Priority Club launched “Last Minute Reward Nights” in May 2011 to offer hotel rooms at 50% off standard redemption rate. A 15,000 points Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express is only 7,500 points with this limited time discount reward.

There are currently 45 hotels in the U.S. and Canada offering Last Minute Reward Nights for this weekend.

• Friday, July 1
• Saturday, July 2
• Sunday, July 3

Last Minute Reward Nights were only available last month for booking through Thursday of the weekend with the discount rewards. I can’t locate the terms stating a book by day for these rewards, but you should book today if you are thinking about a Last Minute Reward Night. These hotels may not be available for booking tomorrow at the 50% off rate.

[Update Friday, July 1 - Last Minute Reward Nights are unavailable today. Booking window does end on Thursdays before the weekend of discount reward nights.]

Hey Priority Club! Is it really too much to ask that you include a State descriptor in your hotel listings?

For example, I see Holiday Inn Salem and I think Salem, Oregon. Or maybe Salem, Massachusetts.

Now I know there is a Salem, New Hampshire with a Holiday Inn at only 7,500 points for this weekend.

Last Minute Rewards Nights Participating Hotels for July 1-3, 2011

Holiday Inn Express ALPHARETTA – ROSWELL 5,000 pts.

Holiday Inn Express BOSTON – MARLBORO 5,000 pts.

Holiday Inn Express CHESTERFIELD – SELFRIDGE AREA 5,000 pts.

Holiday Inn Express CRAWFORDSVILLE 5,000 pts.

Holiday Inn Express EDMOND 5,000 pts.

Holiday Inn Express FLORENCE NORTHEAST 5,000 pts.

Holiday Inn Express SAVANNAH-I-95 NORTH 5,000 pts.

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites MANSFIELD-CONFERENCE CTR 5,000 pts.

Candlewood Suites EMPORIA 7,500 pts.

Candlewood Suites JACKSONVILLE 7,500 pts.

Candlewood Suites WASHINGTON-DULLES HERNDON 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn AMES CONFERENCE CENTER – ISU 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express DALLAS – GRAND PRAIRIE I-20 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express GAS CITY 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites COURTENAY COMOX VALLEY SW 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn HOUSTON-WEBSTER 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites GRAND JUNCTION-AIRPORT 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites OVERLAND PARK-CONV CTR 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites RALEIGH-CARY (I-40 @ WALNUT ST.) 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn KINGSTON 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn LAFAYETTE-US167 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn MOBILE-DWTN/HIST. DISTRICT 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn SALEM (I-93 AT EXIT 2) 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn SHARON/FOXBORO 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn ST. PAUL-1-94-EAST (3M AREA) 7,500 pts.

Holiday Inn TIMONIUM 7,500 pts.

Staybrideg Suites CALGARY AIRPORT 10,000 pts.

Staybridge Suites BATON ROUGE-UNIV AT SOUTHGATE 10,000 pts.

Crowne Plaza Hotel DETROIT- NOVI 12,500 pts.

Crowne Plaza Hotel NORTH DALLAS-ADDISON 12,500 pts.

Crowne Plaza Hotel PARAMUS 12,500 pts.

Crowne Plaza INDIANAPOLIS-DWTN-UNION STN 12,500 pts.

Crowne Plaza ST. PAUL-RIVERFRONT 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn ASHVILLE DOWNTOWN 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn DUMFRIES – QUANTICO CENTER 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express DURHAM 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites – DFW-GRAPEVINE 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express INDIANAPOLIS SOUTH 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express KANSAS CITY-BONNER SPRINGS 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express KERNERSVILLE 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn Express RALEIGH-DURHAM AIRPORT 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn GAINESVILLE-UNIVERSITY CTR 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn MANHATTAN-DOWNTOWN/SOHO 12,500 pts.

Holiday Inn UNIVERSITY PLAZA-BOWLING GREEN 12,500 pts.

InterContinental Hotels & Resorts DALLAS 15,000 pts.

Hilton Worldwide corporate has put Las Vegas Hilton on notice that it intends to end the hotel casino licensing agreement January 1, 2012 and remove the property from Hilton HHonors. The hotel has been a Hilton since the 1970s, but the recession and downturn in casino revenue in Las Vegas has placed Colony Capital, the current owners since 2004, in financial straits. The owners blame fixed labor and benefits cost in their inability to maintain loan payments. News story link.

Las Vegas Hilton is a major business hotel adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The hotel is also a tram stop on the Vegas monorail.

Las Vegas Hilton is generally an incredible bargain for HHonors members and one of the lowest priced Las Vegas hotels in a major hotel loyalty program.

Thursday, June 30 rate going into the July 4 holiday weekend is $43 for a standard room and $93 for a room with Club Lounge privileges. A Grand Room for $73 is  a large room at 600 square feet, even by luxury hotel standards.

$102.55 per night will put you in a standard room five nights for the entire 4^th of July weekend from Thursday, June 30 through Tuesday, July 5.

The Las Vegas Hilton hotel has no resort fees; an additional charge quite common in Las Vegas. Resort fees add $20 or so per night to the cost of rooms at the Westin Casuarina and InterContinental Alliance Resorts The Venetian and The Palazzo.

You know which major hotel loyalty programs are missing a convention size hotel in Las Vegas?

Hyatt and Starwood.

Las Vegas Hilton October 2009

Accor Hotels A|Club hotel loyalty program repeats last year’s limited time offer allowing members to redeem vouchers for hotel stays at Motel 6 in the USA and Canada from June 1 to October 31, 2011.  Studio 6 properties are not eligible for A|Club voucher redemption with this offer.

