Where ya’ from dude?

When touring around San Francisco and Yosemite this past month, I heard many foreign languages besides Spanish. Where are all these people from?

Here are some statistics on overseas visitors I picked up at press conferences last week. The first set of data is from a California Travel & Tourism Fact Sheet and the New York data is from a NYC & Company “History of International Travel & Markets” page on International Visitors to NYC.

California Travel & Tourism Commission Facts

California had 13.6 million international visitors in 2010; a 9% increase over 2009.

Asia is driving growth in international arrivals with China, India and South Korea leading the way for overseas visitors.

California overseas visitors in 2010.

1. U.K. = 683,000 visitors spending $688 million.
2. Japan = 545,000 visitors spending $597 million.
3. Australia = 502,000 visitors spending $568 million.
4. China = 399,000 visitors spending $648 million.
5. South Korea = 390,000 visitors spending $460 million.
6. Germany = 388,000 visitors spending $387 million.
7. France = 382,000 visitors spending $354 million.
8. India = 184,000 visitors spending $303 million.
9. Scandinavia = 177,000 visitors spending $335 million.
10. Italy = 163,000 visitors spending $244 million.
11. Brazil = 113,000 visitors spending $147 million.

According to a B&B hostess I stayed with in Ireland back in the 1990s, her anecdotal experience indicated Australians were the most frugal travelers. This California data indicates it is the French holding back their spending. My uninformed explanation is the French probably don’t buy cases of Napa Valley wine to take back home. Then again, maybe the Australians just hang out in California longer.

New York City Overseas Visitors in 2010

1. U.K. = 1,095,000 visitors.
2. Germany = 588,000 visitors.
3. France = 548,000 visitors.
4. Italy = 431,000 visitors.
5. Australia = 419,000 visitors.
6. Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) = 400,000 visitors.
7. Spain = 357,000 visitors.
8. Middle East region (excluding Israel) = 355,000 visitors.
9. Eastern Europe (excluding Russia) = 353,000 visitors.
10. Brazil = 332,000 visitors.
11. BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) = 306,000 visitors.
12. Ireland = 268,000 visitors.
13. Japan = 216,000 visitors.
14. South Korea = 203,000 visitors.
15. China = 183,000 visitors.
16. Argentina = 175,000 visitors.
17. Israel = 169,000 visitors.
18. India = 147,000 visitors.
19. Russia = 94,000 visitors.

Sources: Office of Travel & Tourism Industries, Tourism Economics, NYC & Company.

International tourism is up in California and New York City and so are hotel rates in these globally popular locations.

Submit a photo with a description of why you deserve a summer vacation to Wyndham’s ‘Why I deserve a summer vacation’ contest running May 19 to June 19, 2011 for a chance to win 175,000 points, $7,000 cash and a rental car week. You may have 5 entries in the contest period. There are all kinds of legal requirements around the photo, so be sure to read the terms of the contest.

Contest Entry

Website: www.wyndhamrewards.com/deserve

Facebook: Wyndham Rewards

Wyndham ‘Why I deserve a summer vacation’ Grand Prize:

• 175,000 Wyndham Rewards points
• Rental car for 8 days.
• $7,000 bank gift card.

Currently, on May 31, there are only 139 entries. Odds are rather good.

Seven judges will select the seven finalists and then the general public selects the Grand Prize winner of the seven finalists during voting from June 23-29, 2011.

On a side note: I thought I was going to be one of the judges of this contest. I missed the Wyndham meeting. Turns out I was traipsing around Yosemite and Kings Canyon and out of e-touch and then conducting end-of-year standardized testing on first graders when I could have been meeting with Wyndham representatives about the summer contest two weeks ago. My loss.

Anyway, I am sure consumers are in good hands with Tim Winship, Rudy Maxa, and Grant Martin and Canadian Christiane Levesque rounding out the male side of judging. Kim Orlando of travelingmom.com is a blogger representative.

Hey Wyndham, can I still have the points?

Can’t afford a W Hotel? Think again.

There are currently 41 W Hotels open around the world in the Starwood Hotels luxury boutique brand. W Hotels opened in the past year in London, St. Petersburg, Russia; Bali, Taipei and Santiago, Chile. There are several more W Hotels scheduled to open in the next year in Paris, Milan, Singapore and Bangkok.

W Washington D.C. lobby bar

Think lights and darkness, music and playful whimsy, style and attitude. Guests seem to either really love the W concept or find it pretentious. My wife is a lover of W style. I generally have a great time in W Hotels, but the rooms tend to be too small and the price too high for my comfort. Think $250 to $350 as average rates for this luxury boutique brand.

