A Fairfield Inn hotel stay generally does not warrant a hotel review. Fairfield Inn, along with extended stay brand TownePlace Suites are the lowest hotel market segment brands in Marriott International. These two brands are classified as Upper Midscale hotel brands according to STR Global U.S. chain scale ranking for hotel brands. This is the same market segment as Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Country Inn & Suites.

Two reasons I want to give Fairfield Inn Cherry Creek (Marriott Rewards category 3) a brief write-up.

The first reason is I have not stayed in a Fairfield Inn since my LatinPass 1,000,000 bonus miles mileage run days when I stayed at the brand in Miami the night before flying out to Bogota, Colombia back in the year 2000. I do not remember that hotel with fondness for the brand.

The second reason is this stay was a successful experience with Marriott’s Look No Further best rate guarantee for 25% off the lower rate found. I’ll briefly share how I seek out lower rates at online travel agencies while I am searching for hotels to get even bigger discount rates on my paid stays. Read More…

• Grand Hyatt Denver with a suite upgrade.
• Fairfield Inn Cherry Creek with a Look No Further 25% discount rate.
• Crowne Plaza Denver with a Best Price Guarantee free night.

After basking in the 80 degree sun of Monterey Bay with sea otters and sea lions on Friday, Feb 15, I had my hands freezing on the chilled steering wheel of a Toyota Corolla driving out of DIA, Denver International Airport 48 hours later on Sunday night. Despite the one-day hot spell in Monterey, the temperature this winter has been abnormally chilly in central coast California with overnight lows frequently in the 30s since December. I packed the right clothes for a high plains drifter spending time in cold weather Denver.

Southwest Airlines out of San Jose got us to Denver on time and we were on I-70 heading to the Grand Hyatt Downtown Denver before midnight. One interesting observation is the rental car rate offered at the time I booked my Southwest Airlines ticket was $90 from Payless for four days and that rate was comparable to the best rate I eventually found from FOX car rental at DIA.

Grand Hyatt Denver was part of my four night Denver hotel plan since the AAA rate was $89 last Sunday night for a downtown Denver hotel. Rates went over $200 per night for Monday and the hotel was sold out for Tuesday during the weekdays when a banking conference was in town. I had a Diamond member suite upgrade to burn before expiration at the end of February. Read More…

Starwood Hotels promotion for one free resort night after three stays ended yesterday. I stayed in three Starwood hotels in the Denver area during the Brokeass Tour of the West and earned one free resort night. There are eight Starwood Hotels in the Denver area, but only two hotels, Westin Denver Downtown and Sheraton Denver Downtown, are actually in the Denver city limits. The other six hotels are located in the suburbs of Denver.

Element Denver Park Meadows – Lone Tree (southeast Denver just off Interstate 25 south of the Denver Tech Center area).

Weekend Room Rate = $80 (AAA) King bed studio.

Element is Starwood’s extended stay brand where each room comes with kitchen facilities and a couch. These hotels also offer complimentary breakfast.

This was the second Element hotel I have stayed. This is the first hotel I have ever stayed that didn’t have a parking entrance directly to the hotel. You have to drive through a shopping mall or across a fitness center parking lot to reach the hotel.

The indoor pool was the only thing different about this hotel compared to the Las Vegas Element. I was kind of surprised to see a group playing Wii in the lobby of the hotel near midnight with a Costco-size bottle of alcohol on the counter fueling the activity. Our room was far enough away from the lobby for the noise factor to not be an issue.

Walking into the room revealed an identical room design to the Las Vegas Element hotel room where we stayed two years ago. I am growing increasingly bored with cookie-cutter hotel brands like Aloft, Element, and Hyatt Place where you need to look out the window to remember where you are located.

Las Vegas Element refrigerator-dishwasher

The photos here are from the Las Vegas Element, but the room was identical to the Element Denver layout.

Element desk and flat screen tv

Element sitting area in studio suite

Element shower has two shower heads and refillable soap and shampoo.

Sheraton Denver West – Lakewood, Colorado.

Room Rate = $76 AAA breakfast rate Traditional room King Bed.

This is my favorite Starwood hotel in the Denver area. This property is located just off US-6, the same lonely highway we drove across central Nevada. The hotel has easy freeway access and is located in a good location for heading west on I-70 into the Rocky Mountains for places like Golden and high mountain towns and resorts.

