Discover America has a batch of fixed price hotel offers from Gaylord Resorts, Loews Hotels and Resorts, and Omni Hotels available for purchase through June 30, 2010. Daily Getaways offered a variety of hotel loyalty points last month with great bargains on points purchases with SPG, Hyatt, Priority Club and other hotel points programs. Here is the link listing 16 hotel discount rate offers available through tomorrow, June 30 for stays later in 2010 or even 2011 for some hotels.

Gaylord Resorts

Gaylord Resorts are convention size hotels located in Orlando, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Nashville. These hotels are fully-equipped environments with restaurants, pools, activity centers, and plenty of entertainment within the hotel resort. I stayed at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando last March for three nights and I was impressed with the array of services and activities including miniature golf course, two pool complexes, fitness center with yoga room, alligator park, and beautifully landscaped interior atrium gardens. The hotel had free shuttle service to the Disney parks.

There are two-night weekend stay packages offered at each Gaylord Resort location. Stays must be completed by November 13 for Orlando, Dallas, and D.C.

The Gaylord Opryland Hotel was devastated by the recent Nashville floods and is undergoing extensive renovation repairs for the next six months. The Gaylord Opryland two night package is valid for a hotel stay anytime in 2011.

Gaylord Texan – two nights $229 (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night check-in)

Gaylord Palms, Orlando – two nights $259 (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night check-in)

Gaylord National, Washington, D.C. – two nights $299 (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night check-in)

Gaylord Opryland, Nashville – two nights $229 (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night check-in)

Loews Hotels and Resorts

There are 19  Loews Hotels and Resorts in the USA and Canada.  There are five offers from Loews for hotel suites for stays through November 15, 2010.

Loews Miami Beach – Beachfront Suite one night $350

Loews Regency New York – Suite one night $350

Loews Santa Monica – Luxury Suite one night $500

Loews One Night in a Suite at your Choice of Nine Hotels, $200

• Loews Atlanta Hotel
• Loews Annapolis Hotel
• The Madison, a Loews Hotel – Washington, D.C.
• Loews Vanderbilt Hotel Nashville
• Loews New Orleans Hotel
• Loews Denver Hotel
• Loews Philadelphia Hotel
• Loews Hôtel Le Concorde – Quebec City, Canada
• Loews Hôtel Vogue – Montreal, Canada 

Loew’s One Night in a Suite at your choice of Six hotels, $300

• Loews Coronado Bay Resort (San Diego)
• Loews Ventana Canyon Resort (Tucson)
• Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort
• Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando^®
• Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando^®
• The Don CeSar, a Loews Hotel (St. Petersburg, Florida)

Omni Hotels and Resorts

There are three tiers of two-night weekend hotel stays available for Omni Hotels through the Discover America site.

Omni Weekend Getaway for $175 – two nights through December 30. Participating Hotels.

Omni Weekend Escape for $250 – two nights through December 30 at these participating Omni Hotels.

Omni Luxury Weekend for $350 – two nights through December 30 at these participating Omni Hotels.

Any one of these Discover America deals will likely be a big savings on the regular room rates for these upper-upscale and luxury class hotels.

There are other package offers available through the DiscoverAmerica site, but these hotel deals look to be the best value opportunities.

Remember – these deals are scheduled to end after tomorrow on June 30.

Gaylord Palms, Orlando

Three weeks ago I suggested San Francisco Starwood Hotels had optimistically high hotel rates for the July 4 weekend. Rates today for this July 4 weekend have dropped to their lowest level for six of the seven San Francisco city hotels (Le Meridien had an incredible $109 rate last week).

AAA rates are at their lowest level of the past three weeks for all seven San Francisco Starwood Hotels just three days before the weekend.

Four of the seven Starwood hotels loaded their lowest rates of the month just today.

Last minute rate drops are the primary reason to avoid prepaid, nonrefundable room rates.

Update: July 1 – Rates dropped even more down to $129 today for the Westin St. Francis for tomorrow night. Westin Market Street dropped to $109. These are the lowest rates of the past month for these two hotels. Le Meridien dropped to $129 today for this weekend.

The opportunity to earn a SPG Free Weekend Night with every three stays goes through July 31, 2010, however, you must register by Wednesday, June 30. It is a good thing to check and be sure you are registered if you have not started this promotion and plan July travel.

SPG free nights are valid for redemption on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through December 19. The opportunity to redeem free nights at Category 6 hotels, normally 20,000 points per night, is the real value in this promotion. Many category 6 hotels run $400+ per night and the room rate savings makes three $100 stays to earn the free night a true luxury bargain. Four nights for less than the price of one.

