IHG has a 10,000 points per InterContinental stay rate promotion from July 6 to August 31, 2009. There appears to be no restriction on the number of times the bonus may be earned.  The value of this promotion is the possibility to buy Priority Club points at a discount. Promotion link.

Loyalty Traveler Promotion Rating = 2 to 4 keys (5 key scale) depending on specific InterContinental Hotel rate differences between the lowest available rate and the 10,000 bonus points rate. Compare rates carefully before committing to the 10,000 bonus points rate.

Loyalty Traveler checked hotel rates for the five InterContinental Hotels in California and Arizona and the survey sample revealed the 10,000 bonus points rate was always higher than the lowest available rate for the same nights. Some of the hotels would cost more to buy points for a 2-night stay than just purchasing points directly through Priority Club. 

Only one of the five  hotels I checked had a 10,000 points rate that would still be a good value with more than a one night stay.

*(Tax is additional 10% to 16% on price shown in extra cost per night for 10,000 points rate)

InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco = 4 keys

Loyalty Traveler 4 Keys (out of 5) Promotion at InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco

but this promotion is only 2 keys for InterContinental Montelucia Scottsdale, AZ.

Loyalty Traveler Promotion Rating = 2 Keys for IC Montelucia Scottsdale

The promotion seems like a good value promotion at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco where a rate just $13 more than the lowest available rate earns the 10,000 bonus points. ($126 lowest available rate; $139 for 10,000 bonus points rate).

The InterContinental Monterey – The Clement requires a two night stay and the 10,000 bonus points rate is $38 more per night. After two nights + 10.5% tax the 10,000 bonus points will cost $84 more than the lowest available rate.

Why pay $84 more to earn 10,000 bonus Priority Club points when you can buy 10,000 points for $60 when it comes time to redeem for a free night using the Priority Club Cash & Points awards? See my post from last week on the rationale for buying Priority Club bonus points during hotel stays and redemptions.

This deal is more an opportunity to buy discounted points rather than a promotion for bonus points for staying at an InterContinental Hotel between July 6 and August 31^st. In some cases the 10,000 bonus points rate may be a great purchase such as a one night stay at the Mark Hopkins where $13 + 15.5% tax will buy you 10,000 bonus points. But there are cheaper ways for points than paying the higher rates for a two night stay in Monterey or an extra $80 per night for the InterContinental in Scottsdale.

The InterContinental San Francisco is currently running a $159 California Staycation rate for residents of California that includes parking and breakfast for two each night. This may be a much better deal than the 10,000 bonus points for a rate $20 per night less.

Related Loyalty Traveler link: IHG Cash & Points Award Nights,  June 20, 2009, details how to get 10,000 points for $60.

InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel, Nob Hill, San Francisco

We have all done hotel rate searches and you may already have a strategy that works well for you. I just completed a hotel rate search for family members planning to stay 7 nights next month in Washington, D.C.  

Here is a case study of how I approached the task of finding a hotel deal in Washington, D.C. for July 2009.

The search was more challenging than I predicted, primarily due to constraints of

1)      Two kids

2)      No hotel changes during stay

3)      Must be near metro in downtown DC

The Search Process:

# 1 Check rates on meta-search engine like Kayak.com or search engine of your choice to get comparative rates for Washington, D.C.

Hilton Washington at $115 for Wednesday and Thursday night looked like the best weeknight deal in the rates shown on Kayak.com. The rate for the week was only $106 per night. The Renaissance M Street was even less at $99 per night. There was a $200 range in upper upscale hotel brand rates for weeknights Monday through Thursday night.

Friday and Saturday nights had widespread hotel rate deals with many upper upscale hotels under $100 per night: Grand Hyatt ($99), Crowne Plaza The Hamilton ($90), Westin D.C. City Center ($95), Marriott at Metro Center ($109), Hilton Garden Inn Downtown ($98).

These downtown D.C. hotels were averaging $100 on weekend nights and $250 on weekday nights.

Sunday was a variable day depending on hotel. Some hotels were only $20 more on Sunday night than Friday-Saturday rates and other hotels were $100 more for Sunday night compared to the weekend rates.

Initial check shows possibility for major brand, upscale hotels with Renaissance M Street ($795 after tax) or Hilton Washington ($850 for 7 nights after tax).

# 2 Check Rates for Priceline, Hotwire Successful bids

Checking a website forum where people post their winning bids is crucial for the traveler planning to use Priceline or Hotwire for hotel bidding. Here are the two most popular websites for Priceline bid info:

http://www.betterbidding.com

http://www.biddingfortravel.com

Rates on bidding threads in the sites listed above for Priceline looked like an average of $75 would likely secure a room.  The 7-night rate with Priceline would be right around $600 for an unspecified 3.5 to 4 star room bid. Recent bids for Washington D. C. indicated likely hotel winning bids would be at Renaissance Mayflower for around $75 per night, Marriott Wardman Park ($65), or Renaissance M Street ($70).

Priceline looked like a pretty sure bet for one of the Marriott Hotels.

The hotel guests I was working for did not want to go with the uncertainty of Priceline, although I thought that was a good choice.

Another problem with Priceline is there is no guarantee the hotel will honor the reservation for 4 guests (2 adults and 2 teenagers).

# 3 Checked SkyAuction.com and LuxuryLink.com for hotel and timeshare offers. Nothing found.

My family looked for apartment rentals on their own and found a $1,400 all-in one bedroom apartment for the week.

# 4 Check individual hotel sites for special offers. 

This is a process that is generally limited by time. There are dozens of hotels, each with several special offers, and a rate check is the only way to know if the special offer is a good deal. Checking all the special offers of 20 hotels can take a day of rate searches. Limiting your searches is imperative.

I found loads of high-value special offers, however, nothing was even close to the price of staying at the Renaissance M Street ($800 all-in for week) or Hilton Washington ($850 all-in for week) or Priceline ($600 all-in for week).

#5 The Starwood Loyalty Preference

After coming up with the Marriott and Hilton options, I was asked to look into Starwood Hotels more closely. The hotel guests have 40,000 Starwood points. These Starwood members have one stay so far during the free weekend night promotion and will earn a free weekend night with a second paid stay in Washington, D.C.

Sheraton Suites Old Town Alexandria is only $108 per night, but the commute into D.C. is a consideration and they decide being in downtown is more important than price.

#6 Break down potential rates within the selected set of hotels including a Search of Hotel Special Offers

The primary difficulty in finding the lowest available hotel rate is the lowest rate is usually some special hotel offer that is only accessible through the hotel’s own website links. This means that for the 6 Washington, D.C. hotels in the Starwood chain, the lowest rate is likely available through a link on the Hotel Offers page on one of the 6 websites for these specific hotels.

Kayak, Expedia, and Travelocity do not show these hotel special offer rates.

UpTake.com is good at pulling up hotel special offers, however, I still have not found them to lead me to the lowest rates in the few searches I have conducted through the website.

The problem with special offers is that you need hours and hours to check all the possibilities.

The feature that narrowed my search was the discrepancy between hotel rates over the weekend among the Starwood brands.

Washington D. C. Hotel Weekend Rates for Friday and Saturday nights

The rates at the Four Points, Westin City Center, and Fairfax at Embassy Row were so much lower for the weekend than the other Starwood Hotel options. With the list narrowed to these three hotels I could easily search special offers, free nights, and Cash & Points for the best 7-night value at a single hotel.

