News and notes from around the interweb:
- Westin London City tries to charge guest $500 to remove gas canisters he’d found hidden in his room since housekeeping hadn’t found the canisters prior to his stay, the guest was necessarily lying, and charged for removal of the items he’d left behind.
Two gas canisters were found in the cubby space behind the mini-fridge; these were only discovered because the mini-fridge wasn’t working, and he had food he wanted to refrigerate
Three gas canisters were found hidden behind the headboard; they were concealed, but he noticed a strange shadow when the night lights were turned on, and then made the discovery
The guest decided to bring one of the gas canisters down to reception at check-out, to make the manager on duty aware of this.
- Rove’s very generous referral offer ends June 11.
New referral offer is get 500 miles after they earn 250 + 10% bonus of the miles your friend earns in their first 6 months, and they get 500 instantly for signing up. Cap of 50k miles per referral.
That stacks with using promo code VFTW (no benefit to me), “Temporary hotels sign up bonus of 10k for your first stay of $500+, if you use the code VFTW at checkout.”
Their CEO describes the value prop:
You can get up to 25x miles at a bunch of hotels without needing a card, while the next best giving a flexible currency is 10x requiring a high [annual fee].
That, combined with the fact that you get the miles instantly when the stay is nonrefundable, means you can often cover your flight for free with your hotel stay. Attaching an email from a customer who did this and got 3 free biz class tickets on [Turkish] for 255k miles within 2 weeks of our launch (for about $10k hotel spend). The flights he received were likely worth more than he spent on the hotel. The amount you’d have to spend with any other program to get that is much much higher.
Also attaching an example where we were cheaper than the hotel and offered a great rate for earn and redeem. Price matching the hotel hasn’t been implemented yet, meaning there’s some sweet spots like this (and other cases where we end up more expensive, which will also disappear soon, but the miles you get are worth multiples more). TLDR is hotels have a certain number of rooms we get a crazy low rate on, just like award seats on a plane, and we provide the best possible value until these sell out, after which we are still very competitive.
- Every stay at La Quinta:
- Southwest elites on basic economy fares can no longer make same day changes
- United Airlines Catering Improvements: Aperol Spritz, United Express Meals, Hub-To-Hub Meals, “Caramel Cloud” Ice Cream Sundaes
- Airline passenger attire: my booty, my choice?
The story of gas canisters had no end. What type of gas canisters would a guest or hotel operator hide and was the guest charged in the end? Dangling story – more questions than clarity.
The following advertising for Rove or BonVoy or Laquinta looked just like the news content – indented and italicized.
Per the source article, it looks like they were ‘whippets.”
“I really hope that’s blood.”
“The Office” reference.
The guest who was charged should inform the front dest that the next time he discovers suspicious gas canisters in his room at this hotel, he’ll call the London Metropolitan Police, not the front desk. A full scale terror threat evacuation will solve their miserly ways.