Marriott Rewards shifted hotels last week to move nearly 300 hotels up in award category, however, there were even more hotels moved down in award category making free nights less to buy with points. The changes in points required for a free night affected fewer than 18% of the 3,375 hotels  in the Marriott network. 

Link to Loyalty Traveler list of Marriott Hotels that changed award category March 8, 2010.

Hilton HHonors movement in January 2010 of hotels among its award categories resulted in 82% of hotels costing more points in 2010. Marriott Rewards raised the award level last week for just over 8% of its hotels.

Hotel award category distribution matters

The tables below show the distribution of hotels within award categories for Marriott and Hilton. Marriott has a distinct advantage with 1 in 3 hotels available as category 1 or 2 awards. Hilton has fewer than 5% of hotels in its two lowest categories, or less than 1 in 20 hotels.

Marriott has 68.74% of its properties at 15,000 points or less. 2 of every 3 Marriott brand hotels are available for 15,000 points or less.

Now, compare the higher earning rate for a Hilton HHonors member earning Points & Points to the higher award rate. Assume the Hilton member earns 22,500 points in the same amount of time as a Marriott Rewards member earns 15,000 points. Hilton has 4.5% of its hotels for less than 22,500 points or less than 1 out of every 20 hotels in the chain. 

Sure you may earn points faster with Hilton, but the award levels are proportionately higher for hotel awards with Hilton HHonors; perhaps even disproportionately higher.

How do the programs match up for free nights using points with hotel awards?

The relative cost of a hotel award is related to the rate a member can earn points in the program. Money spent, elite status, and promotions are the primary factors determining how many points a member will earn in the loyalty program.

Hotel Spend

Assume the money spent is the same whether staying with Hilton or Marriott.

The HHonors member can choose to earn Points & Points and receive base points at a 50% faster rate than Marriott Rewards members for the same level of spending.

Elite Bonuses 

Hilton has the advantage on elite bonus points, since it is much easier to reach HHonors Gold on 16 stays or 36 nights (25% bonus) vs. Marriott Rewards Gold at 50 nights (25% elite bonus points).

Hilton Diamond at 28 stays or 60 nights is a lower threshold than Marriott Rewards 75 nights for Platinum. Each program offers a 50% elite bonus for top tier members. 

Promotions are difficult to compare. Hilton HHonors had a couple of good promotions over the past six months. The 25,000 points after 4 stays was a great offer. Marriott Rewards consistently offers its MegaBonus. Each program seems to offer members an opportunity to earn around 100,000+ bonus points per year. Bonuses are highly variable and dependent on an individual traveler’s pattern of hotel stays.

Base Points Earned favors Hilton 

One definite advantage of Hilton is 10 base points per $1 for every hotel brand. Marriott Rewards members with frequent stays in Residence Inn or TownePlace Suites will only earn 5 points per $1. If extended stay properties are your normal stay pattern, then the comparisons below may need to consider that your earning rate could be just 1/3 the rate of a HHonors member receiving 15 points per $1 with Points & Points.

A few hotel award samples for comparison of HHonors and Marriott Rewards:

Fairfield Inn Manchester Airport, New Hampshire dropped from a Marriott Rewards category 2 to a category 1 and is now 7,500 points per night.

Hilton has a Homewood Suites located at Manchester Airport which is certainly a higher hotel market competitive set than the Fairfield Inn, but this hotel will set you back 30,000 points for a night.

Hilton has the better hotel. Marriott probably has the better value award. Unless you are hanging out at the airport for business, a bed at the Fairfield Inn will likely give most travelers what they need at 25% of the award cost 

But here are other hotel options for Manchester, New Hampshire 

Manchester Regional Airport

Marriott SpringHill Suites Manchester Regional Airport is a Category 2 hotel for 10,000 points per night.

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $93.
• Award value = $9.30/1,000 points.

Hilton Homewood Suites is a category 4 hotel for 30,000 points per night. 

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $129.
• Award value = $4.30/1,000 points.

SpringHill Suites and Homewood Suites are both extended stay apartment style rooms. Courtyard is not an extended stay type hotel, but offers another airport hotel for Marriott Rewards members. 

Marriott Courtyard Manchester Regional Airport is a category 2 hotel at 10,000 points per night.

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $125.
• Award value = $12.50/1,000 points.

While Hilton may offer an advantage with easier elite qualification for higher tiers and more bonus points, the cost of awards at this location still favors the Marriott Rewards member.