W Silicon Valley, Newark, California

Starwood’s W Silicon Valley is probably the hotel where I have booked more paid nights than any other hotel over the past decade. W Silicon Valley is undoubtedly the lowest priced of any of the W Hotels. By far the lowest priced during weekends and holidays. The published AAA rate for this Memorial Day weekend at the W Silicon Valley was $81. Even lower was my Starwood Best Rate Guarantee matched rate to Hotels.com price for $64 per night + 2,000 bonus Starpoints. And the hotel even upgraded me to a Cool Corner Suite for only the second time in 8 years.

W Silicon Valley in sunset glow

On top of the low price is the standard large room at W Suites Silicon Valley measuring 447 square feet. Most W Hotels will require a significant upgrade to land a room that size. The standard room at Silicon Valley is larger than any upgraded room I received at W San Francisco, W Washington D.C., W Chicago Lakeshore or W Chicago – City Center.

W Silicon Valley - all rooms have a couch.

All standard rooms at W Silicon Valley are basically junior suites with the TV table dividing the sitting room from the bed. The Cool Corner Suite has the same furnishings as lower category rooms, but larger space between the furniture and in the bathroom. Flat screen TVs arrived in the past two years to bring the hotel into the 21st century. The TVs swivel for viewing from couch or bed.

W Silicon Valley - Cool Corner Suite

All the rooms at W Silicon Valley come with a mini-bar refrigerator, microwave and sink.

W Silicon Valley - kitchenette in Cool Corner Suite

The refrigerator is spacious enough to put your own food and drink inside around the mini-bar items and no electronic sensors to inhibit moving the mini-bar items around to make space.

The bathrooms have both shower and tub.

W Silicon Valley shower and tub.

The rooms used to have large and beautiful blue drinking glasses. Now they are small and clear.

W Silicon Valley Bathroom.

Frankly, I am surprised W Silicon Valley hotel has survived as a W Hotel in the small southeastern San Francisco Bay city of Newark, California. There is no big city life in the vicinity of the hotel. There is actually not much of anything around the hotel. W Silicon Valley hotel is located between a business park, housing tracts and the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge on the shore of San Francisco Bay, at the eastern edge of the Dumbarton Bridge. The hotel is 8 miles from Palo Alto, home of Stanford University and 30 miles from San Francisco.

W Silicon Valley Newark wetlands

W Silicon Valley lobby is generally uncrowded unless a special party is happening. The bar, restaurant and lobby are a compact space.

W Silicon Valley lobby.

W Silicon Valley lobby.

There is a small fitness room and an outdoor pool surrounded by sand at W Silicon Valley. There is also an outdoor firepit. The wind tends to blow briskly at this southern end of San Francisco Bay which makes the hot tub a more popular ‘wet’ experience in my observations over the years.

W Silicon Valley WET.

W Silicon Valley spa tub.

W Silicon Valley near poolside seating adjacent to restaurant.

There are probably not too many people who would list the W Silicon Valley as their favorite Starwood Hotel, but for a loyalty traveler, Newark has been a home away from home since 2003 for this frequent guest seeking to maintain SPG Platinum elite and needing a high quality, low priced hotel within driving distance of Monterey. And the W Silicon Valley, Newark really is 90 miles from Monterey (W Silicon Valley website states 50 miles), so don’t take the W Silicon Valley Acura SUV for a 3-hour complimentary drive and expect to reach Cannery Row and back in the allotted time.

W Silicon Valley complimentary Acura SUV for guest drive.

Related Loyalty Traveler posts:

W Silicon Valley Fly-by in HD (July 28, 2009) – This piece touches on the adjacent wildlife refuge and history of sea salt production in San Francisco Bay.

W San Francisco in HD (Sep 4, 2009) – Loads of photos

W Chicago Lakeshore Hotel (Oct. 26, 2010)

W Chicago City Center in Blue Ray (October 27, 2010)

Here is another reflection piece geared for bloggers and travel writers about U.S. Travel Association International Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco to promote U.S. tourism to international visitors. This piece encapsulates the actual value of the four day event for me as Loyalty Traveler. I’ll get back to my bread and butter focus on hotel loyalty programs after this post.

International Pow Wow May 21-25, 2011 San Francisco - U.S. Travel Association

Meeting influential people and making contacts is essential in the travel writing business as in any business if you want to grow and move beyond your present standing in the industry. The days of Pow Wow San Francisco 2011 were formal contact sessions. Small contact meetings from 9am to 5 pm for 20 minute blocks in Moscone Center convention hall went on all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with a one hour lunch break loaded with entertainers.

Hyatt Hotels booth International Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco

Some examples of travel suppliers present were a specific hotel property like Fontainebleau Miami or all the major hotel chains like Marriott International, InterContinental Hotels Group and many others or a tourism board like southeastern Utah.

