Elite status qualification in a hotel loyalty program is the avenue to getting consistent higher-value out of your hotel expenditures.  My rule of thumb with the major frequent guest programs like Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood is high elite status will typically add $100 of value for each hotel night.  Bonus points, complimentary upgrades, special redemption offers, and complimentary hotel amenities all contribute to the value-added benefits of being a top elite member with your hotel program.  Complimentary upgrades to hotel rooms priced $200+ more per night than the rate you book at an upscale category hotel is a common benefit of top-elite membership in a frequent guest hotel loyalty program.

The benefits are doled out to lower level elite members on a sporadic basis.  I have had some fantastic upgrades as a Hilton HHonors Gold member and Marriott Silver member, but these are not the norm.  Regular room upgrades are the primary benefit of being a top-tier elite member and in my opinion the primary value for maintaining loyalty with a hotel chain year-to-year. 

Your personal travel pattern will determine your elite membership target.  If you travel just 20 nights per year, then Marriott is probably not a great program for your hotel lifestyle.  If your travel is not concentrated in major cities, then you will probably not benefit greatly from Hyatt or Fairmont as your primary hotel loyalty program.  If your budget is not elastic, then Loews may not be the program for you.

Not surprisingly, the hotel loyalty programs with the fewest hotel members such as Loews Hotels, Fairmont, and Kimpton tend to be the programs with the easiest high-elite qualification standards.  Hyatt and Starwood both have run promotions in the past year for counting stays double towards elite qualification, thereby making top elite status possible with as few as 13 nights.  Wyndham ByRequest does not provide a room upgrade as a defined benefit.

Here is the run-down of qualifying stays and nights for top elite status with major hotel loyalty programs.  All programs are based on the number of hotel stays or nights earned in a calendar year, except Hilton HHonors which uses any 12 month period of activity. 

 

Qualification Standard for Frequent Guest Top-Tier Elite Membership

Wyndham Rewards = ByRequest elite = 3 nights (room upgrades are not a defined benefit)

Fairmont President’s Club = Platinum elite = 10 stays or 30 nights in calendar year

Loew’s You First = Platinum elite = 10 stays

Kimpton InTouch = Inner Circle elite = 15 stays or 45 nights

Radisson Gold Points Plus = Gold Elite = 20 stays or 35 nights

Hyatt Gold Passport = Diamond elite = 25 stays or 50 nights

Starwood Preferred Guest = Platinum elite = 25 stays or 50 nights

Hilton HHonors = Diamond elite = 28 stays or 60 nights

Best Western Gold Crown Club = Diamond elite = 30 nights

Choice Privileges = Diamond elite = 40 nights

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club = Platinum elite = 50 nights or earn 60,000 points (potential to earn platinum status based on points earned throughout year can make attaining platinum status qualification much easier than staying 50 nights in a calendar year.

Marriott Rewards =Platinum Elite = 75 nights

A hotel stay is defined as consecutive nights in one hotel property.  One-night stays allow a member to qualify for elite membership with a number of nights below the  qualification standard for nights.  For example, guest member #1 of Hilton HHonors could have 20 one-night stays and 8 two-night stays and qualify for HHonors diamond status with 28 stays and 36 nights.  Another HHonors member could have 15 three-night stays and would not qualify for HHonors diamond status with 45 nights and 15 stays.  Even though member # 2 has stayed more nights than guest # 1 at Hilton Hotel properties, the diamond qualification level has not been met.

 

Starwood Preferred Guest has a couple of summer promotions to help travelers save money.

Stay Longer, Play Longer Summer 2008 promotion for USA/Canada for stays through September 29, 2008 for arrivals on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night.  Free night is based on Best Available Unrestricted Rate.

Buy 2 nights and get the 3^rd night free is available at most USA and Canada Starwood properties listed here.   

Pay 3 nights and get the 4^th night free is available at many upscale resorts listed here.

The offer is also available for resorts in Hawaii and the Caribbean.

 

Luxury Collection complimentary breakfast and late checkout for payment with American Express.  If your travel plans for 2008 include a Starwood Hotels Luxury Collection stay then the AMEX payment deal may add $60+ added value to your room rate paid.  Starwood Preferred Guest members do not receive complimentary breakfast at most locations and a breakfast at many European hotels will cost over $30US per person.  Available for stays through December 31, 2008 with no blackout dates or minimum length of stay.  The American Express offer participating Luxury Collection hotels are listed here.  The Luxury Collection properties of Europe were well-recognized in the Conde Nast 2008 Hotel Gold List as I posted in my February Loyalty Traveler summary.

 

 

 

 

Hyatt Gold Passport has announced the end to Hawthorn Suites participation as a hotel partner in the Gold Passport hotel loyalty program.  Hawthorn Suites stays will no longer earn Gold Passport points and future reservations for free nights at Hawthorn Suites using Hyatt points will not be accepted as of July 18, 2008.  Previously booked reservations using points will be honored for stays through October 18, 2008.   Points will be returned to the Hyatt Gold Passport account for Hawthorn Suites stays booked using points for dates after October 18, 2008.

U.S. Franchise Systems, the parent company of Hawthorn Suites hotel brand was sold last month by the Hyatt corporation to the Wyndham corporation.  U.S. Franchise Systems is also the parent company of Microtel Suites which operates its own Micropass hotel loyalty program offering 1 free night for every 9 paid nights. 

Hawthorn Suites’ 91 properties were the bargain award redemption through Hyatt Gold Passport for just 3,000 points per free night.  Hawthorn Suites hotels were part of Hyatt Gold Passport since 2003 and stays earned 3 Gold Passport points per $1.  One special Hyatt Gold Passport promotion in 2004 awarded a free night to Hyatt Gold Passport members for every stay at a different Hawthorn Suites.

Hyatt Gold Passport still offers reward nights using points at about a dozen Amerisuites properties for 3,000 points per night.

