Posted by Seth on May 22, 2012 under frequent flyer, Hotel, podcast, points | 
The first episode of our new podcast was met with great acclaim. Plus, we really like to talk. That means Episode 2 is now out and available online or via iTunes for your listening pleasure.
This episode talks a decent chunk about hotel programs and the value they do (or don’t) bring. It is actually one of my favorite topics, mostly because I pretty much hate hotel loyalty programs as they exit today and I go out of my way to avoid them in many instances. Give the podcast a listen to find out why and let me know if you agree or not.
It is a bit long at 47 minutes, but there’s some good stuff in there. Give it a go.
Posted by Seth on May 8, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
It is hard to know for certain that the room we had at the El Conquistador Resort near Fajardo, Puerto Rico is typical. I say that because the property is huge. It has nearly 1000 rooms scattered across several buildings and a number of different configurations to choose from on the website. We booked a "normal" ocean view room with two beds and that’s exactly what we got.
The front desk agent mentioned an upgrade due to HHonors Gold status; I believe that got us the balcony as not all the rooms I saw had those. Having the balcony was actually incredibly nice. We spent a decent amount of room time out there, listening to the ocean (and the incredibly loud funicular) and watching the days roll by.
We also received two free "welcome drinks" for the Gold status which ended up being just whatever we wanted at a few of the bars on property rather than some specific schlock. That was a nice touch. And two free bottles of water in the room. Not daily, but for the entire stay.
The bathroom portion of the room was surprisingly large. There was a separate make-up table in addition to the wide sink-top counter. Plenty of room to spread out all of our scuba gear to dry after a week of diving.
And the closet is also part of the bathroom; a large, walk-in closet which could probably pass as second bedroom in a Manhattan apartment. Impressive for someone (like me) not used to closets that large.
One strange part of the room is that the bathtub is recessed into the floor. You step down into it rather than over the lip into it. A bit weird, though I suppose having the very high ceiling in the bathroom was vaguely interesting.
No mini-fridge in the room was a bit of a disappointment. We got by, keeping the beer we brought in from the grocery in the ice bucket. Still, it would have been nice to have that option available to keep snacks and such stocked, particularly given the low quality and high prices of stuff out in the resort.
Not the most modern of facilities nor the most amazing room. Quite reasonable and very much in line with what I was expecting, but nothing amazing. I’m generally not a resort person and I cannot say that either the room or the other facilities at the El Conquistador have swayed me from that bias. But it was a very reasonably room overall; definitely didn’t detract from the stay and actually offset some of the other negatives.
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Posted by Seth on May 8, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
There are many, many reasons the El Conquistador Resort, located on the north-eastern side of Puerto Rico near Fajardo, is a great place to spend a few days. The hotel has been around a long time, moving between brands over the years. It is currently operating as part of the Waldorf=Astoria Collection under the Hilton HHonors flag and in just about every way the service provided spoke to the expectations of such a resort. And, despite its age, the facilities seemed to be quite well maintained as well.
The resort property is a sprawling complex atop a cliff overlooking the water. There are rooms in several buildings and the views from just about every angle were top-notch.
We were also fortunate that for most of our stay the resort was quite empty. We pretty much had run of the facilities, with no lines or difficulty accessing the various services. This did come back to bite us on occasion – the spa closed early due to lack of demand one day, for example – but it generally worked out in our favor.
The location of the resort presents a few challenges for guests. First, the multiple buildings can mean long walks between parts of the resort. To get from the spa to the marina, for example, could easily take 30 minutes, with multiple elevators and long walks in between. Getting to the Marina also means a ride in a funicular, which was fun but also got to be a bit of a pain to wait for several times a day. It also meant the non-stop sound of it running audible from our room, day and night. Eventually I managed to tune it out, but it was not at all quiet.
Getting to the beach was an even greater adventure. There isn’t actually a beach at the resort. Instead they have a private island just a couple miles off-shore with a beach as well as hiking and various other activities. The 20 minute ferry ride is only slightly annoying but the limited service – only hourly most of the week due to low occupancy rates – was much more unfortunate. Even the regular half-hourly schedule isn’t all that great. On the plus side, once you get out to the beach, the water was lovely and the facilities both broad and reasonably priced for a resort facility.
The biggest disappointment of the stay, by far, was the food served on the resort. We had one good meal out of five. That’s not the sort of rate you’re looking for when access to alternative dining is so limited. We ate at two of the "fancy" restaurants for dinners, the Italian place and Strip House, the steak restaurant. The steak was great and that whole experience was pretty much awesome. The other meals, not so much. Breakfast in the café was cold, both the first time if was served and the second time after we asked them to try again. Lunch on the island with the beach was limited to three sandwich options because the main restaurant was closed for repairs during the low season. And the one I ended up eating was just mediocre. At least the pina coladas served on the beach were reasonably tasty. Truly disappointing just how bad the dining was. Especially given the ridiculous mark-ups charged.