Hawaiian Islands tourism section at International Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco

Every area of the United States had representatives attending Pow Wow 2011 including booths for Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

U.S. Virgin Islands booth at International Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco

Media had a day of press events to attend pitches for entertainment parks in Orlando, Los Angeles as 2012 Pow Wow host city and LAX improvements coming for 2013, U.S. Travel Association briefing on Corporation for Travel Promotion and a press conference on the opening of the 9/11 memorial in New York City this September.

Travmedia.com provides online communication and a connection center for tourism industry professionals and media journalists. Registering with the site allows journalists and freelancers to hook up with U.S. Travel Association member contacts.

Discover America Travel Writer Awards - Monday, May 23

70,000 meetings reportedly took place in three days of Pow Wow 2011 and many of these were one-on-one contacts between a buyer and supplier or a supplier and a journalist.

I found myself born here in California - lucky, I guess.

Informal events during the evenings of International Pow Wow 2011 are where I made my most significant contacts. Meeting other travel writers to share stories with and talk about professional business as a blogger is engaging and uplifting. Attendees I met were from so many different backgrounds and countries and most everyone had entertaining stories to share with me. These are people who I now feel connected with to follow and hopefully see again by next year. Making contact is important for developing a professional network of colleagues; particularly when working most of my time in solitude as a writer and travel blogger.

Pull my string and I do my thing 

Pow Wow 2011 was a great opportunity to make travel industry contacts. I am truly impressed by the well-ordered 5-day event for over 5,000 convention delegates. U.S. Travel Association and the city of San Francisco put on a full-scale over-the-top production. The entertainment provided for guests was high caliber talent with a variety of singers and dancers who performed during the convention.

singer at Ferry Building Press Morning May 22 PowWow 2011 San Francisco

Can I get you a drink? 

Each evening event had dozens of tables where complimentary alcohol was available and there was some real drinking going on. 

And why not?

90% of the wine made in the U.S. comes from vineyards within a few hours drive of San Francisco.  A tourism promotion conference for the United States generates a lot of interest from California wineries.

Kimpton Hotels hospitality cabana at Ultimate San Francisco Party May 25

I just hope there is a better beer selection at Pow Wow 2011 in Los Angeles, since I am not much of a wine drinker these days.

The convention brought 5,500 Pow Wow attendees to San Francisco and many of these people also brought additional family members and friends on the trip. 

Pow Wow had three evening events. On Sunday night from 7 to 11 pm at Fisherman’s Wharf, the entire Pier 39 complex was reserved exclusively for Pow Wow delegates. Restaurants and bars were open and complimentary.

Center Stage Pier 39 - International Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco

Even Aquarium of the Bay was open and wonderfully uncrowded during my visit.

Aquarium by the Bay - PowWow 2011 San Francisco

After the live band stopped Sunday night people were hustled out of the Pier 39 bars and back into the streets. I thought I was going to walk 30 minutes back to my hotel with a couple of other journalists. Many people jumped in taxis for direct access back to their hotels, at a cost. The buses shuttling delegates back to Union Square and Moscone Center were a bit of a walk from Pier 39. Back to the hotel, drunk at midnight and asleep by 12:15am. 

California Academy of Sciences San Francisco - booth at Pow Wow 2011

Tuesday at Golden Gate Park in the California Academy of Sciences seemed really crowded to me. The entertainment was great, food less so and the beer selection excluded European brands with one particular California microbrew seemingly locked into exclusive sponsorship of the beer drinking market for the last two nights of Pow Wow evening parties. 

SFO and several airlines hosted parties including Air France/Skyteam, Lufthansa, United and Virgin Atlantic. SFO served seafood outside the museum.

SFO hosting California Academy of Sciences party Golden Gate Park at Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco

Inside the museum Lufthansa hosted an area serving sausages, Virgin Atlantic pasta, United Airlines had Asian food and Air France middle east cuisine with cheeses and fruit downstairs in the aquarium.

Air France offered Middle Eastern food and entertainment with belly dancers.

Lufthansa caught my attention with a young woman from the audience, not pictured here, who went out and danced the polka in high heels with this guy in costume shown here.

Lufthansa entertainment at California Academy of Sciences San Francisco - Pow Wow 2011

My wife and I discussed how we both had a fascination with the pendulum clock in the California Academy of Sciences as a childhood memory when we were little kids in the 1960s in San Francisco.  

Pendulum clock in California Academy of Sciences San Francisco

Wednesday night was the closing evening of International Pow Wow 2011 and the Ultimate San Francisco Party was held at San Francisco Civic Center with parties inside and outside the City Hall building.

Outside was the California Pavilion with live music and a dance club and rows of wine tent cabanas hosted by hotels and wineries.

