Double Points or Miles continues in 2009 beginning September 15, 2009. Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites hotel stays start earning the double points or miles with the first hotel stay. Other IHG brands: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, HI Express begin earning double points or miles with the second hotel stay.

Priority Club Registration link

 

InterContinental Hotel stays regularly earn 2,000 points per stay. Double points earns 4,000 points per stay.

 

Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites regularly earn 5 points per US$1 and will earn 10 points per US$1.

 

Other IHG brands regularly earn 10 points per US$1 and will earn 20 points per US$1 for eligible stays during the promotion period.

 

Priority Club has nearly 50 airline partners for earning frequent flyer miles. There are different earning levels for different airlines. Hotel brand also impacts the miles earned.

Here is the link to the miles earning terms for USA Priority Club members.

 

 

A recently published hotel guest survey by J.D. Power and Associates states hotel guest satisfaction is up over the past year. 

Embassy Suites came out on top of the guest satisfaction survey for the upscale hotel market segment for the third year in a row.

Here are my reasons why I think the Embassy Suites brand is so popular.

1.       Larger rooms – these rooms will hold a family. The abundance of kids is what I consider the major detraction of Embassy Suites, but if I had kids I would be much more inclined to stay.

 

2.       Cooked breakfast is complimentary. Most of the midrange priced hotels offer complimentary breakfast, but few have cooked-to-order service. Few upscale hotels offer complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast unless you are high-level elite.

 

3.       Happy hour reception. I sat in an Embassy Suites recently and watched the bar go through a keg of beer and a couple of cases of wine during the two hour manager’s reception. Considering the bar tab would have been $50 for many of the guests and they could get a big buzz for about $5 in tips is a high value proposition for many guests. The pool was a zoo at this time with all the kids.

Embassy Suites provides value for many types of guests and thus the brand ranks high in guest satisfaction.

The J.D. Power survey also finds increasing guest desire for comfort and value-related amenities like pillow choices (feather pillow for me thanks); free parking ($60 to park? I only paid $89 for the room); and complimentary internet.

One of the big trends of the past year is free internet. InterContinental Hotels Group is giving free internet to Ambassador members  beginning August 1 thru October 31 at more than 80 properties worldwide. Hyatt Hotels began offering free internet this year to elite members. And Hyatt Hotels is giving complimentary elite status to anyone who asks.

The interesting aspect of the J.D. Power survey is the finding that overall guest satisfaction is up this year across most hotel market segments while guest satisfaction with the hotel room declined across all hotel market segments.

Hotel guests are satisfied with the great deals, but I think many are missing out on the room upgrades available to elite frequent guests.

The hotel industry is abuzz this week with survey results indicating travel loyalty program participation is declining in 2009.  Results of a new Colloquy survey showed only 48% of respondents would be “disappointed” if their travel loyalty program was discontinued.

Obviously, these are travelers who do not use their frequent flyer program or hotel frequent guest programs effectively, or perhaps they just are not frequent travelers. 

Three population segments stand out in their use of travel loyalty programs:

1)      Affluent heads of households with incomes of $125,000 or greater

2)      Young adults of 18 to 25

3)      Core women 25 to 49 with incomes $50,000 to $125,000

These are three economic sectors of the population. Why would affluent persons, relatively poor young people, and core women have travel loyalty programs in common?

I think the affluent know savings comes from buying in bulk and they can afford to do it. The Costco style of travel is my plan too. I spend more on travel than I should budget from our household income, but I do that because I know there is a much higher return on my investment in hotel stays by maintaining high elite frequent guest status with one or two hotel loyalty programs.  (I am far from affluent by the $125,000 definition. I am more of a core woman demographic in man’s clothing.)

I get upgraded frequently to hotel rooms I otherwise could not afford given the frequency of my travel.

Young people and core women have the need to get good value out of a limited pool of travel dollars. I assume a large proportion of women are heads of households and desire travel with their family. Remember these are women in the $50,000 to $125,000 income bracket. They have money to travel, but not enough money to overspend on travel.

I write about travel deals and show how a person who uses hotel loyalty programs with a plan can obtain much higher value per travel dollar.

San Francisco is an expensive city, but I’ve managed to stay in 4-star and 5-star hotels for an average of about $70 per night for nearly 20 hotel stays this year through strategic use of hotel loyalty programs.

Bloggers on BoardingArea.com show readers how to earn low-cost miles and travel in First Class around the world at a fraction of a published fare. And you can travel twice as often, or take a family member in economy class if you want to stretch the miles you’ve earned.

I sure would like to a survey focused solely on frequent guest elite members. I think the results would show high importance on the value of frequent guest loyalty programs and a high degree of importance and satisfaction with hotel loyalty programs. 2009 has been a great year for elite frequent guests in my opinion. Fewer guests have impacted hotel services with staff layoffs and restaurant closures, but lower hotel occupancy provides more complimentary room upgrade opportunities for elites.