Go HoJo and possibly save 15% on your hotel rate for summer bookings.

Howard Johnson hotels advertise a 15% discount off Best Available Rate with their “Stay 2, Save a Few” summer offer for 2 nights or longer stays.  Free high speed internet and a continental breakfast are added benefits of this budget hotel chain.  The Howard Johnson hotel brand is a member of the Wyndham Rewards hotel loyalty program so your stays can earn points.  The recent InsideFlyer analysis of hotel loyalty programs viewed Wyndham Rewards solidly in the lower-middle range for free nights earning power based solely on spending among nine major hotel frequent guest programs.

Reservations need to be made by September 1, 2008, but reservation dates can be made this summer for a hotel stay later in the year as I found the 15% rate for dates in November 2008 during my rate searches.

The Wyndham reservations process has some interesting features not common among hotel reservations systems.   A regular hotel search returns special offer rates without the need to specifically search for special offers.  AAA and group rates do need to be checked separately, however, this promotion only applies to a discount on the publicly available Best Available Rate.

Ironically, when I used the promotional rate link for “Stay 2, Save a Few” for Monterey, the search return showed a higher rate for the Howard Johnson, Fremont Street in Seaside, than the rate shown in a default-mode search for Best Available Rate. 

The Stay 2 promotion reservation link returned a rate at $67 per night,  or 10% more than the $60 rate when searching for Best Available Rate (BAR).  When searching for the BAR rate a “Manager’s Special” promotional rate came up at $60 per night.  The “Stay 2, Save a Few” reservations website link returns the $67 higher rate at the Howard Johnson, Seaside and the rate does not state 15% off and the traveler is not shown the “Manager’s Special” rate in the search returns when using the “Stay 2, Save a Few” special offer link.

The 15% discount provides a good deal for Monterey for some dates at the three Howard Johnson hotels on the Monterey Peninsula for some dates.  The “Stay 2” rate will show in a search using the Best Available Rate standard search method, if available.  The “Stay 2, Save 15% Off Best Available Rate” will display as a header above the room rate.

To be safe, make sure to check the hotel rate using the regular reservations page.  My rate searches revealed the “Stay 2” link may not be the lowest available rate for your stay.

 

 

 

Accor Hotels  

Accor Hotels has a strong global presence and is actively redefining its hotel brands and positioning itself to be a competitive force in the global development of hotel brands.  Accor Hotels is a French-based hotel corporation founded in 1983 around the flagship Sofitel Hotels luxury brand.  As a hotel corporation dominant outside of the USA, Accor has a competitive advantage on the USA-based major global corporations like Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood.  Accor Hotels limited exposure to the USA hotel market slump in the coming years will shield its losses.  Motel 6 in North America was the least profitable portion of the hotel business in recently released financial reports for 2008.

Loyalty Traveler provides a summary introduction to one of the world’s largest hotel corporations.  The introduction of new hotel brands, segmentation of the Sofitel luxury brand, and rapid expansion in Asia/Pacific region makes a snapshot picture of Accor Hotels a bit confusing.  Different Accor Hotel websites provide different variations of information.  Safe to say the Accor Hotel corporation is growing and positioned to be a major player globally for the next several years.

In September 2008 a new hotel loyalty program will debut for Accor hotels as it evolves from the Sofitel Privilege and Accor Favorite Guest programs.  Motel 6 is the budget hotel brand of Accor Hotels dominant in North America, but has not been a participant in the hotel loyalty program for Accor.  Loyalty Traveler will feature a review of the new hotel frequent guest program when it debuts in two months.

The Accor hotel loyalty programs have been based on rebate vouchers as a percentage of spending (200EUR per 2,500EUR in hotel spending).  Accor Favorite Guest membership requires an annual fee and entitles the member to discounted rates from 10% to 50% for hotel stays.  Membership fee is currently 130EUR until August 31, 2008 and lasts for 12 months.  The fee may go up or down when the new program is launched in September 2008.

The feature of over 1,000 hotels in Europe makes Accor a hotel loyalty program to consider for travelers extensively touring Europe.

European and International Hotel Brands:

4,000 hotels in 90 countries (includes 900 USA/Canada properties in Motel 6 brand.)

·        Sofitel Hotels (luxury brand, 171 hotels in 50 countries; established 1964 Strasbourg, France)

·        Pullman Hotels (upscale brand, international launch in 2007 with more than 50 hotels open and 300 planned by 2015.)

·        Novotel (midscale, 400 hotels in 58 countries)

·        Mercure (and associated brands of Parthenon, All Seasons, and Orbis) 762 midscale hotels in 52 countries.

·        Suitehotel (23 midscale hotels in Europe)

·        Ibis Hotel (770 economy hotels globally with plans for 100 Ibis hotels in China)

·        Etap Hotel (370 budget hotels in Europe)

·        Hotel Formule 1(380 budget hotels in 12 countries)

·        All seasons hotels (new international chain of about 35 economy hotels in France, Australia, and expanding in Asia/Pacific)

·        MGallery (4 luxury hotels)

The North America budget lodging brand Motel 6 with 900 properties in USA and Canada is owned by Accor Hotels.  Studio 6 is an extended stay brand with about 50 properties in USA/Canada.  Motel 6/Studio 6 hotels do not participate in the Accor loyalty program or as part of the Best Rate Guarantee benefit for reservations.  Accor Hotels sold Red Roof Inn chain in 2007.

 All Seasons hotels has a last-minute promotional offer of 2 nights for price of 1 for select hotels released every Tuesday.  Check the website on Tuesday for new hotel offers.

 

 

 

 

Grand Cafe Bar, Hotel Monaco, San Francisco

Kimpton Hotels Low Summer Rates for San Francisco

 

Special summer rates at any San Francisco Kimpton Hotel for stays now through September 1, 2008.      