Starwood Hotels cabana at Ultimate San Francisco Party Pow Wow 2011

 Inside San Francisco City Hall, after clearing the security metal detector checkpoints, guests had three areas for parties.

Harvey Milk Statue San Francisco City Hall

The City Hall Rotunda featured string music on the grand stairway and the south hall had 60s rock music Summer of Love, henna tattoos and face decoration. North Hall was Castro Club for a gay time with club music.

Some serious sugar for Ultimate San Francisco Party - Pow Wow 2011.

The ferris wheel was a fun way to see San Francisco City Hall and say goodbye to the city that hosted Pow Wow 2011 for five days in May 2011.  I can’t wait to be in Los Angeles for 2012.

San Francisco City Hall view from ferris wheel at Pow Wow 2011.

Here are some thoughts on maintaining hotel loyalty elite status while traveling in cities of rising rates. STR, the hotel data company for North America, reported average daily rates last week in the U.S. were $154.50 for upper-upscale hotel market segment with occupancy at 78.0%. The luxury hotel market segment had average daily rates of $260.71 with occupancy at a high 77.3%. 

As a leisure traveler over the past decade, I have felt that an adequate annual budget for maintaining top elite status while primarily staying in upper-upscale market segment hotels takes between $3,000 to $4,000 a year. I’ve spent more and I have spent less, but $3,000 is typically around the minimum spend I can expect when planning to earn top elite like SPG Platinum, Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Diamond or Carlson Concierge elite. 

Marriott will likely take more than $3,000 for Gold elite at 50 nights and much more for Platinum at 75 nights, although elite rollover nights can reduce the annual spend somewhat. Priority Club qualification on points should take far less than $3,000 to earn 60,000 points for Platinum. I requalified for 2012 Priority Club Platinum elite status yesterday after less than $500 in hotel stays in 2011.

My Priority Club account has earned 117,330 points in 2011 and Platinum elite membership is earned with 60,000 points in a calendar year. I have earned Platinum elite status through December 31, 2012 after just 5 paid hotel nights in 2011. 

Maintaining hotel elite status in a city of rising rates

Upper-upscale market segment hotels like full service Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and Starwood properties will frequently have rates in the range of $150 to $200 per night. 

The highest rates might be during midweek nights like in downtown San Francisco where business travelers and convention goers fill hotels on high rates. The highest hotel rates may be weekend nights like in my hometown of Monterey where many Californians come to vacation on weekends. 

$150 to $200 per night hotels on a $3,000 to $4,000 budget gets you 15 to 26 nights a year in hotels. It is tough to earn top-level elite status with fewer than 30 nights a year in hotels unless you only do one-night stays. 

Most hotel loyalty programs qualify members for elite status by either nights or hotel stays. Carlson, Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood require fewer stays than nights for elite qualification. 

Top-Tier Elite Qualification Published Requirements (in a calendar year)

• Marriott Rewards Platinum = 75 Nights
• Club Carlson Concierge Elite = 30 Stays or 75 Nights
• Hilton HHonors Diamond = 28 Stays or 60 Nights or 100,000 base points ($10,000 hotel spend)
• Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond = 25 stays or 50 nights
• Starwood Preferred Guest = 25 stays or 50 nights 
• InterContinental Royal Ambassador has unpublished qualification terms which are generally reported to be around 50 to 60 nights in IHG brand hotels with stays in at least 3 different InterContinental Hotels in a 12-month period of Ambassador paid membership.

I have met many business travelers who spend 40 to 50 nights a year in hotels and never have attained top elite status. Most business travelers average two or three night stays. If you spend 60 nights a year in hotels with 20 hotel stays and 42 nights Hilton and 18 nights in Marriott, then your HHonors Gold and Marriott Silver elite receives minor attention compared to what you would likely experience as HHonors Diamond. 

The leisure traveler spending $3K to $4K can have four or five extended stay vacations a year staying in nice upper-upscale hotels at $150 to $200 per night. Most of my friends fall in this category of travelers who pay high rates in desirable places and never qualify for more than low-level elite hotel loyalty membership.

My objective throughout the year is finding upper-upscale hotels where my average daily paid rate is well below the average $155 per night for a U.S. upper upscale hotel. I regularly find upper upscale hotels in the $100 range during slow business and low occupancy periods. This allows me to stay 30 to 40 paid nights and the ability to maintain top-elite status with good elite benefits and hotel selection whether that loyalty program is Hilton, Hyatt, SPG or another hotel loyalty program.

Typically I spend about 80% of my paid hotel nights in upper-upscale hotels and around 20% in midscale brands like Four Points, Hyatt Place, Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn/Hilton Garden Inn.