 

 

Loyalty travelers may be in the decline, but loyalty travelers are far from disappearing.

I have been looking over some social communities sponsored by hotel chain’s for their loyal members. As a long time member of FlyerTalk, I haven’t bothered to spend too much time in the hotel chain’s own social networks. It seems like information on most of the deals and hotel properties are discussed on FlyerTalk. A community of 200,000 travelers covers pretty much every topic.

So what is going on in the hotel-chain-managed social forums?

Priority Club Connect

InterContinental Hotels Group social community forum Priority Club Connect has several employee moderators and several active members. I received a personalized reply from Jenni shortly after registering for the site.

While the information on Priority Club Connect may not be as pervasive as using FlyerTalk, I did find one major advantage to hanging out in the Priority Club Connect forum.

30 Free Nights over 30 Days Exclusive Promotion Offer through Priority Club Connect

(30 Free Nights promotion link)

Priority Club Connect is giving one free night away from July 15 thru August 13 and a grand prize of 7 free nights to be awarded around July 17.

Simply register for the Priority Club Biggest Free Nights Offer (or Double Points Offer) and then submit a reply to where you want to spend a free night.

Restrictions: Promotion only available to US residents, but residents of Florida are ineligible.

( You aren’t American enough in Florida?)

Free nights are not eligible for hotel stays in Japan.

The free nights promotion seems to be a good strategy for publicizing Priority Club Connect.

I am doing my part here on Loyalty Traveler to help them grow the community. Although, more contestants reduces my odds of winning a free night.

Brief notes on the other hotel chain social forums:

MarriottRewardsInsider seems to have several active discussions going on with nearly 3,000 posts on a variety of topics. There were forums with recent posts, questions and replies, and some Marriott Official posts with program information and promotions. A member can sign in and jump right into the conversation with information, advice, and questions for cities and particular hotels and transportation options.

Starwood has TheLobby, but the last SPG member post in SPG Member’s Corner was from October 2008. The social forum aspect seems entirely absent from the site. I didn’t spend much time in TheLobby because the website seems to be an advertising extension of Starwood rather than a community forum for loyal SPG members.

Hyatt Hotels’ travel community is called Yatt’it. Browsing through posted tips reveals the Hyatt Concierges do most of the meaningful posting and even those tidbits of information are scarce. There is relatively little activity happening here.

Hilton Hotels was praised by Adam Kirby of Hotels Magazine in his blog last week for its customer engagement strategy on Twitter. I made a Hilton comment yesterday and gained another 10 followers from Hilton employees. I did not find a Hilton Hotels social forum.

Hey Readers – Let me know if there is a social community around Hilton that I missed. And please share your thoughts on this trend of hotel chain managed social forums.

The W Silicon Valley in Newark, California gets no respect. While birds may flock, the people don’t when it comes to hotel life in this southeast portion of San Francisco Bay. Guest complaints are not focused on the rooms. The standard rooms are large for a W Hotel. The hotel has an outdoor pool, free parking, a BBQ pit, games and books in the lobby, dark lighting, and constant music. But the East Bay location between a tech business park and a wildlife refuge in the salt marsh of the southern end of San Francisco Bay, 25 miles from the W San Francisco, gives it a reputation for being in the middle of nowhere.

 

I have stayed here every year since 2003. This is the cheapest W Hotel in the brand. Rates lately have dropped as low as $79 for Friday and Saturday nights. Back in 2003 and 2004 rates were frequently only $59 per night on weekends and rose to $109 in 2007-2008 before the latest room rate collapse. The hotel’s location in a corporate business park means weeknight rates are much more expensive with average rates still between $139 and $200 per night.

 

The lobby design and room amenities will seem familiar to hotel guests who have frequented W Hotels. The TV in guest rooms is still 20^th century. No flat screens here. The presence of a microwave and sink sort of make up for the retro TV. And there is a DVD player with a library of selections available from the front desk.

 

 

The pool is outdoors and can be lively at times.

 

The restaurant and bar are much less lively most of the time. The main difference between this W Hotel and most other W Hotels is a lack of spark among the clientele visiting the hotel. (Perhaps I’m just being introspective.) The W San Francisco is a cosmopolitan happening place with people dropping into the bar to hang out for the ambience. W Silicon Valley clientele is techs on business and families or couples booking a nice hotel in a cheap East Bay location. “I’ll stay in tonight and watch TV dear.”

 

The workout room is small, but I have never seen it overly crowded.

The feature of the hotel that gets the bulk of complaints is its location. All food eateries are a couple of miles east in the shopping district of the city of Newark. A car is essential for this hotel, or at least a bicycle.

The aspect of the hotel that I want to focus on and rarely see referenced in hotel reviews for the W Silicon Valley is its location adjacent to the San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge. The preferred view for the W Silicon Valley looks west to the San Francisco Bay and tidal marshlands. The area between the hotel and the hill a mile west used to be salt crystallizer ponds as recently as the 1970s.