We got off-property to eat a couple times, too, and that was much better. A few posts about those options will be forthcoming.
Oh, and apparently their version of the business center is stuck in 2002.
There are a couple "bodega" type shops on the property if you want sundries, snacks or self-serve booze and the prices aren’t completely horrible. That said, if you have a rental car it is highly recommended to stock up at a grocery on the way in from the airport. That was definitely useful for us.
Overall the property really is very nice. We were treated wonderfully from the moment we arrived until our departure. And the facilities were lovely. I sortof wish the bad meals didn’t leave me so bummed about the overall experience. Alas, it seems they have. Maybe because the worst of the meals was our last on the morning of departure.
Posted by Seth on April 5, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
Back in January during my Euro-hopping week of basically a different city in Europe every night I fell for the EuroStars Berlin. It was a last minute booking – literally booked 30 minutes before walking in the front door – and the property was fantastic. I was smitten and how. So when I needed a stay in Brussels on a similar last-minute basis I was quite happy to see that the chain had two properties in town. One was sold out but the EuroStars Grand Place was available and in my price range. Just a 5-7 minute walk from the train station and Le Grande Place, the location is pretty good, though it is a bit past everything else in the area. I like walking and that didn’t bother me, plus I had a great experience last time, so I booked.
On arrival I was a bit skeptical; the public areas weren’t nearly as nice as in Berlin. But I was on the hook and I hoped for the best as I checked in and headed up to my room. I suppose it was something of a good thing I was distracted by how small the room was. I didn’t expect much, nor did I need much, but it was quite small. Enough room for the bed, desk and loo, but only barely.
It was late and I was jetlagged, plus I had to be out in 7 hours to head back to the airport so I pretty much just passed out. In that regard the room was perfectly functional, though the bed was very, very firm. It was when I woke up the next morning that I noticed some of the greater shortcomings of the room. Like the chunk of wallpaper missing in the corner.
Or, somewhat more disturbing, the part of the floor by the door to the bathroom that was falling apart.
I missed the breakfast, which is fine because the charged far more than I’d consider paying for it. And then I was off to the airport.
It wasn’t a particularly nice property at all. That said, it did serve its primary purpose of being clean and cheap and having a bed available. I cannot complain too much, but I’ll definitely be more cautious when looking at this brand in the future.
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Posted by Seth on April 3, 2012 under Hotel, News, points |
When the email arrived this afternoon about the change in name for the Accor loyalty program – A|Club to Le Club Accorhotels – I didn’t think much of it other than that the new name pretty much sucks from a marketing perspective. Still, that’s their choice and I generally don’t really care about the names of the programs so long as they work.
And then I actually opened the email and read it. Needless to say, the name change is being used as cover for a rather significant change in the program:
Like most other programs out there Accor is now requiring customers to book in-house to get the benefits of their program. This isn’t much of a surprise – the commissions paid to agencies for handling hotel bookings are still pretty sizable and they may as well try to cut those costs – but it does suck a bit for guests. The ability to double-dip via programs like hotels.com or similar is now dead. Ditto for taking advantage of better rates elsewhere while still collecting points.
Not a huge devaluation, but definitely a downgrade to the program.
Posted by Seth on February 29, 2012 under frequent flyer, Hotel, points |
It would seem that, despite my best efforts, I’ve managed to maintain hotel status through my own actions. I don’t really believe much in the value of hotel status for personally paid stays, mostly because I couldn’t care less about the "free" lounge, the "free" breakfast or the "free" internet service that the status affords. Ditto for suite upgrades. Plus, I like the character and charm of independent hotels in foreign countries way more than the western-branded ones as a general rule. Yes, I have SPG gold via my AmEx Platinum card, but even that barely gets used.
So imagine my surprise when I received an email this week congratulating me on getting status with a hotel program.
FIVESTAR is the program for hotels.com users, and I’ve been a pretty heavy user for a while now. I suppose that if I knew about the program I probably would have been surprised that I hadn’t qualified earlier (it only takes 10 nights annually) but I never knew about it so I never cared. Still, now that I’ve got this status I should figure out what the benefits are, right?
So I click the link lower down in the email and I start reading. There is a PDF file for both the FIVESTAR and FIVESTAR Plus (25+ nights) on their site and I tried to figure out what’s special about the programs. I still haven’t figured it out. There is this one section that purports to be part of the benefits:
Plans change. Now, so can your reservations–with the Hassle-Free Travel Guarantee. If you need to change your reservations for any reason – weather, schedule change, or even personal preference–our FIVESTAR Plus agents will do their best to help you make new travel plans right away, without any Hotels.com change or cancellation fees.
