Mark Ashley of Upgrade: Travel Better  posted a strategy yesterday to cash in on the Travelocity new hotel price rate guarantee. I took a closer look at Travelocity today and made a sample rate check for San Francisco next week to see if there are some possible claims.

The new Travelocity Best Rate Guarantee is an addition to the old policy in that a customer who makes a Travelocity “Good Buy” prepaid hotel booking can invoke a BRG claim at any time until the day before check in. A successful claim results in a refund on your prepaid room to match the lower rate found and until December 31, successful claimants will also receive one $50 promo code to apply to a future “Good Buy” hotel room or Flight + Hotel Vacation Package purchased on Travelocity.

The new Travelocity BRG policy for anytime “up until the day before check in” only applies to “Good Buy” bookings which are prepaid rates, but are not necessarily nonrefundable. The fine print for “Good Buy” prepaid rates on hotels I checked is cancellation must occur before 3 days of arrival or a penalty of one night’s room rate is forfeited. Travelocity Good Buy Rates terms.

Travelocity has several restrictions to their new “Good Rates” BRG policy. The main restriction I saw is a limit of 5 BRG claims in any one month. I had more than 5 successful BRG claims in May 2009 with Starwood Hotels.

TRAVELOCITY PRICE and SERVICE GUARANTEE

Rule 17  Limit: Each customer shall be limited to five (5) Price and Service Guarantee claims per customer per calendar month, regardless of the number of accounts used by the customer.  

http://svc.travelocity.com/info/info_popup/0,2766,TRAVELOCITY:EN%7CGUARANTEE_TERMS,00.html

The most important restriction for frequent guests focused on the price of a hotel room is group rates are not covered in Travelocity’s price guarantee. This means a lower rate available from the hotel chain using a AAA or a senior discount is not covered by the Travelocity guarantee. Since AAA is the most common lowest rate I find when searching hotels, this is a big gap in a Best Rate Guarantee policy from any online travel agency. The rate comparison table at the end of this thread shows several examples of lower AAA rates and there were some good senior rates deals in San Francisco.

Travelocity covers non “Good Buy” Hotel Rates with older Best Rate Guarantee policy

Travelocity’s old Best Rate Guarantee policy is still in effect for non-prepaid hotels and is more in line with hotel chains’ BRG terms. Find a lower rate on Travelocity or another US-based website within 24 hours of booking on Travelocity and you will receive a $50 promo code for a future “Good Buy” hotel or Flight + Hotel Vacation Package.

An even better plan may be to stick with a hotel loyalty program.

My searches today revealed several opportunities for cashing in with Travelocity’s $50 offer, but honestly I wouldn’t bother leaving the hotel chain’s own websites for the $50 credit with Travelocity. The points and benefits I earn from most of my hotel stays have a tangible value higher than $50. That is why I am a Loyalty Traveler.

I have invoked around 25 Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) claims this year directly with Hyatt and Starwood and about 2 out of 3 were approved. The denied claims were due to two reasons. The first reason is some online travel agency (OTA) websites do not actually book the room in real-time and these sites are not covered by the hotel chain’s BRG policy. Some agencies require you to submit your reservation and then they email you when the room is booked. These not in-real-time bookings are excluded from the hotel BRG eligibility. At least that is what I have been told by Hyatt over most of my denied claims I find through Kayak with OTAs I have never heard of before.

Travelocity, Orbitz, and Expedia all book in real-time and close the deal with a confirmation of your room purchase and price. GTAHotels.com is one particular smaller online travel agency site I have had great luck finding approved BRG claims this year.

The second and more common reason for a denied BRG claim is a rate change before the claim is processed by the hotel chain. This issue will likely be the same with Travelocity. Screenshots of a lower rate do not count. The good thing about Hyatt Hotels is the ability to call and process a claim directly over the phone. Starwood Hotels takes up to 24 hours and several of my valid BRG claims were not honored due to a rate change within 24 hours of finding a lower rate on an online travel agency site. I submitted a claim, but the rate had gone up in the typically 18 to 23 hours  before receiving a Starwood BRG reply.

Hotel  Chain’s own Best Rate Guarantee policies:

Hyatt Hotels BRG matches lower rate and discounts additional 20% off lower rate. BRG claims are allowed without having an existing room booking. Search Hyatt, search Kayak.com or other online travel agencies for lower rates, and call in any potential discrepancy for a 20% discount on the lower rate.

Starwood Hotels BRG matches lower rate and discounts an additional 10% or matches lower rate and receive 2,000 Starpoints rather than the 10% discount.  I have earned loads of Starpoints invoking the Starwood BRG points offer this year. BRG claims can be made before booking a room.

Hilton Hotels BRG Must book room through Hilton first, then if lower rate found on another site within 24 hours of your booking, Hilton will match lower rate and award you with a $50 American Express gift check.

Marriott Hotels BRG Must book room through a Marriott channel first, then if eligible lower rate found within 24 hours and at least 24 hours before check in, Marriott will discount lower rate 25%.

InterContinental Hotels Group BRG Must book room through IHG channel first, and if lower rate found within 24 hours on a competing site, IHG will discount the lower rate by 10%.

All BRGs aside, here is my rate search comparison for a downtown San Francisco hotel next Friday, November 6, 2009 for a one night stay. Take your chances with a Travelocity BRG claim or just go with the lowest rate. The lowest rate for the hotels I checked was found on the hotel chain’s own site nearly every time.

A hotel rate search strategy I recommend is use Travelocity’s “Good Buy” Flexible calendar rates to see 90 days of a specific hotel’s rates. This is a better search than most hotel chains’ websites. If a GoodBuy rate is low on Travelocity, then the rate will either be low on the hotel chain’s site or you have a good rate candidate for invoking the hotel chain’s Best Rate Guarantee option.

Hotel News Now published a story on “10 hotel booking trends” from a presentation at the inaugural Hotel Data Conference by Brian Ferguson, Expedia VP of Lodging Demand and Analysis. Hotel News Now is the newsletter publication of Smith Travel Research, a leader in hotel rate data and research for the hotel industry.

The consumer trend of the past year has been a swing in hotel bookings made through online third-party hotel reservation sites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz. The viewpoint of Expedia, expressed by Ferguson, is the increased volume in bookings does not directly increase profits for third party online travel agencies due to the lower revenue generated as a portion of lower room rates across all hotel market segments.

What I want to share is the “10 Booking Trends” discussed by Expedia’s Lodging Demand and Analysis VP. I am just a hotel consumer who tries to figure out how to get great value from hotel rates. Reading what the industry experts have to say helps me focus my Loyalty Traveler work on a targeted audience who will benefit from my reporting on hotel rate trends as a frequent guest.

1.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Exchange rates are shifting travel patterns.

Hotel rates in UK have dropped primarily due to the better exchange rate for Americans. Combine the exchange rate with promotions and the UK is a bargain.

Loyalty Traveler: I totally agree, but the window appears to be closing on the exchange rate issue. Winter 2009 offered some of the best deals in years for UK and Europe due to the combination of a much better exchange rate for the US Dollar and hotel loyalty program promotions. The dollar has been losing ground as the stock market goes up. Anyone thinking Wall Street inflation?

2 nights for the price of 1 has been an ongoing deal for the past couple of years to entice travelers to the major chain hotels in Europe and Asia.

2.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Consumers are looking for a deal. Bookings made with promotions are increasing as a share of total hotel reservations.

Loyalty Traveler: I’ll take some credit for this one. I take the time to analyze hotel promotions for readers. Loyalty Traveler rarely books a room without a promotion offer. “Hotel value for the frequent guest” is the Loyalty Traveler motto. 10,000+ unique visitors a month are reading Loyalty Traveler to learn more about hotel loyalty program promotions.

3.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Promotions matter more than ever.