 

If you have flown over San Francisco Bay and seen the large squares of different colored water near the land’s edge of the southern San Francisco Bay, you may have wondered, What kind of water pollution problem is happening?” These large ponds of water enclosed by levees and dikes are actually salt crystallizer ponds where water is evaporated and sea salt harvested. There are still a dozen square miles of salt ponds operated by Cargill Salt.

 

 

Salt harvesting was practiced by the local indigenous people at the time of the Gold Rush. Salt ponds were a naturally occurring phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay prior to the Gold Rush years of the 1850s. Winter rains established large ponds in the marshland called “salinas”. The six month dry season from May to October in coastal California meant the salinas naturally dried in the summer heat and left sea salt deposits.

Salt harvesting has been a lucrative business in the San Francisco Bay area for 150 years when industrious businessmen realized there were better fortunes to be earned through harvesting sea salt rather than gold prospecting. By the turn of the 20^th century the entire marshland of the southern San Francisco Bay had been reshaped into large levee-enclosed salt ponds and the ecosystem was dramatically changed for the Bay as levees and dikes prevented tidal surge into the estuaries. The marshes disappeared over decades.

 

 

The past 30 years has witnessed a concerted effort to reestablish the southern San Francisco Bay wetlands from salt crystallizer ponds to marshlands. This is bird land. The southern San Francisco Bay is an important location on the shorebirds Pacific flyway. Over one million shorebirds pass by or nest here every year. The Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge has a visitor center a mile west of the W Silicon Valley hotel. There are trails to walk in the marsh and along the bay front. Colorful patches of red, white, and green water are visible in parts of the refuge where active salt crystallizer ponds are still present.

 

 

The San Francisco Bay landscape is changing once again. And the W Hotel Silicon Valley is on the front lines of this urban restoration project.

Links to Loyalty Traveler Videos  of W Silicon Valley, Newark, California on YouTube:

Room Tour #536 Spectacular Suite with Bay view

Lobby

Pool

San Francisco Bay view from hill in Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge south of Dumbarton Bridge 

Educational resource San Francisco Bay Restoration links: 

 

 

 http://www.southbayrestoration.org/FAQ.html

Cargill Salt San Francisco Bay:  http://www.cargill.com/static/sb/

Hey parents – here is an excellent source for a school project on SF Bay restoration and ways to get involved:  http://www.southbayrestoration.org/pdf_files/BayNature%20Oct%202004.pdf

Hilton HHonors Delta-Northwest EQM Promotion for two-night stays

Offer: Earn one Delta or Northwest elite qualifying mile (EQM) and one bonus mile for every fixed or variable mile earned with minimum 2-night stay July 15 thru October 15, 2009 at Hilton brand hotels worldwide.

Registration is required. There are different registration links depending on whether you choose Delta or Northwest miles.

Promotion link: https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/processLanding2.aspx?lp=deltanorthwest&cid=OM,HN,deltanorthwest,Q309

 

Got it? So what does this actually mean for the miles collector? Loyalty traveler will take a stab at interpreting the terms of the promotion.

HHonors has three Double-Dipping earning preferences a member can choose:

a.       Points & Points, (must change your earning preference to points & miles for this promotion)

b.      Points & Fixed Miles, (Earn 500 EQM = 500 bonus miles per hotel stay, but only 100 EQM and 100 Bonus miles for eligible stays at Hampton Inn or Homewood Suites)

c.       Points & Variable Miles (Earn 1 EQM + 1 bonus mile for every US$1 spent on eligible hotel stays regardless of hotel brand. This option limits EQM earning to a maximum 5,000 EQMs).

The rules cap the variable miles earning to 5,000 EQM. I guess this is to keep someone from earning Delta super elite status on one $100,000 hotel stay. I would think Delta wants an elite member who can spend $100,000 on hotel stays.

Loyalty traveler promotion rating = 3 hotel keys out of 5.

Loyalty traveler analysis:

Stays at Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites will earn more by switching earning preference to points and variable miles since fixed miles are capped at 100 EQM. You are likely to spend more than $100 for a two-night stay in these brands so earning 1 EQM per $1 will be better than the 100 EQM with points and fixed miles.

Fixed miles will be a better value with stays at other Hilton brands unless you plan to spend more than $500 for your hotel stay. 500 EQM and 500 bonus miles is a good bonus. A two-night stay will earn 500EQM and 1,000 redeemable frequent flyer miles. 2009 has been the year of hotel frequent flyer giveaways. Those airlines just keep churning miles out and Hilton HHonors is the premier mileage earning hotel program.

An expensive hotel stay like a week at the Hilton Waikoloa Village will earn more miles using Variable Miles earning preference since you will likely spend well over $500 for a multi-night hotel stay in Hawaii. A $1,500 eligible hotel stay with variable miles earning will earn 1,500 EQM with Delta or Northwest and 3,000 redeemable frequent flyer miles compared to only 500 EQM and 1,000 redeemable miles if you have your HHonors earning preference set to Fixed Miles.