Motel 6 has over 1,100 hotels in the US and Canada and is the largest hotel brand in the 4,000+ hotels of France-based Accor Hotels chain. The guest loyalty program for Accor Hotels is A|Club, however, Motel 6 is generally not a participating hotel brand in A|Club for earning or redeeming points. For international travelers planning to drive in the US, the prevalence of Motel 6 along major routes like the California Highway 101 coast road makes the Motel 6 brand an easy to find property when traveling rural areas of the US. 

The earning side of A|Club works similarly to most major hotel loyalty programs.  As a points-based program, members in A|Club earn points correlated to hotel spend. Points are earned for spend and bonus points opportunities are available among various brands and properties and regional specific bonuses.

The redemption side of A|Club is different from most major hotel loyalty programs in that 2,000 A|Club points may be redeemed for a fixed-value hotel credit voucher (e-reward) in any of five currencies.

2000 A|Club points may be exchanged for a hotel credit voucher in these amounts:

• 60 Australia Dollars (60AUD = $63.76USD)
• 90 Brazil Reals (90BRL = $57.10USD)
• 30 British Pounds (30GBP = $48.04USD)
• 40 Euro (40EUR = $57.51USD)
• 60 USD

As you can see, the value of A|Club points varies with currency differences. A|Club points have about the highest value when used for e-vouchers in US Dollars. The opportunity to redeem e-rewards in the US at Motel 6 properties is a good value redemption opportunity.

A|Club Leverage Opportunity with Currency Exchange?

When I look at the differential between the value of 2,000 A|Club points for a $60USD reward compared to a 30GBP reward worth only $48USD, I wonder if an A|Club member might get more value by redeeming points in a different currency for hotel stays in the UK?

There will certainly be a less than bank rate exchange at hotel check out when converting A|Club vouchers from USD or EUR or AUD into British Pounds, but when $60AUD is worth 39.81GBP, I think even a poor hotel exchange rate will likely work out to a better deal for 2,000 points vouchers worth only 30 GBP British Pounds.

Currency exchange rates are based on xe.com rates for June 29, 2011.

Question for A|Club members.

Has anyone tried using different currency A|Club reward vouchers in the UK?

Motel 6 Monterey

Wyndham Rewards is giving away a 7-night vacation through Facebook to one of seven finalists in the “Why I Deserve a Summer Vacation” contest after voting ends Wednesday June 29. The Grand Prize winner of the 7-night vacation and a $7,000 gift card and 7-day car rental will be decided by Facebook voters.

The seven finalists were chosen by a team of travel writers recruited by Wyndham Rewards. Now it is up to the public to decide the grand prize winner.

These are some fun to read entries in response to “Why I Deserve a Summer Vacation” from Tom C., Jasmine P., Kathy M., Angela C., Tina S., Jhoanalyn B. and John K.

Take a load off for a few minutes and read about other people’s desire for travel.  Help send one of these finalists on a well-deserved summer vacation.

Vote on Facebook Wyndham Rewards page to read the finalists entries and vote for the Grand Prize Winner.

Wyndham Rewards "Why I deserve a summer vacation" Facebook contest.

IHG Priority Club offers members around the globe various targeted promotions. The primary global Priority Club promotion currently is double points or double miles from May 16-August 15, 2011.

The unique aspect of Priority Club is a member like me can register for many other targeted promotions and receive bonus points. The promotion code is all that is needed.

Where do I find these promotion codes?

Two places are great resources for finding Priority Club promotion codes easily.

PriorityClubInsider.com lists the major promotion offers for Priority Club and also includes links to discount hotel rates.

The FlyerTalk IC Master Promo Thread 2011 is an even more comprehensive resource for locating dozens of promotion codes that may or may not apply for your stays. This is a thread with 119 posts in 2011 where people list email offers and registration codes and the FlyerTalk moderator updates a master list every couple of weeks in the first post of the thread.

There are promotions for:

• the number of hotel stays you have in three months,
• free InterContinental Ambassador status with 3 InterContinental Hotel stays,
• 300 bonus points for completing a survey,
• Asia-Pacific region member sweepstakes for 480,000 Priority Club points,
• next stay bonuses,
• online booking bonuses.

My personal experience is most stays with Priority Club hotels earn 5,000 or more points when I would expect to earn only 1,000 to 2,000 points based on hotel rate and a primary global promotion like Double Points. These points add up big time for me, often approaching or even exceeding 50 points/$1, for several of my Priority Club stays each year.

Europe, Middle East and Africa hotel specific bonus points.

Asia Pacific Residents (excluding Japan) 480,000 Points Sweepstakes.

• Enter sweepstakes by registering for double points promotion before August 15, 2011 at this link. One entry into sweepstakes just for registration.
• Code 8560 – Grand prize of 480,000 points.
• Sweepstakes Terms.

Stay X Nights, Earn Y Bonus Points

Priority Club offers targeted quarterly bonuses for hotel nights. These codes are offers members received as an email promotion. While I personally do not recall ever receiving one of these targeted offers, my experience and anecdotal evidence from many other members indicate Priority Club members can sign up for one of these offers and receive the bonus points.

These stay X nights, Get Y Bonus Points offers only apply to the first offer the member registers among these and other codes.

Valid July 1 to September 30, 2011

Stay 3, Get 5,000 – Code 3567
Stay 4, Get 5,000 – Code 1555
Stay 7, Get 10,000 – Code 8564
Stay 8, Get 10,000 – Code 6565
Stay 10, Get 10,000 – Code 3568
Stay 12, Get 10,000 – Code 1563
Stay 15, Get 15,000 – Code 8565
Stay 18, Get 15,000 – Code 9549

Go for the best offer you think you can reach. I picked a 7 nights offer this past quarter and I am one night short for 10,000 points. I don’t need a hotel night by June 30 and the cost of a hotel night is not worth 10,000 bonus points to me. I should have signed up for Stay 3 nights, get 5,000 points which I completed in May.