Tucson Airport Arizona

Marriott Rewards

Courtyard Tucson Airport is Category 2 Hotel = 10,000 points

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $167.
• Award value = $16.70/1,000 points

Fairfield Inn Tucson Airport is Category 2 Hotel = 10,000 points

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $129
• Award value = $12.90/1,000 points

Residence Inn Tucson Airport is category 3 = 15,000 points

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $215
• Award value = $14.33/1,000 points 

TownePlace Suites Tucson Airport is Category 2 Hotel = 10,000 points

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $149
• Award value = $14.90/1,000 points

Hilton HHonors

Hampton Inn Tucson Airport is HHonors category 4 hotel = 30,000 points (this hotel increased from a category 2 award in January 2010)

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $118
• Award value = $3.93/1,000 points

Hilton Garden Inn Tucson Airport is HHonors category 3 hotel = 25,000 points

• Wednesday, March 17 rate = $169
• Award value = $6.76/1,000 points

Resort Hotel Stay Guanacaste, Costa Rica (7 nights from March 21-March 28)

JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa

Marriott Rewards category 5 hotel is 25,000 points per night or 150,000 points for 7 nights (5^th night free).

• Published room rate = $299 per night
• Award Value = $13.95 per 1,000 points.

Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort & Spa

Category 7 hotel is 50,000 points per night with a 25% discount for a 7 night stay = 262,500 points.

• Published room rate  = $169 per night.
• Award Value = $4.51 per 1,000 points

Hotel Award Category Matters

Hilton HHonors likes to advertise its option to earn Points & Miles as the only program giving members both hotel points and airline miles for each hotel stay. Members taking that option earn hotel points at about the same rate as Marriott Rewards members. Members also have the Points & Points option to earn a 50% bonus of base points (15 points per $1 instead of 10 points per $1 with Points & Miles).

While you may be able to earn 50% to 100% more points with Hilton HHonors, the payback comes when you decide to redeem your points. The cost of hotel nights in different markets is likely to be a much higher level than the cost for a free night with Marriott Rewards.

Hotel award category plays an important part of the equation when figuring out the value of your points.

Marriott Distribution of Hotels in Award Categories 2010

Marriott moved 316 hotels down in category from the 2009 award level.

Marriott Hotels in a Lower Category for 2010

Marriott Hotels in a Higher Award Category for 2010

Marriott Hotels in Higher Category 2010

In searching for the Westin press release I saw Barbara De Lollis covered the Westin story on Sunday, March 7 and she published an even more comprehensive story on credit card data breaches in hotels last week, “Cybercriminals still consider hotels easy targets for credit card info” on March 2.  Read her stuff. She says this was her most read story for the month.

The Carlson Hotels conference last week had a security session and covered credit card data theft and security actions hotels need to take.  The message I heard is that in most cases it is a relatively easy and inexpensive upgrade at the hotel level to prevent attacks. Carlson offered resource assistance to its hotel members for developing a secure data environment. This was another one of those big picture aspects of hotel travel that I really had not given much thought to in the past. And now more data breach stories are hitting the news since then.

Another aspect of traveling in the global hotel world I guess we need to consider as frequent guests is the security resources a larger company can place in protecting your credit card data. Barbara’s article shares insight of Nicholas Percoco, a data breach investigator with Trustwave.

“Percoco wouldn’t identify hotel clients, but he did suggest that some chains are being more proactive than others in trying to thwart hackers.

“Your larger hotel chains have started to take action,” he said.

“Now where the larger risk probably lies – once the brand names lock up their systems – is with the independent hotels,” Percoco said. “Many don’t have the resources and don’t have centralized staff to help them out.”

Barbara De Lollis, Hotel Check-in “Cybercriminals still consider hotels easy targets for credit card info” (March 2, 2010)  

Related Story links:

Hotel Hackers Attack Westin Bonaventure hotel’s restaurants, valet parking networks – Barbara DeLollis, Hotel Check-In, USA Today (March 7, 2010)

Westin is Latest hotel to be Hit by Hackers – Infosecurity (March 8, 2010)

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Open Letter regarding hacker breach (February, 2010)

Westin Bonaventure Data Security Breach – PR Newswire (March 5, 2010)

Radisson Database Hacked – Infosecurity (August, 2009)

Getting There

Walt Disney World "Where Dreams Come True"

If you have never been to the Orlando Disney complex, the place is vast.

I was on a bus taking guests to Downtown Disney from the Gaylord Palms Hotel where I had been staying about five miles away. The Disney Typhoon Lagoon Water Park is across the street from the Downtown Disney complex. I am not sure how much was happening at the water park since Orlando broke a cold temperature record last weekend hitting a low of 37 degrees in the morning.