Earning Preference Guidelines:

1.       Hampton Inn or Homewood Suites hotel stays – choose Variable Miles and Points

2.       Other Hilton brands when stay is less than $500 – choose Fixed miles and Points

3.       Any stay where spending is greater than $500 – choose Variable miles and Points

You can change your earning preference to maximize your miles for different types of stays.

Hilton Hotel brands include Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Conrad Hotels, and Waldorf-Astoria Collection. 

 

Monday, Aug. 3 Update: The next Westin Bonaventure room giveaway promotion is scheduled for Tuesday, August 4 at 10am.

Unclear if all the future giveaways in August will be on Tuesdays?

*****

Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles re-launched its Twitter and website free room giveaway today. Monday mornings thru August 31st at 9am PDT, Los Angeles local time, be one of the first 10 people to contact @thebonaventure and tweet #U.O.Me to win a free room. 40 rooms will also be available for free thru the website at this time.

There were some early morning glitches and the original 9amPDT start time for the giveaway was postponed an hour.

 

I eyed the tweet from @thebonaventure about 15 minutes before the giveaway.

Anyway, I set my atomic clock to make sure I had the correct time this giveaway since I sent my tweet 10 seconds too early the last time they ran this promotion in March.

And I still messed it up this time. I actually forgot to reply to @thebonaventure so my #U.O.Me went to nobody but my own page.

Not to fret. I know how to navigate my way around a hotel website better than posting rapid Twitter tweets so I headed over to http://www.thebonaventure.com/ and searched for the 40 rooms being offered for free on the website. No luck there finding the offer for free rooms.

My impromptu trip to LA for the weekend was put aside as I went on with my day of uploading some of my hotel room videos to YouTube.

Around 2pm I look at Twitter again and see @thebonaventure posted free rooms still available through the website. Now there actually was a special offer link that wasn’t there earlier today.

 

Westin Bonaventure Free Room Offer web link:

http://www.thebonaventure.com/give_away/

 

Twitter directions:

1.       Join Twitter

2.       On Monday morning, August 3, 2009 at 9am Los Angeles time leave a tweet like:

 

@thebonaventure #U.O.Me a free room please since I know how and when to tweet.

 

(You might want to keep the message shorter like “@thebonaventure #U.O.Me” so you beat out all the people going for those 10 rooms.)

Website directions: Go to http://www.thebonaventure.com/give_away/

 

Click the link “click here for a chance at a FREE night!” The rate will appear as $0.01 if a room is available. This is how the reservations page looks when a free room is available.

The web is a better way to secure your free room in my opinion. Last time they did this deal I easily found rooms through the website rather than gambling that I could be one of the first ten to contact the hotel through Twitter.

 

Twitter is becoming a regular source of good deals. It is in your travel interest to take the time to figure out this social media tool if you are not yet a follower or following Twit.

Next Westin Bonaventure free room giveaway is scheduled for Monday, August 3, 2009 at 9am PDT.

Follow me on Twitter @LoyaltyTraveler for quick news that generally doesn’t make my blog – particularly San Francisco area hotel deals.

http://twitter.com/LoyaltyTraveler

Le Meridien San Francisco in HD (Hotel Detail)

 

Le Meridien is one of my favorite hotels in San Francisco. The hotel has rooms on the upper floors of this 24-floor hotel with incredible views of Coit Tower and North Beach from one side. The other side of the hotel looks to the Embarcadero Center and Oakland Bay Bridge. The San Francisco Financial District bank skyscrapers are another vantage point when on the south facing side of the hotel.   

Room views are best on upper floors and corners. There is one room (xx19) on each floor in the northeast corner of the hotel with a small concrete balcony and chair.

 

 

 

These are the only balconies on the north face of the hotel.

 

 

 

The Financial District facing side of the hotel has some rooms on the upper floors with large patio balconies containing a table and several chairs. The structural architecture captivates my eye with the uniform jagged lines and angles.

 

 

 

Arrival:

The BART train/subway travels between the SFO airport and BART stations with parking garages in the suburb cities south of San Francisco like Millbrae, South San Francisco, Colma, and Daly City. Parking is $1.00 per day on weekdays in some of these BART station garages. This is the best option for someone with a car who doesn’t want to pay $20 to $60 per day to park in San Francisco. Weekends are free parking at BART stations, but you must request a multi-day parking pass in advance for weekday overnight parking or risk getting a ticket in the morning.

The BART station at Embarcadero Center exits outside the Hyatt Regency which is the opposite side of Embarcadero Center from the Le Meridien Hotel at 333 Battery Street. The walk is about 10 to 15 minutes from BART Embarcadero Station to Le Meridien Hotel.