Tutorial on Registering for Multiple Priority Club Promotions

Here is a concise description of the registration process in this FlyerTalk post:

Points FAQ
Q: “How do I register for a promo?”
A: All promotions with a promo code can be reached through this link followed by typing in the promo code manually (or cut and pasting in your browser):
priorityclub.com/register

Q: “Can I register for all these promos?”
A: It’s up to each person to see if they are eligible for the various promotions and you should only register if you’re happy that it will not have any effect on your account. Basically if you have any doubts then either ask or don’t register.

Q: “Can I register more than one code?”
A: Yes – except for Stay “X” nights Get “X” Points/Miles

Q: “I’ve successfully registered but nothing is appearing in my offers?”
A-1) It sometimes takes a day or two for the offers to show up under your offers
A-2) Some of them will show up, but others will never show up
A-3) Some will post
A-4) Others will not post

Pool room at InterContinental Chicago

Earn triple Starpoints for hotels stays in Japan from June 1-August 31. This is 6 points per $1 at 13 hotels in Japan for room rate and food/beverage purchases. No registration is required.

• Sheraton Sapporo
• The Westin Sendai
• Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay
• The Westin Tokyo
• The Westin Nagoya Castle
• The Westin Miyako Kyoto
• The Westin Osaka
• St. Regis Osaka
• Sheraton Miyako Hotel Osaka
• Kobe Bay Sheraton Hotel & Towers
• The Westin Awaji
• Sheraton Hiroshima
• Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort 

SPG members can earn triple points for Food & Beverage at these hotels even when not spending the night.

Japan Triple Points Promotion T&C.

SPG Triple Starpoints in Japan

The slogan “Happy cows come from California” played through my head as I drove Highway 62 northwest through the pastoral mountain meadows with just a few miles to go before entering Crater Lake National Park. Looking around I couldn’t help but think, “Happier cows probably come from Oregon”.

Green valley on Highway 62 approach to Crater Lake National Park

The eastern side of Crater Lake’s volcanic rim is visible from Highway 97, yet every time I saw Crater Lake come into view while driving 60 mph, and I slowed down, the pine trees blocked the view for a photo of the volcano.

Highway 62 approach to Crater Lake from Highway 97 access road

There are only two entrances to the Crater Lake Rim Drive and the North Entrance to Crater Lake National Park is buried in snow until at least July this summer 2011 season. Highway 62 between Medford and Grants Pass crosses the southwest portion of Crater Lake National Park.

Mount Mazama stood at 12,000 feet before collapsing into itself 7,700 years ago. The former volcano would have filled the skyline with 4,000 to 5,000 feet more of mountainous scenery in the background of this valley photo looking from Highway 62 toward Crater Lake National Park.

Valley floor view from Highway 62 to Crater Lake National Park

Mount Mazama collapsed into itself to form the caldera that filled with water over millennia to become Crater Lake. Crater Lake rim is only 7,000 to 8,000 feet high now and the lake itself at 6,173 ft surface level reaches a depth of 1,943 ft. at one point in the lake to be the deepest lake in the U.S. and 8th deepest in the world.

Crater Lake resulted from cataclysmic eruptions around 5,600 BC at then 12,000 ft. Mount Mazama. I would have guessed Crater Lake was formed hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, only this eruption occurred at a time when Native American peoples were already living in the area. Klamath Indians have folklore stories describing the creation of Crater Lake.

The Annie Spring Entrance Station is just off Highway 62 with a small ranger booth for park entry payment and Annie Creek Restaurant. This is where Mazama Village is located, but the area looked rather snowbound as I passed and Crater Lake Rim Village with the Lodge and a couple of other buildings is 7 miles past the Park entrance.

Steel Information Center, Crater Lake National Park in June

This is Cascade Range snow country. The 2010-11 winter-spring season brought 649 inches of snow to Crater Lake, a snowfall level matched only twice in the past 40 years. That means over 54 ft. of snow fell around Crater Lake this past snow season when an average year has a still mind-boggling 44 ft. of snow.

Crater Lake Park Headquarters parking lot 3 miles from lake

Snowed in buildings like the Steel Information Center at Park Headquarters Center have paths cut through snow to access building doorways. I was wearing only a t-shirt in the 58 degree bright sun and stepping into the ice-bound tunnel leading into the Information Center was chilling. The temperature was in the low 70s on Highway 97 and 62 at the Annie Spring entrance to the park 4 miles below.

Steel Information Center has a short 20-minute film, cool maps, gift shop and some rangers. There was little activity happening here.

Model of Crater Lake

Crater Lake is really best to visit from mid-July to mid-September for access to most of the park by car.

Road between Park Headquarters and Crater Lake Rim Village and Lodge.

The steepest part of the climb to Crater Lake rim is the final three miles of road from Park Headquarters to Rim Road.

Rim Village road access is plowed year-round to keep the road open to tourists and park staff. Rim Village sits at the edge of the Crater Lake caldera at 7,100 ft. elevation allowing cars to drive 1,000 feet higher than lake level.

A ranger told me that warm weather and rain in January compacted snow with ice and makes plowing the Rim Road especially difficult this year. Only one mile of the West Rim Road has been plowed with 32 miles to go around the Crater Lake caldera. In 1998-99, the last big snow season comparable to 2010-11, the Rim Road was not fully plowed and open until July 27.

My first sighting of Crater Lake.

All in all though, the road is fairly easy grade. In fact my car registered the best gas mileage ever for its drive along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway and Crater Lake National Park getting over 30 mpg. Either Oregon gas is something special or the road gradient is really easy in these mountainous terrains.

Discovery Point, Crater Lake

The mile of Rim Road west plowed by June 18 still required walking across slippery snow to see Crater Lake 1,000 ft. below in the caldera.

