7
May
U.S. Travel Association and American Express sponsored Daily Getaways today offers 10,000 Best Western Rewards points for $67 or $60.30 with American Express. Maximum purchase limit is 5 sets of points for 50,000 points at $301.50 (Amex price).
Presale at 12 noon eastern (Access Code = 03C70) and main sale at 1:00pm eastern. Read More…
Best Western is celebrating 66 years of hospitality with a Route 66 Scavenger Hunt for a chance to win a $100 Best Western Travel Card and 6,600 Best Western Rewards points. Read More…
Spring weather along the central California coast is one of the best times of the year to visit the beach towns.
Harbor seal pups on the beach at Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA (4-19-12)
April and May are the months for seeing seal pups. These little pups are survivors and start feeding on their own after just a few months. Read More…
Jump Start Your Summer Stay is the next promotion from Best Western Rewards for a $50 Best Western gift card after 3 stays between April 15 and June 3, 2012. The Best Western Travel Card expires November 1, 2012.
Best Western Rewards elite members (Gold, Platinum, Diamond) receive 1,000 bonus points for their first 3 reservations booked online during this promotion for a maximum 3,000 bonus points.
Best Western FMJUMP12 promotion registration required.
The title of this post is lifted from this FlyerTalk thread “Aspirational BW properties for Using Free Night.” I checked in on this FlyerTalk thread a couple of times over the past two weeks hoping to see a growing list of Best Western hotels people praised.
The lack of recommendations for aspirational hotels in the Best Western chain led to a qualification of “expensive” Best Western hotels. Read More…
Best Western Rewards has a promotion offering Southwest Airlines frequent flyers who enroll in Best Western Rewards between March 8 and April 30 the opportunity to earn Gold Elite after one hotel stay along with 1,200 Rapid Rewards points. Offer is only available to residents of U.S. and Canada.
To participate in the promotion, you must:
1. Become a new Best Western Rewards member by enrolling through this Best Western Rewards-Southwest Airlines link.
3. Set your Best Western Rewards earning preference to Southwest Airlines points.
4. Stay at any Best Western branded hotel by April 30, 2012.
Best Western Rewards member will earn Best Western Rewards Gold elite status (normally requires 10 nights) and double Rapid Rewards points (1,200 points) after the first Best Western hotel stay by April 30, 2012.
Members qualifying for this promotion will retain Gold elite through the 2012 year. Best Western hotel stays normally earn 600 Rapid Rewards points for Southwest Airlines flyers earning miles rather than Best Western points. This is the standard number of points given per hotel stay with most hotel loyalty programs. Double points (1,200 Rapid Rewards points) is only available for the first stay during this promotion.
Double Dip with Best Western’s Free night after 3 stays by April 8
Be sure to check out the major Best Western Rewards promotion for a free night voucher after three stays by April 8, 2012. The free night offer should be stackable with this Southwest promotion. Here is my Loyalty Traveler analysis of what I called the best midscale hotel chain promotion of the season.
Best Western Gold elite benefits
Members can change their earning preference to points if they choose after earning the Gold elite and 2x miles bonus with Southwest Airlines.
Best Western Gold elite has the primary advantage of 10% bonus points.
Best Western Rewards now allows points as elite qualifying route
Another feature of Best Western Rewards that changed just this month is elite qualification by points. All stays at Best Western earn 10 points per dollar (unless you have earning preference set to airline miles).
Gold elite = 10 nights or 10,000 points in a calendar year.
Platinum elite = 15 nights or 15,000 points in a calendar year.
Diamond elite = 30 nights or 30,000 points in a calendar year.
I am awaiting clarification on whether points counted for elite status are only points earned from hotel stays or if partner activity points also count similar to the way Priority Club Rewards works for elite qualification.
My guess is only points from hotel stays count. Then, the next question is whether only base points count or if all points from hotel stays like elite bonuses and promotion bonus points count.
There does not seem to be detailed explanation in BWR terms and conditions on the new elite qualification terms.
Assuming only 10 base points/$1 count (this is how Hilton HHonors works), then elite status would require $1,000 in hotel spend for Gold, $1,500 in spend for Platinum and $3,000 for Diamond in a calendar year.
I’ll update when I receive clarification on the new elite route of qualifying by points.
I feel compelled to issue a reality check based on the overwhelming pitch by bloggers for Starwood Preferred Guest being the primary program to consider when transferring hotel points for the US Airways points-to-miles 50% bonus from March 11-31, 2012.
Several travel blogs over the past 24 hours have discussed the US Airways hotel points transfer bonus promotion and most of the commentary suggests no other hotel program is worth considering besides SPG to get the best miles value from your hotel points. Read More…
Do a Marriott Courtyard and a Hilton Garden Inn have about the same room rate on average? How do Hyatt Place and Starwood Hotels aloft brands stack up in room rates?
STR and STR Global package hotel industry data. I like to read HotelNewsNow.com to see hotel industry trends and average room rates, although to get detailed information about hotel brands and places requires paying for information. I stick with the free stuff.
One of the valuable STR resources for me is the chain scale hotel list that categorizes hundreds of USA and global hotel brands on a scale of six market segments from economy to luxury. Hotel brands are placed on the scale solely using average daily rate as the factor. Note: the average daily rate data was added March 7 based on Smith Travel Research data for January 2012.
Any specific hotel may have a large rate differential from another hotel in that brand, but the average rate says something about the brand overall across the hotel chain and across the USA and globe.
STR and STR Global have moved some hotel brands to a higher chain scale based on 2011 average daily rates.
• Best Western Premier moved from upper-midscale to upscale. Best Western launched a rebranding campaign in 2011 to distinguish the better hotels in the 4,000+ global chain.