Westin D.C. City Center had a 3-night rate of $119 for Friday through Sunday for the lowest overall weekend rate. Westin DC City Center also had Cash & Points awards for all the dates around the weekend. Four Points Downtown and Fairfax at Embassy Row only had Cash & Points for 2 days of the 7 night stay.

# 7 Focus on a single hotel and special offers for Westin Washington D.C. City Center

3^rd Night Free brings the rate down from $119 per night for Friday-Saturday, and Sunday nights to $300 for 3 nights.

The big score was when I found availability for three nights at the Westin D.C. City Center using the pay your BirthYear rate at $180 for the first night and $36 for the second and third night. This rate was $50 less than the 3rd night free and brought the nightly room rate down to $84 per night.

Final reservation choices:

a)      $287 for three paid nights at Westin Washington D.C. City Center and 4 nights free for 40,000 points.

b)      $287 for three paid nights and 4 nights using Cash & Points award for $240 + 16,000 points; $275 after tax.

$562 + 16,000 points = Final Booking for 7 nights in July 2009 Washington, D.C. at Westin DC City Center.

16,000 points provided over a $1,000 savings on the published Starwood Hotels rate of $1,683 after tax for the Westin DC City Center for my family’s travel dates.

Supreme Court, Washington, D.C.

I love new reports from Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research. The report just released, “Competitive Hotel Pricing in Uncertain Times”, is creating headlines across the hotel industry.

The short version of the 18 page report can simply be distilled to this axiom for hoteliers,

“Maintain higher rates than your competitors and you will have higher profits.”

The layperson may not understand all the data and mathematical analysis required to reach this conclusion for what likely amounted to years of research and I am sure research assistant number crunching. However, the layperson would likely intuitively reach the same conclusion that charging higher room rates than your competitors will result in higher profits for hotels.

Gotta love college.

Loyalty Traveler’s thoughts from the viewpoint of a hotel room consumer on the research paper “Competitive Hotel Pricing in Uncertain Times”.

The basic conclusion of the research paper is a hotel that has a lower average room rate than its competitor hotels in the same location and same market segment will have a higher occupancy rate, but lower profitability.

The research study of thousands of hotels between 2001 and 2007, the bad years and the good years for hotel occupancy, indicates hotels are more profitable when they charge rates 5 to 10% higher than the competitor hotel set in the same location and market segment. The research indicates this trend is valid across all hotel market segments from budget economy to luxury hotels.

As a frequent guest I find average room rates listed on sites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, and in the AAA TourBook virtually useless.

Real-time hotel room rate searches are the only numbers that matter. For this I go to Kayak.com and a hotel set I can with fair assurance justify placing in a location specific competitive set.

Luxury Hotel Rate Comparison from Kayak.com search for Saturday, July 11 San Francisco

St. Regis San Francisco $359 (+15.1% above average for set)

Four Seasons $325 (+4.2%) [Four Seasons rate is from Four Seasons website]

Mandarin Oriental $295 (-5.4%)

Ritz-Carlton $269 (-13.8% below average rate for set)

Average Price = $359 + $325 + $295 + $269 = $1,248 / 4 = $312 average price

Basically this data shows that in this competitive set the average price for a luxury hotel in downtown San Francisco for July 11 is $312. The St. Regis is following the no rate cut advice from Cornell with a nightly rate more than 15% higher than the average for this set.

From a consumer standpoint I would be going with Ritz-Carlton all the way and save $90 per night. Grab this hotel while it is a bargain rate.

One of my favorite lines from the Cornell CHR report is

“You’ve also got to be careful not to attract the wrong type of customers to your business, which you may do if you drop your rate dramatically.”

Looks like the St. Regis is trying to keep customers like me from infiltrating their lobby, but as a consumer I imagine I will be just as happy at the Ritz-Carlton. I like their rooms too.

San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf offers a good competitive set to analyze. All the major hotel chains have a primary brand hotel within a couple blocks of each other. Here are their rates for Friday, July 10.

San Francisco Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf $169  (+9.7%)

Holiday Inn Fisherman’s Wharf $161 (+4.5%)

Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf $159 (+3.2%)

Radisson Fisherman’s Wharf $148 (-3.8%)

Hilton Fisherman’s Wharf $144 (-6.5%)

Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf $143 (-7.1%)

Average rate for Fisherman’s Wharf competitive set = $924/6 = $154/night

The Cornell CHR report suggests that the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf is probably higher in occupancy than the Marriott, however, Marriott should be making more of a profit if these specific hotels follow the prevailing trends for the 15,000+ hotels in the Cornell study.

Loyalty Traveler’s primary thoughts on the Cornell CHR report conclusions

Hoteliers will likely try to follow Cornell’s CHR research advice. In a tough economic climate the ability to raise rates is limited by the actions of your competitors. Hotel rates have to be somewhat in line with competitors and the overall industry has seen declining rates this past year across all hotel market segments. This research should push management into trying to escalate rates in cooperation with competitors seeking better revenue in tough times.

The consequences for us as hotel room consumers is the pressure we may feel if hotels raise average room rates in a coordinated fashion and settle for less occupants. Rooms will ultimately cost more. Fewer frequent guests.

I assume many locations will have a hotel market competitive set similar to what I show for San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf. The Cornell CHR research paper showed data on the distribution of hotel rates based on comparable competitive hotel sets.  I interpreted the data as meaning on average 2/3 of hotels are within 10% of the average rate for a hotel competitive set.

In my Fisherman’s Wharf hotel example this holds true in that the price range for hotels in the major chains falls within 10% plus or minus of the average for the set. Marriott is at the high end and Sheraton is at the low end, but they are all grouped around an average rate of $154 per night for my one night sample.

For hotel loyalty program travelers I think the good news is that given the tendency to set hotel rates comparable to hotel rates of the competitive set in the same hotel market segment (midscale, upscale, luxury) in any given location means the primary difference in value is not likely to be the hotel rate but rather the hotel loyalty program benefits received for your hotel stays.

In other words, hoteliers following the Cornell CHR advice will result in comparable hotel rates for comparable hotels in any given location regardless of the hotel chain you choose for loyalty. The loyalty traveler seeking to maximize hotel value should be more focused on the value-added benefits from loyalty membership that will accompany the hotel stay rather than the small differences in hotel rates.

Loyalty Traveler is making the argument that loyalty program promotions and benefits will generally be a more significant monetary value than the hotel rate differences over the course of many hotel stays and the variety of hotel rates among the different brands.

I know that right now I can take $1,000 in Starwood Hotels spending and get more than $1,000 in additional added value for a $2,000 hotel stay value. Added value comes from the points earned during the hotel stays, the complimentary room upgrades to better room categories, and the free weekend night promotion that earns a free night with every two hotel stays.

Rather than looking at the choice of a $140 hotel or $175 hotel, consider the benefits your loyalty program offers will provide. Generally you will find there are loyalty program promotions and special offers with value-added benefits that have a higher monetary value than the rate differences between comparable hotels in different chains.