Then, we drove for miles more and passed by a couple of other Disney Hotel resorts before stopping at the Disney World parking lot. I couldn’t see any of the park rides from the bus parking lot.  Then, we drove for miles more and I saw the Dolphin Hotel above the swamp brush and the bus let all of us remaining passengers off at Epcot. I had seen the iconic A-frame roof of the Dolphin Hotel from a close distance and the bus had driven farther away from it again as it circled around to Epcot.

The hotel told me it was an easy walk from the Dolphin to Epcot. But I could not see the hotel from the parking lot of Epcot. Well, it turned out I was on the wrong side of the park to get to the Dolphin hotel and to enter Epcot is around $85 after tax for a one day pass. After an hour of driving, I had seen mostly swamp brush, swamp lakes, cars on the road, and golf courses, and I wondered if $25 for a taxi would have been a better exchange for my time.

The buses are free within the resort to hop around between the various Disney parks. I took another bus to the Disney Hollywood Studios Park where I was told I could catch a five minute boat ride to the Starwood Dolphin and Swan Resorts.

Wheeling my luggage to the boat dock at Hollywood Studios, I arrived just as the boat tossed off the mooring ropes and putted away across the lake. I kicked back to catch some sun rays as the temperature was up to the 60s in what had been an unusually cold week so far. My luggage and I were first in line for the 20 minute wait before the next boat departure to the hotel.

I now know there is a path I could have walked between Hollywood Studios and the Swan and Dolphin Hotels. All I could see from the dock was more swampland. I didn’t even consider venturing out on my own.

Actually seagulls and ducks were the pesky critters around the resorts

The boat arrives as scheduled and I am ferried over the waters to the hotel. A child behind me repeatedly states for the whole ride, “Dad! It looks like we’re moving!” Seriously, like twenty times.

Welcome to Disney!

The boat passes by Disney Boardwalk villas and the Swan Hotel first. The boat dock is midway between the Swan and Dolphin Hotels. The ferry continues on from there to Epcot.

The façades of the Dolphin and Swan have a Disney type whimsical quality. The grand fountain of the Dolphin and the nearly 30-story high A-frame center building design are eye enchanting.

Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel

Just inside the ground floor revolving doors are restaurants. One is evening fine dining at Todd English’s BlueZoo restaurant featuring seafood. All-day dining is available at the Fountain with a burgers and ice cream type-menu.

Fresh Mediterranean Market down the hall past the Fountain has a breakfast buffet and a lunch menu, but closes for the day in the afternoon. The breakfast buffet at Fresh was about $22 after tax and tip. A decent value considering you can spend half that price for a mediocre and unsatisfying meal along the Boardwalk or at the hotel lobby bar which serves up fruit and bagels in the morning. Fresh restaurant offered some unique natural vitamin food drinks among all the usual stuff of pastries, eggs, bacon, sausage, and omelettes. I wish I’d written down the drink names. Sawgrass juice sticks in my mind. Colorful, tasty, blended with fruit juices to a palatable taste.

Up the escalator from the ground floor is the lobby. The lobby is open with a central fountain and lots of seating.

Both the Dolphin and Swan Hotels have convention halls attached to the hotels. A convention came into the Dolphin on my last night, but aside from the pools closing early for a private party there were no noticeable crowds. The Swan on the other hand was packed at one point when I walked through the hotel making it difficult to move through all the convention guests in the hallways.

At check-in the receptionist did an excellent job explaining the $10 hotel resort fee benefits (internet and two bottles of water daily), telling me I had an upgrade (always wonderful to hear), and sharing information about the resort and how I could use facilities and dining at the Swan if I desired and credit it to my Dolphin room. She did a really thorough job of greeting me as a guest. I rate this as a high quality aspect of the Dolphin resort for my experience. The front desk staff seemed on the ball every time I spoke with someone.

Ground Floor Entrance to Dolphin Hotel

There are three sets of elevators for the hotel. East, West, and Central. I was in the central tower which is the A-frame portion of the hotel. There are 20 guest floors in Central. The other wings are 9 to 11 floors I think.  My room was on floor 17 and I had that little heart patter as I realized my room was at the end of the hall. That is often a good sign.

Walt Disney World Swan Hotel at sunset

Premier Studio room at Dolphin Hotel

I opened the door to see a couch and two chairs. That is a really good sign. Basically the room was a sizeable junior suite. The floor map showed the 17th floor has two junior suites on the ends with the preferred view looking across to the Swan Hotel and over Crescent Lake to the Disney Vacation Resort area of the Boardwalk. The website lists these Dolphin Hotel room types as Premium Studios.