Loyalty Traveler: I get a chuckle out of all the news articles showing how to get better value from your spending in all segments of consumer purchases from groceries to hair cuts to travel.

I had an oil change yesterday for 25% off. The coupon took two minutes to locate on the internet. All the other people at Jiffy Lube paid full price.

Friends have commented I am a cheap ass when I pull out a 2-for-1 dining coupon. I rarely eat out for more than half-price.

I frequently stay in hotels for less than half-price. Promotions matter if you want more money for life’s other necessities and pleasures.

4.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Promotions are getting more creative. It used to be about cutting rates and now hotels add free nights and value-added incentives.

Loyalty Traveler: Promotions are more creative and take more time to analyze for this Loyalty Traveler. I’m looking for the deal whether it is a bargain rate now (free parking, free breakfast) or will result in a bargain hotel rate in the future (free hotel night).

5.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Customers who book online are trading up. Four and five star hotels are getting more affordable.

Loyalty Traveler: I have stayed in some of San Francisco’s finest hotels this year and only once paid over $125. And I received a $500 per night suite for that stay. 2009 is a leisure traveler’s hotel dream.

6.       Expedia VP Ferguson: There are massive swings in online market share.

Loyalty Traveler: No real comment to make here. I haven’t tried the phone call reservation this year. I’ve read articles on Hotel Chatter and Budget Travel about people getting a much better deal through the phone. I’ve been an online customer for 10 years and my experience has rarely been to find a better deal over the phone. I do recall my mother getting good phone rates when my mom and the hotel reservationist could not locate the online promotion I was telling her to book.

7.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Booking compression. People are waiting closer to stay date to book.

Loyalty Traveler: I reported in several posts that my rate analysis of San Francisco hotels revealed the lowest rates typically are found between 7 and 14 days before the stay date. Smart shoppers wait (or at least go with a rate allowing cancellation in case a better rate appears).

8.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Leisure rates went down first and are going down more.

Loyalty Traveler: My hotel rate focus is geared for the leisure traveler. I don’t stay in San Francisco on paid rates when a convention is in town and the hotels go up to $300+ per night. The same hotel room is around $100 per night, a 50% decrease from average leisure rates a year ago, during weeks when business travel is light. And getting an upgrade is much easier when there are not corporate executives buying up the suites.

9.       Expedia VP Ferguson: Increased use of rate fences in packages.

Loyalty Traveler: I am not a marketing person and I need to study this concept since I have been seeing it more frequently lately. Basically it seems the concept is to hide the room rate in a package of bundled services such as airfare, rental car, or hotel amenities like champagne and spa treatments.

I generally find these to be a poor value for a hotel when the components are broken down. Packages are convenient and there are some great deals if you need the car or the airfare. I think this is generally a better strategy for reducing high-cost airfare rather than getting a better value on a hotel room.

10.   Expedia VP Ferguson: Opaque channels are growing faster than non-opaque channels.

Loyalty Traveler: Opaque channels are hotel reservation sites like Priceline and Hotwire where you get a really low rate for an unspecified hotel. Opaque channels are the way to go when hotels are priced at high nightly rates. I opt for Priceline when the alternative is a $200+ night room.

My basic loyalty traveler argument is over the course of the year when traveling and staying 20 to 50 nights in hotels, the hotel loyalty program strategy can be used as effectively as Priceline to pay for rooms when they are relatively low priced and redeem points for high priced rooms.

I have saved a couple thousand dollars in past years using Priceline for trips when the chain hotels were high priced.

2009 has seen incredible promotions from hotel loyalty programs. My Starwood Hotels stays in May averaged less than $60 per room night at upscale hotels, frequently in suites, while allowing me to book $500 per night rooms with the free nights I earned.

Try doing that with Priceline.

St. Regis San Francisco "Priceline may be cheap, but this room was free"

Coach Air Travelers to Pay for Premium-class Excess?

Joe Brancatelli has a great read from the Washington Post on the long term outlook for air travel.  He predicts the economics of premium cabin extreme makeovers these past few years will result in higher economy class fares for the leisure traveler coming soon as the profitable premium-class flyers dwindle.

When it comes to hotels the Early Bird gets Hosed

Sarah Nassauer had a piece in the Wall Street Journal March 31, “Travelers find it pays to wait for late deals”.  The article cites data from Travelocity’s senior editor, Genevieve Shaw Brown, indicating hotel guests received average room rates 20% lower within 30 days of travel compared to reservations made more than 60 days before travel.

My observations for San Francisco over the past year show the lowest rates typically occur between 7 and 14 days prior to travel for upscale San Francisco hotels.

Cool Hotel Websites

Adam Kirby, associate editor of Hotelsmag.com, had a visually stimulating piece “Web Designers Name Favorite Hotel Sites”.  I liked seeing what designers like in a web site.

I really do intend to put LoyaltyTraveler.com back online this year and I was looking for ideas.  The capital Catch-22 for a small business is you need money to make money. I’ve been in short supply.

Europe Hotel Rates Decline but Brits are Still Too Broke

The Telegraph, a British paper had an April 6 article by Charles Starmer-Smith “European Hotels Cut Rates” showing the steep decline in European hotel rates of 10% to 25% since November 2008. The impact of the Sterling’s value dropping 20% against the Euro during the same period means hotel rooms are still more expensive for Brits traveling to the continent.

Hawaii Hotel Rates Near Record Decline

USA Today published a piece by Jaymes Song, AP writer, “Hawaii Hotels have worst February in 18 Years”.  Hawaii had its worst hotel room occupancy for February in 18 years since Gulf War # 1. Apparently February is normally the busiest month of the year in Hawaii. Occupancy varies across the islands with Oahu doing the best at 78% and the Big Island Hawaii down to 64%.  Rates were down across the board, but after several years of huge annual increases the hotel rates are still no bargain. The average daily rate is still $187 per night after a 12% decline over the past year. 

Hotels are crying about revenue, but at Hawaii RevPar $140 in this downturn compared to $74 in late 2001, I say that still looks like some impressive growth – something like 10% per year average since 2001. I am not a hotel economist so perhaps the data is worse than it appears to me.

Does Priceline help the local economy?

Tom Belden had a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Winging It: Bad business climate means good hotel rates”. This article cites PKF Hospitality Research saying the decline in hotel profits, about 30% in 2009, will be the greatest one year decline since the 1930s. Interesting that the article mentions hotel stays as a frugal and civic minded way to help your local community. In the end the writer books a $65 Priceline stay at the Sheraton City Center. 

As Loyalty Traveler I advocate local hotel stays as a frugal and civic minded staycation strategy to reach elite status that pays off on the real out-of-town vacations.  But I advocate booking through the hotel’s website.  

Does Priceline help the local economy? I guess so, since the hotel guest will likely spend money at businesses in the vicinity of the hotel.  A direct booking with the hotel probably helps more.

Tim Winship  - Commandeering  the campaign for more frequent flier awards, temporarily at least

“Survey finds no improvement in frequent flyer awards” – Tim Winship

548 people have spoken to Smarter Travel and Frequentflier.com. Award tickets to Europe are easier to get these days. 

Apparently the frequent flier programs are lining up the miles for paying customers with all the ongoing double and triple elite miles offers. When it comes time to spend your miles earned from all those flights that made you an Executive-1KChairman-Platinum elite flyer, the airlines are still being stingy.

Tim thinks the airline’s are missing a great opportunity for customer relations by holding back award seat inventory in this economic climate.

Kimpton Hotels Had a Birthday and I missed it

Last week was a bad time to miss out on emails. I missed the Kimpton Hotels $81 sale .  The basic deal was $81 per night for a two-night stay at nearly any Kimpton. Reservations were accepted from Thursday April 2 to Sunday, April 6, 3pm Pacific time. By Saturday, April 4, two days into the sale there were few properties left.  There were still some rooms at three or four San Francisco Kimptons when I finally saw the Kimpton sale.  