The Embarcadero Center offers restaurants, movies, and shopping along elevated landscaped pedestrian walks on several levels all the way from the Embarcadero, the street across from the waterfront, past Embarcadero Towers 1-4 and to the Le Meridien Hotel, a half-mile away at the opposite end of Embarcadero Center. Le Meridien Hotel is part of architect John Portman’s Embarcadero Center urban landscape and one architectural structure of San Francisco’s finest redevelopment projects of the 1970s.

 

 

 

Location:

The location in San Francisco’s Financial District is both an advantage and disadvantage.

The Financial District area around Embarcadero Center can feel like a dead zone in the evening and on weekends when the large bank buildings of the Financial District are closed and most of the cafes and food courts around them also shut down.  There are few other hotels around and there are not many night and weekend pedestrians. The hotel’s physical attachment to the Embarcadero Center still offers restaurants and entertainment options during these off business hours times.

On the other hand, the Financial District is packed with business workers during weekdays, offers a variety of low-priced eateries during the day, and nearby are actual residential streets. There is a large Safeway grocery store just two blocks away from Le Meridien Hotel. Small city parks with green space are nearby, and the waterfront is much closer than when staying at hotels around Union Square or SoMa district around Moscone Convention Center. This location is midway between the tourist centers of Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf. Chinatown is just a few blocks away.

 

 

 

The Hotel Room:

Room booked: Junior Suite at $139.30 for a special offer Starpicks rate. $161 after tax.

The room upgrade I received on the Junior Suite booking was Room 2004 – the 20th floor Water Tower Suite.

 

 

 

 

The Water Tower Suite is on the Financial District side of the hotel. The entry hall to the room is about 70 sq ft. with an end table and a closet, but one drawback to the room is the room door faces directly onto the suite bathroom. Closing the bathroom door is necessary when someone is entering or exiting the room to prevent a direct line of view from the hotel hallway to the shower of the suite.

 

 

 

 

I recall a junior suite I had a couple of years ago with the same design of the room door looking directly into the bathroom, but that bathroom  was oriented perpendicular to the room door and only the sink was visible from the hall. The Water Tower suite bathroom is aligned straight with the hallway, so if both the room door and the bathroom door are open, the hallway view is straight through to the sink, toilet, and shower.

A right turn from the entry hall opens into a 13’ by 25’ sitting room.  The sitting room has a 42-inch Panasonic HDTV, two couches of same white upholstery, one 48” of seating space with only one armrest side (not particularly comfortable) and a 70” seating space couch with two armrests (much more comfortable). A matching chair with armrests and a large rectangular ottoman with a different covering, but matching legs completes the main seating. The living room has seating for seven on upholstered furniture and the desk chair.

 

 

 

 

There are no door dividers to the bedroom. The room design creates an open flow, yet separate rooms.

Both the sitting room and the bedroom each have two large floor to ceiling windows at 7 ft.  x 7 ft. and a sliding patio door that opens just 4 inches.

 

 

 

 

Total window space for the Water Tower Suite is almost 200 square feet of viewing pleasure.

Bedroom is 15’ x 25’ = 375 ft. Bathroom 6 x 11 ft = 66 sq. ft.

The Water Tower Suite is modern urban living at its finest. Over 800 square feet of real estate in the San Francisco downtown Financial District stratosphere on the 20^th floor of the Le Meridien hotel.

 

 

 

 

Kelley said she felt too tired to walk around, but she would walk the streets if I wanted. We started laughing because we have spent 30 years walking the streets of downtown San Francisco whenever we came to the city simply due to no alternative. You can either hang out on the streets and in the parks of San Francisco for free or you pay to use facilities for eating, shopping, entertainment, and going to the toilet.

This is the highest state of living in the City. Just to sit in a high-rise apartment room above the city streets and watch the TV while gazing out the windows to the city around us is luxurious living.

Why walk the streets when we have a luxury hotel room with two couches and three chairs and 200 square feet of window viewing?

 

 

 

 

I walked to Safeway three blocks down the road and purchased a chicken dinner and we hung out in the room watching TV shows we had never seen.

All was hunky dory until 7am the next morning. There was an employee labor action boycott loud and clear going on outside the hotel. We had slept with the windows open and even on the 20^th floor we could hear the voices blaring over the megaphone,

 “Check out now! Boycott the Le Meridien Hotel! Don’t check in! Check out now!”

I spoke with the protesters and they told me Le Meridien management is the only Starwood Hotel in San Francisco to not have negotiated a fair labor contract with the workers. This hotel and the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf are the two hotels union workers are asking hotel guests to boycott.

 

 

 

 

The employee action went on nonstop for two hours from 7am to 9 am Saturday morning. I had been wandering the hallways of the hotel and came back to the room to find Kelley asking what was going on. The noise had wakened her even with her earplugs in and she woke up vomiting for the first time in two months of chemotherapy. That kind of put a damper on the hotel stay. Fortunately the protest stopped at 9am and Kelley was able to go back to sleep. I requested a 4pm checkout and Kelley slept until 2pm.

