Category Archives for Hotels.
Hyatt is making a number of aggressive offers to bring business into their hotels, from rate discounts to added benefits on stays to bonus points. In addition to the promotion, discount and breakfast offers they’re currently running they’ve announced three new offers that run through October 8: up to a 25% rebate on award stays, free parking on award stays, and triple points on hotel dining when you’re not saying at the hotel.
Marriott’s TownePlace Suites near George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon in Virginia caught fire at 1:13 a.m. this morning. A hotel guest – standing outside the property at the time – notified the manager who called 911. Since the fire was on the roof, there was no smoke alarm.
My gut feeling is that there’s something wrong with complaining when others are suffering so much, though people are suffering all around the world during ‘normal times’ and I don’t have an issue talking about ‘first world problems’. Does this shift during COVID times make me, on some level, a hypocrite?
How are you handling customer service complaints now, and is that different than it was at the start of the year? And if there’s a change, will it last past the coronavirus pandemic?
Hyatt and Chase, their co-brand card partner, have juiced things a bit so that card spend counts even more towards elite status through June. And getting the card now does, too.
Marriott is offering points with the biggest bonus we’ve seen – you are effectively prepaying for stays at a discount.
A 60% bonus on purchased points, that began May 18, was set to end June 30. This has been extended to run through July 15. The best previous deal I’m aware of was a 50% bonus, though of course Marriott points aren’t worth as much as they used to be either. They’re willing to sell you points at a cost per point of $0.0078.
TV reporters checked into a Hyatt, Hilton, and a Trump hotel in New York and left marks on pillows, television remotes, thermostats and other areas of the room with washable sprays and gels that show up under UV light to see whether cleaning procedures are being followed.
They checked back into the same rooms the next day to see whether sheets had been changed and high touch points had been cleaned. Two hotels utterly failed, and one hotel partly failed – enough so that you wouldn’t want to stay there.
Three months ago Marriott laid off Ambassador customer service staff as part of customer contact center closures, effectively gutting the personalized nature of the Ambassador program – which still requires customers to spend at least $20,000 annually, even with this year’s reduced elite requirements.
Now Marriott has gone a step further and just announced the closure of two call centers.
Marriott has about 100 hotels in China. To do business there is to acquiesce to the country’s leadership. Marriott has consistently towed the party line, as it did two years ago when spanked by the Chinese government for listing Taiwan as a separate country. They fired an hourly worker who ‘liked’ a tweet supporting Taiwanese independence and proactively removed banned books from hotels.
Now the CEO of the hotel chain Arne Sorenson is giving interviews on China’s effectiveness in containing the virus, adopting the country’s talking points and effectively assisting President Xi Jinping shore up a key vulnerability as he prepares for re-election by the Communist Party.
The precautions they’re taking are significant. They’re limiting the number of people each team can bring into the ‘bubble’ although reportedly in addition to an athletic trainer, equipment manager, and security officer each player can bring their private masseuse or security.
Everyone is going to have to wear Disney Magic Bans that’ll be used to check in for coronavirus testing. Anyone who tests positive will go into isolation housing, before being re-tested (given the risk of a false positive), and not be able to leave until consecutive negative tests. Players will also be able to track proximity and duration of time spent near others, as well as their temperature and heart rate.
Marriott is making it easier to qualifying for a higher level of status this year – and a side effect is all current elites get free credit towards lifetime status, and many may receive additional ‘choice’ benefits without even staying at any hotels.
The Bonvoy program is also putting award nights on sale for stays through July, by letting you book rooms at off-peak redemption prices this month.
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 »
