Tag Archives for free night.
When Marriott took over Starwood and then launched the Bonvoy program, they told owners that the economics would work out better for them. Part of how they did it is by forcing these scam charges on their customers. Yet their owner contracts explicitly allow Marriott to halt these fees.
A Marriott Bonvoy lifetime Platinum member’s reservation for a stay during the solar eclipse was cancelled by the Residence Inn in Akron, Ohio without offering the compensation guaranteed by Marriott’s “Ultimate Reservation Guarantee,” highlighting a broader issue of hotel chains not enforcing standards, especially during high-demand events.
There’s no question that Hyatt free nights are valuable, they’re free nights! But the rules around them make them exactly what I don’t want to use on the trips I could use them.
I reached out to Hyatt when I couldn’t find a single standard room for the entirety of the next 13 months. Some properties ‘game the program’ with minimum stay requirements for a paid or award standard room so it was possible I wasn’t seeing space that was actually available. I wanted to know whether it was possible to get an free night award at this property, and if so how would one go about doing so?
Hyatt offered that the hotel is “in compliance with offering free night awards when standard rate rooms are available.” But here’s the trick they’re pulling simply not offering standard rooms for sale most of the time.
IHG launched new elite benefits that include free breakfast for Diamonds, confirmed suite upgrades (as a choice benefit, starting at just 20 nights!), and club lounge access (another choice benefit).
There was just one problem I flagged. Not all benefits apply on award stays. The program changes are an improvement for everyone, to be sure, but not for everyone equally. And IHG One Rewards is addressing this.
While this new program is much more rewarding for chain loyalists, whether at 20 nights a year or 70, they haven’t applied these improvements consistently to treat reward nights rewardingly, so they aren’t yet treating members who earn benefits as valued when they’re cashing in their hard-earned points. Hopefully IHG will see this as a weakness and address and improve it. Terms and conditions matter when expecting hotels to comply, or addressing non-compliance with customer service. If this isn’t what the program intended, they’ll update the terms and conditions of these benefits accordingly.
Marriott doesn’t let you book an award for someone else on the website. You have to call, wait on hold, an hope you get an agent that knows how to do it correctly – otherwise your guest may have a problem checking in. All of a sudden your good deed will turn out to be a travel nightmare.
IHG is converting expiring credit card free nights to 25,000 points if you call and ask. If you do not call, you get nothing for certificates set to sunset after December 31, 2021.
Hyatt is adjusting its award chart to create peak and off peak pricing at each category for reward nights booked starting Tuesday, October 26th for stays March 1, 2022 and beyond. This is a devaluation, but Hyatt’s program remains better than competitors’.
15 properties that were not included in Marriott’s list of changes for 2021 went up or down in category.
They went up some time between the list’s publication and now, with 11 of the 15 going up in category (charging more points for hotels despite the pandemic’s historic blow to travel) and 4 hotels going down in category.
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 »