            Harbor Court Hotel                 $109 (Thursday-Sunday)

            Hotel Triton                            $109 (Thursday-Sunday)

            Serrano Hotel                          $119 (Thursday-Sunday)

            Prescott Hotel                         $129 (anyday)

            Sir Francis Drake Hotel          $139 (anyday, except Saturday)

            Hotel Monaco                         $159 (Thursday-Sunday)

            Hotel Palomar                         $159 (Thursday-Sunday)

            Argonaut Hotel                       $169 (anyday, except Fridays and Saturdays)

There was availability for 8 dates of 10 searches I checked.  (Harbor Court Hotel was unavailable on two dates checked.) An interesting feature of this promotion is the availability of the low rate on any day of the week for at least 3 hotels in San Francisco.  Monday to Thursday are usually the highest rates of the week for downtown San Francisco. 

These hotel rates for summer travel in San Francisco are competitive summer rates for the City and substantially less than rates I saw in searches two weeks ago.  Compare the benefits for a Kimpton InTouch loyalty traveler to the recent InsideFlyer’s July 2008 article on hotel loyalty programs and free nights earned based on hotel spending.  In their analysis, a traveler spending $2,052 will earn only one free night in San Francisco with just 4 of 9 hotel loyalty programs.  Kimpton Hotels is not included in their analysis.

2 free hotel nights at any Kimpton hotel can be earned for under $1,000 (including the 14% tax).  Kimpton InTouch is running a promotion for 1 free night after 3 stays and the regular benefit for InTouch members is a free night after 7 stays.  2 free nights can easily have a value of $600 to $800 in some hotel locations.  For 10 stays in 10 different Kimpton Hotels in the calendar year a person can earn an additional 2 free nights at any Kimpton Hotel with the Kimpton Passport Reward.  Kimpton InTouch can bring the frequent guest 4 free nights for an investment under $1,500 for 10 one-night hotel stays in 10 different hotels.  This achievement can even be accomplished without leaving California.

4 free hotel nights for a $1,500 investment in Kimpton Hotels this year with strategic hotel stays matches the free nights earned with the best of the 9 loyalty programs Inside Flyer reviewed based on a frequent guest spending approaching $6,000 per year.

Summer 2008 may be a good time to get InTouch with Kimpton Hotels.

 

Concierge Traveler – Hotel and Travel News  

I have noticed trends in the hotel industry stories over the past couple of weeks since not posting much while traveling around in San Francisco and Denver.  Here is a selection of interesting travel industry articles I have seen lately.

********

I have been writing much of this year on the “perfect storm” of currency exchange economics, perception of declining wealth among Americans and its impact on international travel, and the hotel revenue management teams insisting on maintaining historically record high room rates. 

My conclusion is the trifecta will decrease the room rate inflation for hotels in the U.S. but I anticipate wildly swinging hotel rates for the rest of 2008.  Expect exorbitantly high room rates in major city business center hotels during busy work weeks and peak travel conferences when the hotels will strive for enhanced revenue. Anticipate more frequent hotel room bargain rates during extreme lulls in business travel to induce leisure travel stays. 

The leisure traveler will see great hotel rate opportunities and an increased probability of getting a high value-added incentive like a complimentary room upgrade, free parking, restaurant meals and/or bar drinks, and quite possibly a high added-value rebate through hotel loyalty program bonus points towards a future free night redemption.  Unlike airline frequent flyer miles, hotel programs make room redemption using frequent guest points a fairly simple process.

Rising fuel costs balanced by staff reductions seems to be the business practice for keeping profits rising in the face of declining occupancy and pressure on room rate rises.  Europe is seeing a widespread decline in the American tourist market on the order of 10-15% fewer visitors for places like Ireland this season than last year so far.  The British pound has lost nearly as much value against the Euro in the past year as the dollar – around 15%.  A survey of UK  travelers shows 13% cutting back on travel plans due to weaker value of the British pound in past year.  British tourists are finding less value in travel to Ireland.  British tourists are increasingly favoring Turkey to escape the Euro zone for a beach getaway as even the rising cost of a holiday in Spain pushes bargains aside.

The indicators are that major cities are faring better than outlying regions for tourism such as Budapest.  London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin are still strong attractions for the tourist and business conference market.  Ireland and Scotland are seeing summer tourist fortunes decline.  Still there are analysts saying “there are no decline in business hotels for 2008” and the scenario is not so bad as hotels continue to profit, just to a lesser amount than in previous years and the cut rate bargain hotel rooms may not be coming to your town anytime soon.

Now I am waiting to see the loyalty program response to initiate more interest in hotel travel for the second half of the summer season.  The incentives are nowhere near the high value hotel frequent guest promotions of last fall, winter, and spring.

Expedia has dropped 48% in stock value since October 2007 and the recent announcement of the purchase of Venere.com did not seem favorable to the market.  For the consumer the deal just might be upbeat.  Venere.com has accommodation relationships with nearly 30,000 European and US properties and the acquisition will add more than 10,000 new hotels in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to Expedia’s reservation system.

More interesting to me is the acquisition of VirtualTourist.com by TripAdvisor.com.  Expedia is moving along as the major player in the hotel travel review and travel media market and now adds a vibrant social media component to the Expedia portfolio.

Hotel stocks and travel stocks in general are taking a hit on Wall Street with many at 52-week lows.  Marriott reports profits are declining in the past few months by a substantial margin of 24%.  Analysts predict that reduced airline capacity may exacerbate the problem of lower hotel occupancy for geographically isolated U.S. cities like Denver, Colorado to an extent larger than the post-September 11 travel slump.

 

Don’t think twice, it’s alright

            – TripAdvisor’s top ten places to show your skin.

Don’t think twice, it’s not alright to slip out of that tan line clothing in Dubai. 

-         And a tourist asks can you still kiss in public on a Dubai beach? 