Looking down from room to the Dolphin hotel fountains

The end rooms on the other side of the hall are full suites. These rooms look over a vast area of swamp brush and DisneyWorld to the west in the distance.

View from other side of Dolphin hotel looking over Convention Center wing

A decent serene view, but not the side of the hotel to see the nearby Epcot fireworks show at 9pm and people watch around the lake walkways.

Fireworks at Epcot (the fireworks were more impressive than my photo)

The eastern side of the east wing has rooms with balconies with great views of Crescent Lake and the Disney Resort hotels and Epcot for the fireworks show at night. The central section of the Dolphin does not have balconies, except I think the 20^th top guest room floor has balconies with Presidential Suites.

My Premium Studio room had three sinks and a massive walk-in closet. A nice remodel feature would be a closet half the size and a bathroom double the current size.

Swan Hotel view at night from my room

The room was furnished quite comfortably, only the lack of decent air conditioning was uncomfortable. I attributed it to the window sunlight heating up the room, but it turned out to be a weak AC. I didn’t report it until check-out because I was too busy to be distracted by an engineer in the room.

Large TV but oddly low placement made the couch a viewing impediment from bed

The fantastic thing about the Dolphin and Swan is the resort feel of being in Disney, but with far fewer kids. I don’t think I ever passed by the wonderful looking buffet at Cape May in the Disney Beach Club without hearing a child having a crying fit. And I passed by that buffet several times over three days.

The Disney Boardwalk

My adrenaline gets going when I am in a new place and I desired a walk around the resort area. Across the bridge connecting the hotels to the Disney Boardwalk I soon came to Big River brewpub. This brewpub was slightly lower priced than the hotel ($10 brewpub burger vs. $12 hotel burger) and offered a variety of microbrew beer. The brewpub and the ESPN Zone were the most happening places daily in the afternoon on the Boardwalk.

The walkway along the Boardwalk has outside entertainers, nighttime dance clubs open at 7pm or 9pm until 2am (21 and older only), an Italian restaurant with outside pizza slices, a bakery, loads of candy options, games, and the ESPN Zone. Inside the Boardwalk Resort are additional bar lounge and dining options.

Disney Boardwalk

The walk around Crescent Lake from the Dolphin or Swan and back again can be done in 20 minutes without stopping or take an hour or more just walking and stopping to see people and admire the views. There are not really too many shops.

Walking to the entrance of Epcot from the Dolphin or Swan hotel takes about ten minutes.

Disney Yacht Club and Beach Club

The Disney Yacht Club and Disney Beach Club share large pool facilities. There seemed to be no identifiers for hotel guests so pretty much anyone with a bathing suit could wonder in and use the pools. I am not saying the Clampett’s drive in to use the pool for the day mainly due to the relative isolation of the place, but there appeared to be no impediment to a Starwood Hotel guest walking over and using the Disney Resort pools and vice versa. Whether it actually is allowed or not I do not know.

Disney Yacht Club pools

The entire walking path area between the five resorts makes it seem like the two Starwood Hotels are part of the Disney complex with access to much of what the Disney guests have and from what I could tell when checking hotel rates, a much lower price for the Dolphin or Swan.

Disney Beach Club viewed from the Boardwalk

The Disney Resort lakefront pools were expansive and great for kids, but the pools at the Dolphin were also substantial in size and much less crowded.

Dolphin Hotel Pools

Being on the white sand outside the Dolphin felt like a resort getaway. Kicking back in a hammock and having the Cabana bar and restaurant staff attend to your drink and food needs is certainly a lounge- away-the-day option at the hotel. I put in a good three hours during my stay at the Cabana poolside seating to drink some Stella and eat outside. The temperature was in the high 60s and low 70s most of the day.

Resort lounging at the Dolphin beach

The resident ducks at the Cabana Bar made me chuckle. This trio of ducks came around each day and they seem to live a life of luxury walking around between tables eating what is on the ground or what hotel guests feed them and then doing laps in the lap pool. Perhaps bar scraps are not a truly healthy diet, but what a place to exist. Donald Duck would be proud.

Resident ducks swimming in Dolphin Hotel lap pool

Dolphin and Swan Resort Facilities

The hotel has the lobby level Mandara Spa and a ground floor fitness center with an attendant.

Mandara Spa at WDW Dolphin Hotel

There are large video game rooms at both the Dolphin and the Swan. At least during my stay there seemed to be more children resident at the Swan.