 

 

 

 

Le Meridien San Francisco Hotel Suites:

Penthouse Suite 2416. This top floor suite is the equivalent of four rooms, but this suite does not have a balcony. All named-suites face the old Federal Reserve Building side on the south. Corner rooms (room number ending in 19) on the north side have a small balcony and view of Coit Tower and North Beach. Some rooms on south side of hotel have large balconies.

Carlton Tower Suite 2312

Canberra Suite 2212

Sydney Cove Suite 2104

Water Tower Suite 2004 (Loyalty Traveler YouTube video link)

Georgetown Suite 1904

Villa Magna Suite 1804

New York Suite 1704

Promenade Suite 1618

The hotel lobby has glass windows looking out to the street. There is a complimentary coffee service set up at the bar during morning hours.

 

 

The corner room of the lobby at Battery and Clay is called the Library. The room was a library when I stayed here last year. The books have been removed – replaced by two large screen TVs.

 

 

 

There is a 24 hour fitness room at the hotel. A fee can be paid for day access to a swimming pool at a club down the street.

 

 

 

Pubbing:

On Merchant Street alley behind Elephant and Castle is a Czech pub with happy hour from 4-7 every night and large Czech beer (20oz?) are $3.50 – down from normal $5.50. It is called Prague Café.

 

 

 

 

My favorite place is Fuzio just across the street on the third level of the Embarcadero. This restaurant has a hopping happy hour from 3pm-6pm Monday thru Friday with $3.00 appetizers and $3.00 pints of beer. I love drinking Peroni beer at Fuzio’s when visiting Le Meridien.

Parking:

Parking will run about $60 after tax for overnight valet parking at the hotel. Meters around the hotel are $3.00 per hour and mostly limited to 1 or 2 hours until 6pm or 9pm.  

Loyalty Traveler’s cheap-ass parking tip: Along one-way Sansome Street, going towards Coit Tower, the parking meters are less expensive after crossing Broadway Street. And parking is actually unmetered, but still restricted to 2 hours about six blocks from the hotel along Sansome Street heading towards Coit Tower. Sundays are free parking in most metered areas. There is a low cost parking garage at Sansome and Vallejo at $14 weekdays and $10 weekends, but no in-out privileges and the garage is closed at night. You should be able to park overnight, but you can’t get your car during the night and you will be charged for two days if you arrive at 4pm and leave 4pm the next day.

Sansome Street between Vallejo and Green Street is one block of unmetered, 2-hour parking. Battery and Vallejo has meters at $1.50 per hour with 2-hour limit.

I was unaware of the union boycott for Le Meridien San Francisco at the time I made the reservation. During this past year there has been a campaign to have college funds disinvest in HEI, the corporate owner of Le Meridien San Francisco.

Here are two YouTube videos with more information and a Cornell University newspaper article:

HEI Le Meridien Workers Fight for Justice in San Francisco

Students at UPenn Stand with HEI Hotel Workers 

Students Protest Ties To Co. With Alleged Labor Law Violations – Cornell Daily Sun

I hope labor relations improve with HEI and a contract is worked out so I can return one day to the Le Meridien San Francisco. I really like the hotel. For the meantime, this hotel is on my San Francisco “Do Not Stay” list.

“Don’t you forget no way

Just who you are and where you stand in the struggle.”

     -Bob Marley-

 

 

 

 

 

Hilton has a free night offer for 166 hotels in 44 different countries running through the summer months for participating hotels in Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia/Pacific regions.

Hotels in North America, Caribbean, Central and South America are excluded from this offer.

Offer:  Valid 7 days a week from for stays from May 1 thru September 30, 2009.

Rates include breakfast.

 

1 free night on a 3-night stay or

2 free nights on a 5-night stay or

3 free nights on a 7-night stay.

Free nights are valid for actual booked stay and do not carry-over to another stay.

Link to Hilton Extra Nights Free offer.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis:

I’ve been searching Paris Hotel rates for someone planning a week in the city of lights. I checked this Hilton Hotels offer to see if the free nights is actually a discount rate. While the free nights rate was not available at all the Hilton Hotels in Paris for dates I checked, I am happy to report that where I did find the special offer rate I found the free nights rate to be a rate discount for Hilton Hotels in Paris.

The problem with many free night offers is the discounted nights are based on purchasing a rack rate or some rate substantially higher than rates otherwise available. About half the time I analyze free night offers I discover they are not the best deal available.

Case Study: Paris, France 7-night hotel stay for September 7-14

Hilton Paris La Defense is not participating in the Extra Free Nights rate.

Hilton Arc de Triomphe does provide a savings on the nightly room rate for dates I checked.                            

