Marriott sent out a press release today announcing that they had received several travel awards. Marriott Hotels & Resorts was named by readers of Travel Savvy as the best domestic hotel chain, and Marriott Rewards as the best hotel rewards program. Travel Savvy is a travel lifestyle magazine that covers international and domestic destinations, fashion, design, food, travel news and celebrity travel trends. Readers of Executive Travel, a lifestyle magazine for business travelers, gave Marriott Hotels & Resorts top honors in the following categories: best hotel chain; best for customer service; and best hotel chain for meetings. Marriott Rewards was selected as the best frequent guest program. Ah, yes, the famous annual rankings from Travel Savvy and Executive Travel. Those are much anticipated each year, with management of various travel providers waking up with night…
View from the Wing awards “Rolleyes Award” to Marriott Rewards
Marriott sent out a press release today announcing that they had received several travel awards. Marriott Hotels & Resorts was named by readers of Travel Savvy as the best domestic hotel chain, and Marriott Rewards as the best hotel rewards program. Travel Savvy is a travel lifestyle magazine that covers international and domestic destinations, fashion, design, food, travel news and celebrity travel trends. Readers of Executive Travel, a lifestyle magazine for business travelers, gave Marriott Hotels & Resorts top honors in the following categories: best hotel chain; best for customer service; and best hotel chain for meetings. Marriott Rewards was selected as the best frequent guest program. Ah, yes, the famous annual rankings from Travel Savvy and Executive Travel. Those are much anticipated each year, with management of various travel providers waking up with night…
View from the Wing awards “Rolleyes Award” to Marriott Rewards
Marriott sent out a press release today announcing that they had received several travel awards. Marriott Hotels & Resorts was named by readers of Travel Savvy as the best domestic hotel chain, and Marriott Rewards as the best hotel rewards program. Travel Savvy is a travel lifestyle magazine that covers international and domestic destinations, fashion, design, food, travel news and celebrity travel trends. Readers of Executive Travel, a lifestyle magazine for business travelers, gave Marriott Hotels & Resorts top honors in the following categories: best hotel chain; best for customer service; and best hotel chain for meetings. Marriott Rewards was selected as the best frequent guest program. Ah, yes, the famous annual rankings from Travel Savvy and Executive Travel. Those are much anticipated each year, with management of various travel providers waking up with night…
Hotels Selling Everything in the Room
I’m often struck by hotels that market their room decor, especially their beds, and I wonder whether it can really be a good business for them. The items are generally overpriced, and often not of as good quality as I’d want to buy for myself. And yet there’s still something that would appeal to me in owning a Westin Heavenly Bed ensemble. Turns out that selling hotel furnishings is a large and growing business. Westin expects to sell $8 million worth of bedding this year. It’s easy to buy a bed that you’ve already slept in and are comfortable with. You spend more time getting comfortable with hotel furniture than you would in a store. And hotel furnishings help bring back memories of a trip. Since introducing its Heavenly Bed five years ago, the Westin…
Thoughts and prayers
My thoughts are with the families of the two pilots who died in the crash of a Pinnacle Airlines regional jet Thursday night while repositioning the aircraft to Minneapolis.
Hyatt’s Promotion and Program Changes
Last week I reported that Hyatt would be bringing back its “Faster Free Nights” promotion — stay twice and pay with Mastercard and earn a free night. Details and registration are now available on the Gold Passport website. Hyatt has also posted upcoming changes to its program. They have eliminated the requirement of booking a three-night minimum for mid-week standard awards, have added flexibility in transferring points and awards between members, and changed the points-to-miles conversion ratio. These changes went into effect yesterday. In addition, beginning March 1, Hyatt will eliminate their 300 point bonus for flying a partner airline and limit the rates that are eligible for stay credit. An “Eligible Rate” is any hotel published room rate, including, but not limited to the hyatt.com rate, prevailing rack rate, AAA and senior citizen rates,…
Double Miles on Delta Amex
As I mentioned last month, the Delta American Express card is offering double miles on retail purchases (up to 10,000 bonus miles) from October 15 to November 15, 2004. Registration is required. Here’s yesterday’s press release.
Kayak.com
Samir passes along a new travel metasearch site, Kayak.com which is similar in many ways to SideStep and Mobissimo with a clean, user-friendly interface. You enter travel search criteria, it scours multiple travel providers, and collates the results. It isn’t a silver bullet tool but it’s definitely one to add to the arsenal (and to add to my How to Get the Best Airfare Deals FAQ when I get around to updating it). Like other similar sites, Kayak.com makes money on referral commissions for your purchases. Doesn’t bother me a whit, it’s a useful tool so well they should make something. Their partner list isn’t as extensive as Mobissimo’s, they don’t seem to include consolidators like OneTravel for instance in their searches, but they include more search parameters like including multiple airports so Kayak.com’s added…
Cheap Flights to New Zealand
Air New Zealand is offering November flights from Los Angeles to Sydney with a free stopover in Auckland for $699.
Another Reason Why TED is Inferior, Even When It Tries to Improve
United’s TED flights will be experimenting by offering DVD player and movie rentals. Passengers will rent the devices for $12 at the gate and return them at their destination. JetBlue offers free live satellite TV — meaning a whole lot more channels and choices compared to a single movie. Denver-based Frontier, a primary competitor of United, offers TV for $5. $12 makes United uncompetitive, especially when most business travelers won’t be able to seek reimbursement for the rental from their company.