Walt Disney World Swan Hotel

All in all, these hotels feel and look like resorts. This is the kind of place you can hang out for days and feel like you have drifted away into a Disney dream. And truly you have. Disney is all around you when you stay at the Walt Disney World Dolphin or Swan Starwood Hotels.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse line dancing at Disney Beach Club

The Walt Disney World Dolphin and Swan are both SPG category 4 hotel awards at 10,000 points per night. The hotel gives guests a credit of 500 points per night if maid service is refused, excluding the last night of your stay. I paid for my stay with SPG points. Getting 1,000 points back made the Premium Studio upgrade room a high value SPG award for my stay.

A guest leaves a hotel only with memories and impressions.

My memories of the Dolphin stay are fond memories and my impressions were good. I highly recommend these Starwood Hotels for the guest seeking the total Disney experience while staying in a Starwood upper-upscale environment just a little bit removed from the Disney entourage.

Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel Resort

Hubert Joly, CEO of Carlson Hotels, stated last week at the Carlson Hotels Global Summit in Orlando, “The future of the hotel business is strong brands will win.”

Consumers want value, and young travelers are even more focused on value. Hotel owners also want value and the big fish hotel chains provide that in this economic environment.

Hotel companies use a measure called RevPar index to measure performance of a hotel in its location against other hotels in its market segment. One of the slides shown at the Carlson conference used the Radisson St. Martin Resort in the Caribbean as an example property to show the effect of rebranding a hotel. Ten years ago this hotel was a Le Meridien (before Starwood Hotels bought the brand). It had a Rev PAR index of 85. The goal is to be at or over 100, which if I understand correctly, means the hotel is performing average or better than average in generating revenue among its competitive set of hotels. You want to be at least in the upper half of your hotel market segment.

The Le Meridien dropped its branding and went independent in 2005. Its RevPAR index plunged to 65. The hotel was severely underperforming. After Carlson Hotels rebranded the property as a Radisson Resort, the RevPAR index went up to 105 in 2008 showing its performance exceeded that of other hotels in its market.

The point I want to make is that independent hotels as a group are suffering more than branded hotels in this economic environment for the travel industry. I have seen data in the past year showing this statistic. That is why the time is right for the big hotel chains with capital to gobble up smaller independent hotels and hotel brands.

At the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin this week, Hubert Joly reiterated,  as he did last week in Orlando, that Carlson Hotels is sitting on a pile of cash ready to invest in expanding their hotel portfolio.

For those of us not in the hotel industry there may not be clarity in the relationship between a hotel company like Hilton, Starwood, and Carlson and its hotel properties. I am not in the hotel industry so my knowledge is quite basic, but this is how I understand the standard relationship.

Most hotels are not owned, and many are not managed by the major hotel companies. The hotels have owners and investors in a hotel investment company who agree to contract with Starwood, Hilton, or Carlson to align the hotel with a particular brand identity. The loyalty programs we belong to are incentives to concentrate our hotel stays with hotels in these brand identities. The parent chain like Hilton and Marriott set standards and practices for the hotel brands to enable a relatively consistent service quality for the guest as he or she travels from location to location and stays in different hotels within a brand.

The hotel owner gets name recognition for his hotel and the major hotel company receives fees from the hotel through the brand contract. The consumer has a recognizable name brand and receives loyalty program benefits. The hotel owner hopefully has increased occupancy and better rates due to hotel brand recognition driving traffic to the hotel. The hotel brand company like Hilton, Marriott, and InterContinental Hotels Group continues to grow as more hotels are willing to contract with a major industry player.

I met some hotel owners last week who own hotels branded with different chains like Hilton, Westin, and Carlson.  Just as we frequent guests compare programs to get the best deal, the hotel owners compare programs to contract with the companies where they feel the investment return will be strongest.

Stephen P. Joyce, president and CEO of Choice Hotels International states they are looking for a full-service brand to add to the portfolio. One of the recent brand additions to Choice Hotels is the Ascend Collection. These are often boutique hotels that have been added to the Choice Privileges network of 6,000 hotels (2^nd largest hotel chain globally behind Wyndham Hotels).

Hotel brands change companies. Starwood bought Le Meridien several years ago and integrated the brand into the Starwood Preferred Guest program. Hilton bought Scandic Hotels, integrated those properties into HHonors, then the brand was bought and removed out of HHonors all in a period of about seven years. Hyatt purchased Hawthorn Suites and AmeriSuites. Many of the AmeriSuites Hotels were converted to the new Hyatt Place brand and Hawthorne Suites was sold and is now part of Wyndham Hotels.