Loyalty Traveler advice:

1.      Be an active hotel loyalty program member and sign up for promotions. Realize that while your preferred hotel chain may be 10% to 15% more than a competitor for any given hotel stay, the opportunity for earning 20% to 50% or more in value-added loyalty program benefits, bonus points, and credit towards free nights is often available with hotel stays at a major hotel brand.

2.      Earn Hotel Loyalty Program elite status.  When possible focus your hotel stays with one major chain and go for top elite status.  When you have developed a preferred market segment for your hotel stays (are you a Four Seasons kind of traveler or a Four Points by Sheraton hotel guest?) then your hotel loyalty program will generally add sufficient value to your hotel stays to negate price differences between hotel brands.

You may pay more for staying in a hotel chain brand due to your hotel loyalty program choice, but Cornell’s study indicates the higher room rates will generally be no more than 10% to 15% more than comparable hotels in any given location and market segment.  

When you travel around, the low-priced Hilton hotel in one city may seem preferable to the high-priced Hyatt hotel based solely on rate. In another city the Hyatt hotel may seem like the better deal when compared to the higher-priced Hilton hotel.  You can divide your loyalty and stay based solely on room rates. My Loyalty Traveler argument is you will receive value-added benefits and promotion bonuses by sticking to one hotel loyalty program that exceeds the extra cost paid for minor rate differences between hotel brands in different loyalty programs.

Hopefully over the course of the year in hotel stays in different places you will have some higher than average hotel rates and some lower than average hotel rates for your preferred hotel chain.

Spending time learning how to maximize your hotel loyalty benefits will provide more value than spending lots of time chasing the lowest hotel rates.

In other words, saving $200 on hotel rates is not really a savings if you bypass $400 in value-added hotel loyalty program benefits you would have received by paying a higher rate and maximizing the benefits of a major chain hotel loyalty program.

Hotel Competitor Sets

Be aware of the concept of competitor hotel sets in your hotel location to recognize which hotels are lower than the average cost within the market segment for your destination. This may be hard if you don’t know the area, but generally easier when focusing on major hotel chain brands. Use Kayak, Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz and sort hotels by Hotel Star ranking to see rate patterns for possible hotel competitive sets in a particular location.

How does a consumer define a Competitor Hotel Set?

Hotels in San Francisco know their hotel market segment competitors. St. Regis is competing with Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, and Four Seasons. Westin Market Street is competing with Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt in San Francisco. Hotel management studies the room rates offered by its competitors and adjusts rates accordingly.

How does the consumer determine a hotel competitive market set?

The consumer is left with an inability to know the competitor set of comparable market segment hotels. TripAdvisor ranks hotels and they may be a way to find competitive hotels. Or is it?

One of the drawbacks I find in TripAdvisor is the popularity ranking of hotels has no regard to market segment.

TripAdvisor San Francisco Popularity Ranked Top 10 Hotels:

1.      Hotel Drisco – $317 – 4 star (AAA 3 diamond)

2.      Inn at Union Square – $265 – 3 star (AAA 3 diamond)

3.      Fairmont Heritage Place – $575 – 5 star (new hotel not listed in AAA)

4.      Omni San Francisco – $271 – 4 star (AAA 4 diamond)

5.      Orchard Hotel – $217 – 4 star (AAA 3 diamond)

6.      Chancellor Hotel on Union Square –  $204 – 3 star (AAA 3 diamond)

7.      The Donatello – $193 – 4 star (AAA 3 diamond)

8.      Ritz-Carlton – $440 – 5 star (AAA 5 diamond)

9.      White Swan Inn – $240 – 4 star (AAA 3 diamond)

10.  Mandarin Oriental – $481 – 5 star (AAA 4 diamond)

TripAdvisor popularity does not help the consumer with defining a hotel competitive set since the hotels are in different hotel rate market segments. 3 of the top 10 hotels displayed for San Francisco fall in the luxury hotel category with an average rate over $400 per night (although I did find the Ritz-Carlton at $250 per night for a 7 night stay in July including parking and breakfast).  The rest of the hotels appear to be in the upscale to upper upscale category.

None of these TripAdvisor Top 10 hotels are an upscale brand of the large hotel chain properties in Marriott, Starwood, Hyatt, IHG, or Hilton. The hotel list on TripAdvisor does not compare competitive set hotels. The Top 10 TripAdvisor hotels in popularity do not belong to points-based hotel chain loyalty programs. Ritz Carlton is affiliated with Marriott, but only for points redemption, and not for points accumulation.

Hotel Drisco is listed as AAA 3 diamond and has a $317 average rate according to TripAdvisor data. The same ranking is given to the Orchard Hotel with a nightly room rate $100 less. As a consumer having read the Cornell research I guess Hotel Drisco is making the profits while Orchard Hotel is bringing in the guests.

I know Orchard Hotel would likely get my search attention first for a booking based on these simple rate average comparisons.

Sort hotels by Star ranking to get a closer match for hotel rates in a local hotel competitive set. The Cornell research shows that hotel competitive sets tend to be within 10 to 15% above or below the average for the hotel set. Prevailing rates, hotel reviews, and star rankings improve the ability to analyze hotel rates for good deals within a particular hotel market segment in any given location.

And when that 5 star hotel shows up on Kayak.com at a rate $200 less than all the others, you will have a sign that the hotel is probably incorrectly categorized by the website.

Summary of Starwood Hotels May 2009 Stays and Promotional Value:

$1,500 in Starwood Hotels spending in May 2009 for 14 hotel stays earned:

– $1,000 in points and miles for future travel

– 7 free hotel nights with a potential value of $500 per night ($3,500)

– $2,200 in room value during my actual stays based on room upgrades and complimentary hotel amenities due to my SPG platinum elite status.

$1,500 Paid and an estimated $6,700 in hotel value earned from these stays.

Average cost per hotel night: $57.70

$1,500 paid for 14 hotel nights + 7 free nights + 5 free nights using points (Cat 3 for 5 nights) =

$1,500 / 26 hotel nights =

$57.70/night for 26 mostly upper-upscale hotel nights.

I received $2,200 in hotel rooms based on the cost it would have been to book the type of room I received at the different hotels. I was always upgraded based on SPG platinum elite status, always the preferred room view and several times to room suites.

I received an additional $1,000 in points (26,000 Starpoints) and miles (14,000 Northwest miles) earned from these 14 hotel stays.

7 free weekend nights were earned in May 2009 from the 14 Starwood Hotel stays.

I redeemed one free night in June at the St. Regis San Francisco for a $500 value.

St. Regis San Francisco

Hilton Hotels is discounting Bed & Breakfast rates on multi-night stays for hotels outside of the Americas through August 31.

Offer: Book a nonrefundable minimum two nights for hotel stays from June 26 through August 31 and receive the second night free. For stays of three or more nights receive 50% off the nightly “Bed and Breakfast” rate for each extra night. Breakfast for two (kids 12 or younger eat free) and late 6 pm checkout.

The rates show up on regular searches for all the hotels I checked so there is no need to insert special rate code. Here is a link showing sample hotel rates at participating hotels in various regions.

Timeframe: Book by August 17 for stays through August 31, 2009.

Location: Hotels in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Pacific are participating. This offer does not apply to North America, South America, Central America, and Caribbean.