 

Hotel Website Redesign and Brand Recognition

HotelChatter.com reaction to the Starwood Hotels’  Luxury Collection website redesign and recent articles on InterContinental Hotels media library, Hilton’s Conrad and Waldorf-Astoria brands are all pieces pushing brand recognition with website enhancements to distinguish these upscale and luxury brands within the corporate hotel family. The St. Regis Fort Lauderdale is being stripped of its brand name affiliation with Starwood Hotels.

Boston and Las Vegas  Coast-to-Cost Blues

Boston hotels predict harder times ahead as fuel costs and operating expense increases cut into diminishing profits.  The hotel rates in Las Vegas are reported to be at their lowest room rates since 2003 in this LA Times blog.

 

 

 

 

Online Hotel Reviews

Travelers place a lot of faith in consumer-generated hotel reviews. I trust FlyerTalk.com content because there is a large community of travelers who provide opinions and feedback on each other’s comments. Most major upscale hotels around the world have user comments and reviews from the 100,000+ members of the FlyerTalk.com community.

I believe the self-monitoring independent community of FlyerTalk.com provides more accurate hotel reviews than what is typically found on TripAdvisor.com, particularly when it comes to the experience for elite frequent guests in the major hotel loyalty programs.

Social Media Co-Opted by Corporate Media

The best social media websites with consumer generated comments and hotel reviews have been co-opted by corporate media. Social media websites where users generate the content for free has been a successful marketing partnership for major travel industry players. What in many cases started out as independent, organically developed networks of people creating content for free to help other travelers has developed into the current condition of the major global travel reservations corporations like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com owning social network sites like TripAdvisor.com and IgoUgo.com as corporate subsidiaries.

Meta-search engines like Kayak.com who own TravelPost.com, and bulletin boards like FlyerTalk.com and Cruisecritic.com are not sellers of travel, but make money on an advertising model based on travelers frequently interacting as a community creating new content.

Major Online Hotel Reviews and Their Parent Corporations

IgoUgo.com hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search engine = Travelocity.com (Parent Company)

TripAdvisor.com for hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search = Expedia.com (Parent company)

Hotels.com has a large database for hotel reviews. Hotels.com is also an Expedia company. Hotel guests must have booked stay with Hotels.com to post a review and most of the reviews do not have any written comments. A point scale survey on Hotel Service, Hotel Condition, Room Comfort, and Room Cleanliness are used to give the hotel a rating on a 5 point scale. This website offers a quick snapshot of customer satisfaction for hotel.

TravelPost.com for hotel reviews and Kayak is a meta-search = Kayak.com (Parent Company)

Orbitz.com generates its own database of user-generated hotel reviews based on hotel guests booking through Orbitz.com and responding via e-mail to a post-stay request for a hotel review.

Yahoo! Travel uses a couple of different hotel review databases. When conducting hotel searches through the Yahoo Travel homepage the results use Travelocity and the hotel reviews are the same as Travelocity. When using Yahoo Travel Guides or FareChase for hotel searches the hotel reviews are a different set.

“I Want to Believe” TripAdvisor

A recent article TripAdvisor Staying Ahead of the Pack from Compete.com, the web traffic analysis site, and a blog post by the same writer Ryan Carrigg “TripAdvisor Poised for Success”, shows the dominance of TripAdvisor.com for user-generated content in the online travel research sector. The article states “TripAdvisor.com averaged over 6 million US unique visitors” per month for the year from May 2007 to May 2008. The traffic on TripAdvisor.com has seen 34% growth from May 2007. A finding in this report states that 1.08% of users of TripAdvisor.com had posted content over the past year.  TripAdvisor has hotel reviews, restaurant comments, and general travel forums for destinations.

This TripAdvisor data had me wondering about the hotel review content on other popular websites. I have made a simple analysis of online hotel reviews from several common websites by counting the actual number of hotel reviews for a small sample of hotels in San Francisco.

TripAdvisor Hotel Reviews – What Percentage of Guests Write TripAdvisor Reviews?

(There are a number of unknown variables which makes this analysis a very rough estimate at best.) 

Le Meridien San Francisco TripAdvisor popularity index #14/238 hotels;

197 total hotel reviews; 38 reviews from 2008; 79 reviews in past 12 months;
oldest review from April 26, 2002 when hotel was a Park Hyatt.

360 rooms at Le Meridien San Francisco
Assume a rather low 50% average nightly occupancy or 180 rooms booked per night.
180 rooms x 365 nights = 65,700 room-nights.

65,700 room-nights / 79 hotel reviews = 832 room-nights per hotel review.
1 hotel review for every 832 room-nights could be as few as 1 hotel review per 832 hotel guests (if each guest only stayed 1 night) at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco.  Assume, on average each guest stays 2 nights and the ratio would increase to 1 hotel review per 416 guests. 

If hotel occupancy averaged 65% for the year, then the proportion of guests writing a review decreases. If more than one guest is in the room, then the proportion of hotel guests writing a review decreases.  There are lots of variables.

It seems to me that the actual range of guest hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.com is probably about 1 out of every 1,000 to 2,000 guests posts a hotel review for most major hotels.

360 rooms x .65 occupancy = 234 rooms/night are occupied.
234 rooms/night x 365 nights = 85,410 room-nights (some rooms will have more than one guest and some guests will stay more than one night)
85,410 room-nights/ 79 hotel reviews = 1,081 guest occupied rooms for every hotel review posted on TripAdvisor.com

1 hotel review is posted for every 1,081 guests at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco if the hotel averaged 65% occupancy over past year.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco is a larger hotel with 805 rooms. Assume 50% occupancy for past year.

TripAdvisor has 37 reviews in 2008 and 66 reviews from past year.

Several floors of this hotel were remodeled in past six months and a newly remodeled Regency Club lounge opened in March.

