I have to face the fact that I do not like staying at the St. Regis San Francisco. The hotel has many endearing qualities like a fantastic bed and linens, great bathtub, a large fitness center and pool. There is even a yoga room.

But I get a bad vibe every time I stay at this hotel.

In December I stayed two nights at the St. Regis San Francisco courtesy of the SPG American Express Amex Stars blogger outreach program I was invited to participate in for 2012.

Luxury hotel stays are aspirational for some travelers. After taking advantage of free hotel stays with SPG Amex Stars to visit St. Regis Princeville Kauai, St. Regis San Francisco and St. Regis Bal Harbour (Miami Beach), I have developed the opinion that I love luxury class hotel rooms, but I do not like the luxury hotel environment. The cost of nearly everything at a luxury hotel is more than I care to spend. And the commonly free items at hotels like ice and coffee can set you back $5 to $10 an order throughout your stay.

Even worse for me than the high prices at large luxury hotels are the multitude of staff. The staff members are almost always kind and engaging. There are frequently more staff than guests walking around when I am at a St. Regis. It is kind of like being in a beautiful office building. Most of the people around are employees. And all the greetings from a staff member require a reciprocal response from me. Isn’t it rude not to return a greeting?

St. Regis San Francisco Read More…

Hotel review site Oyster.com now has a new travel companion after Travel Channel buys a $5.7 million stake in the 2009 travel site start-up. Oyster.com hotel review site gets one concept across to consumers that actual hotels just don’t seem to get – numerous photos of the hotel property and room types. This is my favorite feature of Oyster.com and why I have returned to this site over the past two years as it has grown its library of hotels and hotel room images.

I look up the St. Regis San Francisco on Oyster.com and I find 337 high-quality photos of the hotel, urban surroundings, restaurants, lobby, room types and the kind of visual information lacking from most hotel property websites. I go to the St. Regis San Francisco hotel website and I find only 32 photos.

Oyster.com even has a section called photo-fakeouts to reveal the hotel website image discrepancy from an image taken by an Oyster.com reviewer.

Here is my example of a photo-fakeout from St. Regis San Francisco.

One of the photos is not even a real photo of Yerba Buena Terrace.

St. Regis SF website terrace photo

The Westin San Francisco Market Street Hotel white skyscraper would be towering in the San Francisco background if it were a true photograph from Yerba Buena Terrace.  

Actual Loyalty Traveler photo from Yerba Buena Terrace

St. Regis San Francisco website has three photos of a standard superior guest room. Oyster.com has 86 photos of the superior room.

St. Regis San Francisco website has one photo of an Astor Suite. Oyster.com has 39 photos of an Astor Suite.

St. Regis San Francisco website has one photo of a Metropolitan Suite. Oyster.com has 31 photos of a Metropolitan Suite.

I am baffled that the St. Regis San Francisco does not have more images of the Astor Suite selling at $900 for the night of June 15, 2011 or the $1,200 Metropolitan Suites. Here is my HD review Part One of the St. Regis San Francisco detailing a corner room upgrade from a June 2009 hotel stay. Part Two details the aspects of the St. Regis hotel that I did not like.

Oyster.com rates St. Regis San Francisco as the best luxury property in the city. I loved the beds and bedding.

I realize now I should do another Loyalty Traveler post on the St. Regis San Francisco to show more of my 400 or so images I photographed during three stays at the hotel in 2009 including two nights in a Metropolitan Suite. The hotel rooms and facilities are luxury living and I enjoyed the rooms, particularly the wide marble sills around the room allowing me to peer down and across the city from a large window seat.

Wide window ledge in St. Regis San Francisco Metropolitan Suite

The St. Regis San Francisco hotel Metropolitan Suite hovering over the corner of Mission and Third Street had a lovely urban architectural view.

St Regis San Francisco room view of other major hotels

This is a pretty picture, however, this image is unlikely to be seen on the St. Regis San Francisco hotel’s website since the photo shows three skyscrapers that from left to right are the massive Marriott Marquis hotel, Four Seasons hotel and the Westin San Francisco Market Street Hotel.

Traveler Tip for San Francisco:

Marriott Marquis San Francisco has The View Lounge, a bar-lounge on the 39^th floor offering some of the best 360-degree views in San Francisco. Here are two short YouTube videos I posted in July 2009 showing the views from the View Lounge looking south-east and west to north. This is a nice place to blow $20 or $30. Grand Hyatt San Francisco Grandviews Bar-Restaurant (36^th floor) is another good location for drinks or fine dining with a view.