Loyalty traveler Analysis of Promotion Value:

I checked two hotels for rate comparisons: Amsterdam Hilton and Trianon Palace Versailles, Waldorf-Astoria Collection (rebranded from Westin Hotels in past year).

Amsterdam Hilton, Amsterdam, Netherlands showed a good rate savings, 149.50€ per night for a 2-night, Tuesday and Wednesday nights stay, July 21-23 with the 2-for-1 rate including breakfast. The next lowest rate available was a nonrefundable advanced purchase rate at 239€ per night.

June 24 exchange rate of 1€ = $1.40USD.

Amsterdam Hilton 2-for-1 B&B rate = $419 for 2 nights = $210 per night including breakfast.

I recall the breakfast buffet being about $30 per person at the Amsterdam Hilton several years ago. And I paid around $160 for the Amsterdam Hilton on Priceline in summer 2006.  

This is a decent deal for Amsterdam, but there may be better deals at other hotels. Then again, Amsterdam and Paris have held up better than most European cities for maintaining hotel rates in this global recession.

Waldorf Astoria Collection Trianon Palace, Versailles, France

July 21-23 with 2-for-1 B&B rate = 139.50€ per night for King Classic Guest Room.

Rate exchange works out to about $195 per night for the lowest priced room. Otherwise the low rate is $159€ per night or $222 per night for an advance purchase nonrefundable reservation without breakfast.

2-for-1 sales are excellent time to buy up in room size

The lowest priced room at the Trianon Palace Hotel is the Classic room with a size of 215 to 269 square feet. That is a small room.

The advantage of 2-for-1 sales is the ability to buy up in room size at relatively low rates compared to average rates for the larger rooms.

Trianon Palace room descriptions and nightly room rates using 2-4-1 Bed & Breakfast offer:

Classic Guest Room = 20-25 square meters; 215-269 square feet (This is smaller than average size room which is about 325 square feet for USA) 139.50-164.50€ ($195-$230USD) depending on view.

King Deluxe Park View = 30-40 square meters; 332-430 square feet. (This should be a comfortable size room on par with typical US room size at upscale hotels). 189.50-204.50€ ($265-$286USD) depending on view

King Junior Suite = 57 square meters; 613 square feet (This is a large room that should feel quite spacious.) 324.50€ ($455USD) per night. Double the price for more than double the room.

While $450 per night may be well beyond the price range you have set for your travel, the point I am making is the savings on a high category room type may be a savings of hundreds of dollars per night compared with a savings of $30 to $50 per night on the lowest category room with this 2-for-1 Hilton offer.

These 2-for-1 sales are often the route to incredible savings on high category rooms. And if you are high elite Hilton Diamond you are more likely to receive a really high value upgrade when booking a higher category room type. Book a junior suite and your upgrade to a full suite is much more likely and typically a much greater value.

For example, last month I paid $30 more than the lowest rate to book a junior suite at the Le Meridien San Francisco during a sale offer and I was upgraded to a full suite that would have cost triple the rate I paid.

Trophy Travel: Amsterdam Hilton, John & Yoko Suite, 885€/night using the 2-for-1 B&B rate July 21-23, 2009.

Hilton Amsterdam canal view

Hyatt Gold Passport “Enjoy Elite Membership” Offer:

Offer Registration Period: May 1 – Aug 31, 2009

Loyalty Traveler rating = 5-Star Promotion

I am not the king of “One Night Stays” because that is my preferred mode of travel. I view it in terms of economics and getting high elite status takes a good deal of my spare, and sometimes not so spare change.

For travelers who want the privileges of hotel loyalty high-elite status, but who are not in a position to live in hotels for two months, this Hyatt Gold Passport offer is one of the best opportunities to come around in 2009 for cheap elite without the hassle of hotel hopping.

Complimentary Platinum Membership : Promotion link

Nonmembers can join Hyatt Gold Passport and automatically receive four months of elite status with complimentary Platinum membership. Normally Gold Passport Platinum elite membership requires 5 stays or 15 nights in a calendar year.

Current Hyatt Gold Passport members, with or without elite status need to call Hyatt Gold Passport Customer Service to enroll for this complimentary elite offer.

Hyatt Gold Passport Customer Service 1-800-228-3360

Platinum Benefits include complimentary room upgrades, complimentary internet access (a recently introduced benefit), and 15 % bonus on base points earned. (Gold Passport members regularly earn 5 points per $1 in spending.) Hyatt Platinum members also earn Platinum Extra certificates for added benefits with every 3rd stay.

Stay just 5 nights in the 120 day trial membership period and your Platinum elite membership will be extended through February 2011.

Fast-Track to Diamond Membership

The amazing aspect of this hotel loyalty offer is the ability to earn Diamond elite status through February 2011 with just 15 hotel nights in the 120 days after promotion enrollment.

Hyatt Gold Passport has just two elite membership levels – Platinum and Diamond.

Diamond elite normally requires 25 hotel stays or 50 hotel nights in a calendar year. The ability to earn Diamond elite status in just 15 nights is truly a high-value proposition for the hotel guest.

Diamond Benefits link

And the ability to earn high-elite status with just a few multi-night hotel stays potentially makes achieving this membership level a luxurious, or at least highly pleasurable task.

Gold Passport typically runs a Stays Count Double promotion during the year. Last year I earned Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond in a two-week period in March 2008 during the last weeks of the Stays Count Double promotion. Hotel hopping for 13 one-night stays in two weeks is a bit grueling.

And was it worth it to hotel hop for two weeks last year? The free nights in the $600 bi-level apartment at the Hyatt Highlands Inn in Carmel Highlands said “YES” – again and again.

Can current Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members enroll in this fast-track offer? YES

I spent some time on the phone today with Gold Passport and I was informed current elite members are eligible for this “Enjoy Elite Membership” offer.

Carrousel at First Public Playground in USA - Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Strategy with potential end-of-year Faster Free Nights promotion

Currently, the Hyatt Gold Passport 2,500 points per stay worldwide promotion runs through September 15. The rumor on FlyerTalk is the Gold Passport promotion for Faster Free Nights will resume after September 15 for the primary end of the year promotion. Faster Free Nights ran at the end of 2008 and the promotion offers a free night at any Hyatt Hotel, with very few exceptions, for every two stays.

There is a rationale for waiting to sign up for the “Enjoy Elite” promotion since there is a 120-day qualification period for elite nights. Signing up in August provides a promotion period going into December for elite qualifying nights. Combine that with Faster Free Nights and there could be really high value in stays later in the year.

My Loyalty Traveler advice is to definitely go for elite membership during this spectacular offer and do it at the time best suited for your travel plans and your hotel stay pattern.

The advantage of this elite fast-track promotion is the ability to do it with elite qualifying nights so you can stay in one hotel resort for a week and be halfway to Diamond elite.

The disadvantage of elite nights is the combinability with the current 2,500 bonus points MasterCard promotion and potentially Faster Free Nights in the fall, which are both based on hotel stays and not nights. While nights is a more convenient way to earn elite status with just a few multi-night stays, the points and free nights promotions favor a single-night stay strategy.

This promotion is one of the best high-value offers available to the hotel guest in 2009, particularly if you plan  multi-night stays in the next few months and still plan to travel in 2010. This promotion can place you in a good elite status situation through February 2011.