We had a large 12th floor Club Lounge corner room. The hotel has an indoor pool, Sheraton lobby computer center, restaurant, bar and free parking.

Sheraton Denver West mountain view

Westin Westminster on the road to Boulder was a hotel with a huge AAA discount dropping the rate from $139 to $109.

This is a beautiful hotel in a planned entertainment and sports park complex. This place is total suburbia with restaurants, theaters, bars, an ice skate rink, ball parks and bike paths all right outside the door. The rates tend to be high here so $109 seemed like a bargain. I could have even had a Best Rate Guarantee for $97 on the night I chose to go to the Element. In retrospect I should have gone with the BRG claim for Westminster rather than the Element.

This hotel does not have a club lounge and I think the standard rooms are small. The location is a nice feature of this hotel and there always seems to be somthing happening here. This seems like the kind of hotel where it is easy to meet people. The indoor pool is okay, but the hot tub outside is a bit more fun.

Westin Westminster/Denver fountain lake

Lobby Westin Westminster, Colorado.

Three Starwood stays in Denver for $265 earned a free resort night. Our St. Regis Aspen resort stay a couple nights later saved over $500 or 20,000 points on the lowest available rate. I think Aspen is severely overpriced, but all in all we paid $265 for four hotel nights in Denver and Aspen so I guess that is an overall great value with Starwood hotels for the Brokeass Mountain Tour.

Brokeass Mountain Road Trip, July 2011

Monterey, California – Denver, Colorado

• Yosemite’s Tioga Pass Road across the Sierra Nevada Mountains
• Westin Monache Resort Mammoth for year round vacations
• Even Lonelier than the Loneliest Road in America
• Earth’s Oldest Trees in Great Basin National Park Nevada
• Less extreme than 127 Hours in Utah
• Brokeass Mountain Tour eastbound – Hotel Value at High Elevation
• Brokeass Mountain Tour visits Starwood in Denver
• Driving by the 14ers South Park to Aspen, Colorado
• Top of the Rockies on the High Road to Aspen – Independence Pass 12,095 feet.
• St. Regis Aspen – Too Late to Cancel
• Aspen, Colorado to Park City, Utah: Ghost lands of Buffalo Soldiers, Utes and Dinosaurs
• The California Trail across Nevada
• Homeward Bound – Carson Pass Highway 88 over the Sierra Nevada to Monterey

This holiday season has revealed some incredible rock bottom bargain rates for hotels. The city of Denver has special Mile High Holidays promotional rates for over 40 Denver area hotels starting at $52.80 per night. Link to Mile High Holidays hotel list.

Participating hotels offer the low rates for the month of December and some hotels extend the rate discount into January.

The hotels shown here are just a sample of the hotels listed offering discount rates. These are hotels where I easily found the rate the first dates I searched and the rate was offered through the hotel chain’s own website for loyalty credit eligibility.

$52.80 rates

Marriott brands

Denver Marriott City Center $52.80

Marriott Courtyard Denver Stapleton (thru January 6)

Marriott Courtyard Denver Tech Center

Marriott Courtyard Denver Downtown

Ritz-Carlton Denver $152.80 Fridays and Saturdays

Starwood Hotels

Aloft Denver Airport (Starwood) $52.80 Thursday – Sunday stays December and January

Westin Tabor $105.60 (includes breakfast for two).

There are many other hotels listed for this special. Finding the discount rate was more challenging for other Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG properties I searched. All the major chains had some properties with rates under $99/night.

While Denver has a city-wide organized campaign for hotel rate discounts, there are also special super-discount hotel deals in other locations:

Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco $49 room rates for San Francisco 49ers home game dates: December 14 and 27.

Have you seen super disount rates in other locations?

Marriott Denver Downtown

Hyatt Regency, Denver – lobby

“Now his life is full of wonder
but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down
to bring in a couple more
More people,
more scars upon the land”

-John Denver

Pim and Colorado aligned for a wired less eclipse this past week. Pim is my 10-month old kitten. Colorado is the state. My computer died and the timing was Thursday evening 48 hours before a trip out of state.

An alignment of place and time left me in a brief internet blackout coincidental to this week’s lunar eclipse. The place was Colorado for a 5-day trip. Amazing growth has occurred throughout Denver in the past ten years. The housing tracts are approaching the airport periphery, although the nearest hotels are still miles away from the terminals.