Conventions and Events are a Leisure Traveler budget buster 

Conferences like the International Pow Wow in San Francisco this past week tend to push the daily hotel rates up to $250 to $300 per night for upper-upscale hotel brands like Hilton, Hyatt Regency, Marriott, and Westin. These high rates force the leisure traveler down to 10 to 16 nights a year if staying within a $3,000 to $4,000 budget. You are severely limited on your ability to earn hotel elite status while staying in the upper-upscale hotel market segment and paying high rates. 

I plan for hotel travel 12 months a year with a goal of maintaining top elite status in at least one program (currently I’m top-elite in four hotel programs). I seldom book a hotel more than one week in advance, but when I see good value hotel deals, like my W Silicon Valley $64 Best Rate Guarantee nights this weekend that I found a few weeks back, I jump on them to earn loyalty points and elite credit stays. 

Then, when I really need a hotel in a specific place like downtown San Francisco last week, I am able to spend points for nice upper-upscale hotel rooms with elite benefits like free internet or free breakfast and free room upgrades. Rates were over $200 and $300 at hotels around Moscone Center during International Pow Wow 2011 travel convention. Rates are about the same next month in downtown Vancouver for the Travel Blog Exchange 2011 conference.  My points earned steadily over the past year allow me to stay in upper upscale hotels in the center of the action at a fraction of the published paid rates by using points awards. 

The fact that most other guests at these hotels are paying $200 to $300 per night does not impact me. I spent $120 and 60,000 Priority Club points to stay two nights at the InterContinental San Francisco and saved nearly $500 on the published lowest rate. I stayed at the Starwood Luxury Collection Palace Hotel on a Cash & Points award and paid $103 (after tax) and 4,800 points to save over $200 on the lowest published rate. My SPG Platinum elite status also waived the $20 daily internet fee at the Palace Hotel. I booked both of these hotels within 24 hours of arrival during one of the year’s biggest conventions in San Francisco.

So if you are one of those high-paying guests during hotel convention times, or even worse, you are staying at the airport and spending two hours a day commuting to and from the city center from your budget hotel…

“Welcome to Loyalty Traveler.” 

This is where you will find tips on getting hotel value for the frequent guest. 

You do not have to book far in advance to get the best hotel rates. You just need to plan far in advance so you have plenty of points and hopefully elite status, rather than plenty of cash to cover your hotel needs when staying in a city of high-rise and high rate hotels.

Article Correction May 31: This post originally listed occupancy for upper-upscale hotel segment incorrectly at 68% rather than 78.0%.  The upper-midscale hotel segment was 68% occupancy.

Best Western has a Twitter campaign happening May 19 through June 17, 2011 offering daily points and cash prizes. “Wanna Go, Wanna Bring Summer Edition” has $4,000 in prizes. Prizes only awarded Monday through Friday.

Simply follow Best Western on Twitter and then tweet this:

I wanna go to (location), I wanna bring (@twitter username) and I wanna (activity)! #wannagobw @thebestwestern.

Insert a place, a Twitter member and an activity and keep it all under 140 characters or it doesn’t submit your tweet.

Main Rules:

• Contest only open to U.S. 50 states and D.C. residents.
• You may enter as many times as you want each day.

Prizes:

• 5,000 Best Western points or $100 Best Western Travel Card  = one prize daily Monday – Friday.
• Grand Prize = $2,000 Best Western Travel Card  = two prizes awarded by July 8.
• Notification of prize win will be by Twitter. Must respond to Best Western within 7 days or forfeit prize.

Here is the primer for readers who don’t yet use Twitter.com.

1. Sign up for Twitter.
2. Explore, look up some categories and follow some people.
3. @loyaltytraveler is how you reply to someone or locate tweets mentioning a specific member on Twitter.
4. #SanFrancisco is what is called a hashtag. This is how you can search topics where a keyword or name may not be so effective. For instance #tbex is a hashtag for people discussing the Travel Blog Exchange 2011 conference happening in Vancouver June 11-12. (note: earlier version of this post used #tbex11, but it does not seem the date is being used.)

Best Western 'Wanna Go, Wanna Bring' Twitter sweepstakes

Marriott Rewards offers members 4x miles from June 1 through August 31, 2011 beginning with your second hotel stay during the promotion period. The design of Marriott Rewards site requires your member account be set to earn miles rather than points to enable the 4x miles promotion page to load. Promotion registration begins June 1.

Marriott Rewards members on FlyerTalk state the miles promotion and points promotions can both be earned if you switch your earning preference and register for both promotions. This makes it possible to toggle between earning points for the MegaBonus offer of one free night at a category 1 to 4 hotel after two stays which is great for one night hotel stays and then earn miles for longer, more expensive stays when the bonus miles will add up quickly. You just need to manage your earning preference by switching between  miles or points  to maximize the best earning option for each hotel stay.