Oyster.com Suffers from Limited Hotel Coverage

Oyster.com has the limitation of only providing hotel reviews for eight major cities in the U.S. and seven resort destinations in the Caribbean islands and Hawaii. Areas covered include hotels around Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington DC. Beach locales include Aruba, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Jamaica and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The company has tackled destinations in a sensible way by building on the largest domestic travel markets. The site does a good job at covering a large number of hotels for each of the different cities listed. Hotels are categorized  to capture the ambience of experiential objectives travelers seek in hotel stays like Best Happy Hour or Most Romantic Hotels. Hotel review subjective ratings on quality and amenities are backed with written and photographic evidence.

Oyster.com sample of New York City website categories for hotel types

My Loyalty Traveler take on Oyster.com is if you want to “see” the hotel before you book, then Oyster.com provides a valuable resource for checking out hotels and different types of hotel rooms. Oyster.com fills the gap hotels leave open in their overall poor job of displaying their own images for the public to see.

I imagine Travel Channel financial backing will improve the Oyster.com hotel reviews photo library with video imagery. I am glad to see Oyster.com shows potential for continued growth in the hotel review sector of the travel marketplace. Whenever I check out a hotel review on Oyster.com I feel the urge to upgrade my camera!

I am not much of a tech person which is why I found an article from HotelWorldNetwork.com useful for explaining why hotel HDTVs usually have crappy reception. “Guests expect high definition on new TVs”

One of the frequent criticisms I have made over the past year is the lousy TV reception on the 46” HDTVs I see in so many hotel rooms. Apparently the cost to update the TV signal is much higher for a hotel than a residential unit and when a regular signal is fed to an HDTV the picture is generally worse than an older box TV. I find it absolutely annoying when I am sitting in an upper upscale hotel room and the  picture image on the huge, flatscreen HDTV is worse than my 12-year old 32” box TV at home.

I estimate about 90% of the hotels I have stayed in this past year had flat screen HDTVs, and most were 42-inch or larger. I estimate fewer than 50% had any HD channels, only about 25% had good picture quality on most of the available channels, and just a few had more than 5 channels with HD reception. Several of the hotel room TVs this past month had reception which was reminiscent of TV top antenna days from the 70s.

Apparently there is a piracy issue with having the HD box in the hotel room. And the expense for the electronics to manage a hotel HD system is an investment not readily manageable for the time being in this economic climate.

The St. Regis San Francisco has a good alternative. The DVD player connection to the large HDTV allows the guest to watch movies rather than TV channels.

Perhaps I better enroll in NetFlix for the next couple of years of hotel travel until the HDTV upgrades are commonplace.

Digital TV channel at Westin San Francisco Airport

SPG Gold and Platinum member registration opened today for two SPG elite fast-track promotions. Apparently some non-elite members are also eligible for Double Stays/Nights. An eligible elite member may only choose one of the two offers.  SPG Promo link is found at www.SPG.com/promos for eligible members. If you are not currently SPG Gold or Platinum, then give it a shot anyway.

Important Note: These promotions are mutually exclusive. You can only choose one of these two promotion offers as a Platinum member and the choice can’t be changed.

SPG Double Nights/Stays for 2009 FAQ link (SPG Gold, Platinum, and selected Preferred members)

SPG Nights/Stays Advance to 2010 FAQ link (SPG Platinum members only)

Double Nights/Stays Elite Fast-Track Promotion September 15 to December 15.

All paid nights and stays from September 15 through December 15, 2009 will count double for elite status qualification in 2009. Gold elite requires 10 stays or 25 nights in 2009 to re-earn SPG elite member status through February 2011. Platinum elite requires 25 stays or 50 nights.

Assume a current SPG Gold member has 4 stays with 9 nights. With this promotion the member needs just 3 more stays (counts as 6 stays) during the double stays promotion period to reach 10 stays for the 2009 year. The member will requalify for SPG Gold elite through February 2011.

Alternatively, the Gold Member needs 8 nights (counts as 16 nights) to re-earn Gold Elite for 2010 with 25 nights.

This SPG Gold member can hotel hop three 1-night stays or take one 8-night vacation to maintain elite status.