805 rooms x .50 occupancy = 403 rooms/night occupied.
403 rooms/night x 365 nights = 147,095 room nights (guests) in past year.
147,095 / 66 hotel reviews = 2,229 guests at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco for every 1 review posted on TripAdvisor.com.

Hotel reviews are one strategy for choosing a hotel. I typically look at TripAdvisor to get opinions when I have a couple of hotels to choose from in the same price range. Unfortunately, my elementary analysis of the data indicates that even with the high number of hotel reviews on
TripAdvisor.com there is still only about 1 guest review for every 1,000 guests in the good cases and may be as few as 1 review for every 2,000 guests for other hotels.

When I read a review I wonder what the other 1,999 guests thought of their hotel stay experience for that same property? This is why a site like FlyerTalk.com with the ability to respond to other people’s hotel comments or ask questions provides more consumer-user-friendly content than many of the reviews on the major sites like TripAdvisor.com. Hotel corporate representatives even respond at times on FlyerTalk.com threads about hotels.

Online Hotel Reviews By the Numbers

The data below shows TripAdvisor rules the online hotel review sites for the depth of consumer-generated hotel reviews.

Methodology:
Hotel Reviews for 8 hotels in San Francisco were searched on 6 leading websites including Expedia.com, Kayak.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, and Yahoo!Travel .com

1. The total number of hotel reviews for a hotel is given on each of the hotel review sites.

2. I counted the number of reviews posted in 2008 since recent reviews are generally most valid for a reader. For example, Travelpost.com listed the Crowne Plaza Union Square San Francisco as one of their top 5 hotels. The Crowne Plaza changed to Hotel 480 six months ago and is no longer part of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) hotel brands.

3. The number of reviews posted since July 1, 2007 was counted. This also shows the number of reviews older than one year. A popular site for submitting hotel reviews several years ago may have a high number of total hotel reviews, but a low number of recent reviews for hotel stays in the past year. This observation can be seen with Yahoo Travel Guides.

Consumer Written Hotel Reviews on Popular Websites
for a Selection of San Francisco Hotels

Le Meridien San Francisco, 360 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 38
Past year = 79
Total = 197

IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 2
Past year = 5
Total = 9

TravelPost(Kayak.com)
2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 18

Orbitz.com
2008 = 6
Past year = 8
Total = 11

Yahoo Travel Guides
2008 = 1
Past year = 4
Total = 12

Hotels.com
2008=122
Past Year = 191
Total = 223

Palace Hotel – The Luxury Collection (Starwood Hotels), 552 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)

 

 

 

2008 = 47
Past year = 83
Total = 211

Hotels .com (Expedia)

2008 = 85; 127 reviews in past year; 161 total reviews;

94% recommend; 4.5 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 4
Past year = 9
Total = 17

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 13

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 4
Total = 4

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 33

 

Westin St. Francis; 1,195 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 67
Past year = 128
Total = 463

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 13
Past year = 23
Total = 43

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 95

Orbitz.com

2008 = 18
Past year = 31
Total = 61

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 163

Hotels.com = 14 reviews in 2008; 28 reviews in past 12 months; 68 total reviews
Hilton San Francisco; 1,896 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 48
Past year = 110
Total = 232

Hotels.com (Expedia)

85 reviews in 2008; 200 reviews in past 12 months; 373 total reviews; 86% recommend; 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 11
Past year = 41
Total = 75

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 1
Total = 82

Orbitz.com

2008 = 7
Past year = 18
Total = 39

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 93

 

 

Hyatt Regency San Francisco; 805 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 37
Past year = 66
Total = 203

Hotels.com (Expedia)

39 reviews in 2008; 63 reviews in past 12 months; 91 total reviews;

93% recommend hotel; 4.3 average rating out of 5

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 6
Total = 11

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 93

Orbitz.com

2008 = 0
Past year = 8
Total = 20

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 4
Past year = 7
Total = 63

 

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, 685 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 44
Past year = 82
Total = 238

Hotels.com (Expedia)

26 reviews 2008; 54 reviews in past 12 months; 120 total reviews; 84% recommend, 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 3
Past year = 18
Total = 45

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 17

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 21
Total = 44

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 15
J.W. Marriott San Francisco, 337 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 19
Past year = 44
Total = 214
IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 3
Past year = 10
Total = 16

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 2
Total = 24

Orbitz.com

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 2

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 44

Hotels.com

5 reviews in 2008; 12 reviews in past year; 78 total reviews; 88% recommend; 4.2 average rating

Marriott San Francisco; 1,498 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 34
Past year = 75
Total = 206

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 13
Total = 30

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 10

Orbitz.com

2008 = 5
Past year = 6
Total = 17

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 2
Total = 36

Hotels.com (Expedia)

50 reviews in 2008; 97 reviews in past year; 138 total reviews; 90% recommend; 4.4 average rating
 

The advantage of Hotels.com is the large number of recent reviews and the display provides a quick snapshot of guest satisfaction.

Expedia is definitely the leader in the hotel review market as owner of the two largest databases in Tripadvisor.com and Hotels.com.

[Loyalty Traveler note: The text of this post was edited September 19, 2008 when I reviewed the piece for a new article about TripAdvisor.com and I realized I had incorrectly interpreted the data from Ryan Carrigg's post with respect to the number of hotel reviews posted to TripAdvisor.  I originally wrote that I estimated TripAdvisor had about 90,000 new hotel reviews in May 2008.  The 90,000 figure actually reflects any user-generated content posted to TripAdvisor.com for May 2008 and only a fraction of this content are hotel comments.  There were also errors in the assumptions used to estimate the proportion of hotel guests who post TripAdvisor reviews. 

The main idea to take away from this post is the dominance of TripAdvisor.com, hotels.com, and their parent company, Expedia.com, in the online hotel reviews market segment.] 

 

On Monday this week I came across two hotels with significant rate differences on their hotel websites compared to rates returned through a Travelocity search for downtown San Francisco hotels for July stays.