Hyatt Hotels consists of the hotel brands: Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, Park Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Andaz, and Summerfield Suites. Hyatt Place is a fast-growing hotel brand typically in the moderate budget range. Hyatt Hotels consists of about 370 hotels worldwide.   

Hyatt Hotels acknowledgement for San Francisco Children's Carrousel

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club has introduced Cash & Points award night options. This is one of the best overall consumer friendly changes in hotel loyalty programs for 2009. The savvy hotel rate shopper can use Cash & Points award nights to pay a portion of cash to buy points at a discount rate for each award night.

Loyalty Traveler argues the option to purchase discounted Priority Club points for award night redemption along with the option to purchase bonus points at a discount in conjunction with paid stays is a high-value strategy and highly competitive hotel loyalty program offer.

IHG Cash & Points Post Objectives:

- Discuss details of new Priority Club Cash & Points award nights offers.

- Show how the purchase of Bonus Points when offered in hotel rate options along with the use of Cash & Points is a cheap way to accumulate points for free award nights.  This strategy is useful for Priority Club members without excessive account balances. The member earns more points on paid stays and conserves points when redeeming for free nights. The alternative method of buying points from Priority Club at $11.50 per 1,000 points to accumulate extra points (up to 40,000 points per calendar year) costs about twice as much.

Priority Club Award Night Cash and Points Options:

Priority Club follows the lead of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) with their own unique version of Cash & Points award nights.

Priority Club is now offering Cash & Points awards for hotels. The twist is that a member must purchase points to be added to the member’s account with the Cash portion of the award rate.

SPG is different from IC Hotels Group in how Cash & Points awards work.

The difference with IC Hotels Group Cash & Points is the Priority Club member is actually making a nonrefundable purchase of Priority Club points at a discount rate ($6 per 1,000 points) to be added to the member’s account balance. The Priority Club member can use the Cash & Points option to buy discounted points at the rate of $6 per 1,000 points and thereby conserve the points redeemed from the account for free hotel nights.

Example: InterContinental Amstel, Amsterdam, Netherlands

(Award Night Redemption: Monday, July 6, 2009)

Lowest Paid Rate: 425€ for King Bed Executive City View on Best Flexible Rate or amazingly the Penthouse Suite is going for 500€ on a nonrefundable rate.

Cash & Points Award Night is available at the following rates:

·         40,000 points for award night

·         35,000 points + $30

·         30,000 points + $60

Assume: Priority Club member has 100,000 points. This used to only be sufficient for 2 nights at the IC Amstel in Amsterdam at a cost of 80,000 points.

Cash & Points now makes a 3-night stay possible at the cost of 90,000 points + $180. Considering the single night cost for the IC Amstel is near $600USD, the option to get 3 nights for 90,000 points + $180 is a fantastic alternative to just two free nights at the hotel.

And the 30,000 points purchased for the three Cash & Points nights may count for elite status qualification if that option is not officially blocked by Priority Club. Discussion on FlyerTalk indicates the purchased points for Cash & Points free nights do count for elite status, at least up to 40,000 points in a calendar year.

Priority Club points purchased through Points & Cash awards do not count toward Priority Club elite status.

FlyerTalk discussion on Cash & Points

One of the primary talking points in the discussion of Priority Club Cash & Points awards on FlyerTalk is whether the Cash & Points award points purchases count towards Priority Club elite status. This point is testing the parameters of the IHG Priority Club loyalty program.

The issue creating confusion is the ability to purchase Priority Club points in two different ways.

1.      Buy points directly from Priority Club, up to 40,000 points in a calendar year.

2.      Buy points when redeeming Cash & Points award nights

At the present time purchases of points from Priority Club do count towards Priority Club elite qualification, up to the 40,000 points per calendar year limit. A person can buy Gold elite membership in Priority Club for $50 or earn Gold elite with the purchase of 20,000 Priority Club points for $230. Points purchases through the Buy Points link are a totally separate transaction type from the Cash & Points awards.

The debate on FlyerTalk this past week has been whether the points purchased for Cash & Points awards also count towards annual elite qualification. It appears these points may count towards status, but only up to the 40,000 points annual purchase limit. Points purchased for Points & Cash awards do not qualify for elite membership credit for Priority Club.

Cash & Points Award Nights Strategy

The value of the Cash & Points award night option is the strategy to purchase points at nearly 50% off the regular points purchase route (10,000 points =$60 for a Cash and Points award whereas 20,000 points = $230 using the Buy Points option).

Priority Club Points Purchase Options:

There are now 3 easy ways to accumulate Priority Club points.

1.      Buy Bonus Points during stays (about $6 to $9 per 1,000 points)

2.      Buy points during free night redemption ($6.00 per 1,000 points)

3.      Buy Points from Priority Club ($11.50 to $13.50 per 1,000 points)

The first two options cost about 50% of the direct purchase of points. 

Example of Purchasing Bonus Points with a Paid Hotel Rate

InterContinental San Francisco

Hotel Rates for one night on Monday, June 22

·         $151.05 AAA Queen Bed ($174.46 after tax) is lowest available rate.

·         $159 Best Flexible Rate

·         $159 California Staycation rate includes breakfast and parking (must be CA resident)

·         $164 Plus 1000 Bonus Points ($13 for 1,000 points)

·         $169 Plus 2000 Bonus Points ($18 for 2000 points)

·         $174 Plus 4,000 Bonus Points ($23 for 4,000 points) [This is a great price at $5.75 per 1000 points compared to purchasing points from Priority Club for $11.50 per 1000 points.]

·         $189 Plus Breakfast for Two ($38 premium on AAA rate for two breakfasts)

·         Valet Parking is additional $55.86 per night.

The best value here is the value added California Staycation package, but assume that isn’t an option.

Points earned on $174 rate for 4,000 bonus points.

Priority Club general member earns 2,000 points for an InterContinental Hotel stay, plus 4,000 points for this rate. The points premium charge of $23 for  4,000 points works out to about $6.50/1,000 points after tax. This is an earning rate of about 150 points per $1 in hotel bonus points spending compared to the regular earning of about 11 points per dollar for the $174 hotel rate spending at the InterContinental.

The economic value of points purchases is quite easy to show:

InterContinental Hotels (top-tier) = 40,000 points per night.

InterContinental Hotels (lower-tier) = 30,000 points per night.

Crowne Plaza Hotels = 25,000 points per night.

Two options to purchase points in the $6 per 1,000 points price range means a simple table can be used for determining when you will gain value from a free night redemption compared to a paid night.

When you purchase points at $6 per 1,000 through bonus points on paid stays and purchased points on award stays, then you are essentially buying free nights at the price you pay for all the points purchases you make.

Anytime the total room rate after tax is more than these values, then you will save redeeming points for an award.  As always, consider the lost value in promotion offers when redeeming an award vs. a paid stay.

Loyalty Traveler advice: Buy points at $6/1,000 whenever possible in conjunction with paid stays and award stays and you will be able to book a high-priced InterContinental Hotel or Crowne Plaza at a bargain rate and frequently save on the cost of hotel rooms by redeeming your Priority Club points when room rates are too high.