Upgrade your elite status to Platinum

Platinum elite for 2010 requires either 25 stays or 50 nights in 2009. The member above sitting with just 4 stays and 9 nights in 2009 would need 21 more stays or 41 more nights for upgrading from Gold elite to Platinum.

Double Stays reduces this qualification requirement from 21 stays to 11 paid stays or 41 nights to 21 paid nights with the Nights Count Double promotion. That still might be a hard threshold to reach for many travelers struggling this year with jobs and finances.  Keep in mind that Thanksgiving and the first two weeks of December are among the lowest hotel rate weeks of the year in many locations around the USA.

Important Note: No retroactive credit for double stays or nights prior to registration. 

You want to sign up before your next Starwood Hotel stay if choosing the double nights/stays option. The registration period is open through November 30, but remember this important detail: NO RETROACTIVE CREDIT for Double Nights/Stays.  If you stay September 20, but haven’t yet registered for this promotion choice, then the night and stay will not be doubled.

Elite Fast-Track Promotion Choice #2 for current SPG Platinum Members:

Nights/Stays Advance for 2010 Elite Qualification

All nights/stays earned from October 1 through December 31 count for 2009 elite qualification and rollover into a Nights/Stays Advance for 2010 elite qualification. This promotion is retroactive. As long as you sign up for Nights/Stays Advance by November 30, then all eligible stays/nights from October 1 will be counted and advanced to 2010 elite status.

This offer is a great deal for travelers who expect to still be traveling in 2010 and 2011. This is what I chose because I am already poised to reach Platinum requalification in 2009.

Example of how advance nights/stays works:

Assume a current Platinum member has 15 stays, 32 nights in 2009.

The member needs either 10 stays or 18 nights to re-earn Platinum elite for 2010.

If the Platinum member registers for advance nights/stays, and completes 10 stays with 16 nights during the final three months of 2009, the numbers look like this:

15 stays (Jan 1-Sep 30) + 10 stays (Oct. 1 – Dec 31) = 25 stays in 2009

Requalify for 2010 Platinum elite membership.

The member advances the 10 stays from October 1 – December 31, 2009 to 2010 elite qualification credit. (SPG states advance credit will be posted by January 31, 2010.) The SPG Platinum Member will only need 15 stays during 2010 to requalify for 2011 Platinum elite with 25 stays.

Counting nights the Platinum member has 32 nights (Jan 1-Sep 30) + 16 nights (Oct. 1 – Dec 31). The member finishes 2009 with 48 nights which does not meet the Platinum requalification level. This does not matter if the member requalified with 25 stays. The nights still advance to 2010.

The SPG Platinum member will start 2010 with 16 nights and 10 stays.

This sample member will have already requalified by the end of 2009 for 2011 SPG Gold elite with the 10 stays advance. Platinum requalification for 2011 will take either 34 nights or 15 stays in 2010. And remember this fact: SPG has offered double stays/nights promotion during some period every year for many years.

This is a good marketing move for Starwood Hotels to get more cash from this Loyalty Traveler in 2009. I was ready to move more business to Hyatt, IHG, and Hilton for the remainder of 2009. Sorry Marriott, I still feel your elite membership requirements are too high (Platinum = 75 nights), but I am recommending your Courtyard in Hadley for a friend visiting Northampton, Mass next month.

Quick comments and advice:

The Nights/Stays Advance choice can position the current SPG Platinum elite member for elite membership in 2010 and 2011. This is an excellent time to bump up your travel during the relatively low room rate months of November and December for many locations. This is also a good choice for someone who thinks 2010 might be reduced travel. You can reduce the hotel stays required for elite requalification in 2010 and still maintain SPG Platinum elite membership.

My advice to anyone who believes they can manage at least 13 stays or 25 nights in Starwood Hotels in 2010 is go for Platinum elite membership and use the Nights/Stays count double promotion if that makes the difference between retaining Gold or advancing to Platinum elite.

One constant I try to maintain in my annual hotel travel is SPG Platinum elite. I feel the investment in Starwood has provided good value in my hotel stays with the 500 points platinum amenity for most stays (250 points Four Points, aloft, element) , the complimentary room upgrades, and the annual gift (for 2009 this was a free night  up to Category 5 hotel).

Go with Double Nights/Stays if that will allow you to reach or maintain Platinum elite during the September 15-December 15 promotion period. You will maintain Platinum elite through February 2011. You will hopefully reap some nice benefits and value from 2010 Starwood stays.

Based on the history of SPG promotions there will probably be another double stays/nights promotion in 2010.

