“Owners of a hotel investment and ownership group has announced Dolce Hotels and Resorts as the new management company of the former Four Seasons Resort Aviara, a luxury resort property in north San Diego County, California. Dolce was expected to take over the management and administrative functions of the resort at 1 p.m. Monday, May 11, and operate as an independent luxury resort.

At the same time, Four Seasons has announced that it has no intention to voluntarily relinquish its role as manager of the resort, which it has managed since 1997.

The owner, Aviara Resort Associates, announced that it selected Dolce following the termination of Four Seasons from its position as manager of the Aviara resort amid allegations that Four Seasons breached its fiduciary duties in connection with the 329-room luxury property.” (via hotelsmag.com )

Is this a new trend starting? A few weeks ago Dolce took over the Seaview Resort in New Jersey (formerly a Marriott)

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read more of  Owner, Four Seasons Hotel Battle Over Resort

THE LEADING HOTELS OF THE WORLD PRESENTS THE $19.28 USD RATE

The Leading Hotels of the World embraces its founding year (1928) with an astounding promotion.

At 12 noon GMT (8 a.m. ET/Eastern Time) on October 1, 2008, they will release a limited number of the world’s most-coveted hotel rooms at the unprecedented rate of USD 19.28 per night.

For 80 minutes only, registered consumers will be able to secure the celebratory USD 19.28 rate and experience

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here for details and register. scroll down for all the participating world wide locations includeding the US.

Participating Hotels in Africa
South Africa
The Table Bay Hotel (Cape Town)
Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa (Knysna)

Participating Hotels in Asia & Pacific
Hong Kong
The Langham, Hong Kong (Kowloon )

Indonesia
The Legian (Bali)

Korea
The Shilla Seoul (Seoul)

Malaysia
The Club at The Saujana (Shah Alam)

Myanmar
The Strand (Yangon)

Taiwan, R.O.C.
The Sherwood Taipei (Taipei )

Thailand
Banyan Tree Bangkok (Bangkok)
The Chedi Chiang Mai (Chiang Mai)
Bo Phut Resort & Spa (Koh Samui, Suratthani)
Santiburi Golf Resort & Spa (Koh Samui, Suratthani)

Vietnam
The Nam Hai (Quang Nam Province)

Participating Hotels in Caribbean
Dominican Republic
Tortuga Bay (Punta Cana)

St. Lucia
Discovery at Marigot Bay (Marigot)

Participating Hotels in Central & South America
Argentina
Alvear Palace Hotel (Buenos Aires)

Brazil
Pestana Convento do Carmo Hotel (Salvador)

Ecuador
Royal Palm Hotel Galapagos (Galapagos Islands)
Hotel Oro Verde (Guayaquil)

Venezuela
Gran Meliá Caracas Suites and Conference Center (Caracas)

Participating Hotels in North America
Canada
Château Bonne Entente (Quebec, Québec)

Mexico
Presidente Intercontinental Cozumel Resort & Spa (Cozumel)
Marquis Los Cabos (Los Cabos)
Hotel Habita (Mexico City)
Grand Velas All Suites & Spa Resort (Nuevo Vallarta)
Paraiso de la Bonita Resort & Thalasso (Riviera Maya)

United States
Enchantment Resort & Mii amo Spa (Sedona, Arizona)
Bernardus Lodge (Carmel Valley, California)
The Hay-Adams (Washington, DC)
Biltmore (Coral Gables, Florida)
The James Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
Wheatleigh (Lenox, Massachusetts)
La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa, A Rock Resort (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
The Alex Hotel (New York, New York)

Participating Hotels in Europe
Austria
Hotel Loipersdorf Spa & Conference (Loipersdorf)

Cyprus
Amathus Beach Hotel Limassol (Limassol)
Amathus Beach Hotel Paphos (Paphos)
Anassa (Polis)

Czech Republic
Hotel Le Palais Prague (Prague)

Estonia
Schloessle Hotel (Tallinn )

France
Hotel Raphael (Paris)

Germany
Hotel Adlon Kempinski (Berlin)
Kempinski Hotel Bristol Berlin (Berlin)
Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg (Cologne/Bergisch Gladbach)
Schlosshotel Hugenpoet (Essen-Kettwig)
Hotel Hessischer Hof (Frankfurt am Main)
Schlosshotel Kronberg (Frankfurt am Main)
Hotel Nassauer Hof (Wiesbaden )
Hotel Atlantic Kempinski Hamburg (Hamburg)

