Posted by Seth on July 23, 2010 under News, points | 
Assigning a value to points in a loyalty program is always a relative calculation. Each individual will have different uses for their points and the associated value that comes with that usage will necessarily vary. Still, when I read the following email I received from Hilton I was not really expecting the devaluation of the points that they had executed:
Dear Wandering Aramean,
Hilton HHonors supports the National Coalition for the Homeless as they engage in public education, policy advocacy, and grassroots organizing focusing on the following four areas: housing justice, economic justice, health care justice, and civil rights.
If you would like to support the effort, we have arranged for HHonors members to be able to donate points to support this cause.
For every 10,000 points you donate, we’ll send US$25 to the National Coalition for the Homeless. If you would like to join us in supporting this organization in their determination to battle homelessness by donating points, please visit us here.
So what’s the problem? Well 10,000 points are worth more than $25. A lot more. A conservative valuation puts the value at much closer to $50. Buying the points directly from Hilton – a terrible idea in almost every scenario – would cost $100.
So Hilton gets some quality PR from the move, appearing sympathetic to the cause. They also get to take a tax deduction on the value of the donation they make to the charity. And they get to wipe out the value of the points on their books, reducing their financial liabilities. They look good and profit while selling the scheme as charitable.
Last time they tried this scheme – as a response to the Haiti Earthquake – they received so much bad press that they ultimately agreed to match the value of the donations made by their members. This one hasn’t been out long enough to see if such a response is coming but here’s hoping they step up and put a reasonable value back on their points.
I’m happy that the company is publicizing an organization that certainly needs support. But the way they are going about it is not above board. HHonors members who want to support the cause should donate cash directly to the organization – and get the tax deduction directly – and redeem points for your next stay that would have been cash-based. The charity will get more money out of the deal and you’ll still use your points.
Posted by Seth on March 16, 2010 under frequent flyer, points |
You never know when frequent flyer miles are going to take center stage in a conversation. I’m sure that it is more often than it should when I’m around, though I have been better lately about trying not to always talk about travel. Still, when I sat down at the dentist a few months back and started chatting with my new hygienist the conversation turned to travel. She mentioned her recent engagement and honeymoon planning and my brain went into overdrive. I couldn’t resist.
We started talking about all the options available, which programs made sense (she was already pretty tied to Continental’s OnePass program and Hilton’s HHonors program) and which destinations offered the best bang for the spend. I don’t actually remember the cleaning that day so much or even if it happened (though I have the bill to suggest that it did). We talked about sign-up bonuses for credit cards and bank accounts. We talked about buying points through the US Mint dollar coin program. So much fun for me because she actually wanted to hear it all as opposed to my of my victims.
Six or so months later and I’m back in the office for another cleaning. The first thing out of her mouth was a huge thanks for all the help I provided. We spent the next ten minutes or so going through the itinerary (Hawaii and Fiji) and discussing how they got to use all the points that they earned from the last round of promotions (upgrades all the way through the trip). We chatted about hotels on Waikiki beach (Hyatt being MUCH better than the Hilton Hawaiian Village), a few of my favorite off-the-beach restaurants and things to do other than sitting on the fake beach there.
Finally, when scheduling my next appointment the receptionist mentioned that it will be just after the hygienist returns from the honeymoon, meaning I’ll get the follow-up report, too. It is always fun to have the conversation when the other person in them actually is interested in the information being shared, and hearing about the successful bookings makes it even better. I’m looking forward to hearing about the trip in a few months.
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Posted by Seth on February 16, 2010 under Trip Reports |
It isn’t my story so I don’t want to appropriate it too much. And it is certainly not for the squeamish – especially the photo. Still, if you’re not eating right now and have a reasonably strong stomach check out this tale of a truly craptacular experience at the Hilton hotel in Hilton Head, South Carolina from this past weekend.
Not good at all.
Posted by Seth on February 3, 2010 under News, frequent flyer, points |
Frequent traveler loyalty programs often like to subtly point out their advantages over competitors. Whether it was bragging about no blackout dates back in the day (most programs offer that these days) or pointing out variations in upgrade policies, raising the differences help the programs differentiate themselves and attract customers. The comparisons are generally rather passive; no need to outright attack the other programs.