Yellow safety rope indicates snow boundary at Discovery Point.

Yellow rope indicated the out of bounds area to keep tourists from slipping and sliding down the snow and off the cliffs. Wizard Island rises 767 ft. above the lake surface.

Wizard Island in Crater Lake.

There were really only two places to access Crater Lake views with a car during this visit. A parking area open at one mile on west Rim Road with good views of Wizard Island and the Crater Lake Lodge area were the only open access points. The weather in the high 50s on a bright sunny day made spending hours staring at the lake from these two spots worth the effort to reach the caldera rim. Only mosquitoes were a nuisance in the evening.

Crater Lake evening view of Wizard Island.

The deep blue water against a light blue sky with brown and white cliffs reflected off the lake surface makes the Crater Lake mirror a mesmerizing sight.

Crater Lake mirror image

The lake scenery constantly changes as the sun moves across the sky affecting color and shadow.

Crater Lake reflection.

Crater Lake Lodge

Crater Lake Lodge is located at Rim Village where there is also a separate visitor center, restaurant, and gift shop store. The Lodge had a ranger talk at 4pm about the history of Crater Lake Lodge on the day I was there. The topic changes daily for the ranger talk, so it was fortuitous I visited on the day of hotel talk. 

Ranger talk at Crater Lake Lodge.

The Lodge was originally built as a private venture in 1915, not too long after the creation of Crater Lake National Park in 1902. Accommodations were rustic with no private bathrooms and little electricity provided from a small generator. The Lodge was expanded and upgraded in the 1920s and 1930s.

Crater Lake Lodge is built at rim of lake.

The National Park Service bought Crater Lake Lodge in 1967. By the 1970s the Lodge was in poor shape despite its listing on the National Register of Historic Places and threatened by a demolition plan.

Crater Lake Lodge view.

Finally in 1989 the Lodge was shut down for safety concerns and reopened in May 1995 after being gutted and rebuilt to modern standards in a $15 million project that retained the Great Hall design of the earlier Lodge.

Great Hall fireplace at Crater Lake Lodge.

The Lodge has 71 rooms, a restaurant and food/drink service in the Great Hall that functions as the main lobby for the hotel and park visitors.

Crater Lake Lodge reception desk and access to Great Hall.

I ate dinner in the corner table by the window of the Great Hall.

Crater Lake Lodge seating area in Great Hall.

There is a formal dining hall, but nobody was dining in there yet and I didn’t want to be the first person eating alone in the restaurant.

Crater Lake Lodge dining room.

This looked like a nice place to dine with views of the lake possible from the windows. From my window seat in the Great Hall I actually could not see over the snow banks to see the lake unless I was standing. That will not be an issue in August.

Dinner setting at Crater Lake Lodge dining table.

There are 71 rooms at Crater Lake Lodge. The hotel is only open mid-May to mid-October. Park staff work up here year-round at the nearby Visitor Center and gift shop and cafe. The Park Ranger said workers were snowed in at Rim Village for several days after one big storm this year.

Crater Lake Lodge stairway.

Crater Lake Lodge room rates:

• Rates for 2011 start at $158 to $188 per night for a ground floor room.
• Southside rooms do not have lake views. $188 One Queen or $198 for two Queen beds.
• Lakeside rooms have view of Crater Lake. $198 One Queen or $208 for two Queens.
• Deluxe lakeside rooms are $208 One Queen or $218 for two Queens.
• Loft = $284.
• Rates are based on two persons. Extra persons are $25 per guest.
• There are elevators in the four story Lodge.
• Reservations may be made up to 13 months in advance and require one night’s deposit.
• Reservations may be cancelled with full refund if at least two days before arrival.

Crater Lake Lodge One Queen Bed Room.

The interesting thing about Crater Lake National Park Lodging and lodging at many National Parks is the rate is the same regardless of the day of week or month for the entire season. Lodging tends to be booked far in advance making it difficult to secure room reservations for a date next week or next month, but cancellations occur regularly. There were seven available rooms at Crater Lake Lodge on a Friday night at 5pm when I was there.

Crater Lake Lodge lakeside. Room shown is upper left window.

Some rooms at Crater Lake Lodge have showers, but some only have a tub.

Crater Lake Lodge tub.

The fourth floor corner room was a room with tub only, albeit one tub with a great window view of Crater Lake.

Crater Lake Lodge room sink.

Rooms do not have TV or telephone.

Crater Lake Lodge room with electrical outlet and space heater.

There are electrical outlets in the room and a small space heater for cold nights. You don’t have to be totally old millennium retro during a stay at Crater Lake Lodge. I was able to pick up Verizon internet reception while at Crater Lake Lodge. But really? Do you want to look at a computer monitor when you have this view?

Crater Lake Lodge lakeside room view of Wizard Island.

Mazama Village Accommodations

Mazama Village is 7 miles down the road near the Annie Spring Entrance Station and offers 40 cabin rooms with shower/bath at $132 per night. There is no AC, TV or telephone at Mazama Village cabins. I did not see the cabins at Mazama Village.

Mazama Village also has 212 tent ($21/night) and RV sites ($27/night).

View of Wizard Island from Crater Lake Lodge.

Crater Lake is six miles across at its widest points. The lake lies 1,000 feet below the level of the Lodge and distances seem shorter than they actually are in this location.

Clark’s Nutcracker at Crater Lake.

Summer comes late here where 10 to 15 feet of standing snow takes some time to melt in the warm months of July and August. Life continually renews here.

Crater Lake spring bud.

And life lingers on here at the rim of the caldera holding Crater Lake.

Whitebark Pine at 7,100 ft. on Crater Lake Rim

I think I’ll be back again in late-summer.