The next couple of years look to be a time of hotel brand consolidation in the big companies. When a hotel company like Carlson Hotels states they are going to add 500 Country Inn & Suites and a couple hundred Radisson Hotels, these projects are mostly conversions of hotels from their existing brand to a new brand. The market place is currently flooded with hotel rooms and many hotels averaging 50% or less occupancy are in need of new life and possibly new owners. New hotel projects are slowing. Many existing hotels will be rebranded in the next few years.

The good news for loyalty program members is a new hotel option within your preferred loyalty program will be coming to a place where you need a hotel night. The big fish are poised to pounce on the little fish and the familiar brands will become more widespread.

Competition for the relatively low number of travelers in 2010 and 2011 should mean loyalty promotions will remain prevalent, lucrative, and competitive. This may not be a great time to be a hotel owner, but it sure is a good time to be a loyalty traveler staying at hotels.

Source: http://www.hotelworldnetwork.com/brands/wyndham-choice-accor-and-carlson-ceos-debate-branding

All the big hotel chains are happy.

The BTN Hotel Survey is based on a survey of 387 corporate buyers. These are the people who negotiate contracts for corporate rates and conventions and such. Survey questions address topics like appearance of facilities, courteous staff, quality of food, quality of in room amenities, quality of business facilities, and perhaps most importantly the overall price-value relationship.

Here are leaders by hotel market segment.

Luxury Hotel Brands

     1. Ritz-Carlton (Marriott)

     2. Four Seasons

     3. Fairmont

     3. Waldorf-Astoria (Hilton)

     5. Mandarin-Oriental

     6. St. Regis (Starwood)

     7. Luxury Collection (Starwood)

Upper Upscale Hotel Brands

     1. Le Meridien (Starwood)

     2. InterContinental Hotels (Intercontinental Hotels Group – IHG)

     3. JW Marriott (Marriott)

     3. Sofitel (Accor)

     5. Renaissance (Marriott)

     6.  W Hotels (Starwood)

     7. Hilton

     7. Hyatt

     9. Omni

     10. Loews

     10. Westin (Starwood)

     12. Kimpton

     12. Marriott

     14. Sheraton (Starwood)

Upscale Hotel Brands

     1. Crowne Plaza (IHG)

     2. Hilton Garden Inn (Hilton)

     2. Hyatt Place (Hyatt)

     4.  EmbassySuites (Hilton)

     5. Doubletree (Hilton)

     6. Wyndham

     7. Four Points (Starwood)

     8. Courtyard (Marriott)

     9. Radisson (Carlson)

     9. SpringHill Suites (Marriott)

Midscale Hotel Brands

     1. Hampton Inn (Hilton)

     2. La Quinta Inn & Suites (La Quinta)

     3. Holiday Inn Express (IHG)

     4. Holiday Inn (IHG)

     5. Fairfield Inn (Marriott)

     6. Best Western

     7. Comfort Inn (Choice)

Source link: BTN 2010 U.S. Hotel Chain Survey

Priority Club has a partner activity promotion for 6,000 bonus points with three activities by March 31.

Register here for Partner activity bonus.

• Earn 1,000 points for one activity.
• Earn 2,000 additional points for second activity.
• Earn 3,000 additional points for third activity.

Total = 6,000 bonus points + bonus points earned from three activities.

Cheap and Easy ways to Earn Partner Activity

1.       Points.com exchange (Points.com homepage)

If you are not yet a member, you can receive 25 Priority Club bonus points just for signing up. If you are a member, American Airlines AAdvantage has no minimum transfer requirement. 3 AA miles = 1 Priority Club point. That will hardly make a dent in your AA account and you will earn 1,001 Priority Club points after the transfer and bonus for the partner activity.

Delta does not allow miles swap. Alaska has a 4,000 mile minimum swap so that is not a good value for points unless you have orphan miles that are unlikely to be used before they expire. I had Frontier miles that I swapped out (1,000 mile minimum) since I do not think I will earn sufficient miles in that account for a free ticket. I realized I lost 5,000 Distancia miles that were sitting orphan and at least I would have had some value if I had swapped them out in the past before I lost them. 

2.       Priority Club Rewards Shopping (limit of one partner purchase for promotion)

There are 200 partners. You may want to shop at Sears or Chicos, but if not, there are some store partners that most anyone can use for household or office necessities.

Walgreens has free shipping with a $25 order. Need some soap or diapers? 

Petco offers free shipping on $50 purchases. Are there hungry critters in your house?

