Autograph Collection is Marriott’s brand for independent and boutique hotels who pay to be part of Marriott’s branding and marketing system. Three new members in the UK are now part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection with two hotels open in London and a third hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland  scheduled for June 2013 entry into Autograph Collection and Marriott’s reservations system.

• St. Ermin’s Hotel,  Westminster, London. Category 8 hotel at 40,000 points. June 2013 rates  196 GBP.
• Threadneedles, City of London Category 8 hotel at 40,000 points. July 2013 rates 302 GBP.
• Glasshouse Hotel, Edinburgh, Scotland.

St. Ermin’s Hotel in London is a historic Victorian building.

Read More…

The Palace of Westminster London is often referred to as the Houses of Parliament where the Houses of Lords and Commons for the British government meet. The Palace of Westminster occupies 873 ft. of Thames River front.

Palace of Westminster seen from Westminster Bridge.

This site in central London beside the Thames was the location of a royal palace nearly 1,000 years ago which served as the primary London residence of Kings. Fire destroyed much of the medieval palace property in 1512. The rebuilt Old Palace became the Palace of Westminster meeting place for the Houses of Parliament. Read More…

London Eye is a 135 meter (443 ft.) high ferris wheel on the South Bank of the Thames River across Westminster Bridge from the Houses of Parliament.

London Eye across the River Thames from Big Ben.

London Eye was the tallest ferris wheel in the world when it opened in 1999. It is still the largest in Europe. Singapore Flyer (2008) is currently the tallest ferris wheel in the world (540 ft).

View of London Eye and Big Ben from Queen’s Jubilee Bridge.

London Eye is the most visited paid tourist attraction in the UK with 3.5 million annual visitors. Read More…

InterContinental London Westminster is a recent addition to London luxury hotels, opening in December 2012, after £150m ($225m USD) investment to refurbish the former government building of Queen Anne’s Chambers.

InterContinental Westminster (hotel website) with 256 guest rooms and 45 suites is the second IC property currently in London along with InterContinental Park Lane.

TripAdvisor is a great resource for checking out this new hotel through guest photos. Read More…

London and Paris are the top two international tourism destinations for Americans and international travelers.

I have been to London four times and Paris three times.  I would like to spend more time in these cities, but my travels have not worked out that way. There are so many places in the world to visit.

TripAdvisor.com shows 1,079 hotel listings for London, UK in 28 neighborhoods.

My recent one night stay in London was March 13, 2013 at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, a Club Carlson category 6 property at 50,000 points per night. The hotel is ranked #73 of 1,079 London hotels on TripAdvisor.com.

I have only stayed in three hotels in London, all in the neighborhood of Westminster.

Honeymoon in London 1989 Read More…

Zurich, Berlin, Oslo, Helsinki, London in 12 days out of San Francisco Airport. I was surprised at how much of Europe I could visit on one trip using 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for three one-way economy class award tickets and no other transportation except to and from airports on city trains, trams and busses.

No car travel.

Miles and miles of walking.

Lesson #1  Travel with two small bags and a small backpack if you plan to walk with your luggage.

In Oslo, London and Chicago overnight layovers I  traveled without my one checked bag. Read More…

I knew late night encounters with the werewolves of London was a possibility, but meeting the urban foxes of London was unexpected.

Songs from the 70s like White Man in Hammersmith Palais by The Clash and Down in the Tube Station at Midnight by The Jam were the kind of songs that made me think night walking London was not such a good idea when I honeymooned there in 1989.

There were hardly any people on the streets in Westminster at midnight. The area was so deserted as I walked to Buckingham Palace that an urban fox trotted across the road in front of me from St. James’s Park onto the sidewalk. We made eye contact, shared a greeting and under the fence the fox went.

Encounters with wildlife seem like a good omen to me, although I read that urban foxes are a nuisance in London. Kind of like the London version of raccoons I guess.

Spending three hours in transit into the city and back to Heathrow might seem like a waste of effort on a 21 hour layover. In fact, sitting on the Underground train at 9:00 pm when I was on Finnish time, two hours ahead of London, and after getting on the wrong tube line in Hammersmith, I asked myself why I ever booked such a crazy trip with four overnight layovers in four different countries on four consecutive nights to get back to California from Berlin.

Oslo and Helsinki were easy commutes, less than 45 minutes from the airport plane touchdown into my hotel room. London took 1 hour and 45 minutes from the time the Finnair flight from Helsinki landed at Heathrow until I stepped out of the tube  at Westminster station.

Instantly, I mean the second I stepped out of the tube station and walked up the stairs adjacent to the River Thames and saw Big Ben, a surge of energy rushed through me. The weariness of travel had gone.

View of Big Ben from Westminster Bridge Read More…

Thriving or surviving: European cities hotel forecast 2013 is a report by pwc.com/hospitality sharing data from 19 European gateway cities. You can access the full report yourself through the link. I picked up a print copy at the ALIS conference last week in Los Angeles.

Best report line: “With fewer customers to go round in 2013, loyalty and reward programmes could make the difference to the bottom line.” pwc.com

The presentations at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit #ALIS 2013 conference appeared bullish on the 2013 hotel industry year for the USA.  Stocks are reaching record highs, companies are sitting on piles of money, and Americans are spending.

Europe is a different matter with the Euro crisis still being resolved.

I picked out some data from the pwc.com European cities hotel forecast 2013 report to share with readers on how the Europe forecast may affect loyalty travelers in 2013. Read More…

Choice Privileges has an offer available right now that allows members to buy and redeem points for hotel nights in Paris, London and many other high priced locations for as little as $80 per night.

Choice Privileges offers 10% bonus points on points purchases through December 31, 2012. The regular price for 1,000 points is $11. This offer gives 1,100 points for $11.