With Hassle-Free Dispute Resolution, we will work to fix any problem that you may have during your hotel stay. Just call your members-only phone number or email us at FIVESTAR@hotels.com.
Here’s the thing about these benefits…they’re not actually unique to the "status" level. Hotels.com has a no-fee cancelation policy for all their reservations. They advertise it really big on their home page:
So that’s nothing special. And their promise to "fix any problem" is also something that seems to be available to all customers. I know that they took care of several successive fiascos with reservations in Kochi, India well before I had the special status.
They also promise a price match guarantee for FIVESTAR members, but that’s also advertised to all customers really big on the homepage. Maybe there is something to be said for the special deals that they supposedly offer for members, but I haven’t seen any of those yet. I’m not holding my breath.
I get that they want to make their most frequent customers feel special by providing them extra value for their loyalty. After all, that’s what these programs are all about. But it doesn’t really work so well when you’re not offering any tangible benefits as part of the program. I’m certainly not going to call up and complain that they gave me a worthless "status" but it is also not going to change my booking patterns, which is what these sorts of programs are supposed to do.
I’m a big fan of their Welcome Rewards program in general (even with the devaluation not too long ago), but this FIVESTAR program is pretty much worthless from what I can see.
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Posted by Seth on February 24, 2012 under Hotel |
Well, maybe they’re worth mentioning, though it is hard to know some days. Neither is an incredible offer, but both might have some value.
First up, DoubleTree is running a contest to win a trip to Costa Rica as part of a cross-promotion with The Lorax. Register here (DoubleTree.com/TheLorax) and you can win. Stay at a DoubleTree before April 29, 2012 and get an extra entry. And you can mail in a postcard to get more entries, too. Odd of winning are perilously low, but there’s no real work involved in entering (at least the one freebie) so no harm there either.
Next up is a discount promo from one of my favorite small-chain hotel brands. They recently won some award and are celebrating by offering 15% off at a bunch of their hotels for stays through March 31, 2012.
The deal includes their property in New York City, for those who are averse to such awesome destinations as Barcelona, Madrid, Buenos Aires or Mexico City. More details on that promo here.
Like I said, nothing earth-shattering, but worth mentioning.
Posted by Seth on February 16, 2012 under Hotel, News |
Like they do every year, Starwood has assessed the award category rating of their hotels and made changes to a number of the properties. A total of 658 properties are changing their award level. Of those, 287 will be at a lower rate while 371 are seeing their award level increase.
A quick scan through the list doesn’t reveal too many surprises, though there are some interesting trends in the numbers. Nearly every property in New York City is moving up a level, for example. This trend covers everything from the Aloft in Harlem (3->4) to three of the Four Points properties becoming Category 5 hotels and Ws becoming Category 6. Across the river in New Jersey doesn’t find you much salvation; those properties are increasing a category, too.
China is also seeing significant appreciation in award costs with 58 properties increasing one level while 16 are decreasing. Thailand goes the other direction with several properties becoming cheaper while only one gets a bump up.
Nothing particularly shocking or egregious in my initial scan of the list, though I’m sure I’ll be informed of something I missed as folks scour it more closely. Check out the list here (PDF).
Posted by Seth on January 25, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
Booking a hotel on the morning of arrival can limit the options available somewhat. That said, I’ve actually been pretty lucky in general with such an approach, scanning a list of available properties and sussing out a quality hotel at a bargain price. That’s just what I discovered at the Hotel Eurostars Berlin. A beautiful, brand new property with a comfortable room adjacent to the Friedrichstrasse train station in the heart of Berlin and it was less than $100 for the night and earned points in the Welcome Rewards program from hotels.com.
I tend to avoid hotel chains a bit, but this was an exception to that. Partly because it isn’t a chain I had ever heard of and partly because the reason I avoid them – generally overpriced – didn’t apply. I’m glad I did as the hotel was near perfect for my needs.
The property is new construction which opened in April 2011. It is clean and fresh, with a relatively modern vibe. If they installed dimmer switches in the halls and upped the music levels in the lobby I could almost see it being a W hotel. It isn’t quite that trendy, which is a good thing in my book, but the décor definitely has that vibe in some ways.
The room itself was great. Plenty of space to move around (this was definitely the largest room I had through the week in Europe) and the bed was quite comfortable. The TV offered up a pretty good selection of channels and the desk had plenty of outlets, though strangely there was no chair. Not sure if that was an oversight or on purpose. I just used the chair in the corner and it was fine, but that was definitely an interesting discovery.