And the game goes on.

FlyerTalk thread on SPG Nights Count Double/Advance Nights promotions.

St. Regis San Francisco Metropolitan Suite (Free Weekend Nights promo)

This is a San Francisco view from room 1108 Metropolitan Suite St. Regis taken Labor Day (Sep 7, 2009) at 6:13am on the corner of 3rd and Mission in San Francisco.  The roof tops of four major hotels are pictured under the past-full moon at dawn. From left to right are San Francisco Marriott on 4th Street, Hilton San Francisco (white tower in far background, 333 O’Farrell St), Four Seasons Hotel and Residences (Market St), and the Westin Market Street Hotel located on 3rd Street.

These four hotels alone have over 4,300 rooms and each hotel from upper floor locations offer some of the best high-rise urban landscape views in the city of San Francisco.

St. Regis view of San Francisco hotels at dawn

The little nuisances of travel purchases and loyalty programs rear their ugly heads when it comes time to cancel, change, or follow-up on missing credit, points, miles, and refunds.

I know some of you out there must be like me and blow off  some miles, points, or cash now and then just because it is too time consuming to track down the travel details and receipts to seek a fair solution.

As consumers we play with a double-edged sword on the travel field. We have an expectation that we will receive benefits automatically and we trust our points and miles will post correctly without our intervention. The sharper edge of travel is when we need personalized attention and just want a rational response to exigent circumstances that require a change of travel plans.

All too often we then face the travel rule book known as the “terms and conditions” or “fare rules”. Bending the rules in favor of customer service can be a daunting journey for the traveler consumer.

I have loads of travel issues going on currently that many other travelers face at some time or another.

Trip Cancellations

First on my travel woes is canceling our sub-$500 V Australia tickets to Sydney, Australia next month.

Last October I landed the incredible fare launch with V Australia, the new low-cost airline for Australia and the USA. The deal was a $185 fare + $300 tax for a $485 roundtrip ticket Los Angeles – Sydney, Australia for two weeks in July.

After calling to check my ticket options I was informed that I can have a whopping $97 credit on my ticket or rebook for a change fee of $100, but the trip has to begin by October 2009. The young woman at V Australia told me it was 4am in Australia and perhaps a supervisor can provide more assistance if I call back in another five hours.

I’m pulling the cancer card and hoping to get some relief. After missing a half year of work for cancer treatment scheduled to end in September, my wife will not be excused from her classroom to use her $500 ticket to Australia for a much needed vacation in October. The Sheraton Noosa and Noosa Beach must be grand in October. I’ll have to be a sweet talker to work this one out.

Cancellation Fees

Starwood Preferred Guest free weekend nights are supposed to be about planning that dream night in a favorite city. Well, I had no problem making a reservation at the lovely St. Regis San Francisco using one of my free nights earned last month (I am currently at 7 free nights).

The lowest room rate currently listed for the St. Regis San Francisco comes in at $397 all-in per night for a AAA rate Superior room. On the other rate extreme is $1,017 all-in per night for a high floor Metropolitan Suite.

So here is the part of the dream hotel stay that gives me a cold sweat. The cancellation penalty is a stellar $649 for the night if I no-show for the hotel.

Is there tax added to that?

I can imagine a San Francisco car crash (it seems I narrowly avoid one every drive into the city) and telling the ambulance driver – “Please stop off at the St. Regis so I can check-in, and then take me to the hospital.”

Missing Points

After 16 nights in Starwood Hotels in May 2009 I went through my points earned. The new Starwood Preferred Guest activity listing specifying hotel name and points earned or redeemed certainly is an improvement for the member tracking hotel activity.

I was missing about 8,000 points from 5 different hotel stays in May.

I probably spent close to 30 minutes with the Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum desk agents. I am confident the points will post over the next week, but tracking down points and miles is just another chore that is an inherent task in maintaining a loyalty program account.

Overcharges – Last week I paid $58 for parking at the Burlingame Parking Center for a week. That is an incredible deal for parking at San Francisco Airport. My issue was that this great deal was actually advertised as $40 per week on the sign at the parking lot entrance. The entire lot is automated so I could not complain about the overcharge when I paid the fee with my credit card.

At home I call the number on the parking lot receipt. The number is the parking lot ticketing machine company and they are simply equipment suppliers. I look up Burlingame Parking on the web. The contact number does not work as a functioning business number. The message just loops and never connects to a person.