Crater Lake on a June evening.

Hilton HHonors Q3 promotion offers double points or double miles for hotel stays from July 1 to September 30, 2011. There are about 250 hotels excluded for this promotion, with almost all the non-participating hotels located in the USA, so check the participating hotels link carefully.

• Register for “Double Your HHonors” promotion before your first stay.
• Choose earning preference of Points & Points to earn Double Points. Only 10 base points per $1 count for double points. Elite bonuses are not doubled.
• Choose either Points & Fixed Miles or Points & Variable Miles to earn Double Miles.
• Reservations may be booked before promotion registration.
• Promotion registration during an eligible stay will make the entire stay eligible for double points/miles if registered before checkout and entire stay is within promotion dates.
• Offer applies for up to two rooms per stay.
• Reward stays are only eligible for Double Points for incidental spend, except at Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites. No double miles will be earned on reward stays.

Hilton HHonors Double Points or Double Miles Promotion July 1-Sep 30, 2011.

Earning with Hilton HHonors

HHonors Points & Points

Usually I favor HHonors Points & Points where a general non-elite HHonors member will earn 25 points per $1 with this double points promotion and a Diamond elite member can earn 30 points/$1.

Reward stays are eligible for double points on incidental spend which might be a consideration for choosing Double Points this summer if you are planning a high spend reward stay.

• Double Points = 25 points/$1 at most hotels (10 base points + 10 double points + 5 Points & Points preference).
• $200 hotel stay = 5,000 HHonors points.

HHonors Points & Miles

Points & Miles is a good value offer that may exceed the value of collecting only HHonors points if stays put you close to a frequent flyer award ticket or upgrade.

Double Miles with Points & Fixed Miles spending $200 at a Hilton Garden Inn and earning American Airlines:

• Points & Double Miles = 10 base points/$1 + 1,000 miles (double fixed miles).
• $200 hotel stay = 2,000 HHonors points + 1,000 AAdvantage miles.

Double Miles with Points & Variable Miles spending $200 at Hampton Inn and earning United Mileage Plus miles:

• Points & Double Miles = 10 base points/$1 + 400 miles (double variable miles = 2 miles/$1).
• $200 hotel stay = 2,000 HHonors points + 400 United Mileage Plus miles.

HHonors offers a comparatively low exchange rate for HHonors points-to-miles transfers compared with other hotel loyalty programs at 10,000 points = 1,000 miles for most airlines or 10,000 points = 1,500 miles for American and a select few airline partners.

1,000 miles is generally a $15 to $20 rebate value on a frequent flyer award ticket. 10,000 points will generally have more value when used for hotel stays.

Fixed or Variable Miles?

Choosing Points & Fixed Miles is generally the best option for low spend stays.

7 of the 10 Hilton hotel brands earn 500 miles per stay with most airline partners. Double miles are 1,000 frequent flyer miles per stay. Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites offer only 20% miles with most airline partners.

Points & Variable Miles earns more miles when spending more than $500 during a single hotel stay or more than $100 at Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites where most airlines limit fixed earn miles to 100 miles per stay.

Highest HHonors Earning Airline Partners

The most favorable airlines for Points & Fixed Miles when staying at a Hampton Inn or Homewood Suites are bmi, FinnAir, Olympic and Southwest where there is no reduction in earning for these hotel brands.

Virgin Atlantic = 1,000 miles per stay is normal earn rate with 2,000 miles per stay for double fixed miles for all brands except Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites.

British Midland International (bmi) = 1,000 miles per night (up to 3 nights) at any brand, except Home2 Suites is 1,000 miles per stay. Double miles mean 2,000 miles per night or up to 6,000 miles per 3-night stay at Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites when earning bmi miles.

FinnAir = 500 points per night regularly (up to 5 nights) at any brand, except Home2Suites earns 500 points per stay. Double miles mean 1000 points per night, up to 5,000 points per stay at all brands except Home2 Suites.

Southwest Airlines is one of the best airlines for HHonors miles earning since Rapid Rewards points are earned at the same rate regardless of Hilton hotel brand, except for Home2 Suites stays are not eligible for Rapid Rewards points. It is hard to be a Hilton HHonors frequent guest and avoid Hampton Inn. Either HHonors points or Southwest Rapid Rewards points are good earner options for Hampton Inn stays for the person who prefers to collect airline miles since 100 miles per stay (200 miles during double miles) for Points & Fixed Miles earners is a low value rebate when collecting miles in another program.

Loyalty Traveler Note: It is disappointing to see Hilton HHonors launch its new 10^th hotel brand Home2 Suites in 2011 with diminished Hilton HHonors benefits for the HHonors member.

Changing Your HHonors Earning Preference:

You can change your preferred HHonors airline partner for earning airline miles between HHonors hotel stays to maximize the best airline earning option for each hotel stay.

The FAQ state you can’t register for both double miles and double points.

The option you choose during promotion registration is set for the duration of this promotion, so choosing miles mean all your hotel stays will be for double miles and you will not be able to earn double points, even if your earning preference is changed to points over the summer.

Personally I advise going for the high value free night offers this summer from Starwood Preferred Guest (to July 31: 3 stays = 1 resort night), Marriott Rewards (to August 31: 2 stays = 1 free night) and Best Western Rewards (to Aug 14: 3 stays = 1 free night) for the best value hotel stay rebates. This is a decent offer from Hilton HHonors, but there are better promotions available.

A perfect clear blue sky weather day was happening for mountain driving 150 miles to Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. The woman at the Sleep Inn Bend chuckled that I would be seeing walls of snow at Crater Lake. I did see walls of snow… and so many more indelible sights this day.

Sleep Inn Bend, Oregon

Sleep Inn Bend, Oregon with snowcapped mountains in pool background.