Earn 8 miles per $1 for most charges at these hotel brands:

• JW Marriott
• Marriott Hotels & Resorts
• Renaissance
• Autograph Collection
• Marriott Vacation Club
• Edition

Earn 4 miles per $1 on room rate only at these hotel brands:

• Courtyard
• Residence Inn
• Fairfield Inn
• TownePlace Suites
• SpringHill Suites

Participating Airlines for 4x Miles:

• Aeroplan (Air Canada)
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific Airways
• Delta Air Lines
• Frontier Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• JetBlue Airways
• Jet Airways JetPrivilege
• Kingfisher Airlines
• LifeMiles (Avianca-TACA)
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways

Southwest Airlines normally earns 600 points per stay for any Marriott hotel brand, so quadruple points = 2,400 points per stay at any hotel brand.

JetBlue with this promotion earns 4 points per $1 at upper tier brands (Marriott, Renaissance) and 2 points per $1 at the lower tier hotel brands (Courtyard, Residence Inn) shown above.

Marriott Rewards 4x Miles Promotion link (registration begins June 1).

4x Miles Promotion Terms & Conditions.

Please note: You must have your Marriott Rewards member account earning preference set to earn miles in order to load the webpages in these links. They will not load if your account is set for earning points.

Related Loyalty Traveler post: Marriott Rewards MegaBonus June 1-August 31, 2011 (May 16)

Marriott Rewards Quadruple Miles

I repeatedly had the feeling of being a little fish outside in the big pond of travel journalism when speaking with hotel and tourist board representatives at the U.S. Travel Association’s International Pow Wow 2011 in San Francisco.   

The most often asked questions I received from travel industry representatives over the past few days were “Who do you write for?” (Loyalty Traveler is my own business); “Where is your work published?” (Loyalty Traveler blog is online and hosted on the BoardingArea.com site of business traveler blogs.); and “How do you make any money?” (I get paid for freelance writing projects and I receive ad revenue share from BoardingArea.com).

I do not make much money at the present time compared to what I could make working a wage job (I still haven’t bought a new DSLR camera this year), but I make more money now than I did a year ago and I haven’t fired myself lately. Also, I think I have significantly more opportunity to increase my income ten-fold as a self-employed blogger and business owner than I had as a wage employee. 

My favorite question during International Pow Wow had to be “Since it’s a blog, does it start with ‘www’ on the internet?” 

The perception of bloggers is quite interesting to me in an analytics sense.   

Take an online publication like HotelChatter.com, a Condé Nast-owned website for an analytics comparison. Compete.com numbers show 56,000 unique visitors for April 2011 while BoardingArea.com site is listed as 53,000 unique visitors. 

Loyalty Traveler blog is a subdomain on BoardingArea.com and I don’t have comparable Compete.com numbers for Loyalty Traveler, but Google Analytics shows Loyalty Traveler blog had 35,705 unique visitors and 101,152 pageviews on April 20, 2011 and Loyalty Traveler blog posts are regularly fed into USA Today and Reuter’s news feeds. 

Bloggers like Gary Leff with ‘View from the Wing’ and Ben Schlappig of ‘One Mile at a Time’ have significant influence in the sphere of frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs along with Brian Kelly, ‘The Points Guy’, who has made phenomenal growth in the past year with his blog that also focuses on how to use travel loyalty programs. Travelers seek travel value for their money and each of our blogs are focused on providing travelers good value tips.

Bloggers are the long-tail of travel influence. Ten influential online travel bloggers might even approach the influence of a major publication like Condé Nast Traveller. A blog post I came across today expresses my sentiment about the influence of bloggers compared to traditional media, even though I am not listed as one of the “Top 100 bloggers hotels and airlines should fly out first class”. 

Yes, my blog does start with www.   

Loyalty Traveler blog post on an Aria Resort Las Vegas Sky Villa from Dec 2010 ranks just below AriaLasVegas.com website on 5/26/2011 Google search.

Loyalty Traveler post: Aria Resort Las Vegas Sky Villa 19  (Dec 19, 2010)

SFO airport co-sponsored last night’s International Pow Wow 2011 travel market-place evening gala at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.  Honestly, the museums were far too crowded and loud for my pleasure, but I truly enjoyed the entertainment and Planetarium show.

The Planetarium is an incredible visual journey to the molecular level and then to vast space. The 15-year old albino alligator is another unique creature to see.

No time to write a real blog story at the moment.

I’ll share a couple of photos from last night that are frequent flyer related.