Hotel Triton, a Kimpton Hotel, San Francisco – $189 best available rate on Kimpton site ($161 AAA rate);
$99 to $104 on Travelocity and Expedia. This rate was gone as of today. Kimpton Hotels has a Best Rate Guarantee to match any lower rate for a comparable room found on a third-party site with a phone call to Kimpton.

Westin St. Francis, San Francisco –
$179 best available for standard double room on Starwood websites (Standard room at St. Francis is quite small room size with no view);
$136.58 Travelocity. Rate still there today.

Starwood has a Best Rate Guarantee offering a 10% discount on the lower rate found on a third-party travel site or the lower rate and 2,000 Starpoints.

Market Share Battle between Online Travel Agencies and Hotel Corporate-Branded Websites

After the 9-11 travel downturn there was tremendous discounting in hotel rates around the US and in many parts of the world. Priceline.com had a huge inventory of rooms that were going at fire sale rates. I stayed for weeks in Europe at major hotels like Marriott in major cities like Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Singapore for rates averaging under $70 per night.

The hotel industry struggled with raising rates in 2002 and 2003. A fundamental shift occurred in hotel loyalty programs that differentiated them from airline frequent flyer programs during this period. Hotels began requiring hotel bookings to be made through the hotel’s own websites as a condition for earning frequent guest hotel points and elite membership qualifying stay credit, and hotel stay benefits like upgrades, or complimentary lounge access for elites.

An online reservation for a Hilton Hotel only earns HHonors credit and privileges when booked through any Hilton hotel family reservations website. Third party online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz will not generate hotel loyalty program benefits for the hotel guest even if the guest is a high level hotel loyalty program member. This means a Hilton Diamond elite member should not receive upgrades or complimentary breakfast or lounge access when making a reservation through a third party site. (In actual practice the treatment of an elite member can be better for guests with past stays at a hotel as an elite frequent guest member. I have received full suite upgrades at some Hilton hotels on Priceline stays where the hotel staff knew me by name and prior stay history as Hilton HHonors diamond elite.)

Currently, a hotel guest loyalty program member can only expect hotel loyalty program benefits when reservations are made through a hotel corporate-branded website. Using Starwood Hotels as an example, the corporate-branded websites are listed as:

“Starwood-branded websites include Sheraton.com, Westin.com, StRegis.com, Whotels.com, LeMeridien.com, FourPoints.com, LuxuryCollection.com, Alofthotels.com, Elementhotels.com, SPG.com, and Starwoodhotels.com (collectively, “Starwood-branded Websites”).”

Hotel reservations booked online are at a ratio of about 60% rooms booked through the hotel corporate-branded websites and about 40% through third-party online agencies like Expedia and others.

HOTEL WEBSITES’ BEST RATE GUARANTEE (BRG)

The Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) is an interesting marketing concept for hotel corporations to control their own booking and guest reservation data.

Third-party online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz have a large share of the hotel reservations market. Hotel guests who are not hotel loyalty program members are primarily looking for low rates. An online travel agency provides an immediate search return for rates at dozens of hotels, perhaps hundreds of hotels for a location and date and makes a small profit on each booking with a fee.

A search for San Francisco hotels on Travelocity returns 295 hotels in the “Greater San Francisco Area”. From the point of view of the hotel operator or for a hotel corporation like Hyatt, a potential guest having 295 hotel choices means the few Hyatt corporate-branded hotels are just a small fraction of the overall search returns. Too many choices means potential guests are lured away by offers and rates from one of the other 285+ non-Hyatt hotels. The metasearch travel site Kayak.com searches 342 hotels for San Francisco.

The corporate-pledged “Best Rate Guarantee” tells a potential guest that the absolute lowest rate is to be found on the corporate-branded hotel website. If you want to find the best Hyatt rate for San Francisco, then you need not worry about missing a better rate on Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, or any other third party online travel agency. The best rate guarantee assures you the best rates will be found through Hyatt’s own websites.

Loyalty Traveler research supports the claim that the best hotel rates are almost always found through the hotel chain corporate-branded websites.

Finding two major corporate hotels in downtown San Francisco at the same time with lower rates on Travelocity than the hotel corporate websites was a surprise.

All the major hotel corporations have Best Rate Guarantees for hotel bookings through their corporate-branded websites. The hotel corporations have different policies for their own version of the Best Rate Guarantee.

I wrote about Best Rate Guarantees in this post from March 2008 after successfully claiming a Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee. The interesting feature of that claim was the lower rate was pulled immediately from Expedia. In the case of the Westin St. Francis, the lower hotel rate is still on Travelocity almost 72 hours after I filed a successful BRG claim with Starwood for a rate $42 less than the Starwood sites and an additional 2,000 Starpoints.

There is another Blogspot website called The Best Rate Guarantee Blog dedicated to BRG claims for Wyndham-brand hotels. A good concept that will likely create havoc with BRG claims if it spreads to other major hotel chains. I looked over the tutorial for making BRG claims. The BRG blog favors Kayak.com for hotel rate searches.

One word of caution is not to rely too heavily on a single search engine like Kayak.com, although its metasearch function for checking Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, and Expedia.com is a time-saving feature. I regularly find significantly lower special offer rates through hotel corporate-brand websites than available on Kayak.com. The challenge to the consumer and a primary writing topic for the Loyalty Traveler is navigating the hotel corporate-branded websites for special offer links to rate discounts. Even a simple rate like a AAA group rate that may be 20% lower will not show up on a Kayak.com search. And remember that Best Rate Guarantee does not apply to special group rates like AAA members or senior rates which are the most common lower rates for hotel rooms.