Hilton HHonors announced their HHonors second quarter promotion for 1,000 points per night.

www.hiltonhhonors.com/1000bonuspoints The offer runs from April 13 to June 30 and registration is required.

On a Personal Note:

The past two weeks I have seen project deadlines, relative visitors, and the flu – first for K and then for me.

We did work in a stay at the Hyatt Highlands Inn in Carmel and had another wonderful visit in our wannabe home away from home where the mountains meet the sea. The irony was our stay in the Carmel Highlands was the only day with fog for the entire week. 

K started chemotherapy this week for her rectal cancer and I feel like I acquired “chemo brain”.  

Really – it is a published side effect of mental fog for cancer patients (and based on my experience chemo brain is contagious like the flu). Perhaps this week, now that the fog has temporarily lifted, I will get back to writing on hotel loyalty program developments.

Sunset view from Highlands Drive (above Hyatt Highlands Inn), Carmel, California

Kayak.com, the travel meta-search engine that scans the web for hotel prices (and airfares) from different online travel agencies, purchased TravelPost.com in 2007. Recent news indicates Kayak.com will try to establish rivalry to TripAdvisor.com’s globally dominant hotel review database with a revamped TravelPost.com site.

Kayak.com has put money into a relaunch of TravelPost.com. My initial glance at the site reveals a major hurdle is still waiting to be leaped in catching up to the volume of TripAdvisor.com hotel reviews.

Major Hotel Review Sites

Last summer I attempted an analysis of TripAdvisor.com hotel reviews compared to some other hotel review sites.  Ultimately I concluded Expedia.com, owner of TripAdvisor.com and Hotels.com, had the most comprehensive database of hotel reviews on the web. No other hotel review site came even close.

Six sites I studied last July were:

1.    TripAdvisor (Expedia)

2.    Hotels.com (Expedia)

3.    IgoUgo (Travelocity)

4.    TravelPost (Kayak)

5.    Orbitz

6.    Yahoo Travel Guides

The basic methodology was to look at the number of recent hotel reviews for several major San Francisco hotels. I defined recent as any review posted on the hotel review website within the prior 12 months. 

Some hotel review sites displayed a good number of total reviews when checking a hotel rating, however, closer examination showed the vast majority of these hotel reviews were more than a year old.  Some of these hotel review sites had seen their popularity wane several years earlier.  TravelPost.com was one hotel review site sitting idle despite having one of the largest hotel review databases.

Last summer TripAdvisor.com appeared to be the only hotel review site on the rise with a database large enough to be generally useful to a broad range of potential hotel guests traveling around the USA and the world.

The Ascendance of Kayak.com

Now in 2009 Kayak.com is stating a commitment to promote TravelPost.com in a plan to tackle TripAdvisor.com in a subtle front against Expedia’s domination of the online hotel review scene.  It is too early to tell whether TravelPost.com can mount a competitive campaign.

The popularity of Kayak.com over the past couple of years is an indicator that TravelPost.com can receive plenty of advertising and referral traffic.  Kayak.com pulled in 6.25 million unique visitors during February 2009, according to Compete.com, compared to 8.19 million TripAdvisor.com visitors.  Kayak’s hotel review site TravelPost.com is still a toddler in popularity at 340,000 visitors in Feb 2009 compared to the giant TripAdvisor.

How effectively Kayak.com can refer people to TravelPost.com for hotel review submissions will play a key role in the success of this site. With Kayak.com already receiving 75% of the traffic of TripAdvisor.com, a hotel review site would be a natural extension to the one-stop check of Kayak.com.

The Hurdle – who will generate the reviews for TravelPost?

The primary issue I see at the moment is the database of hotels TravelPost.com is accessing.  I rechecked some hotels that I studied last July, eight months ago.

Here is an example to illustrate the database issue hurdle TravelPost.com must overcome to be a competitive hotel travel review website with TripAdvisor.com based on the member activity over the past 8.5 months as measured by hotel review posts.

Westin St. Francis, San Francisco is a major hotel with nearly 1,200 rooms in downtown San Francisco located on Union Square in the shopping district.  This hotel has had thousands of guests over the past 8 months.

 *  The raw numbers in this table indicate TripAdvisor.com grew by 111 hotel reviews in the past 8.5 months.  The reviews for the Westin St. Francis on TravelPost.com appear to have grown by 68 reviews, a respectable number of reviews added to the database.  A closer look at the source of these reviews indicates most of this growth is actually from using IgoUgo as an added database of hotel reviews on TravelPost.com.  There were only 3 reviews accessed from TravelPost.com since July 2008 during the timeframe that TripAdvisor added 111 reviews for the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

This is why TravelPost.com has a huge hurdle.  Getting the public posting is a challenge.

The following is an excerpt from my July 12, 2008 post “Online Hotel Reviews Website Comparison”.

Online Hotel Reviews

Travelers place a lot of faith in consumer-generated hotel reviews. I trust FlyerTalk.com content because there is a large community of travelers who provide opinions and feedback on each other’s comments. Most major upscale hotels around the world have user comments and reviews from the 100,000+ members of the FlyerTalk.com community.

I believe the self-monitoring independent community of FlyerTalk.com provides more accurate hotel reviews than what is typically found on TripAdvisor.com, particularly when it comes to the experience for elite frequent guests in the major hotel loyalty programs.

Social Media Co-Opted by Corporate Media

The best social media websites with consumer generated comments and hotel reviews have been co-opted by corporate media. Social media websites where users generate the content for free has been a successful marketing partnership for major travel industry players. What in many cases started out as independent, organically developed networks of people creating content for free to help other travelers has developed into the current condition of the major global travel reservations corporations like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com owning social network sites like TripAdvisor.com and IgoUgo.com as corporate subsidiaries.

Meta-search engines like Kayak.com who own TravelPost.com, and bulletin boards like FlyerTalk.com and Cruisecritic.com are not sellers of travel, but make money on an advertising model based on travelers frequently interacting as a community creating new content.

Major Online Hotel Reviews and Their Parent Corporations

IgoUgo.com hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search engine = Travelocity.com (Parent Company)

TripAdvisor.com for hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search = Expedia.com (Parent company)

Hotels.com has a large database for hotel reviews. Hotels.com is also an Expedia company. Hotel guests must have booked stay with Hotels.com to post a review and most of the reviews do not have any written comments. A point scale survey on Hotel Service, Hotel Condition, Room Comfort, and Room Cleanliness are used to give the hotel a rating on a 5 point scale. This website offers a quick snapshot of customer satisfaction for hotel.

TravelPost.com for hotel reviews and Kayak is a meta-search = Kayak.com (Parent Company)

Orbitz.com generates its own database of user-generated hotel reviews based on hotel guests booking through Orbitz.com and responding via e-mail to a post-stay request for a hotel review.

Yahoo! Travel uses a couple of different hotel review databases. When conducting hotel searches through the Yahoo Travel homepage the results use Travelocity and the hotel reviews are the same as Travelocity. When using Yahoo Travel Guides or FareChase for hotel searches the hotel reviews are a different set.

Update March 28, 2009: Here is a link to Elliott Ng’s blog discussing UpTake.com for metasearch of hotel reviews. You should defintiely take a look at the UpTake.com site.

Kayak.com is not your best friend for hotel rates.

I haven’t gone through my OTA rant in a few months now.  OTA is Online Travel Agency. 

Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz are the dominant players in travel searches for hotels.  The value of an OTA is the ability to get a quick snapshot of prices in a city and then quickly book your hotel stay.  Recently all the OTAs have had sales claiming 20%, 40%, even 50% off room rates. 

Kayak.com is on a lot of travelers “Favorite” list for hotel rate searches.  I use Kayak to get an idea of the prevailing hotel rates for an area when I start planning travel.  Kayak.com is a meta-search engine and not an OTA. 