The bathroom was relatively huge and nicely appointed, particularly the shower.
Add in complimentary WiFi – the front desk clerk asked how many devices I had so she could give me the correct number of vouchers – and being directly adjacent to a major train station only one stop down the line from the Hbf and I was quite happy with pretty much everything about the place. It served as a great base of operations. Walking to the Brandenburg Gate area was about 10 minutes and connections to the TXL Airport Bus at the Hbf were incredibly easy. That’s not to say I didn’t get lost in the Hbf for about 30 minutes on my arrival, but the departure was much less a problem.
Overall, I’d recommend this hotel without hesitation, even for folks who aren’t quite as "aggressive" in their hotel budget efforts. It is a full service hotel in a prime location at a very reasonable price.
Posted by Seth on January 24, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
Like many of my stays these days my goal in Stockholm was to find a room which balances a convenient location and decent price with being clean and functional. I didn’t have too much to go on in terms of guidance, other than knowing that the western-branded chains were asking far more than I normally like to pay for a night so I went to my usual resource, hotels.com, and popped in my dates.
Serving up a room for two at about $100/night, Frey’s Hotel passed the sniff test and I booked, hoping for the best. The location was great, directly across from the train and bus station and a block from the metro entrance.
The room was small. There’s no getting around that. One of the beds was more like a couch converted to have a mattress instead of cushions, but it was basically the same as the other bed so no big deal there. And there was enough room to move around in the room and to stow our bags, though not much more than that. Not quite a shoebox, but we certainly wouldn’t be hosting parties in there.
The bathroom was a bit more cramped but, again, they made it work. The shower doors swing out of the way when not in use to allow a bit of room to move around though when actually using the shower there isn’t a ton of space.
The room rate also included a buffet breakfast which was pretty substantial. A variety of meats, cheeses and breads were available. There were also eggs and breakfast meats. I’m not a huge breakfast guy but I definitely hit the buffet hard our first morning to fortify for the long day and to hedge against the high food prices in Stockholm. The second morning I managed to sleep through breakfast (and almost through checkout) thanks to a great night out, but I’m assuming the meal service was quite similar.
Overall, the room matched our needs pretty well. I got a few points in my Welcome Rewards account and saved a chunk of cash over the other options. I also saw two rooms at the Sheraton (about 3-5 minutes down the block) and they were certainly a bit larger and a bit nicer, but they were also quite a bit more expensive (though I didn’t run through my list of corporate rates to compare completely) and I’m not so sure it was worth the extra cash. Plus, a bunch of friends were staying there so I got to crash the party in the lounge one night anyways.
Posted by Seth on January 20, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
I love the arrivals service offered as part of the BusinessFirst service from United Airlines at most of their legacy Continental routes. I’m a firm believer in the power of a shower and a beer to help reset the body clock towards something approximating normal and the arrivals facilities generally make that work out quite nicely. Our request for the service apparently made it to the agent in Stockholm – she acknowledged such in the jetway – but not all the way to the hotel. That delayed our access by about 15 minutes but it was resolved quickly enough.
After our flight in to Stockholm from Newark we were all a bit out of it (I actually managed to forget my laptop on the plane, though I was quickly reunited with it) so having a nap also played into our plans. The arrivals service is Stockholm is a day room provided at the Radisson Blu hotel in the airport so we had the opportunity to get that nap, along with the shower; the beer had to wait until lunch.
The rooms we got were configured with two beds, two very small beds. They’re singles, rather common in Scandinavia, but it was entertaining to hear some of the stories from our group about trying to make that work for multiple people in the room.
Beyond the beds (which I was actually quite comfortable sleeping on), the rooms were reasonably well appointed, if not a bit small. Sliding the chair out from the desk, for example, resulted in hitting the bed situated adjacent to it. That said, it was not the smallest room I had during the week, not by a long shot.
The bathroom was reasonably nice, too, with all the expected/usual amenities provided.
One rather strange bit about the hotel is that the rooms (on at least one side of the hall) overlooked the terminal rather than the outside world (though you could see outside through the terminal windows). That was definitely a bit different for me. I think that contributed to the hotel not using black-out curtains in the windows (the photo above is as dark as the curtains got). I was tired enough that sleep came anyways, but I can imagine that being an issue during the summer when darkness is harder to come by in the region.
In short, it was a very typical and very serviceable business hotel at the airport. It did have the advantage of being literally in the airport making it incredibly convenient, and also allowing for a premium to be charged on the pricing for rooms that I saw in a quick search. Still, faced with an early morning departure I’d either be sleeping there or in the nearby jumbo jet.
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