Hungary
Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest (Budapest)
New York Palace Boscolo, Budapest (Budapest)

Ireland
Killarney Park Hotel (Killarney)

Italy
Hotel Santa Caterina (Amalfi)
Grand Hotel Baglioni (Bologna)
Palazzo Arzaga Hotel Spa & Golf Resort (Brescia)
L’Andana (Castiglione della Pescaia)
Villa D’Este (Cernobbio )
Grand Hotel Villa Medici (Florence )
Hotel Regency (Florence )
Villa La Massa (Florence )
Carlton Hotel Baglioni (Milan)
Grand Hotel et de Milan (Milan)
Grand Hotel Miramare (Portofino)
Hotel Lord Byron (Rome)
Grand Hotel Palazzo della Fonte, Rome (Fiuggi)
Terme di Saturnia Spa & Golf (Saturnia)
Kempinski Hotel Giardino di Costanza (Mazara del Vallo (Sicily))
Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria (Sorrento)
Bauer Hotel (Venice)
Bauer “II Palazzo” (Venice)
Luna Hotel Baglioni (Venice)
San Clemente Palace Hotel & Resort (Venice)
Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amista (Corrubbio Di San Pietro In Cariano)

Netherlands
Hotel de l’Europe (Amsterdam)

Portugal
Vila Vita Parc (Algarve )
Hotel Quinta do Lago (Algarve )
Grand Real Villa Italia Hotel & Spa (Cascais)
Bairro Alto Hotel (Lisbon )

Russia
The Hotel Baltschug Kempinski Moscow (Moscow)
The Taleon Imperial Hotel (St. Petersburg)

Spain
Gran Hotel La Florida (Barcelona)
Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I (Barcelona)
Fairplay Golf Hotel & Spa (Benalup-Casas Viejas (Cadiz))
Silken Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao (Bilbao)
Barceló La Bobadilla (Loja/Granada)
Hotel Puente Romano (Marbella)

Sweden
Grand Hôtel Stockholm (Stockholm)

Switzerland
Tschuggen Grand Hotel (Arosa)
Hotel Eden Roc, Ascona (Ascona)
Grand Hotel Quellenhof (Bad Ragaz)
Waldhaus Grand Hotel & Spa (Flims)
Hotel d’Angleterre (Geneva)
Carlton Hotel (St. Moritz)
The Dolder Grand (Zurich)

United Kingdom (UK)
Baglioni London (London, England)
The Langham, London (London, England)
The Gleaneagles Hotel (Perthshire, Scotland)

CheapOair brings Airfares, Hotels, Car Rentals and Vacation Packages data from multiple sources including negotiated rates data sources to bring the best value to their customers.

CheapOair provides 24/7 Toll free call center support.
Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to get started.

Don’t forget use this coupon code *USFLY10* and save $10 on your next domestic flight. Coupon Expires: 31st Dec 08

“NEW YORK—An American theater critic must cover Broadway. Here at the Tribune, the bosses like you to do so on the cheap. Thus, from the Shoreham to the Gorham, the Quality to the Hampton, the Best Western to the hotel of last resort, I’ve stayed at almost every tourist-class joint the theater district has to offer.

I’ve booked through Quikbook, Hilton, Orbitz, Hotels.com, the old-fashioned telephone and, once, a Web site aimed at South Americans. And having done this now for some years—and coupled with a travel nerd’s love of getting the lowest possible price—I’ve learned some useful strategies.

If you’re headed to Manhattan this spring to see some shows or the tourist sights, here are 10 of my personal rules about Midtown hotels. And the first thing you have to know is that most of the usual rules don’t apply in Manhattan.

Rule No. 1: In New York, the chains are your friend

Many frequent travelers abhor the standardization of chain hotels. Well, save that love of the quirky hostelry for your next trip to Napa Valley. In Midtown, boutique is mostly code for smaller rooms, bigger attitudes and higher prices.

But chains have national standards to which even New York franchisees must adhere. And thus they tend to have bigger rooms, better service and more amenities. There’s one caveat: The hotels have to be new, and you have to snag a room on a high floor for noise reasons.

But take the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square (790 8th Ave.; 212-581-7000; www.stayhgi.com)—my favorite Midtown Hotel and the place where I am typing these words. The rooms have refrigerators, microwaves, flat-screen TVs. There’s room to work. Almost every Broadway theater is within five blocks. And it’s cheap. Relatively.