Kayak.com does not actually sell hotel rooms.  A meta-search engine quickly goes through the hotel rates or airfares for a variety of OTAs and pulls up the prices.  Kayak.com takes you to an OTA like Expedia or Orbitz for booking your hotel room or flight once you make a specific selection among the hotel or airline search returns.

Kayak.com is very useful for finding low airfares, but much less useful for hotel rates.

The problem with Kayak.com and OTAs in general is the inability to locate special offer rates or group rates commonly available like AAA and senior group discounts.

Renaissance Eden Roc, Miami Beach – A Tale of Two Travelers

Ellen is a busy executive, but a do it yourself travel planner.  She gets a thrill from looking at websites and picturing herself in the perfect bathing suit, on the perfect beach, in perfect weather, at a great hotel, at the best price.

Ellen goes to Kayak.com and finds the Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach listed at $330. 

Kayak.com shows Eden Roc Renaissance, Miami Beach for $330

A pop-up window search for Travelocity.com shows $369 for this Miami Beach, Florida hotel. 

Travelocity hotel rate for Eden Roc, Miami Beach $369

Based on Renaissance Eden Roc’s TripAdvisor ranking of #23 of 207 Miami area hotels and its 4-star rating, Ellen believes the $369 rate pulled up on Travelocity is a fair market rate for this hotel and compared to other hotel rates on Miami Beach like the Fontainebleau.

TripAdvisor Rating for Eden Roc, Miami Beach, #23 of 206 Hotels

Kayak.com search shows $330 per night through gtahotels.com website.  This may be a good way to save $78 and tax for the two night stay. 

GTAHotels rate is $330 for Eden Roc, Miami Beach (Kayak search lead)

Ellen is a savvy traveler and she knows Marriott.com should have the same $330 rate. She will earn Marriott Rewards points by booking through the Marriott website. 

She heads over to Marriott.com and rechecks the rate for Eden Roc, Miami Beach, January 11-13 for two nights.  The rate shows as $369 on Marriott.com for a 14-day advance reservation rate that allows a no penalty cancellation up to 3 days before arrival.  A reservation canceled within three days forfeits one night’s room charges of $416.97.  She doesn’t see a $330 rate on Marriott.com.  Perhaps this is a potential “Best Rate Guarantee” claim with Marriott.

Marriott.com rate for Renaissance Eden Roc, Miami Beach is $369

Always Check Hotel Rate Rules for the fine print on cancellation. 

From the Marriott Website for this $369 rate:

Rate Rules

Holding Your Reservation

·         We will need a credit card number to reserve your room.

Canceling Your Reservation

·         You may cancel your reservation for no charge until January 8, 2009 (3 day[s] before arrival).

·         Please note that we will assess a fee of 416.97 USD if you must cancel after this deadline.

If you have made a prepayment, we will retain all or part of your prepayment. If not, we will charge your credit card.

This fee equals 1 night of your room charge plus tax (for the first night of your reservation).

Modifying Your Reservation

·         Please note that a change in the length or dates of your reservation may result in a rate change.

·         Your current rate may be available if your modified reservation still includes:

·         A reservation made 14 day(s) before your expected arrival.

Ellen knows AAA usually brings the rate down even more and repeats the rate search on Marriott.com with the AAA box checked.

Marriott.com AAA rate for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami is $386

Oddly enough, the AAA rate is actually more than the 14-day advance reservation rate.  Reading the rate rules, Ellen sees there is no advantage or benefit to the more expensive AAA rate.  The AAA rate also allows a cancellation up to 3 days before arrival date.

Ellen books the two night stay at the Eden Roc Renaissance Resort for $833.94 through the Marriott website because the points and stay credit make the higher price a better value for her hotel lifestyle than the $39 + tax per night she would have saved through her Kayak.com search using gtahotels.com for her booking.  Ellen will earn at least 7,380 Marriott Rewards points for her two night stay at $369/night.

Marriott.com Total rate for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida

January 11-13, 2009  $833.94

Hotel Special Offers are Where the Best Deals are Found

Loyalty Traveler booked the Eden Roc Renaissance Resort for the same room type, on the same dates, on the same Marriott.com website and paid $291.54 for his two night stay.  And Loyalty Traveler will earn a $100 hotel credit for his next stay at the Eden Roc Resort.

Marriott.com $129 Special Offer Rate for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach, FL 

Why is there a $542.40 difference in the Marriott.com room rates?

The Loyalty Traveler took the time to look through 12 pages of Marriott Rewards special offers found here.   An offer on page 9 for the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel showed a $129 special rate valid through January 31, 2009 for Marriott Rewards members:

Marriott Rewards Members’ Sneak Peek of the Bold New Eden Roc

Resort and Spa!!

Includes a great introductory rate, welcome amenity, and a $100

Resort Credit to be used on a return stay in 2009.

Resort Credit cannot be used on current stay*

Resort Credit cannot be applied to room and tax*

Based on Availability*

Restrictions may apply*

Valid 10/24/08-1/31/09*

Marriott.com Special Offer Rate of $129 for Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach

Special Offer Rate of $129 even includes a $100 credit towards a future Eden Roc stay.

And remember to check the fare rules:

Canceling Your Reservation

·         You may cancel your reservation for no charge until January 8, 2009 (3 day[s] before arrival).

·         Please note that we will assess a fee of 145.77 USD if you must cancel after this deadline.

If you have made a prepayment, we will retain all or part of your prepayment. If not, we will charge your credit card.

This fee equals 1 night of your room charge plus tax (for the first night of your reservation).

The fare rules for the special offer rate of $129 are the same cancellation rules as the higher $369 rate.

Hotel Corporations are in the business of making money.

Great deals are available on the hotel’s websites, however, a standard search on the corporate-branded websites does not automatically return the lowest available rates for your stay.  You must specifically search special rates like AAA, Senior, and Promotional rates. 

The code is M11 for the $129 special offer for the Renaissance Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach.  Marriott.com automatically uses the M11 code if you click through the rate search using the special offers page link.

Keep in mind when planning your hotel travel that Kayak.com and OTAs are useful tools, but the best discounts for your hotel stay are often hotel special rates and offers unlikely to be found by these sites.  Even using the hotel-branded websites like Marriott.com will often keep these low rates hidden when searching hotel rates.

There are great hotel deals all the time.  Knowing where and how to find them is the challenge.

If You’re Going to San Francisco,

Be Sure to Where Some Flowers in Your Hair,

And also check for the $134 special offer rate for the Renaissance Stanford Court on Nob Hill:

http://www.marriott.com/specials/mesOffer.mi?marrOfferId=358706&displayLink=true

TripAdvisor.com is growing at an incredible rate.  I primarily use the site for hotel reviews.  There are also travel forums for discussion, restaurant reviews and recommendations, and destination guides.

In July when I was “mile-high” in Denver I wrote a post, Online Hotel Reviews, comparing TripAdvisor.com to other hotel review sites and its dominance for online hotel reviews.  Looking at the post again today I noticed it was littered with inaccurate assumptions which led to incorrect mathematical analysis of the data.  I had made the assumption that the 1% of site visitors making consumer-generated comments were all hotel reviews when they actually include all types of comments from bulletin board forums to restaurant and sight-seeing recommendations.  I’ll blame my inaccurate analysis on oxygen-deprivation for this California coastal kid writing on the high plains of Colorado.    

The main point I made then and now is TripAdvisor.com is way ahead of the pack for sheer numbers of consumer-generated online hotel reviews. 

TripAdvisor’s media network includes www.Airfarewatchdog.com,  www.BookingBuddy.com,  www.CruiseCritic.com, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.theindependenttraveler.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com,  www.travel-library.com,  www.travelpod.com,  and www.tripadvisor.com.  Expedia.com is the parent corporate entity of this online travel site empire.