All the other chains operate several different hotel brands across different market segments and Best Western finally got into the game with three tiers of Best Western, (3,000 or so hotels), Best Western Plus (1,000+ hotels) and Best Western Premier (over 100 hotels). The numbers given here are just rough estimates based on past data I have seen.
Best Western Premier moves to upscale hotels. My stay last year in Napa was a great room in an old motel style building. The room was definitely upscale.
Napa, California Best Western Premier Hotel Ivy
Hotel Ivy Napa, Best Western Premier Hotel.
Hotel Ivy Napa, Best Western Premier.
• Country Inns & Suites moved from midscale to upper-midscale. That is a huge accomplishment for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group working to become a more recognized name in the chain scale competition.
Upper midscale includes brands like Hampton Inn, Clarion, Best Western Plus, Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.
Candlewood Suites, La Quinta and Ramada are examples of hotel brands in the midscale segment.
Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Four Points are in the higher upscale segment. The bad news for Club Carlson members is this chain segment change indicates rates are rising at Country Inns.
Loyalty Traveler note: This post originally had seven hotel brand changes based on a HotelNewsNow.com article (media arm of STR and STRGlobal). I received an email on March 7 stating HNN will issue a correction on their article and only Best Western Premier and Country Inns are changing in the hotel chain scale. I deleted references to the other hotel brands originally included in this post.
Best Western has a new Low Rate Guaranteed policy for a $100 Best Western Travel Card if you find a lower rate on another online travel agency website within 48 hours of booking a hotel at BestWestern.com. The lower rate is matched plus a $100 hotel credit for a future stay. Great Deal! Right?
Best Western says submit a claim when you find a lower rate for the Best Western hotel within 48 hours after booking on BestWestern.com. Best Western reservations made within 48 hours of hotel arrival are not eligible for claims.
The online travel agency room rate must meet these conditions:
Points or miles earned are based on room rate actually paid after Best Rate Guarantee claim processed.
This Best Rate Guarantee policy is only for residents of U.S., Canada and the Caribbean when staying at Best Western hotels in the U.S., Canada or Caribbean.
Other international locations and residents of other regions are still only eligible for a 10% rate discount on the lower rate found on a third party travel agency for approved claims.
Loyalty Traveler analysis
A $100 BW Travel Card is a good value Low Rate Guarantee if you have a claim approved.
I still object to the fact that no hotel chains follow the terms of Starwood Hotels and Hyatt Hotels who allow guests to file a Low Rate Guarantee claim before making a reservation on any site.
What good is a Best Rate Guarantee when I see a lower rate on a competing website, and I am faced with the choice of booking the lower rate or booking the higher rate on Best Western and file a claim?
He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine” Eagles- ‘Hotel California’
While Kayak has lost its usefulness it once had when hotels could be filtered by hotel loyalty program, the fact that all Best Western hotels are in one brand means Kayak is still useful for filtering Best Western Hotels.
Kayak.com is a useful website for finding hotels eligible for Low Rate Guarantee claims. On the left side of the page is a box for “Hotel Name/Brand”. Type in Hilton or Starwood or Marriott or Best Western and Kayak gives the selection choice to filter hotels for only “All Hilton brands” or “All Marriott brands”. I filtered this search to “All Best Western brands”.
EasyClickTravel,com is an online travel agency that I have used before for approved low rate guarantee claims. The $92 rate on EasyClickTravel.com listed is $17 less than the BestWestern.com rate.
EasyClickTravel.com has a rate of $105.75 after tax. BestWestern.com shows $125.90 for this same room after tax.
Bottom line: Best Western may approve my claim and I get a $100 gift card and the lower rate.
If Best Western rejects the claim for some reason I can’t see at this point, then I paid $20 more than I needed to pay for the same room.
Hopefully the Best Western Rewards points I earn from the hotel stay are worth at least $20 that I overpaid for the room.
For me personally, a Best Rate Guarantee that requires me to book the hotel room on BestWestern.com first is only useful if I have a rate that can be cancelled in case my Low Rate Guarantee claim is not approved.
When I really need a hotel room though, I don’t want to play booking games poker. In this post I have shown how easy it is to find a Low Rate Guarantee claim. I found this hotel in about five minutes. But I don’t want to gamble on whether the room shown in this post is an eligible Low Rate Guarantee with Best Western.
Now if I saw this with a Starwood Hotel or Hyatt Hotel, then I would be filing my claim and see if I could get a great rate deal for San Francisco. Starwood Hotels’ Best Rate Guarantee gives 10% off the lower rate, but I almost always take 2,000 Starpoints and a match of the lower rate. Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee will reduce the lower rate by 20%.
This is a good effort from Best Western and some guests are going to be excited to get a $100 Best Western Travel Card.
BestWestern.com Low Rate Guarantee.
The complete pdf Best Western Best Rate Guarantee Terms & Conditions.
Here is a spreadsheet with the ten largest hotel loyalty programs worldwide and all their airline partners for earning miles and points-to-miles transfers.
Hilton HHonors is far and away the biggest program for airline partnerships. That can be a major factor for a frequent guest earning miles from hotel stays in a frequent flyer program where there might be few opportunities to earn miles other than flying.
There are 8 airlines that only partner with one of these ten programs.
[click on image to see full-size in new window]
I will follow up this post with comments and details on airline miles differences in earning rates between different programs.
This seemed like a useful table to create as I work on my series of hotel points-to-miles exchange rates across loyalty programs for a selection of major airlines.
Loyalty Traveler – Airline Tables for Hotel Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates
Best Western Rewards comes out with the best midscale hotel segment promotion for 2012 so far. Earn one free night for any Best Western worldwide after 3 stays from February 6 to April 8, 2012. There is an earning limit of one free night with this offer and the free night voucher expires June 30, 2012. Members must register prior to first stay for hotel stays to be eligible.