I call the website number listed for persons needing after-hours parking lot pick-up service. I am surprised to reach the front desk of the Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport. I guess Burlingame Parking is owned by the hotel owners. I explain that I have been overcharged and she connects me with a hotel accountant. Supposedly I will receive a credit to my credit card. 

Something else I need to follow-up on and verify next month. 

(Update: the credit posted on my card within one day of my call.)

OMG – I am Passport-less

My passport expired two weeks ago. I am trapped in the USA.

Trying to get an appointment at the San Francisco Passport Agency, but the process requires having a ticket for a trip out of the country within 14 days.

The passport renewal fee is $75 whether by mail or in person at an agency.

There is a $60 expedite fee for mail-in applications for passports and this speeds up the process from 4 to 6 weeks down to 2 to 3 weeks.

Alternatively, there is only a $25 fee to get a same-day passport at a U.S. Passport Agency.

I have a feeling I won’t be canceling that July 2009 travel V Australia ticket just yet.

Noosa Beach, Queensland, Australia

The St. Regis San Francisco has about 200 hotel guest rooms up to Floor 20 and 103 residences from Floor 22 to 40.

The Penthouse Residence is on the market and has seen a price drop of $21,000,000 in the past six months from $70 million to $49 million.

The 50% rack rate of $295 for a basic St. Regis San Francisco room sounds like a bargain. 

A $1,000 night suite for 40 years would cost under $14M. 

http://www.sothebyshomes.com/norcal/sales/0083990

St. Regis San Francisco tall skyscraper on right, left skyscraper is 43-story Paramount Building luxury apartments, view from 33rd floor Westin Market Street Hotel across Third Street.

The bottom line for the hotel traveler is “How much will my room cost?”

I read a post on *Wood blog about the Mobil Five-Star Award conferred upon the St. Regis San Francisco recently.  I then noticed yesterday the lowest rates I’ve ever seen for the St. Regis San Francisco. 

St. Regis San Francisco, Metropolitan Suite

A spreadsheet I made in August 2007 for hotel rates in San Francisco allowed me to make a comparison to current hotel rates and illustrate the impact of the current economy on the high end hotel market.

San Francisco hotel rates are typically lower during holidays due to the central business district location of most major hotels.  Labor Day weekend rates in 2007 were near the low rates for the entire year from my observations of hotel rates in San Francisco.  There is a certain amount of rate fluctuation due to seasonal rate adjustments with February being near the lowest rate month for San Francisco, however, rate decreases year round are typically tempered by frequent conventions and conferences in the city.

I made a comparison of rates for same hotels for February 13-16, 2009 with the Friday-Monday Labor Day 2007 weekend. Rates for several high-end Starwood hotels were checked on August 22, 2007 for the 3-day Labor Day weekend Friday, August 31-Monday, September 3, 2007.  Several rate types were checked including group rates like AAA and senior rates, hotel special offer rates, and Starwood multi-night discount rates. 

In general, the lowest rates for the Valentine’s weekend 2009 are typically found using Starwood Hotels special rate offer for the Third Night Free on a weekend stay. 

St. Regis did not offer the 3^rd Night free rate for 2007 stay.  Rates shown for 2007 were either nonrefundable internet rates or hotel special offer rates. Rates are generally 30%+ lower in 2009.

Peculiar Starwood clause in the room description for a Fantastic Suite: “700 Square ft, Floors 23-28, unobstructed views, No Parties or Meetings Allowed!”  Rates are about 30% lower in 2009.

Palace Hotel courtyard restaurant, San Francisco

The Palace Hotel has dropped rates near to 2006 levels when the hotel was still going for as low as $99 on slow weekends.  2007 and 2008 rates hovered around $200 for the lowest category rooms.

The $159 rate for a Junior Suite is quite a discount on average rates at the Palace over past two years.  Rates are generally 30% to 50% lower in 2009.

Le Meridien room category types have changed so much in the room descriptions that I can’t easily match room descriptions now with descriptions from 2007.  

There was an analyst in Salt Lake City on CNBC this morning, Jan 11, 7:10am (PST). He was predicting a 16,000-20,000 point DOW by year end 2008. He also says all the sales numbers look good for consumer spending. I bring this up because I was just reading the Jan 11, New York Times article by Michael Barbaro, “Poor December at Retailers; Most Report Drops in Sales”.