Choice Privileges limits points purchases to 20,000 points per calendar year. This means a member can buy 22,000 points now for $220 and up to another 20,000 points in January 2013 for $220.

Note: Choice Privileges does not allow points transfers to other members, even a spouse.

You may not combine your points with points belonging to anyone else, including your spouse.

Choice Privileges Rules & Regulations: Other Terms and Conditions Rule #3.

• Only members from USA and Canada are eligible to buy Choice Privileges points.
• Reward reservations can be booked only within 60 days of stay for international hotels.

The main point to know about Choice Privileges is reward reservations can only be made for hotels outside the USA within 60 days of your stay, unless you are an elite Platinum (75 days) or Diamond (100 days) member.

Choice Privileges reward nights range from 6,000 to 30,000 points for the vast majority of the 6,000+ hotels worldwide.

Another feature of Choice Privileges are the reward night rates change seasonally. Reward nights at hotels in the USA do not vary nearly as much as the reward nights for international hotels. Many hotels in Europe that cost 20,000 to 25,000 points per night in summer drop to just 8,000 points per night in the low season.

Choice Privileges Reward Search for London, England November 26, 2012.

Choice Privileges Reward Night search for London, GB returns eight hotels within London proper at just 8,000 points per night. There are several more hotels in the suburbs at 8,000 points per night.

Rate comparison for London using points and paying cash.

Quality Crown Hotel Hyde Park = 159GBP = USD $252 per night.

You can buy 8,000 points for $88 through Choice Privileges and with the 10% bonus you will receive 8,800 points. This hotel example reduces the rate from $252 down to $88 for a one-night stay and you will have 800 points remaining in your account.

That is one hotel bargain for London.

Booking a 4-night stay in Paris for $330.

A couple can each buy 16,500 points now for $165 and make separate 2-night reservations. Then notify the hotel in advance that you are a couple with two separate reservations and ask for the same room so you do not need to change rooms after two nights.

Paris, France offers several hotels at 8,000 points per night in November 2012.  For November 26 there were 14 hotels available within Paris for 8,000 points per night. Of these 14 hotels, there were 10 hotels available for a 4-night stay Nov 26-30.

Comfort Hotel Royal Aboukir Paris 2 = 151 EUR or USD$193 per night.

Or 8,000 points per night which you can buy for $88.

Note: The current list of hotels at 8,000 points expire November 30, 2012. These same hotels are currently showing 16,000 to 25,000 points for December and January reward nights.

The new list of hotels at 8,000 points have not yet been loaded. This means hotels will show their full points rate for December and January reward reservations, however, I expect the hotel reward rates for December and January to be adjusted in the next couple of weeks.

You might want to wait until December and verify the hotels with reward nights at 8,000 points before you buy Choice Privileges points if Paris and London are in your plans for December 2012 to February 2013.

Exchanges for Choice Privileges points

You can also get Choice Privileges points from exchanges with American Express Membership Rewards, Amtrak Guest Rewards and Diners Club Rewards.

American Express

• 1000 Membership Rewards points = 1,000 Choice Privileges points

Amtrak Guest Rewards

• 5,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points = 15,000 Choice Privileges points

Diners Club

• 1,250 Diners Club Rewards points = 2,400 Choice Privileges points

About Choice Hotels

Choice Hotels are the second largest hotel chain worldwide with over 6,000 properties in 11 hotel brands.

• Comfort Inn
• Comfort Suites
• Quality Inn & Suites
• Clarion
• Sleep Inn
• Ascend Collection
• Cambria Suites
• MainStay Suites
• Suburban
• EconoLodge
• Rodeway Inn

More than 90% of Choice Hotels properties are located in the USA and Canada.

Clarion, Comfort Inn and Quality Inn are the primary three brands found in several international locations in France, Germany, UK, Italy, Brazil, Australia and Italy. There are several other countries with a few hotels. Sleep Inn is found in some Latin America countries.

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

The 5-star Lanesborough London St. Regis Hotel in Knightsbridge, London has been managed by Starwood Hotels for more than a decade. The problem though for Starwood Preferred Guest members is the hotel never participated in the loyalty program. SPG members have never been able to use points for free night awards at one of the most, if not the most expensive hotel in London.

Rate check today for Wednesday, October 17, 2012 shows rates starting at $762 per night or USD $914 per night after tax, however, that does include free internet and butler service.

On Monday, October 15 that all changes when the Lanesborough St. Regis London becomes a participating hotel in Starwood Preferred Guest entering as a SPG Category 7 hotel for 30,000 to 35,000 points per night for award stays. Members will earn points and be eligible for elite benefits and the hotel will participate in the SPG “Better by the Night” promotion for hotel stays through December 20, 2012. 

The building was formerly a 19th century hospital

The Lanesborough at the corner of Hyde’s Park in Knightsbridge served as a hospital for over two centuries since 1733. The original Lanesborough House was torn down due to disrepair and the current building was constructed between 1827 and 1844 when it reopened as St. George’s Hospital. The hospital remained in service until the 1970s.

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts refurbished the property in the 1980s and opened the site as a hotel in 1991. The hotel was taken over for management by St. Regis in 2002 as a non-participating SPG property.

The hotel has 93 rooms with 43 of these suites.

The restaurant Apsleys – a Heinz Beck Restaurant apparently set a record for the fastest time a London restaurant received a Michelin star rating.

Even TripAdvisor reviewers love the Lanesborough. Starwood Hotels offers reviews on their own site now, but as yet no reviews have posted for The Lanesborough.

The Lanesborough London St. Regis photos Starwood site link.

Lanesborough.com website photos.

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.