The ability to easily acquire large amounts of low-cost points in Priority Club is its competitive advantage in Cash and Points over Starwood Hotels C&P offers.  The economic rationale of buying points for an award stay may not be appealing to someone already saturated with Priority Club points, but most of us travelers fortunately do not fall into that category. The option of buying low-cost points for award travel is a welcome opportunity for hotel rate savings to the travel consumer.

InterContinental Bangkok

Offer: Registration required. Earn 2,500 points per stay paid by MasterCard through September 15, 2009. Your account earning preference must be set to earn points to receive bonus.

Promotion Dates: June 15 through September 15, 2009.

Loyalty traveler analysis: This is a straightforward promotion. Earn 2,500 bonus points per stay.

My recommendation for Gold Passport members is to play the 6x Hyatt Gold Passport airline promotion to your advantage when staying at least two nights. Basically you need to determine if you will get more value out of the miles or bonus points.

A low cost two-night stay at a Hyatt Place may earn more value with 6x miles whereas a five-night $2,000 stay will likely earn more value in Gold Passport points. Change your earning preferences between miles and points to get the best value for your stay.

And remember that you must have your account set to earn points for this bonus. If you have your account set for miles for the 6x miles promotion and then you stay one night at a Hyatt and pay with your MasterCard you will not earn bonus miles (requires minimum  2-night stay) or bonus points (you will earn standard 500 airline miles for the hotel stay).

Sample Earning:

Grand Hyatt San Francisco $112 (AAA) rate for one night on Friday June 19, 2009

Pay with MasterCard.

Earn 2,500 bonus points from MasterCard promotion.

Earn 5 x 112 = 560 Gold Passport points.

General member earns 3,060 points for stay.

Platinum Member (5 hotel stays in calendar year): 15% bonus on base spending = 84 additional points

Platinum member earns 3,144 points for stay.

Diamond member (25 hotel stays in a calendar year): Earn 1,000 Gold Passport points platinum amenity and 30% bonus on base spending for another 560 x 0.3 points = 168 points.

Platinum member earns 4,228 points for stay.

Grand Hyatt San Francisco is a Gold Passport Category 3 points redemption for 12,000 points per free night. The points earned from the one night stay are between 25% to 35% of points needed for a free night at this particular hotel.

Hyatt Gold passport free nights table:

G Bonuses are a Hyatt Gold Passport Points Accelerator

Always check and try to use a G Bonus link when booking Hyatt Hotel reservations. You can accelerate your points earning by booking through the G bonus link to earn free night awards faster.

http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/offers/bonus.jsp?icamp=GP3008

Grand Hyatt San Francisco has a G2 offer for 2,000 bonus points per stay valid any night of the week. (Many G bonuses are only valid certain nights. Business District hotels sometimes exclude weekend nights from G bonuses when rates are cheap. And other hotels only offer the G bonus on weekends.)

The surprising result I found when trying to book this Grand Hyatt reservation using the booking link for the 2,000 points G bonus is the rate increased from $111.75 (AAA) to $149 for a Hyatt.com nonrefundable rate.

At $149 per night this room could earn over 6,000 points for a one night stay. The points earned are  sufficient for a Category 1 hotel free night (Hyatt Place Silicon Valley, Fremont) or 50% of the cost for a free night at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco at 12,000 points.

This deal works out to a Pay 2, Get 1 night free for the Grand Hyatt San Francisco.

I hope it is not the prevailing trend that Hyatt Gold Passport G Bonus rates result in higher hotel booking rates than otherwise available through rates like AAA. I had not noticed this before.

Arrival:

We arrived at the St. Regis San Francisco around 3:30pm. I drove into the city since we spent a couple of hours in Golden Gate Park earlier in the day before driving into the downtown area. The park, slightly larger than Central Park, New York if that has meaning for you, is on the opposite side of the city and a 50 minute bus ride from the downtown Union Square and South of Market hotel/convention district.

The parking attendants at the St. Regis were not too helpful. We arrived and I pulled into the carport and three guys were standing on the sidewalk talking. I assume they were hotel employees. Nobody came toward the car. I turned off the engine.

The carport is two car widths wide and an entire lane was already taken up with parked cars. I was blocking the carport for anyone to pull through, but no other cars were entering the hotel drive.  One attendant asked if we were staying at the hotel and Kelley replies. A man came over with a parking receipt and I told him I was not parking the car at the hotel.

I stepped out of the car to open the trunk and the attendants had all moved away from the car. I started pulling luggage out of the car and still nobody came over to assist.

I looked over at the guys, but nobody looked like they were planning to move. I carried our luggage from the driveway to the hotel sidewalk.

Kelley stayed at the hotel as I drove away. Hearst Garage has a 24 hour parking maximum rate of $20 and is also located on Third Street, on the next block past the hotel.  Turn right on the alley just past the California Pizza and Office Depot. The Hearst Garage is centrally located between the Palace Hotel and Westin Market Street and within a couple hundred yards of the St. Regis and W Hotel. After tax the parking rate is generally $50+ for the downtown hotels in this area.

Hearst Parking Center $20 rate at Stevenson and Third Street

When I arrived back at the hotel I saw our luggage stacked neatly on the carport sidewalk. Kelley was sitting in the lobby with a luggage claim ticket.

First impression of St. Regis San Francisco totally failed to meet my expectations. I have had similar experiences at Westin Market Street when arriving by personal car.

Front Desk:

There was activity in the lobby and bar with a dozen or more guests hanging around and several staff members to be seen. There were two staff members at the front desk at check in with a reasonable wait for service.

We received corner room 1202.

When we get to the room I realized I was given only one room key. When asked at check-in how many keys I wanted I replied two. No big deal I thought.

Getting a second room key turned out to be a bigger deal than I anticipated.

I went to the Front Desk on three occasions on Saturday between 8:00am and 3:00pm. Each time there was only one staff member working the Front Desk and the wait was between five and ten minutes to receive service at the front desk.

I went to the front desk early Saturday morning to request a second room key card for Kelley. The lone staff member was busy with a customer and answering the phone. The staff member answered three different phone calls while waiting on the woman at the desk. I went to the lobby and sat down to wait. It was between five and ten minutes before the front desk cleared up.  A second person came over to the desk, but he had to wait for the other front desk person to actually process my key card.

At 3:30pm check-out we exited the elevator to find one front desk staff member working with a couple while three other guests and couples waited in line ahead of us. At the same time there were two suited staff members standing in the hallway and two concierge desk attendants.

We waited over ten minutes for check-out. A second front desk employee came out after about five minutes of our waiting as three sets of guests were still in line for check-in or check-out. There was not a single guest at the Concierge desk during that time, although the two concierges were generally on the phone.

The Lobby:

One thing I noticed was absent from the lobby. There is no reading material – books or magazines. The W Hotel and its XYZ Bar on the other end of the block has plenty of tactile material to interact with while in the lobby.

I was actually stopped by hotel security from taking pictures of the empty lobby at 8am in the morning. The man said it would be okay if someone was taking a picture of me in the lobby, but he didn’t offer to be my photographer. And Kelley never left the hotel room between our arrival and departure.

My lobby photo that got me busted at the St. Regis

St. Regis San Francisco almost in the empty lobby photo

Go to the St. Regis San Francisco website if you want to see lobby photos.