Hilton Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France for 7-night stay, September 7-14, 2009
Lowest rate	7-night cost on AAA rate	Extra Nights Rate (Pay only 4 nights)	7-night cost on Extra Nights rate	Extra Nights Rate Savings
280 EUR King Deluxe	1,960 EUR	415 EUR King Deluxe	1,660 EUR	300 EUR
337 EUR King Deluxe Plus	2,359 EUR	475 EUR King Deluxe Plus	1,900 EUR	459 EUR
375 EUR King Executive	2,625 EUR	515 EUR King Executive	2,060 EUR	565 EUR
404 EUR King Executive Plus	2,828 EUR	545 EUR King Executive Plus	2,180 EUR	648 EUR
537 EUR Junior Suite	3,759 EUR	685 EUR Junior Suite	2,740 EUR	1,019 EUR

 

Based on the offer of 3 free nights with a 7 night stay a guest would expect to save about 3/7 or 43% on the hotel rate. Unfortunately, the standard practice for hotel free night offers is to base the free nights on higher rates than otherwise available. When calculating actual savings with a special offer the hotel guest should base savings on the otherwise lowest rate available for the hotel stay.

7-night cost on AAA rate (lowest rate found in regular search)	7-night total rate with Hilton Extra Nights offer	Actual savings using Extra Nights offer
1,960 EUR King Deluxe	1,660 EUR	15.3%
2,359 EUR King Deluxe Plus	1,900 EUR	19.5%
2,625 EUR King Executive	2,060 EUR	21.5%
2,828 EUR King Executive Plus	2,180 EUR	22.9%
3,759 EUR Junior Suite	2,740 EUR	27.1%

 

The Extra Nights free offer does provide a substantial discount, but the discount in this sample is far less than the 43% one might assume with a Pay 4 Nights, Get 3 Nights Free offer.

The savings are greater as one buys up to higher category rooms. This is a good offer to keep in mind when searching international hotel rates.

Loyalty Traveler Promotion Rating for Hilton Extra Nights Offer = 3 of 5 hotel keys.

Popularity of Chain-Affiliated Hotels Waning?

A national travel survey 2009 National Travel Monitor by Ypartnership/Yankelovich states travelers have increased preference for independent hotels by 6% over the past year. The chain-affiliated hotels do not need to fret too much as 4 out of 5 leisure travelers still prefer brand name hotels, but the survey indicates a growing preference for the individual character and pricing of independent hotels.

 

Leisure travelers also state a growing preference for limited-service hotels, i.e. hotels without restaurants, over full-service hotels since the 2008 survey conducted by this group. Room rates play a large role in the growing popularity of the limited-service hotel. Also, the perception of better value is a leisure traveler concern.

 

Still the leisure traveler preference for full-service hotels has only dropped from 66% in 2008 to 60% in 2009 while limited-service hotels have grown in popularity from 34% in 2008 to 40% in 2009.

 

As Loyalty Traveler I find the interesting data point in this survey to be a preference for chain-affiliated hotels at 80%, yet brand name is cited as a “very influential” factor in choosing a hotel for just 44% of respondents.

 

Does this mean travelers want a chain-affiliated hotel for consistency in lodging, but do not care which brand?

 

This indicates to me that leisure travelers are not taking advantage of the full array of benefits from hotel loyalty programs. Readers of my blog know there is real value in working a loyalty program for complimentary upgrades and free nights. I meet so many people who spend 20 to 30 nights in chain-affiliated hotels every year, but rather than being loyal to one major hotel chain and gaining elite status, the desire to get the lowest rate splits their loyalty among the chains.

 

The result of scattered hotel loyalty is small amounts of points in a variety of hotel programs and no elite status. The trade-off of several  hundred dollars saved over the course of the year is often at the expense of a couple of thousand dollars in potential benefits missed due to no hotel loyalty elite status.

 

A $200 savings for a 5-night vacation at a Marriott resort may be a savings for one trip, but it is not the best value if the traveler could have had a $200 per night complimentary upgrade at the Hilton resort across town based on Hilton Diamond elite status.

 

Many leisure travelers have enough hotel activity during the year to reach a high elite status, particularly with Starwood Preferred Guest or Hyatt Gold Passport (hey, Hyatt is giving away top elite status for free right now with complimentary upgrade certificates).

 

Year after year, I watch fellow travelers going after the best rates without consideration of the potential added value they would receive if they just focused on a single major hotel chain. And they spend thousands of dollars on hotels over the course of the year and could easily put out a few hundred dollars more to maintain high elite status.

 

I’ve had friends come and see my hotel room and they wonder why I didn’t tell them about the great hotel deal. “I would have stayed here for that price!”

 

Complimentary room upgrades don’t come with two or three hotel stays a year with a major hotel chain. Demonstrating loyalty means a commitment to spend thousands of dollars over the course of 15 to 30 hotel stays during the calendar year. In my case I feel the loyalty is returned by the benefits I receive from the hotel loyalty program.

 

Complimentary upgrades are based on showing hotel loyalty to the affiliated hotel chain. It is a win-win relationship. The hotel chain has my loyalty and I frequently receive value-added benefits for my hotel spending.