Target Stores sales dropped 5% in December 2007 compared to what was sold in December 2006. Nordstrom dropped 4%, Kohl’s dropped 11.4%. Only WalMart raised sales over 2006 levels by 2.7%. The size of WalMart helped raise sales nationwide almost 1%.
Yet, the good retail news was electronics sales increased 2.2% in December.

I know from my experience that when money looked to be getting tight (bills are more than income for foreseeable future), I always made sure we updated the TV or computer electronics to make the increased time spent at home more pleasurable.

TVs and Computers and Video Games keep a poor population occupied. We are quite isolated in our society. Travel is one of the great activities of socializing in America.

One TV analyst this morning was saying the country is great.

When I am at Costco and I see all the $1,900 HDTVs driving out of the parking lot, I tend to agree that Americans are doing well. At the same time, people in clothing retail are watching their livelihoods suffer while the electronics store employees are in the high frequency sales. In 2008, technology improves too rapidly for anyone to desire used electronics, whereas, some of the best clothes values are well-made used clothes with minimal wear.

I read an article yesterday suggesting that as hotel rates increase 5%+ over 2008 while room occupancy declines, the rate increases will primarily target business and conference guests. In my opinion, the trend I see here in San Francisco is one of rapidly increasing hotel rates during high business activity days. Rates can easily be $300 to $400 per night at most of the 4-diamond hotels in San Francisco during a conference period. In October, I went to the dentist and the hygienist told me she had been at the Dental Conference in San Francisco the week before. That explained why all the rates were $300 minimum at all the major hotels when I was trying to book a room.

The good news for the leisure traveler is that for at least 12 nights from November 15 to December 30, 2007, hotel rates in San Francisco at the major 4-diamond and 5-diamond hotels were the lowest or close to the lowest rates in the past three years at several downtown city Starwood hotels. Le Meridien San Francisco and Westin Market had $129 rates. Westin St. Francis had $99 rates. St. Regis San Francisco was available for under $300 per night. Other hotel chains also had lower than average rates during the November-December season.
San Francisco is in the top 5 markets in the world for the number of occupied hotel rooms at major upscale and luxury hotels. I wonder if the room rate trend in 2008 will continue to be a rate hike focused on business travelers on expense budgets with periodic significant rate discounts available to leisure travelers during times of low business demand.

Room with a View

Westin St. Francis, San Francisco

$100/night 22nd Floor Corner Tower Room

November 28, 2007

I am all for discount rates. The American leisure traveler needs a break as price inflation squeezes the budget from every direction (except electronics which likely explains the growth in sales).

If the economy is doing fine and the DOW is going to be 16,000 points by end 2008 as the financial analyst on CNBC was saying this morning, then the companies should be sharing the wealth with the hotel corporations by paying the extraordinarily high room rates.

I just hope that trickle-down Reaganomics will carry through for the leisure hotel traveler. Hotel guests will suffer exorbitant rates if you must travel and be at a specific place on a certain day for business and you coincide with high business activity. The small business, independent traveler like me will suffer from these rates during unavoidable hotel stays. I just hope the large urban hotels will feel enough financial profitability from their business activity to cut a rate break for the leisure travelers. Starwood made a great show of this rate discount strategy in the holiday season for their San Francisco hotels. San Francisco is too beautiful a city for the hotels to price out leisure guests.

Many leisure travelers in 2008 will make choices if the economy is not looking so sky high bright.

Forego the clothes this season and get a new computer?
The computer has become essential for communication and conducting business and planning that life-saving vacation.

Forego the 4-diamond hotel in downtown city at $289 a night this trip?
A 3-diamond independent hotel for a bargain $109 a night, twelve blocks from downtown is acceptable to a large portion of travelers who will not place so high a value ($200 a night after hotel tax) on hotel loyalty to a major corporate chain asking $300 per night when the hotel is only 70% occupied.

The hotel budget is often the biggest variable cost in travel and the budget-downsizing leisure traveler is likely to realize the greatest travel savings comes from reducing the hotel budget. $300 per night is removing the vast majority of travelers from even considering staying at urban chain hotels.

And let’s just hope the sky is not falling. The leisure traveler in 2008 might just have a change in lifestyle and stay at home with the MTV, computer, and video games.

[side note: I originally wrote this article 6 days ago on Jan 11, 2008, and since that time Starwood stock has dropped over 10% and there is widespread concern that hotel stocks are going to continue to be hit hard as hotel travel declines in the recession of 2008.]