And with the financial backing of Expedia, TripAdvisor’s parent company, the social media website acquisitions of TripAdvisor makes this travel conglomerate the Bank of America of online travel research and search sites.  24 million unique monthly visitors and over 6 million registered members is an incredible database for the TripAdvisor-branded websites.

Tripadvisor fact sheet 

TripAdvisor does not actually sell hotel rooms.  Revenue is generated from pay-per-click sponsored ads on the webpage.  For example, looking at the Omni San Francisco Hotel webpage on TripAdvisor, there were 12 sponsored links for booking the Omni San Francisco Hotel through 8 different websites:  hotels.com (an Expedia family website), Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Omni Hotels, HotelClub.com (Orbitz owned), CheapTickets.com (Orbitz owned), Priceline.com, and Otel.com.

From the top of the page the first booking option for the Omni Hotel is a toll-free telephone ad for hotels.com (Expedia owned).  The box below that has four sponsored links: Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Omni Hotels, and Hotels.com.  Two of these links are Expedia booking sites.

Further down the page were four more sponsored links: HotelClub.com (Orbitz owned); CheapTickets.com (Orbitz owned); Priceline.com, and Otel.com.  The bottom of the webpage showed the same sponsored links as the top box.

While there were 12 sponsored links and one telephone toll-free number for actually booking the hotel from the main TripAdvisor webpage for the Omni San Francisco, the fact of the matter is five of these options are Expedia-owned websites and four are Orbitz-owned websites.  Omni Hotels has its own sponsored link appearing twice.  The other two sponsored link options were Priceline.com and Otel.com.

This analysis doesn’t help the consumer in determining which website link will have the lowest room price.  I am just looking at the webpage options provided to the consumer for this hotel property and the fact that most links from TripAdvisor go to Expedia or Orbitz companies.

Share of Online Travel Agency referrals from TripAdvisor for April 2008

Compete.com is a website analytics company that analyzes consumer behavior.  A Compete.com travel research report from July looked at the actual percentage of TripAdvisor referrals going to the different online travel agencies for the month of April 2008.

·         Expedia 48%

·         Travelocity 19%

·         Orbitz 16%

·         Hotels.com 11%  (Expedia)

·         Priceline 5%

·         Cheaptickets 1% (Orbitz)

·         Hotwire <1%  (Expedia)

Source: http://www.competeinc.com/research/newsletters/july-2008-travel-research/

The interesting aspect of this data is the large percentage of referrals going to Travelocity.com who had no sponsored links on the TripAdvisor webpage I studied for the Omni San Francisco hotel and few sponsored links on several other TripAdvisor hotel review pages I searched.  A few years ago (2005?) there was a Cornell Center for Hospitality Research report showing Travelocity.com most frequently had the lowest hotel rates of the Online Travel Agencies.  I have no idea if that would have any validity now in 2008.  I always book through the hotel owned websites for the best deal or seek the Best Rate Guarantee from the hotel company when I occasionally find a better rate with an online travel agency.

Compete.com had another interesting report posted September 11, 2008 analyzing the search traffic share for seven major online travel agencies.  The data reflects all travel search, not just hotels.  Expedia is the online search leader.

Online Travel Agency search share for July 07-July 08  (Expedia at 26% is referenced in the article and the other numbers are my estimates based on the Compete.com chart shown here)

·         Expedia 26%

·         Travelocity 17%

·         Orbitz 16%

·         Hotels.com 10%

·         Priceline 13%

·         Cheaptickets 10%

·         Hotwire 7%

Another chart in this report shows the percentage of paid search traffic to Online Travel Agencies (OTA).  36% of all search traffic comes through sponsored links.  The discussion at the beginning of this post regarding sponsored links on the hotel review webpages of TripAdvisor.com seems to correlate somewhat with this data.  Hotels.com has the highest percentage of visitors accessing the site through sponsored links (44%) and Hotels.com is also the most prominent OTA present on TripAdvisor webpages.

Travelocity is the second highest in percentage of paid search referrals (about 40%) and this may account for the high proportion of referrals from TripAdvisor although I did not see many Travelocity sponsored links on the TripAdvisor hotel review pages I checked.

Orbitz and its other company, CheapTickets.com, show about 35% of traffic is from paid search referrals. Their sponsored links are highly visible on TripAdvisor.  Expedia and Hotwire are around 34% paid search traffic.

Interestingly, Priceline.com has the lowest percentage of paid search traffic (about 27%), yet Priceline is showing strong growth in market share.  And I would expect them to gain even more market share in these tough economic times.

TripAdvisor.com “Take this job and shove it”

A former TripAdvisor web content editor, Diedre Kiely, filed a complaint in July claiming TripAdvisor violated Massachusetts law by classifying her and other content editors as independent contractors.  The suit is pending class-action certification in the U.S. District Court of Boston.  The independent contractors edit reviews of hotels and restaurants according to the complaint. 

The experience of unequal pay for the same work as a “permatemp” led me to say “screw corporate greed” and venture out on my own as Loyalty Traveler.  I still have no benefits and no paid vacation, but at least I have the opportunity to provide value-added content to other hard-working consumers and I can travel when I want.  

Posted from BlogWorld 2008, Las Vegas.  A big thank you to Randy Petersen and BoardingArea.com for sponsoring my trip here.

Hotels.com, an Expedia company, has launched a new loyalty program called WelcomeRewards.

My survey of the WelcomeRewards program leaves Loyalty Traveler with quite a favorable impression of the earning power and usefulness of this frequent guest program. 

The WelcomeRewards program is quite simple.  Earn a free night after you stay 10 nights at any Hotels.com partner property with a base rate of $40 or more and also showing the Price Match Guarantee sticker below the rate.  Your free night can be for a hotel of up to $400 base rate.  Qualifying hotel night credits expire after 18 months of inactivity.

Theoretically, it is possible to get $400 free hotel night after $400 in spending, although finding a $40 hotel room will be a challenge in most locations.  One advantage of WelcomeRewards by hotels.com over a traditional hotel corporate program is the ability to earn free nights with stays at properties like B&Bs, inns, and independent hotels.

My home base on the Monterey Peninsula is a holiday location with about 160 lodging accommodations within a 6 mile radius consisting of mostly independent small inns, B&Bs, and motels, but also with several independent upscale properties.  This is a location where the Hyatt Monterey and Hilton Garden Inn Monterey may have room rates over $250 per night for a basic room while a nicer room with a unique character is available for $170 per night in Carmel. 

Paying less for a nicer room while earning loyalty credit towards a free night is what Loyalty Traveler is all about.  WelcomeRewards by hotels.com is one of the most interesting hotel loyalty programs to emerge in the past couple of years.

Quite realistically, a traveler can book 10 nights at $60/night and earn a $400 room credit.  This is a 67% value-added hotel strategy.  That is competitive with just about any major hotel loyalty program.  Even if you are spending $120 night or $1,200 to earn a free night, the potential for a $400 rebate is a 30% return on your hotel spending.  As long as the Hotels.com rates are competitive with other websites, then you will come out with a good return on your hotel spending investment.

A recent Compete.com report showed Expedia gets 48% of TripAdvisor hotel review referral bookings among online travel agencies and Hotels.com receives 11%.

Expedia.com has its own loyalty program with ThankYou points earned at the rate of 1 point per $1.  A hotel traveler will need to spend $5,000 on Expedia.com just to get a $50 hotel certificate.  Hotels.com WelcomeRewards program has much higher value earning per $1 spending as a loyalty program for the hotel traveler.

A Cornell Hospitality Report from 2006, An Examination of Internet Intermediaries and Hotel Loyalty Programs: How Will Guests Get their Points? by: Bill Carroll Ph.D. and Judy Siguaw Ph.D.  discussed the idea of online travel agencies setting up their own loyalty programs and predicted this business strategy would not play out. 