Rule No. 2: In New York, brand status means nothing

The Hampton Inn at 50th Street and 8th Avenue (212-581-4100; www.hamptoninn.com), another of my favorite New York hotels, has a concierge, a terrific staff and quite luxurious rooms. A Hampton Inn, you say? That’s the cheapest of the Hilton brands and best known for sitting on the exit of a freeway. True. But in New York, it’s got better service than the Sheraton. Which brings us to:

Rule No. 3: In New York, prices depend on timing, not quality

That Hampton Inn I just mentioned often charges well over $350 a night. You have to adjust your expectations in Midtown; a room under $250 is a cheap room. Everyone knows hotels vary pricing based on sophisticated predictors of demand. But in New York, the contrasts are eye-popping. The difference between pricing on different dates far eclipses the difference in pricing between hotels. In other words, the Waldorf Astoria on a low-demand night will charge less than the Four Points by Sheraton on a high-demand night. So what should you do?

Rule No. 4: Sundays are your friend

Try to stay on a Sunday night. Midtown hotels are the cheapest on that night; you can stay most Sundays for less than $200. In general, the most expensive nights are Wednesdays and Thursdays, although weekend rates don’t drop significantly. At certain times of year—the spring-break weeks in March and weekends in the fall—hotel rates in Midtown are stratospheric as hotels fill with school groups and shopping Europeans. You can easily pay $400 a night for the crummiest joint. Best to stay in Chicago and go to New York instead in January, February, late April and May. The summer isn’t bad either. And Thanksgiving weekend is a bargain.

Rule No. 5: Prices usually drop nearer the stay

Don’t assume advance booking serves you well. Using chain Web sites, I recheck prices right up to cancellation deadlines. I switch hotels as prices drop nearer the night. Except for those peak times, room rates tend to fall. By significant amounts.

Rule No. 6: If you want an independent, use Quikbook

Most of the big hotel booking sites churn out the same rates in Midtown. And using the so-called opaque sites such as priceline.com is a sure way to get stuck with a room on the second floor—or, once, in my experience, the basement. For chains, use their own Web sites for the best deals. But Quikbook.com, a site that works with independent hotels, offers genuinely lower rates and a high degree of service and reliability.

I use Quikbook at high-demand times. I ended up recently at the Duane Street Hotel in Tribeca (130 Duane St.; 212-964-4600; www.duanestreethotel.com) for about $260 a night. Although the staffers were friendly, it was a classic boutique—trendy, tiny and noisy. Better independent choices in Midtown include the sedate, renovated Belvedere Hotel (319 W. 48th St.; 212-245-7000; www.belvederehotelnyc.com) and the hipper-than-thou but oft-cheap Time Hotel (224 W. 49th St.; 877-846 3692; www.thetimeny.com)” ( via chicagotribune.com ) by Chris Jones |Tribune Critic

Pointswizard.com Spin: read more -click here

Now you’ve got 50 more reasons to take a summer vacation.

Just book a qualifying hotel or flight + hotel package for 3 or more nights wherever you want to go by July 6, and they’ll give you an instant $50 discount. Travel between May 12 and August 31.

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here , then click on Summer Sale save $50 instantly in the middle of the page

Must use promo code SUNSALE50

Save on hotels. Save up to 30% on hotels this summer

More than 220 cities worldwide
Book your summer vacation today to save up to 30% at hotels in popular destinations across the U.S. and around the world―from beach retreats to urban escapes. Book by June 30; travel by September 5, 2008.

Pointswizard.com Spin: We tried it for 3 reservations we had booked and got better prices so it looks like a good one to try.
Read more and book here

Fodor’s posted another helpful list of hidden hotel fees to beware of the next time you travel. In most cases, these fees fall under the practice of “negative option billing,” meaning that there’s an assumption you’ve used the related service and therefore agree to the charge. If that’s not the case—or, in the case of gratuities, if you’ve already tipped—you should definitely ask the hotel to remove such fees from your bill.

• Groundskeeping
• Towels (other than room—e.g., pool or fitness center)
• Business center, fitness room
• Safe
• Housekeeping, bellman gratuity fees
• Water and newspapers
• Energy surcharge
• Early check in or out/extended cancellation
• (via consumerist.com)

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the whole article

When you check in to a hotel, you expect your room to be clean. But what the ABC15 (Phoenix)Investigators uncovered has officials are concerned for your health.