I have friends taking an Alaska cruise out of Seattle in August. The prices of Starwood Hotels in Seattle are skyhigh. The Sheraton Seattle and Westin Seattle are priced like Manhattan hotels.

If three stays is too many, then you might want to check out Best Western’s “Two stays earns One free night” promotion from June 20 through August 15, 2010. There is a one free night limit unless you are elite and then you may earn two free nights during the promotion.  Free night vouchers expire December 25, 2010. Here is the Loyalty Traveler post on the Best Western offer.

Carlson Hotels comprised of the Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn, and Country Inn & Suites hotel brands and the goldpoints plus loyalty program also have a two stays earn one free night promotion through August 31. Free nights are limited to seven nights earned. Free nights may be used from September 1 through February 28, 2011.

Free night promotion earning period ends June 30 for Hyatt Gold Passport and Hilton HHonors members.

I deserve to win 365 hotel nights because …

Radisson Blu wants to give you 365 nights over five years for the greatest holiday in the world at your choice of over 200 Radisson Blu hotels.

Europeans – this one is for you. First, you must be an EU citizen or a citizen of Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, or Switzerland to enter the competition.

Second, you must tell why “I deserve to win 365 hotel nights”.

Third, upload photos and/or videos to support your claim.

Fourth, to win the 365 hotel nights grand prize you must receive the most votes for your entry by July 24, 2010. Candidates can only enter once, but anyone in the world can vote. People can vote once per day.

Contest entry and information. Here are tips for running a campaign to win this 59,000 EUR prize.

Hotel nights must be used by August 1, 2015 or remaining prize nights expire.

I particularly like the 2010 World Cup party idea. World Cup has cut down my productivity these past 18 days.

Go Netherlands. This might finally be your year…if you survive the Brazilian giants Friday.

I am generally a last minute booker of hotel travel. Time and time again I read travel expert’s advice that the best rates or award availability are available to the hotel guests who book early. There is some truth in that, but I don’t accept the belief that you need to be the early bird to get the hotel of your choice on an award or the lowest room rates. I am overwhelmingly a last minute reservations kind of guy.

My cases in point are Hyatt Free Night awards and Starwood Hotel rates for San Francisco for the July 4 weekend.

Help! I have earned free nights but I can’t get a reservation!

I was reading FlyerTalk Tuesday morning and a Gold Passport member was complaining about the lack of award availability for free nights. I developed some concern as I had two free nights expiring June 30.

Could I find a room at short notice?

My free nights were leftover award nights from the January 31, 2010 end-date for the original Gold Passport Big Welcome promotion. These nights were extended from the original March 31 expiration date to June 30 at the request of this Diamond member. And now there are thousands more guests with free night credits from the current Big Welcome Back promotion.

I called up the Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond line.

     “Do you have any rooms available at the Carmel Highlands Inn?”

     “Yes, Mr. Garrido. You can use your free night award for any night except Saturday or Monday.”

     “What about Lake Tahoe? Is there any availability at that hotel?”

     “Lake Tahoe is wide open. You can book an award night for any night through June 30 at the Lake Tahoe resort.”

I redeemed my two nights without any problem.

The Starwood Last Minute Hotel Rates Case Test 

Two weeks ago I made a survey of 21 San Francisco Bay Area Starwood hotel rates for the July 4 weekend. This earlier survey compared 2010 rates to 2009 and revealed 16 of 21 hotels with higher rates for the 2010 holiday weekend. In my June 8 post I stated the higher rates, in several cases 25% to 50% higher than 2009 rates, were possibly the “ecstatically optimistic” hopes of hoteliers that tourists were coming back big time in 2010.

From my June 8 post – “For this same time period in 2010 as when I checked rates about four weeks before Fourth of July holiday in 2009, hotels in San Francisco city appear to be pushing the rate envelope. I’ll try and remember to check back in next week and see if the Starwood Hotels envelope is a little too stuffed for San Francisco tourism economy this summer. That will be indicated by a room rate price drop next week.” 

Here are the room rates for Starwood’s seven San Francisco city hotels today on June 24 for the July 4 weekend. This rate check is 16 days after my June 8 rate check and eight days before the start of the July 4 weekend.

5 of 7 Starwood hotels are a lower rate today than earlier this month. Only the St. Regis and Westin Market Street Hotels have increased rates. 3 of the 7 hotels also have lower AAA rates today than on June 8. Two other hotels (Palace and Westin St. Francis) have the same AAA rate today as on June 8.

San Francisco may not be typical for all major cities, but last minute rate drops is a pattern I frequently see with San Francisco hotel rates.

These rate surveys I periodically conduct are the primary reason I avoid nonrefundable, no changes rate offers. In my experience, the last minute booking often offers better rates or free night award availability.