The AC cord had been faulty on my computer for a month and I delayed purchasing a new one since I wasn’t sure if the cord was faulty or something else internal. I now have a new AC cord and a working computer.

Pim is the prime suspect for my computer eclipse. Pim is our adopted kitten, found lost in the street at about 3 weeks old last May. Pim initially fit in the palm of my hand. I typed for a month with the fingers of my right hand while cradling Pim in my left hand for much of the day. When restless and wandering off my lap, Pim frequently came to rest behind the computer where he slept, warmed by the computer fan. And when Pim was falling asleep he tended to play with the computer AC cord.

The computer went dead Thursday afternoon, 48 hours before heading to Colorado. I spent hours transferring files to a backup computer. I forgot the wireless card software.

A piece will appear this weekend on Hilton Pointstretcher awards and their airline miles-to-HHonors points opportunity. For the most part, I remained relatively unconnected to the internet and physically connected to family. Although, there were some business activities.

Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only a Frequent Guest Blogger

Tuesday, I checked out several hotels in the Denver Central Business District. I looked around the Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and Hotel Monaco (Kimpton Hotels).

The Hyatt Regency has rooms with gorgeous views of the Rockies and the LODO district of Denver. Lounge on 35th floor provides a great western view of city. A visitor can have a 27th floor dining experience. The restaurant is primarily evening hours service. The Hyatt Regency is the closest hotel to the Denver Convention Center.

I was approached by Marriott Denver hotel security after spending time wandering around the lobby and cafes. My suspicious activity was taking pictures of hotel signs, menus, the lobbies, and hotel maps. The photos are for my websites and memory joggers for my hotel research.

The security officer accepted my business card. I’m a legitimate small business entrepreneur creating public consumer information. Hotel visits are part of my sightseeing plan wherever I go. Real travel is part of my knowledge base to add contextual details to my writing on hotel loyalty programs and how to get good hotel rates through careful navigation of hotel web sites.

I congratulated the Marriott security team on being observant.

Hotel security is certainly a consideration when I travel internationally. One of the primary reasons I like upscale hotels in the major hotel corporate chains is the presence of security in the form of employees, lighting, locks, and video surveillance. I was serious in thanking the Marriott security personnel for questioning me.

I feel more secure sleeping in a Sheraton in Bangkok, a Hilton in Belfast, or a Best Western in Guayaquil, Ecuador with an armed escort to the taxi on the street.

Denver Boutique Luxury

The Hotel Monaco, a Kimpton Hotel, is on the block between the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton. Boutique luxury is an apt descriptor. TripAdvisor ranks Hotel Monaco #1 in Denver. The lobby is charming and cozy, while the hotel is located in the heart of downtown. The location and ambience had a welcoming feeling. There is an Aveda shop at the entrance of the hotel.

Hotel Monaco, Denver – lobby

“Added Value” Frequent Guest Loyalty Programs

Kimpton Hotels are some of the most popular hotels in San Francisco. Many of the boutique and independent hotel associations such as Fairmont, Mandarin Oriental, or Leading Hotels of the World operate loyalty programs offering frequent guests added amenities and room upgrades with paid stays. These are what I call “Added Value” frequent guest programs.

The primary feature of Added Value programs is recognition of elite status and associated privileges by the frequency of paid stays. There are no points involved. Basically, the going rate at a luxury boutique hotel may be $300/night and you may get a $150 added value in room upgrades and/or amenities like complimentary breakfast, wine, spa packages, dining packages, and more as a frequent guest perk.

Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Priority Club, and Starwood operate hotel points loyalty programs which allow any member to accumulate points redeemable for free hotel nights, upgrades, and additional items and services. Hotel points may be earned without ever actually staying at a hotel.

Hilton HHonors provides members multiple avenues for earning hotel points:

• purchases made with a Hilton HHonors co-branded credit card earning HHonors points,
• the transfer of loyalty points from a variety of programs into HHonors points,
• the ability to purchase HHonors points
• the option to exchange airline miles into HHonors points
• Hotel stay activity
• Business Partner activities earning HHonors points

The exchangeability of hotel points to hotel nights, amenities, services, airline miles, and additional items makes Hotel Points frequent guest programs more versatile than Added Value frequent guest programs.

In addition to hotel points, elite status frequent guest members generally earn regular room upgrades and additional amenities in the major hotel points frequent guest programs.