Category Archives for Hotels.
A significant number of Marriott Ambassador agents have been notified that their positions are being eliminated, generally effective October 1. This isn’t the first round of layoffs for Ambassador agents. The hotel chain shed customer service agents who work with top guests back in March, effectively eliminating the ‘dedicated agent assignment’ for customers who stay 100 nights and spend $20,000 each year with Marriott.
Ethics norms notwithstanding I don’t have an issue with the government paying for rooms at Trump properties, even when they’re less convenient for doing business than other hotels and even when they’re more expensive. That’s the price of doing business with Trump and he was elected President under the U.S. system. If this bothers them it may influence their re-election vote.
I do, however, have a problem with resort fees.
Details on Hilton’s fall “Double Rewards” promotion are out: double points and double elite status credits, which help you to status this year faster or will roll over to help you earn status next year.
Hotels made money overall last month and into the start of this month though that may be a high water mark. Cutting costs on the back of guest experience is making hotel stays less fun, and eliminating key points of difference with Airbnb.
The Le Meridien and Sheraton in Charlotte are in the same complex. It’s increasingly common for a large hotel to be sold as more than one brand, to appeal to different types of travelers or to people interested in different brands.
However right now it appears that the two hotels are being sold as one. According to reader reports only the Le Meridien is open and people reserving the Sheraton are getting moved to the Le Meridien.
Hilton will be counting ‘double elite qualifying nights’ towards completing a Diamond status challenge. As a result it takes only 9 nights with Hilton to earn top tier elite with a status challenge starting September 8.
U.S. hotel occupancy for the week of August 9-15 hit 50.2%, the first time it’s been over 50% since mid-March. In a normal year 50% occupancy is what hotels look like the at the beginning of the year, after the holidays but before business travel starts back in earnest.
The bad news for hotels though is that occupancy usually peaks in August and then begins to decline, with a brief interruption, but largely for the rest of the year.
A brawl broke out at the Embassy Suites Atlanta Galleria after a dispute between a guest and a front desk associate. Other guests in the lobby naturally caught it on video… rather than helping to restrain the combatants.
While the argument that precipitated the fight wasn’t recorded, we can see that the hotel front desk agent is wearing a mask at the end– and the guest is not.
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
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 »