There is a pretty cool video tour of rooms which portray the hotel realistically to its current décor and furniture arrangement. I did notice a couple of minor changes from the lobby photos in the furniture arrangement.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis/property/photos/index.html?propertyID=1511

St. Regis Terrace as shown on hotel website

All the plants and seating arrangement in the center of the St. Regis terrace were not present during my stay.

St. Regis San Francisco terrace as I saw it had limited seating

And what happened to the Westin Market Street hotel behind the older building at the left edge of the hotel website’s photo?  

The issue with relying on the hotel website is you may not get the whole picture.

St. Regis San Francisco terrace view of Westin Market Street Hotel

The St. Regis San Francisco Butlers

The butler brought our luggage to the room and offered to unpack the clothes. He went through the room features and provided examples of how to use the touch screen panel on the telephone display to adjust lights, Roman window shades, reach hotel staff, and reach a butler. He seemed like a good butler and we thanked him and settled into the room. Kelley was in bed and sleeping within ten minutes.

St. Regis San Francisco Room Controls and Service Panel

I decided to prepare my clothes for an evening stroll.

There is no iron or ironing board in the room. I have to call the butler if I want to have my clothing ironed.

I want ice.

I have to call the butler if I want to get a bucket of ice.

Final Impressions:

The room was the best we have had in San Francisco, excluding some of the incredible suites we have stayed in at the Le Meridien Hotel with better city and water views.

This past weekend I took advantage of one of the free weekend nights I earned last month for a complimentary $500 stay at the St. Regis San Francisco. I struggled with this review and I have decided to do it in two parts. 

Here is a subjective hotel review from my wife’s perspective as she described her St. Regis San Francisco experience to me. 

“St. Regis San Francisco has an ideal bed. The pillows were the best pillows I’ve ever had in a hotel room. The sheets felt great. I could sleep all day. The room view felt like we were so much higher than the 12^th floor. The room was bright for San Francisco and the view from the bed through the windows was puffy clouds floating across the sky.”

St. Regis San Francisco Hotel bed

I was impressed that she kept commenting about how fine the sheets were to sleep in for the minutes she would wake up and talk. The St. Regis San Francisco room description on the website specifically mentions Pratesi linens, but I hadn’t mentioned that detail to Kelley. 

Kelley slept in the St. Regis bed in Pratesi sheets for 20 hours of our 24 hour stay. She is in the third week of her six week radiation cancer treatment. Kelley thought the hotel was the quietest of any hotel we have stayed in the past month. She enjoyed the hotel room thoroughly.

St. Regis San Francisco Hotel Room 1202 Detail:

The room was incredibly bright with natural light when we walked in. The window viewing space is about 170 square feet along two exterior walls, one wall facing the W Hotel and the other wall with windows looking across Third Street to Yerba Buena Gardens and Moscone Convention Center with a full view of the enormous San Francisco Marriott Hotel.

St. Regis San Francisco Room 1202 view of Museum of Modern Art

The two unobstructed windows facing the adjacent SF MOMA and the W Hotel about 150 yards away are 6 feet high and 4.5 feet wide. The chaise lounge was nice for one, but I ended up sitting in the desk chair most of the time for a more comfortable seat. The window ledge on one wall is a terrific feature for sitting on the edge of a skyscraper and looking across to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the W San Francisco Hotel.

St. Regis San Francisco Room 1202 chaise lounge and window ledge

One hotel review I read commented on the openness of the room as a bit too open for privacy.

This room view from the desk to the toilet may clarify the hotel reviewer’s feeling for lack of privacy.

Open bathroom view at St. Regis corner room

There are shutter style doors at the bathtub to close off the view from the bedroom and W Hotel view when the shades are open.

St. Regis San Francisco bathtub shutters

Another sliding door adjacent to the hall table can block the view from room 1203 next door and the hall. There is also a separate sliding door to close off just the toilet and shower.

Room Size

The hotel website describes most St. Regis hotel rooms as 450 to 500 square feet. Executive Premier Corner rooms are described as 550 square feet.

The actual room space including the 3 feet wide inside window ledge measured about 515 to 525 square feet by my calculations and around 30% of that space is entry hall space and closets. The room wall facing Third Street zigzags and the bed is placed in the widest part of the room where it is 17 feet across. The room width changes along the 34 foot wall as it zags inward from the column to the front door in three locations. The front door entry has the narrowest width at 11 feet.

The ceiling at 9 feet high in the main bedroom section adds to sense of space with the higher than average room ceiling.

All three windows in the photo below are actually the same size. The view out the one corner window is mostly obstructed by the large building column that juts into the room. You can still stand by the window and actually see out the full size window.

St. Regis San Francisco 1202 corner room windows

The third window nearest the main room door is larger, but has the feature of looking directly on the neighboring room’s window if the sheers are open.

St. Regis San Francisco Room 1202 view to Room 1203 windows

The sheers need to remain shut for privacy from the bed or bath view.

St. Regis San Francisco Room 1202 sheers and Roman shades

My two primary room design complaints are both related to the TV.

1)      There is a large 42-inch LG TV, but there are no HD channel signals on the cable.

2)      The 42-inch large screen TV blocks a huge portion of the best window view in the room.

Two large windows face west to Yerba Buena Garden and the hills of San Francisco that separate downtown from Golden Gate Park and the Pacific Ocean. When lying in bed the hotel guest looks at a sliver of one window mostly blocked by the building column.  The second window with the primary vista of the room is blocked by the 42-inch TV screen. A third, even larger floor-to-ceiling window looks into the windows of the adjacent room 1203. The room windows provide ample light but highly limited functional viewing space for their size.

The window view with the TV looked like this:

St. Regis San Francisco TV Eye

That is why Kelley just saw clouds from bed.

Looking out an unobstructed window behind the TV shows the Marriott Hotel on right and InterContinental Hotel in the left background.

St. Regis San Francisco unobstructed window view

And at night I had to straddle the TV to photograph this:

St. Regis San Francisco view at night of Marriott Hotel

I have never spent so much time in a room leaning against, wrapping around, and straddling a TV to get pictures and the preferred view.

TV Solution: Wynn Las Vegas has TVs that electronically descend into the cabinet and this would be the perfect furniture solution for this particular room design. (August 31 update. I do not remember where I saw the descending TV cabinet. Apparently, not the Wynn Las Vegas. Wynn Encore has a swivel TV to allow viewing from either the bed or sitting room.)

Room Views

This room had one of the most open views looking across San Francisco of any hotel we have stayed. Watching clouds and seagulls fly by the windows in the morning was entertaining. Kelley commented how we seemed so much higher than 12 floors with the open space view. The southwest corner windows view across Moscone Center to the hills. The open vista across San Francisco looking west is obscured by the 42 inch TV.

St. Regis San Francisco southwest view from room 1202

Electronic Window Shades

The electronic window shades are one of the coolest room features. A touch of the button opens or closes four different window shades. The shade behind the room corner column has a small width room shade requiring manual adjustment.

The basis for another complaint I saw in other hotel reviews is the inability to individually control the window Roman shades. They work uniformly to open or close simultaneously. This limits the room lighting options with the window shades.

All the natural light streaming in during daylight hours would make the option to individually control window shades a highly desirable feature for blocking light on one wall while keeping shades open on the adjacent wall. The uniform motion remote-controlled electronic shades preclude this option.