Priority Club, the frequent guest program for Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and several other brands, has decided to skip the subtlety with their latest promotion. They’re attacking Hilton’s HHonors program with a full frontal assault and they aren’t shy about it at all. The promo is titled “The Luckiest Loser.” It goes after Hilton’s recent rewriting of their reward charts where, on average, the value of HHonors points dropped about 20%. Priority Club is offering folks who are feeling a bit jilted by the devaluation an opportunity to get some of those points back in the form of Priority Club points. Here’s how the promo works:
- We’ll automatically "give you back" 1,000 Priority Club points
- If you’re one of the top 20,000 "Lucky Losers," you will gain back up to 20% of your current HHonors balance in Priority Club points (up to 20,000 points)
- If you’re "The Luckiest Loser," you’ll win 2 million Priority Club points
It is a pretty smart promo in terms of what they are offering and generating some buzz. And the way they are going after HHonors directly is definitely more aggressive than programs have been in the past. It will be interesting to see if this sort of aggressiveness carries over to other programs.
Read more on the Priority Club promo here.
Posted by Seth on May 11, 2009 under News |
Hilton has come up with another new brand to add into their portfolio. Maybe it is because they have hit a snag with the lawsuits related to the Denizen brand, or maybe it is because they are just thinking irrationally, but they have decided to make a change to one of their longer established brands – Embassy Suites. The appeal of Embassy Suites properties has always been that they are actually suites. Two rooms, with walls and a door to separate them. Plus free breakfast every morning and the Manager’s Reception happy hour on weeknights. But the brand name has the word “suites” in it. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room there. Or is there?
Apparently Jim Holthouser, brand manager for the Embassy Suites brand within Hilton’s corporate structure, feels that having that extra room in each suite is actually pushing business travelers away. "For years, customers have told us, ‘We love Embassy Suites with family. But for business? Not sure I quite need that’," is his take on the situation. Apparently business customers have actually been calling up Hilton’s corporate offices and telling them that they don’t want more space.
Yeah, we’re really supposed to believe that.
Even worse, somehow the folks at Hilton convinced USAToday to write their article on the change using that exact theme as the leader as though it much be fact because they said it was:
Ever driven past an Embassy Suites hotel because its two-room suites were too spacious for you and your laptop?
Embassy Suites execs think it’s time to fix that. They’re rolling out a one-room version of the chain’s standard, two-room suite for travelers who don’t need – or want – the extra space. It’s the first major room change since the chain was founded in 1984 aimed squarely at road warriors.
If the folks at Embassy Suites really want to focus on the bits that are probably driving business travelers away they should probably consider that their properties are generally located in tourist districts more than business districts and are frequently filled with families that want that second room for the kids and the free breakfast every day. So there are kids running around all over the place (in my experience, at least) and it can be pretty loud. At least they have a restaurant and room service at most properties.
The one room “suites” will only be an option for 20% of the rooms at any given property and they are actually only about 20% smaller than the regular suites, so it isn’t too much of a loss of space. Though the reasoning and justification are certainly specious at best. In the mean time, look for the new “suites” opening up in Buffalo, NY; Louisville, KY and St. Louis, MO in the coming months.
Read Lucky’s take on the story here. More objective than the USAToday bit by a long stretch.
Posted by Seth on April 17, 2009 under News |
It is very rare that a corporate espionage story makes the news and even less likely that I’d care at all. But a lawsuit filed yesterday did catch my attention. Starwood has filed suit against Hilton alleging corporate espionage and theft of trade secrets, all over Hilton’s plans to launch their new Denizen brand. The guy responsible for the new brand, Ross Klein, used to work at Starwood and now he works at Hilton. And when he left his old job he walked out the door with 8 boxes of papers, apparently contracts and market research, among other things.
I would be pretty pissed, too, if I were Starwood. After all, they’ve enjoyed a relative monopoly on the luxury/style segment with their W brand over the past many years. But does that mean it is corporate espionage that resulted in a competitor starting up a similar brand? Continental has made a huge name for itself by offering tons of transatlantic air service on 757s, planes often considered too small to serve the market. But they now offer service to twenty-something cities in Europe from their hub in Newark, mostly on 757s. And they get a LOT of business on those flights. And then the guy responsible for that plan went to work for Delta. The following summer Delta added a ton of flights to similar destinations in Europe. Corporate espionage? Or just a guy who knows what he is doing moving to a new company?