And if you are sitting on free weekend nights earned from the current Starwood promotion… well, all seven of the San Francisco Starwood Hotels are available for free night awards Friday July 2 through Sunday night July 4.

A quick check of New York City shows every hotel except Westin Times Square is available for free night awards over July 4 weekend.

OffandAway.com launched in May 2010 as a new kind of hotel room bidding website. The only opaque aspect of this site is how much you will ultimately spend in an effort to win a hotel room bidding war. Unlike Priceline or Hotwire where you simply have to reach a bid level that the company finds acceptable to win your room at an undisclosed hotel, the OffandAway concept is based on bidding against others and the last person standing (bidding) wins the known hotel room package.

The OffandAway concept is simple. Buy bids at $1 per bid and bid for high value hotel rooms in places like Manhattan, California resorts and Miami South Beach. There are descriptions of the hotel room packages on the website and a calendar of available dates.

Here is a sample room offer for The Setai, South Beach Miami from yesterday -

“The Studio Suite at The Setai – South Beach Miami.  2 nights in a king suite over looking the Asian inspired courtyard.  Hotel genius, Adrian Zecha, and architect/designer Jean-Michel Gathy have come together to create an oasis in the premier South Beach location.”

This auction for The Setai started out as a 10 cent bid. Each subsequent bid raised the auction price by 10 cents. Remember each bid cost the bidder $1.

The final winning auction price was $103.

The winning bidder spent $23 in bids and ultimately paid $126 for two nights at The Setai. This is an incredible bargain — for the winner.

Mathematically though, the $103 final winning price means 1,030 bids were placed on this auction for two nights at The Setai. The winner placed $23 in bids and was competing against other bidders who collectively spent $1,007 in bids and did not win this auction for The Setai hotel.

Here is the step-by-step of how OffandAway.com sells hotel rooms.

1. Register on the website and buy bids for $1 each.

2. Find an auction. At the current time there are only two to four properties available for bidding at any one time.

3. The bidding war does not even begin until the time has run out on the auction. You could place a bid on the Bodega Bay Lodge for 30 cents, but that will be a wasted dollar since someone else will bid just before the auction ends. Each bid raises the auction price by 10 cents.

Every bid at the end of auction time extends the auction for another 30 seconds.

4. Here is The Setai auction after the Auction Time Left had expired and 15 minutes before someone actually won the auction.

5. Eventually nobody makes a bid during the 30 second window and there is an auction winner. I suspect many bidders drop out after running out of bid money. Perhaps the auction ends as competing bidders are trying to buy more bids from OffandAway.com.

6. The winner spent $23 in credits. The final auction price is $103. The winner pays $126 for two nights at The Setai. There were $1,030 in bids spent for this auction. The winner got a great deal. The losers gave OffandAway $1,000 for nothing. A portion of this money will be credited for other hotel rooms. In the end, OffandAway is the clear winner in this game.

7. Losers can apply their bids to another hotel room as a credit. The credit is not for another auction, but another hotel booking at your choice of thousands of hotels using OffandAway as an online trasvel agency, similar to booking through any online travel agency such as Expedia or Travelocity. If you spent $53 bidding for the Setai and did not win the auction, then you get 110% credit of $53 for another room. You can book a $90 Holiday Inn Express or a Hampton Inn or whatever and you get $58.30 in credit towards  the alternate booking.

You have to book the alternate room within a week of losing your bids in a specific auction. You can only apply your bids from one auction to booking an alternate room. If you lost bid money in three different auctions you can’t combine those bids. The bids from each auction can be applied as a credit for three other room bookings within the week of each auction loss.

Since your booking is through a third party online travel agency you will not be eligible for loyalty program points and benefits with your hotel loyalty program.

***

There are some good deals.

There were only 136 bids for this room auction. $136 in bids and the winner paid under $25. Great odds for this property and this was one that I actually considered trying.

My reluctance though is the chance of hitting an auction like this for the New York Empire Hotel:

The winner here bid 191 times and won the auction in which there were 2,394 bids.

If you are lucky you can be off and away to a $1,000 hotel suite for $100 or so by placing about $30 or so in bets (bids). The gambling aspect is based on the fact that for every hotel suite winner who scores a $1,000 room for $100 and $30 in bets, there are dozens more betters (bidders) who spend $30, $50, or perhaps $75 or more in purchased credits and get nothing except an opportunity to apply the money you bet (bid) away as a credit on the purchase of another hotel room at the same prices you will find on Travelocity or Expedia.

The house always wins is the cardinal rule of gambling. OffandAway.com has hotel rooms for winners and lots of profits for the house based on the dreams and bids of numerous losers, @$1 a bid.