SFO at California Academy of Sciences International Pow Wow gala May 24, 2011

San Francisco Airport launched most of the journeys that earned about 4 million frequent flyer miles for me over the past decade. I don’t play the credit card churn game. My miles were almost all earned from flying on planes.

SFO ground crew

My impression from watching hundreds of ground crew personnel guiding aircraft to the SFO gates over the years is these workers generally look like ex-football players. This must be the new wave of SFO ground staff.

U.S. Travel Association, the same folks who brought us the Discover America Daily Getaways for discount hotel loyalty points and car rentals last month, organizes the annual International Pow Wow. The 43^rd International Pow Wow is currently being held in San Francisco from May 21-25, 2011. The convention objective is to market the U.S. as a travel destination for international visitors.

This is the marketplace showcase for international tourism to the U.S. generating $3.5 billion in sales. Over 5,500 delegates from 70 countries meet with U.S. travel suppliers during several days of greetings, meetings and parties. All the major hotel chains have representatives here.

Best Western booth at International Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco

Several hundred regional and state tourism boards make contact with travel buyer representatives who sell U.S. travel packages in countries across the globe.

California Central Coast Tourism Council booth at International Pow Wow 2011

Travel journalists play a significant role in this convention. Over 400 international travel writers are here in San Francisco for the Pow Wow. The objective for bringing international journalists to San Francisco for Pow Wow is to provide U.S. regional tourism information and story ideas for influential writers and media in the travel world. Journalists create the stories informing travelers about U.S. tourism destinations and generate desire among international tourists to visit the U.S.

There was a two hour window for meeting journalists and only 20 tables of more than 200 were occupied by US travel writers.

Wowed by International Pow Wow

San Francisco as the host city has opened wide the Golden Gate City for delegates.

Sunday morning was a media reception at the Ferry Building plying journalists with coffee, alcohol and food at 9am. Most people were drinking from the wine selections of local vineyards, but yours truly is a beer connoisseur and I took advantage of the local microbrew selection including Thirsty Bear Brewery and 21st Amendment brewery imperial stout.

The day was not all dining and drinks, although the majority of my day was consumption oriented. There were many options for press tours to various parts of San Francisco such as historical tours, a movie location tour to see some of the settings for films shot in the city, a music history tour to reminisce about Haight Ashbury in the 60s and the punk venues of the late 70s, early 80s. 

I lived through much of that history as a local regularly visiting my grandparents who lived in San Francisco from the 1920s. I was an active spectator from Monterey in the punk music scene of the late 70s, so I wanted to try something I had never done – Bike the Golden Gate Bridge.

Three outfits provide bike rentals and guided tours of San Francisco. Bike and Roll, Blazing Saddles and Bay City Bike guided small groups of delegates on a seven mile ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. The wind was fierce and the path crowded on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Bike the Bridge Tour

Alcatraz Islandwas reserved exclusively for Pow Wow delegates Sunday afternoon. That might seem unusual except for the fact that the National Parks Service is a major sponsor of the International Pow Wow. I was there in December and I needed to check into the InterContinental San Francisco, so I passed on that excursion.

Sunday night the Pier 39 entertainment and dining complex in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco was open exclusively for the Pow Wow guests. Every restaurant on Pier 39 provided complimentary buffet selections and drinks. Live music was playing in multiple places with everything from string quartet to steel drum to a cappella quartet and the Cal Berkeley Marching Band. Doors were open from the merry-go-round to the Aquarium of the Bay.

Neptune’s Palace Seafood Restaurant and Hard Rock Cafe held my attention much of the evening as I met delegates from Chile, Australia, Germany, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kuwait, China and the U.S.

Hard Rock Cafe San Francisco at Pier 39

Monday morning the formal industry contacts began and I met with representatives from Hilton, Hyatt, Kimpton, Marriott, Starwood, Best Western and tourism boards around the country in a whirlwind travel industry equivalent of speed dating. With over 1,000 U.S. tourism representatives in attendance, the International Pow Wow allows three days for meeting delegates at booths and nights for making informal contacts.

Yesterday afternoon I spent time with other travel bloggers including Jennifer Miner of The Vacation Gals and Chris Gray Faust of Chris Around the World blogs.

Time to get back to the meetings. Today I will be tweeting more about the International Pow Wow. Follow Loyalty Traveler and search #ipw11 for more information.

Planning for hotel travel is a 12 month a year task for me. My primary objective is to earn free nights and points for free nights so when I travel I am not left to the whims of market forces. Elite status is also important to me, although I feel it is important to balance loyalty to my preferred hotel chains with opportunities for free nights in other programs. Maintaining points in a variety of hotel loyalty programs provides options.