WelcomeRewards is the first loyalty program I have seen to emerge from the online travel agencies that holds significant value comparable to the corporate chain frequent guest programs like Marriott Rewards, Hilton HHonors, and Starwood Preferred Guest.  I look forward to seeing how the hotels.com program evolves.

The primary drawback to WelcomeRewards is the hotel traveler will not earn hotel frequent guest credit with hotel loyalty programs like Starwood, Marriott, or Hilton when staying at their hotel brands.  If attaining elite status and room upgrades is important, then you know to book through the corporate-branded hotel websites.  I value room upgrades and better room locations when I visit hotels.  But at times, I just want a room or I want a better deal than I see in the major corporate brands for my hotel stay dates and this is where I see value with WelcomeRewards by hotels.com.

The WelcomeRewards by hotels.com loyalty program will benefit guests with no preferred hotel chain or for travel in places where your preferred hotel chain is not available or too expensive.  The flexibility of choosing any hotel without regard to a specific hotel chain’s brands is preferential for some travelers. 

Case Study of hotels.com rates compared to other online travel agencies:

Hotel rates from online searches conducted July 25, 2008

The Monterey Peninsula is a perfect example where a major corporate hotel frequent guest with a program like Marriott or Starwood may find value in WelcomeRewards by hotels.com.

Come to Monterey as a Starwood Preferred Guest and you will find the 70 mile drive to the San Jose Sheraton a bit out of town as the nearest Starwood property to Monterey/Carmel.  And the major chain hotels located here on the Monterey Peninsula tend to be high priced and near the top end of the room rate range for this location with over 160 lodging options in hotels, B&Bs, and resorts.

By the Numbers:

Room Rates for a Monterey, California Hotel Search on Hotels.com for Tuesday, August 5 to Thursday, August 7, 2008.  Room rates for other leading online websites were checked.

InterContinental – The Clement, Monterey  

Hotels.com $239/night  (Best rate found) 

This upscale oceanfront property is just recently opened near the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Cannery Row and rates are still low and expected to climb about $100/night over the next year.         

Other searches for this hotel:

            Kayak.com= $299 (Orbitz); $324 (IHG)

            Expedia.com $239 (nonrefundable);

            Travelocity.com $324;

            IHG website (AAA rate) $299

            While Expedia has a rate $85 lower than the IHG hotel websites for the same room category, this is not an eligible price rate guarantee claim because the Expedia and hotels.com rates are nonrefundable, and the IHG rate can be cancelled up to 48 hours before arrival.

A Priority Club member should be able to earn 2,000 points for a hotel stay at an InterContinental brand and 2,000 to 8,000 bonus points from current promotions or buying an additional 4,000 points for a $20 higher rate.   Walking away with 10,000 Priority Club points may well be worth the extra $100 rate for some members.  But, hotels.com is a winner here for travelers not invested in Priority Club and seeking a new hotel in a great location at the best available rate.

Marriott Monterey

hotels.com $339/night

Kayak: $339 (Marriott, Orbitz); Expedia $339; Travelocity $339 

(Senior rate $288 on Marriott if you qualify, otherwise I found no other discount rates).  A look at Marriott offers on PointMaven shows I can receive a $25 gift card if I pay with American Express.

Hyatt Highlands Inn, a dreamy location on the cliffs of Carmel Highlands, but at this price???  Rates in the November to April season can drop to near $200/night.

Hotels.com $575/night; Kayak $575 (Hyatt); Expedia $575; Travelocity $575;

Hyatt.com AAA rate $535.50 (lowest rate found)

Clarion Carmel (There are much better options in Carmel for less money) 

            Hotels.com $200;  Kayak $171 (Clarion); Expedia $200; Travelocity $200

Hofsas House Hotel, Carmel (Great location, outdoor pool, several communal decks, rooms are basic.) 

Hotels.com $99  Kayak: $99 (hotelbook); Expedia $99; Travelocity $120

The budget traveler can stay in the Hofsas House with an outdoor pool and large decks with ocean views (beach is about 10 minute walk).  The hotel itself is nothing special, but the location is great and a pool is not that common for this area.  Earn much higher value loyalty credit with hotels.com WelcomeRewards for a stay at this hotel while paying the same price as other booking sites.

Tradewinds Carmel (upscale and independent hotel in great Carmel location)

            Hotels.com $325;  Kayak: (Orbitz) $325; Expedia $325; Travelocity $325;

            Tradewinds hotel website $325

The Tradewinds Carmel is an upscale independent hotel.  This hotel has Asian-design theme rooms, all mod cons and some rooms have one of the finer ocean views available in Carmel from a hotel.  And the price is less than the Marriott in downtown Monterey.

Properties like Hofsas House for the budget minded or the Tradewinds Carmel for the loyalty traveler seeking independence from another big hotel Marriott or ultra-expensive Hyatt is where the WelcomeRewards by hotels.com program shines for the frequent guest. 

WelcomeRewards provides the earning power towards another free hotel night you sometimes need when your primary hotel loyalty program is just not the best choice.  These properties in Carmel are well-situated for budgets of various sizes and the frequent guest will accumulate credit towards the 10 nights for a free night. 

And chances are you can find a free night at the Hyatt Highlands Inn just as the rate hovers around the $399/night mark and get great value out of your hotels.com WelcomeRewards frequent guest program.

The roll-out of the WelcomeRewards by hotels.com is a loyalty program that will very likely cause me to make my first ever booking with this online travel agency.

Online Hotel Reviews

Travelers place a lot of faith in consumer-generated hotel reviews. I trust FlyerTalk.com content because there is a large community of travelers who provide opinions and feedback on each other’s comments. Most major upscale hotels around the world have user comments and reviews from the 100,000+ members of the FlyerTalk.com community.

I believe the self-monitoring independent community of FlyerTalk.com provides more accurate hotel reviews than what is typically found on TripAdvisor.com, particularly when it comes to the experience for elite frequent guests in the major hotel loyalty programs.

Social Media Co-Opted by Corporate Media

The best social media websites with consumer generated comments and hotel reviews have been co-opted by corporate media. Social media websites where users generate the content for free has been a successful marketing partnership for major travel industry players. What in many cases started out as independent, organically developed networks of people creating content for free to help other travelers has developed into the current condition of the major global travel reservations corporations like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com owning social network sites like TripAdvisor.com and IgoUgo.com as corporate subsidiaries.

Meta-search engines like Kayak.com who own TravelPost.com, and bulletin boards like FlyerTalk.com and Cruisecritic.com are not sellers of travel, but make money on an advertising model based on travelers frequently interacting as a community creating new content.

Major Online Hotel Reviews and Their Parent Corporations

IgoUgo.com hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search engine = Travelocity.com (Parent Company)

TripAdvisor.com for hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search = Expedia.com (Parent company)

Hotels.com has a large database for hotel reviews. Hotels.com is also an Expedia company. Hotel guests must have booked stay with Hotels.com to post a review and most of the reviews do not have any written comments. A point scale survey on Hotel Service, Hotel Condition, Room Comfort, and Room Cleanliness are used to give the hotel a rating on a 5 point scale. This website offers a quick snapshot of customer satisfaction for hotel.

TravelPost.com for hotel reviews and Kayak is a meta-search = Kayak.com (Parent Company)

Orbitz.com generates its own database of user-generated hotel reviews based on hotel guests booking through Orbitz.com and responding via e-mail to a post-stay request for a hotel review.

Yahoo! Travel uses a couple of different hotel review databases. When conducting hotel searches through the Yahoo Travel homepage the results use Travelocity and the hotel reviews are the same as Travelocity. When using Yahoo Travel Guides or FareChase for hotel searches the hotel reviews are a different set.