There are two Choice Hotels with Comfort Inn Bend and Sleep Inn Bend on Highway 20 east of downtown Bend just past Pilot Butte State Park (do not miss this photo spot on clear days). These hotels were about $82 (Comfort)and $70 (Sleep Inn) per night with Comfort Suites ranked as #8 of  38 hotels in Bend on June 23, 2011 and Sleep Inn at #23. Comfort Suites has comfortable bedding in rooms and an outdoor pool, although Sleep Inn has the better pool environment shown in the photo with mountains visible in the distance.

Both of these hotels are eligible for the 8,000 points after two stays promotion from May 19-August 11, 2011. The points are sufficient for the lowest hotel reward free nights at 6,000 and 8,000 points at about 1,500 of the 6,000+ hotels in Choice Hotels around the world. I saw this location as a high potential hotel stay spot in Bend this summer for earning at least a 50% rebate on the cost of two hotel nights with Choice Privileges. I think the free night I get with 8,000 Choice Privileges points from two Choice Hotel stays on this Vancouver trip will be worth at least the cost of one of the nights I paid.

Mt. Washington (right peak) seen from Pilot Butte, Bend, Oregon

The same kind of deal is available with Marriott Rewards from June 1 to August 31 for a free night after two stays. Fairfield Inn Downtown Bend is near shops and Drake Park while TownePlace Suites Bend near Mt. Bachelor is on the western road to Mt. Bachelor with several nearby golf courses and upscale Bend resorts.

The cost for two stays at these properties was about $120 to $130 per night. A free category 4 hotel night from Marriott Rewards can easily be a $150 to $200 per night free hotel room, so this deal is as good a rebate as Choice Privileges for a higher market segment hotel in more central locations of Bend for touring.

Summit of Pilot Butte in Bend, Oregon has Mountain Identifier

View of Cascades from summit of Pilot Butte, Bend, Oregon with Mt. Bachelor 20.9 miles away (left picture between trees) to Three Sisters – South, Middle and North about 25 miles away (right).

The AAA locksmith guy suggested I drive the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway sixty miles through the hills around Mt. Bachelor on my drive to Crater Lake. For the first time ever in five years with this car I locked my keys inside. Good thing I was sitting in a motel parking lot in Bend and not Criterion Summit on Highway 197.

Cascade Lakes Oregon Scenic Byway

The road is well paved and wide with a gentle gradient all the way up 20 miles to the slopes of Mt. Bachelor at 9,065 ft.

Mt. Bachelor, Oregon

The road around Mt. Bachelor is probably around 6,000 feet elevation and this area had the most snow where the road runs south of Broken Top (9,175 ft. and South Sister (10,358 ft.).Broken Top is pictured below.

Cascade Lakes mid-June snow and Broken Top Mountain

The spring thaw was evident within a couple miles of here.

Sparks Lake spring thaw on Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

Nature was changing with warm sun and people were taking advantage of the seasonal recreation opportunities.

Elk Lake boating at 4,983 ft. in Cascade Lakes region Oregon

Elk Lake is the first major Cascade Lake on the road heading south about 30 miles out of Bend. There is a lodge, market, bar/restaurant and boat launch all in one spot. This is wilderness with ice cream and beer.

Elk Lake, Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

Lava Lake below Mt. Bachelor had this Peruvian looking Lake Titicaca grass thing happening along the lakefront.

Lava Lake in Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

The river streams forming along the flat lands of the Cascade Lakes filled the woods with streams. There were people fishing alongside the road in many places.

Trout fishing in America

There are some rustic cabin rentals at a few of the lakes along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. Elk Lake Resort has cabins for $200 to $400 per night and some rustic cabins with no power or water for $58 per night. 

I pulled into Cultus Lake Resort and the green grass lawn down to the lakeside attracted me to the lodge house with a restaurant and market. Cultus Lake Resort has 23 cabin rentals with current rates at $85 to $155 per night and a slight weekly rental discount. The site has a restaurant with all-you-can-eat ribs on Friday and Saturday nights for $16.95.

Cultus Lake Resort lakeside cabin

You’ll need to bring your own linens for the double bed and two single bunks in the cabin I saw furnished with a bathroom, shower, bedroom, sitting room with a couch and two wooden chairs, and a full kitchen with table.

Cultus Lake Resort cabin bunks in bedroom.

The ambience seemed like a friendly place at Cultus Lake and there are some views, but I am more the Crater Lake Lodge type of guest these days.

Cultus Lake Resort cabin view, Cascade Lakes region, Oregon

My car did the most off road four-wheeling of its five year sedan life (last car payment made this month) as I followed a dirt road a few hundred yards into the woods to reach Crane Prairie Reservoir.

Crane Prairie Reservoir, Cascade Lakes region, Oregon

Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway drive reminds you in places that this is volcano country. Here is a large mound of volcanic rock with one tree growing in rock amidst a forest of pines.

Lone pine in volcanic mound, Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

Another portion of forest showed effects of fire damage and recovery.

Cascade Lakes forest fire recovery.

I came across an informational sign telling how Highway 97 was the historic Klamath Trail used by Great Basin Indians trading with Columbia River Indians. In the Treaty of 1855 the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Indian Reservation was created from 640,000 acres of the formerly 10 million acres of Indian lands in Oregon. The present reservation is located northwest of Madras, Oregon to the east of Mt. Jefferson.

Historic Klamath Trail is near Highway 97 route.

Off the Cascade Lakes Scenic Highway and back onto Highway 97 South I turned right on Highway 138 to be greeted by an informational sign for Crater Lake National Park showing the North Entrance to the park was closed when I was potentially just 30 miles from the lake.

Crater Lake North Entrance sign shows road is closed.

This meant another 70 miles of driving to reach Crater Lake from the South entrance of the park.