Target has a daily special with a few items like $12 pants and $11 shoes and offers free shipping on the daily specials. The regular shipping cost is about $8. 

3.       Office Max (Free Shipping on $50 purchase)

Orders through Office Max appear to count as a separate partner and do not fall under the Priority Club Rewards Shopping limit of one purchase. Order $50 of stuff and get free shipping or you can pay $8 shipping for a lesser transaction.

4.       Buy Priority Club Points

Purchase the minimum 1,000 points for $13.50. This will give you a partner transaction bonus on top of the 1,000 purchased points.  

5.       Priority Club Dining (limit of one dining partner transaction for promotion)

Register a credit card for the Priority Club Dining program and go out to eat. New members earn 500 bonus points after first $25 dining transaction. I haven’t used dining for miles in a while, but for many travelers this is an easy way to get one transaction.

 6.       Just a small selection of other transactions are Hertz Rental Car, e-Rewards transfer to Priority Club points, Priority Club Visa purchase, transfer American Express Membership Rewards points or Diners Club Rewards points to Priority Club.

Three partner activities buying stuff you will buy anyway at some store can be achieved for just $20 or so in extra shipping. You can possibly earn 6,000 points at no additional expense if you order in quantities to earn free shipping.

Remember PointBreaks free nights are only 5,000 points so thiese bonuses can earn one or two free nights. Not even Priceline will get you a hotel room for $20.

Best of all is your bonus points all count for Priority Club elite status. Gold elite takes 20,000 points in a calendar year and Platinum elite takes 60,000 points in a calendar year.

Just then, the United Airlines employee comes over and says “No! No! No! What are you doing? That isn’t what you enter. You need to enter your confirmation code here!” as she grabs the flight information paper from the passenger’s hand.

“You need to read the screen!”

The couple proceed to check-in and I see they are on my same flight when the Indian woman asks me for help again while attempting to decode the word “itinerary” on the screen. The United employee comes back over and says condescendingly, “You need to read the screen.”

Now I am a credentialed California elementary teacher who has spent thousands of hours working with English Language Learners (ELL) and I confronted the employee and asked her, “But what if a person can’t read?”

She responds, “Then I am here to help.”

“Well damn lady, isn’t it obvious this couple needs help with reading English and there is no reason to be rude.” I didn’t say that, though. I can really get into someone’s face and argue when I get mad and I didn’t want to get kicked off my flight today.

She chided them one more time about reading the screen, but then remained to assist them through the process.

What struck me about the United check-in process was the number of instructions and upsell offers that need to be declined. Reading English at a higher than 5^th grade level is just one issue with the United Airlines self check-in process. The other issue is being comfortable navigating through screens and declining all the upsell offers.

$325 for an upgrade? At first I thought my flight cost had increased from $240. I had to navigate to the decline button and move on.

Pay more for the Premier Security Line? I had to navigate to the decline button.

Pay for checked baggage. Yes. I’ll buy one piece of luggage. Insert your credit card.

As I was dropping off my luggage I heard the UA employee berating the Indian couple another time about the amount of luggage they had and there was no way they could take all that on the plane.

I wasn’t wearing my glasses and I am far-sighted, so I could not read the employee’s name badge.

I want to apologize to the Indian couple for their exposure to the “ugly American” this morning.

In a global world we all need to learn appropriate ways to communicate better with persons of different languages. English is a global language and the dominant language of the internet, but for those of us who are native English speakers, we must remember there are more than 5 billion English language learners.

And even native English speakers can have trouble navigating the United Airlines self check-in kiosk.

***

Follow-up on the United Flights: Tuesday, March 9  home in Monterey at 3:00pm.

United flight delayed out of Orlando by an hour. Flight good. “Up in the Air” was in-flight movie. Decent movie, but so depressing. If you want an uplifting movie about a frequent flyer, check out the  hilarious movie “Last Stop for Paul“.

Now that is that kind of frequent traveler movie I find entertaining.

Iconic LAX

I saw Sean Penn at LAX. I think he was taking a flight to D.C.

On United Airlines.

Probably wouldn’t have truly reognized him except for the fact that I just watched him on Bill Maher before going to sleep last night so his appearance was quite fresh in my mind. And standing near him for several minutes helped.

United Airlines is self-promotiong their #1 on-time arrival ranking. LAX had cupcakes and coffee.

United Airlines #1 On Time Arrival Celebration at LAX

Last Tuesday in Denver the employees were handing out 10% off flight coupons and they gave me several. Now that is a customer loyalty benefit I can really use.