“I Want to Believe” TripAdvisor

A recent article TripAdvisor Staying Ahead of the Pack from Compete.com, the web traffic analysis site, and a blog post by the same writer Ryan Carrigg “TripAdvisor Poised for Success”, shows the dominance of TripAdvisor.com for user-generated content in the online travel research sector. The article states “TripAdvisor.com averaged over 6 million US unique visitors” per month for the year from May 2007 to May 2008. The traffic on TripAdvisor.com has seen 34% growth from May 2007. A finding in this report states that 1.08% of users of TripAdvisor.com had posted content over the past year.  TripAdvisor has hotel reviews, restaurant comments, and general travel forums for destinations.

This TripAdvisor data had me wondering about the hotel review content on other popular websites. I have made a simple analysis of online hotel reviews from several common websites by counting the actual number of hotel reviews for a small sample of hotels in San Francisco.

TripAdvisor Hotel Reviews – What Percentage of Guests Write TripAdvisor Reviews?

(There are a number of unknown variables which makes this analysis a very rough estimate at best.) 

Le Meridien San Francisco TripAdvisor popularity index #14/238 hotels;

197 total hotel reviews; 38 reviews from 2008; 79 reviews in past 12 months;
oldest review from April 26, 2002 when hotel was a Park Hyatt.

360 rooms at Le Meridien San Francisco
Assume a rather low 50% average nightly occupancy or 180 rooms booked per night.
180 rooms x 365 nights = 65,700 room-nights.

65,700 room-nights / 79 hotel reviews = 832 room-nights per hotel review.
1 hotel review for every 832 room-nights could be as few as 1 hotel review per 832 hotel guests (if each guest only stayed 1 night) at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco.  Assume, on average each guest stays 2 nights and the ratio would increase to 1 hotel review per 416 guests. 

If hotel occupancy averaged 65% for the year, then the proportion of guests writing a review decreases. If more than one guest is in the room, then the proportion of hotel guests writing a review decreases.  There are lots of variables.

It seems to me that the actual range of guest hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.com is probably about 1 out of every 1,000 to 2,000 guests posts a hotel review for most major hotels.

360 rooms x .65 occupancy = 234 rooms/night are occupied.
234 rooms/night x 365 nights = 85,410 room-nights (some rooms will have more than one guest and some guests will stay more than one night)
85,410 room-nights/ 79 hotel reviews = 1,081 guest occupied rooms for every hotel review posted on TripAdvisor.com

1 hotel review is posted for every 1,081 guests at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco if the hotel averaged 65% occupancy over past year.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco is a larger hotel with 805 rooms. Assume 50% occupancy for past year.

TripAdvisor has 37 reviews in 2008 and 66 reviews from past year.

Several floors of this hotel were remodeled in past six months and a newly remodeled Regency Club lounge opened in March.

805 rooms x .50 occupancy = 403 rooms/night occupied.
403 rooms/night x 365 nights = 147,095 room nights (guests) in past year.
147,095 / 66 hotel reviews = 2,229 guests at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco for every 1 review posted on TripAdvisor.com.

Hotel reviews are one strategy for choosing a hotel. I typically look at TripAdvisor to get opinions when I have a couple of hotels to choose from in the same price range. Unfortunately, my elementary analysis of the data indicates that even with the high number of hotel reviews on
TripAdvisor.com there is still only about 1 guest review for every 1,000 guests in the good cases and may be as few as 1 review for every 2,000 guests for other hotels.

When I read a review I wonder what the other 1,999 guests thought of their hotel stay experience for that same property? This is why a site like FlyerTalk.com with the ability to respond to other people’s hotel comments or ask questions provides more consumer-user-friendly content than many of the reviews on the major sites like TripAdvisor.com. Hotel corporate representatives even respond at times on FlyerTalk.com threads about hotels.

Online Hotel Reviews By the Numbers

The data below shows TripAdvisor rules the online hotel review sites for the depth of consumer-generated hotel reviews.

Methodology:
Hotel Reviews for 8 hotels in San Francisco were searched on 6 leading websites including Expedia.com, Kayak.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, and Yahoo!Travel .com

1. The total number of hotel reviews for a hotel is given on each of the hotel review sites.

2. I counted the number of reviews posted in 2008 since recent reviews are generally most valid for a reader. For example, Travelpost.com listed the Crowne Plaza Union Square San Francisco as one of their top 5 hotels. The Crowne Plaza changed to Hotel 480 six months ago and is no longer part of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) hotel brands.

3. The number of reviews posted since July 1, 2007 was counted. This also shows the number of reviews older than one year. A popular site for submitting hotel reviews several years ago may have a high number of total hotel reviews, but a low number of recent reviews for hotel stays in the past year. This observation can be seen with Yahoo Travel Guides.

Consumer Written Hotel Reviews on Popular Websites
for a Selection of San Francisco Hotels

Le Meridien San Francisco, 360 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 38
Past year = 79
Total = 197

IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 2
Past year = 5
Total = 9

TravelPost(Kayak.com)
2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 18

Orbitz.com
2008 = 6
Past year = 8
Total = 11

Yahoo Travel Guides
2008 = 1
Past year = 4
Total = 12

Hotels.com
2008=122
Past Year = 191
Total = 223

Palace Hotel – The Luxury Collection (Starwood Hotels), 552 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)

2008 = 47
Past year = 83
Total = 211

Hotels .com (Expedia)

2008 = 85; 127 reviews in past year; 161 total reviews;

94% recommend; 4.5 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 4
Past year = 9
Total = 17

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 13

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 4
Total = 4

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 33

Westin St. Francis; 1,195 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 67
Past year = 128
Total = 463

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 13
Past year = 23
Total = 43

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 95

Orbitz.com

2008 = 18
Past year = 31
Total = 61

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 163

Hotels.com = 14 reviews in 2008; 28 reviews in past 12 months; 68 total reviews
Hilton San Francisco; 1,896 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 48
Past year = 110
Total = 232

Hotels.com (Expedia)

85 reviews in 2008; 200 reviews in past 12 months; 373 total reviews; 86% recommend; 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 11
Past year = 41
Total = 75

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 1
Total = 82

Orbitz.com

2008 = 7
Past year = 18
Total = 39

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 93

Hyatt Regency San Francisco; 805 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 37
Past year = 66
Total = 203

Hotels.com (Expedia)

39 reviews in 2008; 63 reviews in past 12 months; 91 total reviews;

93% recommend hotel; 4.3 average rating out of 5

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 6
Total = 11

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 93

Orbitz.com

2008 = 0
Past year = 8
Total = 20

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 4
Past year = 7
Total = 63

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, 685 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 44
Past year = 82
Total = 238

Hotels.com (Expedia)

26 reviews 2008; 54 reviews in past 12 months; 120 total reviews; 84% recommend, 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 3
Past year = 18
Total = 45

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 17

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 21
Total = 44

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 15
J.W. Marriott San Francisco, 337 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 19
Past year = 44
Total = 214
IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 3
Past year = 10
Total = 16

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 2
Total = 24

Orbitz.com

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 2

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 44

Hotels.com

5 reviews in 2008; 12 reviews in past year; 78 total reviews; 88% recommend; 4.2 average rating

Marriott San Francisco; 1,498 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 34
Past year = 75
Total = 206

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 13
Total = 30

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 10

Orbitz.com

2008 = 5
Past year = 6
Total = 17

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 2
Total = 36

Hotels.com (Expedia)

50 reviews in 2008; 97 reviews in past year; 138 total reviews; 90% recommend; 4.4 average rating
 

The advantage of Hotels.com is the large number of recent reviews and the display provides a quick snapshot of guest satisfaction.

Expedia is definitely the leader in the hotel review market as owner of the two largest databases in Tripadvisor.com and Hotels.com.

[Loyalty Traveler note: The text of this post was edited September 19, 2008 when I reviewed the piece for a new article about TripAdvisor.com and I realized I had incorrectly interpreted the data from Ryan Carrigg's post with respect to the number of hotel reviews posted to TripAdvisor.  I originally wrote that I estimated TripAdvisor had about 90,000 new hotel reviews in May 2008.  The 90,000 figure actually reflects any user-generated content posted to TripAdvisor.com for May 2008 and only a fraction of this content are hotel comments.  There were also errors in the assumptions used to estimate the proportion of hotel guests who post TripAdvisor reviews. 