And continue driving I did, all the way to the Rim Drive summit of Crater Lake National Park where I stood about 90 minutes later.

Crater Lake view from Rim Road at 7,100 ft. elevation.

Related Links:

Cascade Lakes Oregon Scenic Byway road map.

National Geographic: Road Trip – Cascade Lakes, Oregon

Loyalty Traveler #TBEX11 Road Trip  – Eastern Exposure in Washington (6/21/2011)

Mountains beyond mountains in Central Oregon – Highway 197 and 97 from The Dalles to Bend (6/23/2011)

Highway 197 South out of The Dalles, Oregon crosses 60 miles of high desert sage country east of the Cascades.   A plateau of sage sprinkled with colorful spring wildflowers, cut with river canyon gorges and backed by snowcapped mountains is scenery to savor in a sparsely populated landscape.

Highway 197 view of Mt. Hood

I had a feeling of being the sole traveler on a long empty road. For the most part of the sixty mile drive I was the only car on the road, considering the number of times I stopped in the road and snapped photos for a minute or two with no other vehicle passing.

Deschutes River at Maupin, Oregon

Maupin is a small town where Highway 197 crosses the Deschutes River in a steep canyon gorge with perhaps recently built houses on the high canyon edge.

Houses built on the edge of gorge cliffs at Maupin, Oregon

The remoteness of Maupin, about 40 miles south of The Dalles, reminded me of one store, too many churches towns where I taught school during the past couple decades.

U.S. Post Office, Maupin, Oregon 97037

Rafting the Deschutes seemed like the popular pastime activity as I saw several young adults in bathing suits walking around town during my slow cruise through Maupin as the road winds down to the canyon floor and crosses the Deschutes River, then back up the canyon wall again into the wildflowers, green spring grasses and sage of the desert plateau.

Highway 197 Oregon desert flowers and sage

Criterion Summit is the high point of Highway 197 at 3,360 ft. There is a mountain marker viewpoint at this location on the west side of the road.

Criterion Summit Highway 197 with Mt. Hood

Mt. Jefferson in center photo is 10,445 ft. and probably about 50 miles away.

Highway 197 Criterion Summit view of Mt. Jefferson

The view across the grasslands to the mountains was filled with bird songs.

Central Oregon fence post

“Miles from nowhere, guess I’ll take my time, oh yeah, to reach there.” – Cat Stevens –Yusuf Islam.

Highway 197 Criterion Summit view

Madras is the first real city I drove through after driving 90 miles south of  The Dalles on Highway 197 and then rejoining Highway 97 after Criterion Summit. Madras has a Safeway market where I discovered there an incredible 4-day sale with great food discounts. The signs were everywhere in the store. Unfortunately, I was walking the aisles the day before the sale started and seeing all the much higher prices in effect.

Across the street from the Safeway Market is the Meet Market Pub. This could be a potential authentic Central Oregon cultural experience for the admission price of a beer. At least a clever name.

Meet Market Pub in Madras, Oregon

Down the road some miles I stopped the car and soon found myself walking on a road to nowhere.

Hwy 97 Old Crooked River Gorge Bridge

This Crooked River Bridge spans the gorge at 295 feet above the river.

Hwy 97 Crooked River Bridge

This deserted bridge was the only automobile bridge across the Crooked River Gorge from 1926 until replaced with an adjacent bridge for Highway 97 in the late 1990s. This old bridge now leads into sagebrush. The old Crooked River Bridge is open to pedestrians from the Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint 25 miles south of Madras.

Old Hwy 97 bridge over Crooked River Gorge, Terrebonne Oregon and new bridge to east.

This is a remote area 11 miles north of Redmond, Oregon, the nearest city.

Crooked River Gorge pines and mountain views

Take care when traveling out here to be safe.

Hwy 97 Crooked River Gorge 300 ft. canyon walls

Bend, Oregon

My first impression of Bend, Oregon was that it was perhaps close to the most beautiful part of Oregon. I drove through miles of suburbs, business parks and malls before finding the downtown area in this city of about 80,000. The city of  Bend’s population grew 50% from 2000 to 2010.

The real joy was a perfectly clear morning atop the summit of Pilot Butte. Too many people around Bend I fear will likely make the clear days like this less frequent.

Bend, Oregon view of Mt. Bachelor from Pilot Butte

The city of Bend was incorporated in 1905 with about 250 residents and 80 buildings soon after Alexander M. Drake arrived in the Central Oregon area in 1900 and purchased land as a real estate investment opportunity. This was a land of old growth trees.  By 1909 the Bend area had a real estate boom from buyers in the eastern U.S. and the city grew with irrigation and electricity by 1910.

Drake Park beside Deschutes River in Bend Oregon

In 1920 the women of Bend gathered signatures for creation of a Bend city park. The tax measure passed and 10 acres were purchased for $20,000 and Drake Park was established with community effort to beautify the land for public use.

Drake Park river homes in central Bend, Oregon

Drake Park sits adjacent to downtown restaurant and shops in Bend.

Drake Park river view in downtown Bend, Oregon

Second impression of Bend is this place is loaded with athletes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people running downtown without a formal race or riot happening.

View of Three Sisters Mountains (10,000+ ft.) from Pilot Butte, Bend Oregon

This is part of a series of Loyalty Traveler posts describing a road trip from Monterey to Vancouver, British Columbia for Travel Blog Exchange June 11-12, 2011. This post describes the high desert road through Central Oregon on Highway 197 and Highway 97 along the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains Range from The Dalles to Bend, Oregon.

Hotel room views are the primary purpose of Room77.com.

Room77 tagline reads “Your key to a great room” and their website tag is “Find your perfect room.”