 

Room rate, location, and value are cited as the most important factors by leisure travelers when booking a hotel room.

 

Room rate is quite important for most travelers. The basic practice of setting room rates based on the hotel’s market segment competition means most major brand upper upscale hotels in the same area will have a similar price. The room rate variations are typically due to events and functions that will push rates higher for one hotel over another. With no special events creating higher hotel demand, then room rates are typically within a 10% range above or below an average of the hotels in a particular market segment in a specific location.

 

When location is most important and room rates among chains within a specific location tend to balance out, then value is left as the primary variable. Hotel frequent guest programs provide the added value in complimentary breakfasts, room upgrades, and future hotel room rebates in the form of points and free nights.

 

Frequent guest elite status in a major hotel chain’s loyalty program improves the value variable. Rather than downgrading your hotel market segment, try upgrading your hotel loyalty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Loyalty traveler advice is to use online travel agencies (OTAs) for hotel rate comparisons, but always go to the hotel chain’s own websites for booking your hotel stay.  After you have narrowed your hotel selection down based on rates displayed on sites like Expedia, Kayak, and Orbitz, then search the hotel chain’s website for even lower rates. This will often reveal a better rate. Remember to check group rates like AAA and senior discounts which are not shown on the results of an OTA search.

Also, special offer rates through the individual hotel’s website many times will provide an even lower rate than AAA for your dates.

HotelMarketing.com posted an article showing OTAs make the majority of their revenue from hotel industry fees and commissions. Expedia made 60% of its 2008 revenue from hotel bookings compared to just 15% from airline bookings.

The case study shown in the cited article reveals Expedia had a 25% mark-up for hotel fee/commission on a $550 New York 2-night hotel stay. Basically the hotel is paying Expedia quite a chunk of change, $137.50, for a $550 booking.

The deep discounts available on special offer rates through the hotel’s own website are possible because the inventory off-loaded to OTAs is at a substantial discount to the hotel’s own listed rates.

In this case study the $550 booking for a New York hotel shown on Expedia is only generating $412.50 for the hotel while generating $137.50 in revenue for Expedia. This is equivalent to a nightly rate of $206.25 for the hotel.

What does this mean for the hotel guest?

The chances are fairly high that a potential guest looking for rates on the hotel’s own website will find a lower rate somewhere between the $275 shown on Expedia and the $206.25 the hotel has contracted with Expedia to sell the room. A $240 per night rate is a $35 savings for the hotel guest and generates an additional $33.75 for the hotel.

What do you do when you go to the hotel’s own website and you see a $275 rate just like seen on Expedia?

Advice: Go to the hotel’s website and look for AAA rates and special offer rates. You should be able to drop the $275 rate by 10 to 20% with a group discount like AAA or AARP or a hotel special offer rate.

The hotel is giving up 25% of its revenue to sell a room through an OTA, whereas the cost is only a few dollars to sell through its own website. This is the reason hotels require frequent guest members to book through hotel chain branded websites to earn loyalty program benefits. And this is the reason hotel loyalty program benefits can be generous.

A free breakfast, some hotel loyalty points, and a $50 room upgrade make the frequent guest a happy guest and may still bring in more revenue to the hotel than the guest on an OTA booking.

Loyalty travelers are generally happier travelers when it comes to getting good value on hotel bookings.

 

Loyalty Traveler Case Study: Hotel Rates Comparison between OTAs and Hotel Branded Websites

Chicago, Illinois

Friday night, August 14, 2009

 

Hotel	OTA rate (Orbitz)	Hotel website lowest rate found (AAA rate for all samples  )	Savings with Hotel direct booking
Hilton Palmer House	$134.10 double bed, smaller room	$119 AAA Stay and Save	$15.10
Hilton Palmer House	$161.10 King	$143 AAA	$18.10
W Chicago	$199 King	$159.20 AAA	$39.80
InterContinental Chicago	$197.10 (standard)	$186.15 AAA	$9.95
Hyatt Regency Chicago	$189 (King)	$151.20 AAA	$37.80

 

Remember three facts about Online Travel Agency Rates:

1.      OTAs do not display AAA rates which are typically the lowest rate about 50% of the time.

2.      OTAs charge a small fee of $1 to $5 per hotel booking that is disguised in the additional Tax and Fees rate charged by the OTA for the booking.

3.      OTA bookings do not qualify for frequent guest benefits in most cases. Points and benefits earned from a hotel stay booked through the hotel chain’s own website can be a $50 to $100+ value.

 

The Hyatt Regency Chicago could earn 2,000 Gold Passport points using a G2 booking bonus and earn 2,500 points per stay with the current Gold Passport promotion. Along with base points earned, the frequent guest would earn over 5,000 points for this one night stay at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. 5,000 points is sufficient for a free night at a Category 1 hotel. That is a lot of added-value to forego on an OTA booking.