I received an email from a traveler this week trying to find a hotel for Travel Blog Exchange 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia June 11-12. She had waited too long to book rooms and most rooms in downtown Vancouver show rates over $200 and hotels are sold out for places like Starwood’s Westin Grand all-suites hotel or the Westin Bayshore. I suggested she try Holiday Inn at $120CAD per night with the $75 rebate card for a weekend stay.

Actually, I also waited too long to book my hotel and I had to stay an extra night to get a Cash & Points award for one of the three Starwood Hotels. The Cash & Points option showed unavailable for three nights, but at four nights was available. In March I could have booked any of the three Starwood hotels in downtown Vancouver using Cash & Points awards.

U.S. Travel Association International PowWow 2011 San Francisco

This week I learned of a last minute opportunity to attend the U.S. Travel Association International PowWow 2011 in San Francisco starting today. Travel suppliers from around the USA are making sales with travel vendors worldwide. Regional tourist association representatives from all over the USA converge for several days of greetings, meetings, and parties. Suddenly I needed four hotel nights in a city where the rates are $200+ per night for all the major brand hotels.

Without hotel loyalty points I’d be shelling out over $800 to attend the conference or be commuting some distance from outside the city to get a decent hotel rate. I’ll be spending points instead.

Earning hotel loyalty points

InterContinental Hotels Group brands – I picked up over 200,000 points in the past year with only 10 paid hotel nights. I redeemed 6 nights using Cash & Points awards buying 10,000 points for $60 each time. There were also some Cash & Points award nights I booked and ended up needing to cancel. The purchased points at $60 per 10,000 points remained in my account. That is the backdoor way to getting cheap Priority Club points. I actually needed to cancel my award nights, but there seems no impediment to actually booking some Cash & Points nights, buying points and canceling the award nights to result in a boost in points at discount purchase rates.

My Crack the Case promotion was unlocked this week for 91,000 bonus points. InterContinental San Francisco is available for $60 and 30,000 points per night. That is a hotel adjacent to the Moscone Convention Center for the International PowWow. Rates are about $270 per night for this hotel during the conference.

Priority Club Crack the Case Promotion earned 102,000 bonus points

Best Western Rewards had a February to April 2011 promotion for one free night after three stays that I earned in February for three one-night hotel stays in Napa and Monterey. I am still waiting to find out if I am one of the ten recipients of a 650,000 points prize from the promotion as one of the first 10 guests to stay in all three Best Western hotel tiers. I completed this task in the first three days of the promotion, however, Best Western Rewards has not announced the recipients for the 650,000 points as far as I know. I have a free night at Best Western I must redeem by June 30.

Wyndham Rewards points I purchased during the U.S. Travel Association sale on DiscoverAmerica Daily Getaways last month boosted my account balance from 0 points to 114,000 points in 5 minutes with $297 in points purchases. These points are sufficient for 3 nights at the Wyndham Parc 55 San Francisco at 30,000 points per night where rates are $189 for the PowWow conference. The points I purchased drop the rate down to about $85 per night to stay at Parc 55 for the conference.

Hyatt Gold Passport was my number one hotel stay program in 2010 and I earned around 100,000 points. Believe me that I did not spend anywhere near $20,000 to earn those points at 5 base points per $1 in hotel spend. More like $2,500. As a Gold Passport Diamond member I earn 6.5 points/$1 with the 30% elite bonus. The points were earned through a variety of promotions including 24,000 points purchased for $225 through Discover America Daily Getaways in 2010. This year I wasn’t able to successfully buy any Hyatt points through the DiscoverAmerica sale in April. Those points went fast.

Hyatt Gold Passport property specific bonuses (1,000 to 2,000 points per stay) and closed Regency Lounge bonuses (2,000 points) resulted in good points hauls. I have stayed at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Park Hyatt Chicago and Park Hyatt Washington D.C. using points and free nights in the past year. Hyatt Regency San Francisco is 15,000 points per night for an award this week or paid rates over $300 per night.

Starwood Preferred Guest is my favorite program for urban travel using Cash & Points award nights. Over the past year I have redeemed category 4 award nights for $60 and 4,000 points and generally saved over $200 in room rate per night in cities like Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago and Vancouver. That is $50 per 1,000 points redemption value which makes the opportunity to buy up to 20,000 Starpoints at $28/1,000 points a pretty good deal with the current 20% discount through June 30, 2011 on the regular $35/1,000 points rate.

Loyalty Traveler is the site for keeping abreast of the promotion opportunities available with a variety of hotel loyalty programs. My 2011 resolution was to expand my hotel loyalty program options. So far 2011 has been a good hotel travel year with stays in many different hotel brands and points earned in several new hotel loyalty programs.

Hotel points open doors in new places for cheaper stays.