Bathroom:

Small bathroom TV is a feature when using the bath mirror.

St. Regis San Francisco hotel bathroom TV

Sink, tub, shower, and toilet all looked good. The rain shower head in the separate shower stall was great.  Oddly enough there was no hook for hanging a towel near the shower stall. The one hook in the bathroom is on the far side of the tub 5 feet from the shower door.

Bath products are REMÈDE products which is also the spa brand on the 6^th floor adjacent to the hotel pool.

St. Regis San Francisco Remede bath products

Entry Hall

A bench, stool, or chair in the entry hall for changing clothes would be a desirable feature. I repeatedly found myself going into the entry hall to change so I wouldn’t need to close the Roman shades over all the windows to block the view from the two windows facing the W Hotel.

St. Regis San Francisco Hotel room 1202 entry hall

The spacious room windows allow visibility throughout the bedroom and bathroom from the W Hotel. The entry hall and toilet/shower are the two areas not visible from W Hotel when Roman blinds are up and bath shutters are open.

St. Regis San Francisco Room 1202 bath with open shutters

The local San Francisco paper and the Wall Street Journal newspapers were in a cloth bag on the doorknob in the morning.

A nice feature of the room is the separation of the room door from the bed and bath area.  Kelley pointed out to me she was able to remain in bed while hotel staff came to the room door for services and even did a mini-bar check in the entry hall without ever coming into sight of the bedroom or bathroom.

There is no coffee maker in the room. Fortunately I located the complimentary coffee service at the 4^th floor Vitrine Restaurant as I wandered around in the morning.

St. Regis San Francisco complimentary coffee service at 4th Floor Vitrine Restaurant

Lobby Bar

http://www.iceportal.com/brochures/partners/2635/Brochure.aspx?mediaid=297550

The lobby was hopping with activity on a Friday evening.  Women and men dressed finely.

The lobby was empty for most of the day Saturday, rarely more than a few people.

I had a wonderful beer at the Ame bar, St. Peters IPA from the UK, $10 before tax and tip.

Pool and Fitness

The indoor pool is located on the 6^th floor. The pool is open 24 hours which is a hotel privilege not commonly found.

St. Regis San Francisco 6th floor pool

The yoga room is a nice meditative environment.

St. Regis San Francisco 5th Floor Yoga Room

The fitness room on the 5^th floor is highly functional with two dozen or so machines in two rooms.

St. Regis San Francisco fitness room

I was developing a piece on Best Western’s Free Night summer promotion and today I came across Tim Winship’s piece on SmarterTravel.com. I hadn’t considered the airline miles earning angle in my Best Western promotion analysis. Ironically, the central topic my July InsideFlyer column is earning airline miles from hotel stays. Since I did not include Best Western Rewards in my magazine column, I will present the airline miles option here with a discussion of the free night promotion for two stays.

Best Western Rewards loyalty program offer: Summer promotion 2009 earns a free night voucher for every two stays between June 21, 2009 and August 16, 2009. A maximum of two free night vouchers may be earned.

There is also a Best Western Rewards online booking bonus of 250 points per completed stay for reservations booked online during promotion.

Restrictions:

- Promotion limited to residents of US, Canada, and Caribbean Islands.

- Free Night Voucher is equivalent to a level 3/16,000 points voucher – a relatively low level hotel redemption.

- Free night voucher expires six months after issue.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis:

My first thought on reading the terms and conditions of this promotion is a 16,000 points voucher is not valid for many hotels in my area. I made a survey of the hotel category for the 66 Best Western properties shown within 100 miles of Monterey, California.

Best Western free hotel nights are based on the hotel level. There are eight Rewards levels for Best Western hotels starting at 8,000 points per free night and increasing by 4,000 points for each level. A Best Western hotel will be categorized at one of the eight redemption levels for a free night:

Level 1 = 8,000 points

Level 2 = 12,000

Level 3 = 16,000

Level 4 = 20,000

Level 5 = 24,000

Level 6 = 28,000

Level 7 = 32,000

Level 8 = 36,000 points

Hotel Level for 66 Best Western Hotels within 100 miles of Monterey, California

* NA = Four hotels were not available using points for the date I checked. The hotel level was not indicated for these four hotels. I did not bother to search for an available free night date to find the hotel level for these four hotels.

To see the redemption level for a specific hotel requires the Best Western Rewards member be logged into the website and search for hotels using points. There are 66 Best Western hotels within 100 miles of Monterey. Only 6 of these hotels are at level 3 which is the free night voucher level. The other 60 hotels are higher points levels for the free night. It is unclear from the terms of the promotion whether a 4,000 points upgrade voucher can be used with this promotion to get a 20,000 points room.

My free night hotel choices within 100 miles of Monterey consist of 6 Best Western hotels. Nothing here looks too enticing for my travels. These are all inland valley places and I try to stay along the California coast as much as possible.

1.       Best Western Apricot Inn, Firebaugh, CA

2.       Best Western Villa del Lago, Patterson, CA

3.       Best Western Pleasanton Inn

4.       Best Western Luxury Inn, Tracy

5.       Best Western Town House Lodge, Modesto

6.       Best Western Executive Inn, Manteca

Best Western can be a good program for padding airline miles

While the free night voucher may not be a widely useable free night, I find there are good miles earning options with Best Western Rewards. There are 17 airline partners for earning miles from your hotel stays and most earn 250 miles per stay. Southwest is 0.5 credit and Miles & More is 500 miles per stay.

1.       Air Canada Aeroplan

2.       Air Berlin

3.       Air France/KLM Flying Blue

4.       Alaska Airlines

5.       Alitalia

6.       American Airlines

7.       Asiana Club

8.       China Southern

9.       Continental

10.   Czech Airlines

11.   Delta

12.   Hainan

13.   LanPass

14.   Miles & More (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, LOT Polish) = 500 miles per stay

15.   Northwest

16.   Southwest = 0.5 credit per stay

17.   US Airways

Special Bonus Miles Hotel Offers

In addition to setting your earning preference to airline miles instead of Rewards points, there are also special hotel specific bonus mile offers.

Example: Best Western Inn Santa Clara Double Miles per minimum 3-night stay. This offer will earn double the normal 250 miles for 500 miles with most airlines or 1,000 miles with Miles & More.

The best special offer I saw was Halifax, Nova Scotia for triple miles on a one night stay.

Best Western Travel Cards and Bonus Airline Miles (link)

Tim Winship mentions American Airlines miles or Southwest Rewards credits as an additional promotion bonus miles when buying Best Western Travel cards. There are actually six other airlines for earning miles with these cards. Air Canada Aeroplan and American AAdvantage have the best earning at 500 miles per $50 Gift Card. Alaska, Continental, Delta, Northwest, and US Airways are 500 miles per $100 gift card. The Southwest Rewards offer of 0.5 credit per $100 is not as good as Aeroplan or AAdvantage miles in terms of the percentage of award miles earned towards a free domestic ticket.

All in all the limitation of the free night to the lowest hotel levels diminishes the value of this promotion in my evaluation. Don’t go out of your way to take advantage of this deal.

But keep in mind the opportunity to earn airline miles through Best Western hotel stays and Best Western Travel card purchases. This is a good way to pick up miles when you find yourself needing a Best Western hotel.