The Westin St. Francis $138 hotel rate was not visible on Kayak.com unless you also did a search of Travelocity in a separate window. Orbitz.com, Expedia.com, and Kayak.com had the same $179 rate on the Starwood Hotels websites. I read a research report a couple of years ago from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research concluding Travelocity was the most likely site to have the lowest hotel rates among major online travel agencies (I will have to search out the report link and of course the data may not bear the same results favoring Travelocity.com if the study were repeated today). In this case the Travelocity lowest rate factor came into play for the Westin St. Francis rate.

Another benefit of the Starwood Best Rate Guarantee provided for 2,000 bonus Starpoints or a 10% discount of the lower rate found on a third-party website.

I took the 2,000 Starpoints.

PointMaven.com has a table showing the Best Rate Guarantee terms and links for different hotel programs.

Loyalty Traveler Original Research –
Diners Club Comparison of Redemption Value Across Hotel Points Programs

Hotel Points can be earned through credit card points exchanges with Diners Club/MasterCard Club Rewards points. Club Rewards points can be a valuable asset when planning the hotel component of a trip.

Loyalty Traveler is always seeking good hotel value. An analysis of Diners Club shows value is relative to the hotel program partner and the particular time and place of points redemption for a free hotel night.Diners Club Rewards points can be exchanged into hotel points for 7 major hotel loyalty programs at the following exchange rates for 1,250 points (transfers must be multiples of 1,250 Club Rewards points):

Best Western Gold Crown Club = 3,300 points
Choice Privileges = 2,400 points
Hilton HHonors = 2,000 points
Hyatt Gold Passport points = 750 points
Marriott Rewards = 1,500 points
Priority Club Rewards = 1,500 points
Starwood Preferred Guest = 750 points

In addition to point exchanges, Diners Club Rewards points can be used for free night redemption offers with Fairmont Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, and various luxury villa properties in Europe and hotels in Hawaii.
By the Numbers

Points Redemption Value

Summary of results based on an extrapolation of value for 50,000 Diners Club Rewards points exchanged into hotel points and redeemed for a free night in a particular location (San Francisco) and date (Tuesday, July 15, 2008) for a hotel stay using points.

Best Western = $1,399 for 4.7 room nights
Starwood = $1,197 for 3.0 room nights
Hyatt = $1,080 for 2.5 room nights
Choice = $905 for 6.0 nights
Priority Club = $811 for 2.4 nights
Hilton = $660 for 2.0 nights
Marriott = $270 for 1.0 nights (Marriott Redemption Value affected by Stay Anytime reward as only available option for July 15, 2008 San Francisco).

Assume a Diners Club member has 50,000 Club Rewards points and wants to exchange these for a good hotel value. $50,000 in purchases earns 50,000 Club Rewards points under normal earning rules.

50,000 Club Rewards points exchanged into hotel points for:

Best Western Gold Crown Club = 132,000 points
Choice Privileges = 96,000 points
Hilton HHonors = 80,000 points
Hyatt Gold Passport points = 30,000 points
Marriott Rewards = 60,000 points
Priority Club Rewards = 60,000 points
Starwood Preferred Guest = 30,000 points

Calculating Hotel Points Redemption Value

Calculating the value of hotel points across programs is a complex analysis. There are too many variables: specific hotel program terms, hotel location, time of year, weekday vs. weekend nights, promotions, and redemption special offers for free nights using hotel points. That being said, the reality is -

hotel points have no value until redeemed.

Ultimately, the final decision for hotel travelers becomes whether to pay cash or use points for your all or part of your stay. Therefore, it is a valuable exercise to see real numbers for hotel free nights in a sample scenario. There will likely be hotels around the globe and the USA offering better value and hotels offering lesser value than the hotel points redemption sample.

Methodology for hotel program comparisons and the value of 50,000 Diners Club Club Rewards points.

Hotel points redemption value is based on using the same city and same dates for comparison across programs. I use San Francisco as a model for comparing hotel programs due to the large number of hotel members in a large number of hotel corporations in a highly concentrated area of downtown San Francisco. I frequently use international locations for redemption value options due to the high cost of hotels in most major international cities around the globe.

The limitation of the analysis that follows is I only look at one sample date for hotel rates and all data is extrapolated based on hotel rates for Tuesday, July 15, 2008 in downtown San Francisco. This analysis gives a snapshot of the comparative value in a real-time analysis of what kind of reservation could be booked with hotel points on July 1, 2008.

The points redemption values for the one night San Francisco stay are extrapolated to provide a common relative value across hotel programs. This allows a comparison of the relative redemption value for total hotel points earned through an exchange of 50,000 Diners Club Rewards points.

Obviously, a person cannot book 2.4 nights using points and I did not actually try to book 2 or 3 night stays using points. The total points redemption value found for San Francisco for Tuesday July 15 is extrapolated at the same rate to determine an overall points value for an exchange of 50,000 Club Rewards points.

Marriott is the only program that has skewed data because in this real time situation using July 15, the Marriott Rewards program was the only program requiring extra points for a free night (double points for a Marriott Rewards Stay AnyTime reward).

In real travel the probability that one program will be less favorable than another is common. The real value of Diners Club points is the ability to transfer your points into a variety of hotel programs and take advantage of the best opportunity for points redemption for the particular trip and hotel stay.
Example of Calculating Points Redemption Value for Free Rooms Using Points:

JW Marriott San Francisco is a Category 7 hotel in the Marriott Rewards program. Your points redemption value is determined by how many points you actually save when you redeem points for a free night.A free night for a Category 7 hotel costs 35,000 points using Marriott Rewards points. This next Friday night, July 4th, the lowest available room rate for this hotel is $199. After 14% hotel tax, your 35,000 points save you $227 for a free night in San Francisco.

The value of 1,000 Marriott Rewards points is about $6.50/1,000 points if used for a free room night to save $227 at JW Marriott San Francisco, July 4th Friday night.

A weekday Tuesday free night on July 8th is an entirely different value for 35,000 points. The midweek rate for the JW Marriott San Francisco is $319 per night and the value of your points redemption increases to $364 after 14% hotel tax. Your points redemption value is 60% higher at $10.40/1,000 points when redeeming 35,000 points for a $364 savings.