OffandAway.com will probably become a highly profitable website built on the hopes of gambler-travelers getting a high value hotel room for a fraction of the cost. Las Vegas was built on the dreams of the average gambler hitting the jackpot. Las Vegas is an architectural marvel built on house winnings.

Bottom Line: OffandAway is a clever concept for selling hotel rooms. I am not a gambler, so this site has little interest for me. The odds are too much of a long-shot for the typical player.

The Starwood Preferred Guest member with the most Starwood hotel stays in Africa between June 8, 2010 and December 31, 2010 wins 1,000,000 Starpoints. The second most stays wins 300,000 points and third most stays wins 200,000 points.

A second part of this promotion gives SPG members with an eligible stay in one of the participating Africa or Indian Ocean Starwood hotels entry into a prize draw for a chance to win alternate prizes of 50,000 points first prize, 30,000 points second prize or 20,000 points third prize. One eligible stay earns one entry into the prize draw; two stays earn 3 entries; 3 stays earn 5 entries; 4 stays earn 7 entries; and 5 stays earn maximum number of 10 entries.

Registration for this promotion is required by July 31, 2010 at www.starwoodafrica2010.com. 

Winner will be notified in February 2011.

Starwood Africa 1 Million Starpoints Terms and Conditions

Hilton Worldwide is a sponsor of Grand Prix races around the world. The Hilton Racing Grand Prix Package is a weekend getaway prize for two to the Italian Grand Prix the weekend of September 11-12 with three nights at the Doubletree Milan (Friday Sep 10 to Monday Sep 13), roundtrip tickets for two from London to Milan, and Grand Prix tickets for two and coach transportation for two days.

To enter the contest, simply answer this question, “Which team considers Monza its home circuit?”

Contest entries are accepted through July 17, 2010. Only one entry per person.

Chinese police shut down the Hilton Chongqing Monday June 21 after a vice squad raid on Saturday that detained 102 people and resulted in the arrest of 22 people in connection to a suspected prostitution ring being run in the Diamond Dynasty karaoke club in the basement of the hotel. The hotel is expected to be shut down for at least the next two weeks and possibly longer according to news reports.

A statement by the Chongqing police reported hotel staff including hotel managers, guards, and receptionists were involved in the ring.

A reservations check on the Hilton website shows no room availability over the next two weeks before July 6 at the Hilton Chongqing, but reservations can be made for dates after that.

A raid last month at the Passion Club next to the Sheraton Great Wall Beijing led to the closure of that club for six months. Here is a blog post about the loss of clubs for Beijing’s elite.

Park Hyatt Aviara in coastal Carlsbad, California opened today. The hotel, located about 35 miles north of downtown San Diego and 60 miles south of Disneyland, rebranded from its former persona as the Four Seasons Aviara Resort. The rebranding to a Park Hyatt is a result of the hotel owner’s dispute with Four Seasons Hotels after 13 years of management.

The standard rooms at the Park Hyatt Aviara property are luxury size rooms at 540 square feet. In my opinion the typical hotel room becomes a sizeable hotel room once you enter the 500 to 600 sq. ft. range. For comparison the square footage of a typical basic hotel room is about 280 to 320 square feet.

The $280 per night standard room rate I see for rooms this week makes this property a good candidate for a free night redemption using free night credits from the recent promotions. The hotel is a Hyatt Gold Passport category 6 reward night costing 22,000 points per night.

Currently the Park Hyatt Aviara offers an introductory offer for a 3^rd night free rate including a $50 per stay resort credit. The 3^rd night free rate brings the cost of three nights down to $234 per night this week. This introductory offer rate is available for reservations made by September 6, 2010 using rate code PHA50 for hotel stays through December 31, 2010. I only checked rates for this week so rates may be lower or higher than shown here for other dates.

Panoramic View King is $360 per night or $300 per night using the 3^rd night free rate ($900 total for three nights).  The view is of the golf course or the Batiquitos Lagoon. Sliding French doors, king bed, 42-inch plasma TV… I hope they have ESPN coverage for watching World Cup 2010 in bed.

Park Suite is $480 per night or $400 per night using the 3^rd night free rate for a 855 sq. ft room.

This property might be a good use of a Diamond member confirmed suite upgrade certificate when paying for the stay.

Deal of the day has to be the chance to win 25,000 Marriott Rewards points tomorrow just by leaving a comment on the Mashup Mom site. There were only 73 comments at the time I posted this piece. The entry deadline is Tuesday, June 22 at 11:59pm central time zone. Giveaway is limited to USA participants.

Happy first day of summer.