Ultimately this is likely going to come down to a boring trial with lots of testimony about the files that were taken and very little about the actual details of the brand. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun to watch.
Hudson Crossing Travel Industry Insight: Starwood sues Hilton over Denizen – "Zengate
Posted by Seth on March 12, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Hilton sure hopes so. Apparently having ten different brands in their family just wasn’t enough, so they’re adding a new one: Denzien Hotels (warning - stupid flash site with lots of audio and very little useful information). So what are Denzien Hotels? I’m glad you asked.
Denizen Hotels will become a cultural epicentre at each of its destinations, cultivating community within its walls. Eclectic, social and humbly authentic, each property within the brand will be smart in design, cultural in character and sensitive in service delivery. Developed as an international intersection of business and pleasure, Denizen Hotels will redefine how guests stay and play. With innovative check-in technologies and in-room comfort controlled at the touch of a button, Denizen Hotels destinations will harness the best and brightest design and technology to provide a seamless guest experience for the modern traveler.
Yeah. All that, just for a hotel. I actually wonder just how many different marketing groups got to chip in on the one paragraph and put their finish on it. Certainly one of the groups speaks the Queen’s English natively (“epicentre”) so that’s fun. But it seems like they’re going for “unique” experiences at each location. That is actually something that, as a business traveler, I find very annoying. It is great on a vacation where you want something new and different. But when traveling for work I pretty much want a consistent experience. That is actually one of the reasons that I like the Embassy Suites brand so much. Many of them are exactly the same. And if not exactly they are pretty close. It really makes things easier when you can’t remember what city you’re in.
Still, I wish Hilton luck. After all, launching a new chain of hotels in an economic climate that is seeing travel numbers drop, especially at the high end, cannot be an easy challenge.
Posted by Seth on October 23, 2008 under Uncategorized |
It was only a matter of time before Marriott made this move to stay competitive in the frequent stay program space. Starwood has had a no blackout dates policy for a long time now (though some hotels do manipulate room types to limit availability), and Hilton recently changed their program to expand that option to all their members; it previously was reserved for their Diamond (top) level group. Now Marriott has joined the crowd, removing their StayAnytime reward product and removing the blackout dates from their program.
Of course they are spinning this as a great benefit to their members. And, of course, it is an it isn’t. They have added a new Category 8 reward level. Stays at those properties will now be 40K points/night, up from the previous max of 35K points/night at a Category 7 property. The hotels that will be classified as Category 8 are:
- Paris Marriott Hotel Champs Elysees
- Renaissance Paris Vendome
- JW Marriott Capri Tiberio Palace Resort & Spa
- Rome Marriott Grand Hotel Flora
- London Marriott Hotel County Hall
- London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square
- London Marriott Hotel Marble Arch
- London Marriott Hotel Park Lane
- Le Merigot, A JW Marriott Beach Hotel & Spa, Santa Monica
- Renaissance Chancery Court London
- New York Marriott East Side
- New York Marriott Marquis
- Renaissance New York Hotel Times Square
- South Beach Marriott Hotel
In addition, multi-night stays are getting a bit of a change. The current program offers a sliding scale, where the per-night rate is reduced the longer you stay at the same place. The new program will offer a 5th night free approach; shorter stays will no longer receive a discounted rate per night. This is actually beneficial for folks who were planning on a five night stay in a hotel in categories 1-5. For the category 6-8 hotels the five night price actually goes up in the new program. And for 2-4 night stays the cost goes up across the board.
Also, they are increasing the bonus earned by their Platinum members to 50% from 30%, a much needed increase to remain competitive.
All changes are effective as of January 15, 2009; rooms cannot be booked using the new levels until that time.
This is certainly one of those changes where the value will be measured very much individually based on travel habits. It would definitely be bad for me as I rarely have a five night stay anywhere. But for folks who like that approach to travel it might not be so bad.