A good rule of thumb is to try and redeem your points at a value higher than the purchase rate of points through the hotel program.

Caveat and analytical limitation:
The analysis shown here does not take into account the value of points not earned by not paying for a room.

For example, a paid room at $199 base rate will earn 1,990 Marriott Rewards points plus promotional and elite bonuses. The points not earned will likely be 2,000 to 4,000 points that need to be included in a calculation of the value of your points when redeeming for a free night.
A more precise valuation for a $227 JW Marriott room savings would be 35,000 + 1,990 (points you would have earned if $199 base rate paid instead of hotel points reward).

$227 hotel savings / 36,990 points = $6.14/1,000 points redemption value for July 4.
$364 hotel savings / 38,190 points = $9.53/1,000 points redemption value for July 8.

Actual points redemption values will also be dependent on the date, location, current promotions, and elite status within the hotel loyalty program, so the points not earned will be higher than these basic calculations and result in points redemption values slightly lower than these given above. As you can see it is complex to calculate the value of points with a single hotel program and comparisons across programs are more complex.

The value* of 50,000 Club Rewards points exchanged for hotel points:
*calculations for redemption value do not consider points not earned for a paid stay.

Points Redemption Value = money saved/points for free night x 1,000

Best Western Gold Crown = 132,000 points

Diners Club Exchange Value = $1,399.20 for 4.7 free nights

Best Western Hotel California, San Francisco
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Best Western, The Hotel California
28,000 points or $260.10 + 14% hotel tax = $297/night
or $10.60 redemption value/1,000 points.

Best Western members must be Platinum (15 nights) or Diamond (30 nights) elite to purchase points at rate of $10/1,000 points. ($1,320 points purchase value)

Choice Privileges = 96,000 points

Diners Club Exchange Value = $905.28 for 6 free nights at Rodeway Inn Downtown San Francisco

Choice points purchase value ($10/1,000 points with 10,000 points annual limit)

Rodeway Inn Downtown San Francisco
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 16,000 points or $131.99 AAA rate or $151 after tax
$151/16,000 = $9.43/1,000 points

Hilton HHonors = 80,000 points

Diners Club Exchange Value = $660 redemption value for 2 nights at Hilton San Francisco Financial District

Purchase Value: $800 for 80,000 HHonors points

All 3 San Francisco Hilton properties are Category 6 hotels costing 40,000 points for a free night.

Hilton San Francisco Financial District
Tuesday July 15
$289 base rate. $330 after hotel tax.
$330/40,000 points = $8.25/1,000 points

Hyatt Gold Passport = 30,000 points

Diners Club Exchange Value = $1,080 redemption value for 2.5 nights at Grand Hyatt San Francisco

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, A Hyatt Gold Passport Category 3 hotel = 12,000 points for a free night.

Tuesday July 15
$379/night or $432/night after tax
$432/12,000 points = $36/1,000 points x 30,000 = $1,080 redemption value

Marriott Rewards = 60,000 points

Diners Club Exchange Value = $270 redemption value for 1 night at San Francisco Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf

1 night Stay Anytime Category 6 hotel reward for San Francisco Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf = $270 value.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
San Francisco Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf
Category 6 Stay Anytime award = 60,000 points

$237 internet only 14-day advance nonrefundable rate = $270 after tax.
$270/60,000 points = $4.50/1,000 points

This would be a quite poor redemption value for 60,000 Marriott Rewards points.

Priority Club Rewards = 60,000 points

Diners Club Exchange Value = $811 redemption value for 2.4 nights at Holiday Inn San Francisco Golden Gateway

$811.12 redemption value for 2.4 nights at Holiday Inn San Francisco Golden Gateway
San Francisco charges 40,000 points for the Mark Hopkins and the new InterContinental San Francisco adjacent to Moscone Convention Center. The InterContinental hotels are not available for the July 15 date, however there is availability for the Holiday Inn San Francisco Golden Gateway on Van Ness Street for 25,000 points per night.

$296.65 + tax = $338/night
July 15, 2008
$338/25,000 points = $13.52/1,000 points

Priority Club PointBreaks

Priority Club has a special redemption offer called PointBreak for a 5,000 points free night award. There is a revolving list of participating hotels around the globe that is updated with new hotels every couple of months. There is potential to get 12 nights on PointBreaks awards at 5,000 points per night.

Example night: PointBreaks Reward for France at the Holiday Inn Toulouse Centre for July 15, 2008 where the regular rate is 99€ per night and a 5.5% tax is included in rate. The value of this PointBreaks redemption is about $160/5,000 points or $32.00/1,000 Priority Club points. With 60,000 Priority Club points from 50,000 Diners Club Rewards points the redemption value in the range of $1,920 value is possible. This is nearly a 4% return on the Diners Club credit card purchases of $50,000.

Purchase Value: $690 value for 60,000 Priority Club Rewards points.

Priority Club points purchase limit is 40,000 points per 12 months at rate of $11.50/1,000 points for purchases of 20,000 points or more.

Starwood Preferred Guest = 30,000 points

Diners Club Exchange Value = $1,092 redemption value for 3 nights at Westin Market Street
or
$1,197.00 redemption value for Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf

Purchase Value: 30,000 Starpoints x $35/1,000 = $1,050 value

This type of comparison for the relative value of using points compared to booking a paid reservation is facilitated by the simple design of the Starwood hotel rate search returns that also show availability of free nights using points or the even more valuable Cash & Points option.

The best value for July 15, 2008 is the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, a Category 4 hotel available for 10,000 points or a paid rate of $350 + tax/night.
The Westin Market Street is also available for points at $319 + tax/night or 10,000 points.

Westin Market Street
$364/10,000 points = $36.40/1,000 points

Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf
$399/10,000 points = $39.90/1,000 points