Tag Archives for breakfast.
An Autograph Collection hotel in Detroit – the Hotel David Whitney – is playing an interesting game with denying elite breakfast benefits to guests, and it underscores just how confusing and messy the Marriott Bonvoy program has become.
The Rio has to provide Globalists with breakfast. And they do not like it one bit. So they’re working every angle to dishonor the World of Hyatt program.
Rio Las Vegas was called out by Hyatt for violating elite breakfast benefit rules when they started limiting Globalist entree selections. They’re still doing it anyway, and now have a new devious plan to limit breakfast expense at the property.
Earlier this month there were reports that Rio Las Vegas had started limiting Globalists to a choice of 4 out of their breakfast menu’s 22 entrée selections.
The welcome message from the Marriott Courtyard Lake George, which explains that it explicitly will not honor Bonvoy elite food and beverage credits because their restaurant is operated by a third party.
A buffet actually interested in preventing spread of germs would make single-use tongs available to each guest. Use the tongs, deposit them for disinfecting once you’ve served yourself. But the goal isn’t preventing spread of germs, it’s conforming to (1) health codes, and (2) social convention.
Within North America, Autograph Collection hotels are required to offer an amenity choice of restaurant breakfast (resorts) or a food and beverage credit (hotels). And Marriott has a cash guarantee that hotels will honor this.
The Muir Autograph Collection in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada says no elite breakfast, and that Marriott corporate has exempted them from the elite benefits guarantee. According to Marriott customer service there are no standards, “each hotel has its own policies and offerings.”
The brand new St. Regis Chicago wasn’t offering Marriott Bonvoy Platinum members breakfast as they’re required to. They claimed that their restaurant was operated by a third party, and this got them out of the obligation. This all was addressed quickly, in just a couple of days.
In the meantime, however, there were a flood of consumer reviews of the property on TripAdvisor – most of which were very bad (and likely fake).
Several changes that have been made to the IHG One Rewards elite benefit terms and conditions. These have been published to their website, but they haven’t otherwise told anyone about them which always strikes me as a poor practice.
Marriott offers complimentary breakfast at most of its brands to Platinum elites and higher. Hoewver they don’t really say what breakfast means. And some hotels have figured out that the terms and conditions of the Bonvoy program don’t actually define ‘complimentary’ so they interpret it to mean “charged to the customer, but just for less money.” The Tribute Portfolio Royal Palm South Beach Miami is one of those hotels.
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 »