Hotel drinking glasses are required by Arizona’s health code to be “cleaned and sanitized” by using a hot dishwasher or three compartment sink.

We put four Valley hotels to the test to see if they would properly clean and sanitize dirty glasses. (via www.abc15.com) 

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the whole story. Thanks to Mitch B. for the tip 

“ ”Presidential stories often resemble tall tales. Occasionally, however, the legends are true, as is the case with the slew of “Washington Slept Here” signs that dot much of the Northeast.“George Washington believed part of his job was to unify the 13 colonies,” says Bill Fawcett, author of “Oval Office Oddities: An Irreverent Collection of Presidential Follies and Foibles.”

“He traveled extensively and met with the local leaders, businessmen and townspeople. He would move on the next day. But he spent more than a third of his term traveling and slept at between 800 and 1,000 places in the 13 colonies while he was president. A lot of those ‘Washington Slept Here’ signs are accurate.Most of the spots our first president laid his head were likely small houses and inns. .”

“The term ‘presidential suite’ came from the European tradition of royal suites,” says Fawcett. “We didn’t have royals, so we called the best room in the house the Presidential Suite. A president doesn’t have to stay there, and many of them may never have had one stay there.”Some hotels use the term as inspiration, not proof of political pedigree. The presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, for example, is decorated with shoes from designer Robert Tabor that were inspired by various First Ladies. The Jackie Kennedy shoe features a ‘60s style square-toe covered in pink (like her famous wool suit), topped with a JFK political button and a heel that’s shaped like one of her pillbox hats.Others serve as sober monuments to presidential legacies, such as the newly renovated U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego, which Ulysses S. Grant Junior built in honor of his father.Of course, there are several presidential suites in which our country’s leaders have actually stayed.

In New York, the Waldorf=Astoria, part of the Waldorf=Astoria Collection, rightly boasts that every president since Herbert Hoover has slept in its presidential suite. The opulent maze of eight rooms features four bedrooms and baths, a formal dining room, a living room with a fireplace and even includes some signature items donated by former presidents, including one of John F. Kennedy’s rocking chairs. And every president since Franklin Pierce has also ensconced themselves in the nearly 3,000-square-foot, marble-decked presidential suite at the Willard in Washington, D.C.” (via forbestraveler.com)

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the rest of the article and see a slide show of the rooms

* Purchase $500 or more of Travelers Cheques before August 31, 2007.
* Within 60 days of purchase, activate your $500 Hotel Savings account.
* After verifying your purchase and completion of a brief profile, you will be able to use your Hotel
Savings.
* Search for hotels in your chosen destination and get the guaranteed lowest rates when compared to
your favorite discount travel websites.
* Use your $500 balance as partial payment and book hotels online.
* Savings can be used for up to 2 years until the balance is depleted.

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
ends August 31, 2007. Click on blue line above to get all the details

You can always earn miles when you fly with Delta. But, that’s hardly the only way. With over 100 participating non-airline partners, chances are wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, you’ll be earning miles. Now, for a limited time, you can earn up to an additional 25,000 bonus miles just by using Delta SkyMiles® partners. The more partners you use, the more miles you earn. It’s that simple—and that rewarding.

Here’s how it works: Register and between April 1 and May 31, 2007 you can earn 5,000 bonus miles (up to 25,000 miles) for each 5 unique SkyMiles partners—one activity per partner—you do business with. Delta has great partners that can provide a host of services you already use (including hotels, car rentals, credit card services and many more) making it even easier for you to earn additional bonus miles for using them. See the chart for a breakdown of awards:
For 5 unique Partner Activities you earn 5,000 bonus miles
For 10 unique Partner Activities you earn 10,000 bonus miles
For 15 unique Partner Activities you earn 15,000 bonus miles
For 20 unique Partner Activities you earn 20,000 bonus miles
For 25 unique Partner Activities you earn 25,000 bonus miles

Taking a business trip? Going on vacation? Make it more rewarding. Activities such as staying at a hotel, renting a car, eating at a restaurant, enjoying a cup of coffee, and shopping for loved ones can net you an additional 5,000 bonus miles. How’s that for easy?

Even better, Delta offers many other ways to earn your bonus miles. Whether you do business with a partner, convert partner points into bonus miles or buy miles yourself—you’ll be eligible for rewards.

Register today and experience how rewarding it can be when you know the right people. At Delta, we’re always striving to make your travel experience more rewarding.