The ability to preview the room view for specific rooms at a hotel offers a guest the ability to choose a better hotel room view for your stay, if the hotel will let you have that specific room. The weakness of the site to me at the present time is the lack of photographic images of rooms. Room77 images are computer generated images that lack some details. Also the angle shown is only the room view when looking directly straight out one window. Room windows often have many different views from multiple windows in the room.  

The ability for our eyes to look right or left or up and down can make a significant difference in room view.

A convenient thing for me was seeing the Room77.com homepage featured 20 hotels. Turns out that I have room photos from eight of these 20 hotels from stays and visits in the past year. It could have even been nine hotels, but I couldn’t talk my way into seeing a room at the Grand Hyatt Seattle two weeks ago.  

I picked three hotels featured on the homepage of Room77 where I have room photos to provide a comparison to Room77.com website views from these or similarly located hotel rooms.

The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas

This is Room77.com view from 4578 suite at The Cosmopolitan:

Room77.com room view for The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas Room 4578

 

 

The hotel floor room map is a useful feature for seeing corner rooms, room category, and quickly locating views from different sides of the building.

Here is my Loyalty traveler photograph of The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas – Room 5878 in December 2010:

Loyalty Traveler photo of The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas Room 5878 view.

This kind of blew my mind to see that I have almost the same photo angle. There is a lot of detail in the Room77 computer generated image.

Loyalty Traveler photo of The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas Room 5878 view east.

Room 5878 and 4578 are wraparound terrace rooms with a corner building balcony that also faces east to Planet Hollywood. The Room77.com view from Room 4579 shows another angle of the 4578 wraparound terrace view.

Room77.com - The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas - Room 4579 view.

The angle seems slightly high on the Room77 image since I supposedly was on a higher floor at the Cosmopolitan.

Room77.com images for The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas look pretty close to my photos. Despite these being digital images the detail is right on for these rooms.

But here is an angle completely missing from Room77.com images:

View of Paris Casino from The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas Room 5878.

This angle is taken from the balcony looking diagonally across the Las Vegas Strip.

Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers

On my first trip to Chicago I spent the first night in the Sheraton Chicago room 2703 with a view of the river and the Trump Tower.

Chicago Sheraton Room 2703 view from bedroom window.

Here is the Room77.com view for Sheraton Chicago Room 2703.

Room77.com Sheraton Chicago Room2703 digital image view.

My photo shows a similar view when looking out from the bed. I don’t have much detail in my photo since I was photographing the bed and not the view. Room 2703 had two windows and I did not photograph the view looking directly out the center of the window. There were better views from different angles.

View of Chicago River and Trump Tower from Room 2703 Sheraton Chicago.

Room77 would probably have discouraged me from wanting this room. Sure I had the view shown in Room77, but obviously there was also much more view in that room. The main issue I see with Room77 for room views is the static angle directly out the center window. Many rooms have multiple viewpoints.

The view from a high rise hotel usually has a view down.

View looking down at Chicago River from Sheraton Chicago Room 2703.

I noticed Room77.com has a “Hotel Verified” checkbox on the site.

Room77.com Hotel Verified Check Box

Vancouver Hyatt Regency Room 3301

Room 3301 at the Vancouver Hyatt Regency is a top-floor corner Executive Suite with a balcony over Burrard Street.

Vancouver Hyatt Regency view down Burrard Street from balcony of room 3301.

Room77.com view from Vancouver Hyatt Regency Room 3301:

Room77.com Hyatt Regency Vancouver Room 3301 view.

This room view is fairly accurate when looking out the sitting room window.

Vancouver Hyatt Regency photo view from room 3301.

Once again I have a near identical photo. Vancouver is a booming city. Pick out the details that have changed since the Room77 image was created. I think the Room77 image looks like a higher angle.

But my camera eye immediately went to this view when I stood at the window of room 3301.

View of Fairmont Vancouver from Hyatt Regency room 3301.

My eye gravitated to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

This is a room at the Vancouver Hyatt Regency with great views in the city. I reminded myself of an axiom Kelley and I have lived by for most of our lives, “Live in a room with the view of the finest looking things around.”

Thoughts on Room77.com

Room77 offers its site take on each hotel. The hotel marketing description focuses primarily on the positive sides of a hotel and stays fairly safe from critical judgment. There are good basic tips on hotel room selection like get on a high floor and avoid connecting rooms.

This is a site that could really benefit from crowdsourcing photo donations for room views. I gathered from the Travel Blog Exchange 2011  conference (#TBEX on Twitter) in Vancouver last week that Room77 is attempting crowdsourcing room photos.

As a hotel junkie I like the concept. I have to wonder though if room views are enough for a site. This seems more like an application to a bigger database like TripAdvisor.com hotel reviews. Where I see real value for the frequent guest is combining  room view data with actual room furnishings and amenities data.

Seeing the room view is one nice feature, but I also want to know if the room has a couch, the bathroom size, TV size, refrigerator available and empty or electronic mini-bar. Finding out all these details is time consuming for the guest.

Room77.com partially tackles one aspect of the room – the view. Room view is an important aspect for me as a traveler, but one viewpoint is insufficient data to capture the view from room windows as I have possibly illustrated in this post.

As a quantitative exercise I imagined 500,000 rooms being photographed (the number of rooms listed on Room77 in 24 cities) while paying someone $10 to photograph a room.

The cost to buy photos is $5 million to get a photo library of one half-million rooms; $50 million to get a library of five million hotel rooms globally.

I think it would be cool if there was a database that all hotels fed into to show the room views from each room location at several angles and show the room furnishings. Room view is possibly my top primary desire when traveling. Room furnishings are nearly as important too.

Apparently Room77 picked up $10.5 million in funding this month.

Room77.com looks like an (ad)venture start-up to follow as it develops a useful hotel room view database for travelers.