This is like being able to munch on 50 hotel donut holes and then eat your free fancy bakery cake too!

Choice Privileges is a fattening program.

Choice Hotels and Choice Privileges points are earned for the hotel brands of Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban, EconoLodge, Rodeway Inn, and the Ascend Collection.

Links: Choice Privileges – Redeem for Free Nights at Partner Hotels

Loyalty Traveler – Choice hotels for Economy Rates – Choice Privileges for Luxury Hotels (July 14, 2009)

Preferred Hotel Group website. Check out these properties if you are not familiar with PHG and you’ll see why there is real upscale value for budget hotel stays with Choice Hotels.

What I have gathered from financial news is banks are reluctant to provide lending for big projects that may fail which indicates to me that the major hotel chains have the branding allure to bring new hotels into the fold. This means that Europe, a place where only 30% of hotels are associated with major hotel brands like Starwood, Marriott, InterContinental Hotels Group, Carlson, Accor, and Hilton will be a place of significant hotel rebranding over the next few years.

Starwood aloft Brussels is scheduled for a summer opening and the brand was recently opened in Abu Dhabi.

Four Points will have two properties in Africa in Lagos, Nigeria and Tripoli, Libya.

Le Meridien is opening a hotel in Oran. I had to Google that one. Oran is in Algeria.

Dubai just recently rebranded the Grosvenor House as a Luxury Collection hotel. 72 degrees right now at 2am in Dubai sounds like a cool time.

The Romanos, another Luxury Collection Hotel, will open in Costa Navarino, Greece in June. A new Westin hotel will open there too. I just recently watched the Daryl Hannah movie “Summer Lovers” for the first time since 1983. Greece in summer 2010…?

W Hotels are slated for Paris, London, St. Petersburg, and Amman.

St. Regis Hotels are planned for Mauritius, Cairo, Doha, and Abu Dhabi. Those locations sound hot. No I mean hot, like walking outside might be uncomfortable. But I have always wanted to see Mauritius.

Source: http://www.hotelworldnetwork.com/development/starwood-add-50-hotels-emea-2012-7562

Broken Pipelines

Hotels refer to projects in the works as the hotel pipeline. When I am trying to count hotels in a hotel chain I find it bothersome that frequently the websites count hotels in the brand that are not actually yet built. Do a search of Starwood Hotels for China and you can get an idea of what I mean. 11 hotels show up for China, but only 52 are actually open to date.

Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) hotel pipeline peaked in the second quarter 2008. In 2009 hotel project cancellations removed a quarter of the pipeline. Europe has about 375 hotel projects underway and about as many still projected for construction. Tough lending standards make it hard to get a hotel project financed. That is why the big hotel companies will see growth over the next few years as the projects seek brand recognition as a key to success. Half the projects that have been cancelled had no hotel brand affiliation. Too many rooms and not enough guests means hotel construction is predicted to taper off after 2011.

Source: http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/452229-EMEA_Pipeline_Off_23_Since_2008_Peak.php?nid=3457&source=title&rid=14105349

Room Rates in Europe

Room rates in Europe did not decline in the past month. Room rates in Europe did decline 7 percent in the past year. The average room rate is 93 pounds or about US$140 per night according to the trivigo Hotel Price Index (tHPI). 34 of 50 European cities have seen rate declines over the past year. London is a bright spot where rates have risen 6% to an average 126.

Hotel Rates:

• UK = 100£ or US$150.00
• London = 100£ or US$189.00
• Geneva = 177£ or US$266.00 (most expensive city in Europe)
• Oslo = 142£ or US$213.00
• Milan = 139£ or US$209.00
• Stockholm = 122£ or US$183.00
• Paris = 120£ or US$180.00
• Copenhagen = 118£ or US$177.00
• Edinburgh = 108£ or US$162.00
• Amsterdam = 106£ or US$159.00
• Vienna = 105£ or US$158.00
• Dublin = 103£ or US$155.00
• Rome = 103£ or US$155.00
• Barcelona = 99£ or US$149.00
• Madrid = 88£ or US$132.00
• Berlin = 86£ or US$129.00
• Athens = 84£ or US$126.00
• Istanbul = 81£ or US$122.00
• Lisbon = 79£ or US$119.00
• Prague = 62£ or US$93.00
• Krakow = 58£ or US$87.00

Source: http://www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx?articleid=16375 

Prague was my destination for my last trip to Europe. My wife went to Poland in 2007. Our hotel rooms were certainly priced higher than $87. Praha is on my mind again.

Hradcany Suite, Residence Nosticova, Praha