The main idea to take away from this post is the dominance of TripAdvisor.com, hotels.com, and their parent company, Expedia.com, in the online hotel reviews market segment.] 

All the major hotel chains have a “Best Rates Guarantee” advertised on their websites. Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott, and Starwood all run ads on their websites stating the hotel guest need look no further than the corporate branded websites for the lowest online hotel rates.

And they are almost always correct in stating lower rates will not be found elsewhere (group rates like AAA, auction/bid sites and vacation packages are excluded from guarantee).

Hyatt Place Hotel, Fremont, California

Over the years I have tried to utilize the best rate guarantee with several hotel chains to no avail.

Three of the big five upscale hotel loyalty programs: Hilton, InterContinental, and Marriott have a precondition that is hard to justify for a hotel guest desiring the lowest hotel room rate.

The requirement states a reservation must be made with the hotel chain through a corporate-owned website (e.g. book a Marriott Courtyard through the Marriott Rewards website or book a Doubletree hotel on the Hilton Hotels website).

Only after you have booked your room, if you find a lower rate on a third party online travel agency site (like Expedia and Orbitz) for essentially the same room type then you can submit a request for a rate guarantee.  Special group rates like senior and AAA rates are excluded from rate guarantee claims.

Hyatt Place pool,  Fremont, California

I have tried several times over the years to get a rate guarantee and my claim has always been rejected. The room type wasn’t considered the same.   Or even more commonly I was told that I must first book the higher rate on the hotel-branded website and then I can submit a request for the best rate guarantee.

A gamble I won’t take is to pay $180 for a room and then wait to see if my rate guarantee applies when there is a $120 room on Orbitz or Expdia or Travelocity. I will just book the $120 room.

Hyatt Place HDTV image, Fremont, California

There is risk in trying to get a discount on a lower rate that you have found on an online travel agency.  There is too much risk in paying a $180 using the hotel branded website for making a reservation and then learn the competitor’s rate is considered ineligible for the Best Rates Guarantee.  This is why Starwood Preferred Guest and Hyatt Gold Passport have a competitive advantage in the hotel loyalty programs.

Hyatt and Starwood have the sensible “Best Rate Guarantee” policy of being able to submit your request to the hotel corporation prior to making your hotel booking.

Hyatt Place sign, Fremont, California

Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee Worked for a Last-Minute Rate Discount for Hyatt Place Fremont

This morning is the first time I have actually submitted a successful best rate guarantee.

FOr the past couple of weeks I have been trying to get my wife to come hang out in the Wine country and San Francisco this weekend and I waited until this morning to finalize my Hyatt “Stays Count Double” final hotel run. I checked all the rates again last night and there had been very little change in rates over the past three weeks.

Hyatt Place couch, Fremont, California

This morning I went to make my reservations and the Hyatt Place Fremont went from $89 AAA rate to $113 Hyatt.com rate as the lowest available for my dates. The best available rate had increased from $99 to $119 on the Hyatt website. I happened to look on Orbitz and Expedia and the rates were still $99 for the same room type and dates.

I called up the Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee number 1-888-964-9288 and informed them I had found a lower rate on Expedia and Orbitz. The agent placed me on hold for several minutes and then returned to state the $99 rate was also available through Hyatt and I could make the reservation with him.

Hyatt Place bed, Fremont, California

I asked the agent to hold while I rechecked and told him I still only saw the $119 rate on my computer and the $99 rate only shows as a government employee rate. He placed me back on hold for several more minutes and then came back to state I qualified for the Best Rate Guarantee and I could reserve the room at the Hyatt Place Fremont for $79.20 for my dates.

Hyatt Place minibar, Fremont, California

An email confirmation within minutes showing my reservation confirmation and the $79.20 rate and I am so pleased to have finally have a hotel chain honor the best rates guarantee BEFORE I booked the room.

Hyatt Place bath mirror, Fremont, California

Another positive note for Hyatt.

And 10 days after starting my “Stays Count Double” Hyatt elite status hotel run, my Platinum status is reflected in my profile and I have earned enough points for one free hotel night at the low end hotels.

Hotel Running is Quite a Workout !

Is there a Priceline Master in the House?

I am not a real doctor (PhD). I only have a Master of Science. That is why I work for consumers instead of pocketing the lucrative research paycheck from the hotel industry.

The doctor, Chris K. Anderson, Ph.D., at the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research has come out with a report advising hoteliers how to squeeze more pennies out of our consumer pockets. This time the research is aimed to maximize hotel profits from Priceline.

http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-14705.html

The report is available for free download upon registration with the center.

Loyalty Traveler has a few comments on the report.

Cornell Report Statistic:
60% of online hotel rooms are booked through hotel-branded websites (I assume this is what is meant by “supplier-managed” websites).

Loyalty Traveler view: Hotels have provided incentive for customer reservations through hotel-managed channels by offering exclusive loyalty program benefits. In other words, Hotel points and frequent guest member perks are only guaranteed when booking through hotel-managed websites. The hotel websites generally offer a better rate , although special offer rates are often hidden from view to the casual online reservationist of a hotel room.

Report Statistic: 40% of online hotel bookings are made through online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Priceline.

Loyalty Traveler View: Expedia and Travelocity and Orbitz are convenient. Priceline and other opaque sites like Hotwire.com generally offer the best discounts on room rates. A traveler has to weigh the factor of cost with the uncertainty of hotel location and brand. A frequent guest member does not earn hotel points and the reservation is likely to be booked in lowest category hotel room on property.

Priceline Bidding data:
A graph shows the number of bids in the two weeks prior to the date of arrival for the sample hotel. Data shows about 50% of all Priceline bids occurred in the 2 days before arrival.

The minimum acceptable Priceline bid for the hotel, within a one week period, ranged from mostly $55/night to $65 per night with one outlier night at $235/night.

An interesting chart is Exhibit 8, which if I have interpreted correctly, indicates that about 1 in 25 Priceline winning bids represented a 90% discount on commonly published rates for the hotel. And about 5% only got a 20% discount on the going room rate.

The vast majority of bid winners receive less than a 50% discount on the regular room rates. About 60% of winning Priceline bids received a 28%-36% discount on the room rate. Technically, the Priceline slogan “Save Up to Half Off” appropriately represents the Priceline reality. The Cornell graph shows about 10% of bidders received between 67% and 90% off the regular room rate.

The last time I used Priceline was for a night in Washington D.C., June 2007. I ended up with the Marriott Key Bridge, Arlington, VA for about $100 and the lowest available room rate through the Marriott site was $329 for that night.

My initial analysis of the Priceline tool provided for hotel managers seems to indicate some trends for consumers.

Consumers may find the most favorable room rates booking Priceline the day before or day of arrival. Booking at 10 to 14 days in advance of arrival may also provide the best opportunity for higher discounts. The Cornell Priceline tool appears to encourage hotels to not discount Priceline inventory rooms as deeply between 2 and 10days before arrival as a means to maximize profits.

An interesting analysis would be to compare the Cornell Priceline data with consumer bidding data from www.biddingfortravel.com to see if there is useful consumer information to be gleamed from the comparison.

Anyone planning to make a hotel bid through Priceline.com or Hotwire.com should check out www.biddingfortravel.com to see what successful bids are pricing out and then try and use that data with the knowledge that 10-14 days before arrival may provide the best opportunity for deep discounts on Priceline. And if you are desperate and lucky, the day before and day of arrival Priceline bids may save you enough cash to buy gas and pay for hotel parking.

The PointsWizard blog on BoardingArea.com had a link to this article detailing strategies for successful Priceline bidding.