View from the Wing

Again via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Chase now has its offer of 20,000 points for signing up for a Marriott Visa (a href=”http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?pdn=marriott_s20k&page=cont&mkid=65DF” target=_blank>personal and/or small business cards).

Free the first year, the personal card comes with Marriott Silver status, and yes you can obtain both cards and even churn them.

Starwood’s significant devaluation got plenty of attention, but Marriott quietly made significant adjustments to its own hotel categories to much less fanfare. It’s been discovered, and is being discussed on Flyertalk. The summary:

Changes in MR redemption were effective March 2, 2007. 14 hotels went down one category level, 535 went up one category level.

And one member’s calculation of the impact of the change:

Some quick calculations….approximately 20% of Marriott Rewards properties were impacted and the change is reported to be a 1 category increase. On a 1 night stay, that is an increase of about 33% across the categories. So it appears to be an overall devaluation of about 6-7% (33% x 20%).



I can live with this as it is in-line with overall inflation in hotel room rates, unlike the ridiculous almost 20% devaluation over at SPG. I just wish Marriott had chosen to provide some notice that this was going to occur (which SPG did).

Following on Westin’s move, Marriott announced today that it is going smoke-free in

all of the Company’s lodging brands in the United States and Canada will become 100 percent smoke-free, beginning in September.

So they’ve taken an idea pioneered elsewhere but expanded it beyond what its competitors are already offering — smokefree not just in a single brand but across brands.

Bad for smokers, perhaps, and those renting rooms to throw parties (!) but good for most travelers whose worst nightmare is getting checked into a smoking room.

Update: HotelChatter has more:

At first, this sounds a little more drastic than it is since 90 percent Marriott’s guest rooms were already non-smoking. But the hotel chain goes one step further banning smoking from public spaces that includes restaurants, bars, meeting rooms and employee work areas. (Uh-oh, we feel like Marriott’s gonna lose more than a few workers this week.)



If you do get caught smoking, Marriott will hit you with a $200 to $300 cleaning fee and any extra charges that could occur in the room needs to be taken out of service. For those who can’t go without a smoke you can hit up one of the hotel’s designated smoking areas which has to be 25 feet away from the entrance, so essentially in the parking lot.

Marriott’s Renaissance Hotels brand is also offering free parking to hybrid car drivers through the end of the year.

Best part is you don’t even need to be a hotel guest to use it, just attending a meeting or dining at the hotel.

So to my fellow DC residents driving hybrids, go have a drink at the Mayflower and you don’t have to take the metro…

Marriott is ramping up their checkin kiosks from 32 properties now to 150 within two weeks. All Marriott and Renaissance properties are targeted to have the machines by the end of September. The kiosks will have the functionality to print airline boarding passes, a nice feature indeed.

Marriott is actually a bit behind the curve on this one, Hilton announced the capability of their kiosks to print boarding passes back in April, but Marriott looks like it will jump ahead of its competitors with the ubiquity of the feature across two of its brands within a few months.

This is one of the easy no-brainers of the hotel industry. If done right the cost to set up the machines with internet connectivity and a printer should be low, and it’s a major convenience. But in the interim — if I haven’t had my own printer or access to a complimentary one in the lounge — I’ve always had good luck just asking the concierge to print boarding passes (I don’t recall anyone I know ever being charged for such a request).

Furthermore, as a workaround, Northwest and Continental both allow you to fax your boarding passes — though many hotels will charge you to receive the fax.

Still, it’s all better than waiting on line at the airport. A couple days ago in Miami there was even an hour-long line to checkin at a kiosk which permitted baggage check!

Now if only Marriott could figure out how to check bags at the hotel and pre-clear you through security they’d have my loyalty!

(Full disclosure, I won a not-insubstantial number of Starwood points for naming the “Sheraton SpeedCheck” back in early 2004.)

Update: I was mistaken in my original understanding of the Marriott devices. I had assumed they would be hotel checkin/checkout terminals with the added functionality of interfacing with airline checkin websites which would then spit out boarding passes. I’m told that the Marriott kiosks are actually computer stations with an attached printer whose sole purpose is to facilitate airline checkin, these are separate from Marriott’s hotel check-in kiosk project.

Update 2: I’ve edited the post title for clarity based on the above.

Update 3: Hotel Chatter has more.

British Airways is offering a 30% bonus on miles when transferring points from Marriott Rewards by July 20.

For those who aren’t already British Airways Executive Club members — and membership normally requires booking a full fare coach ticket or more — BA is offering accounts via this promotion as well (apparently without any requirement to transfer points from Marriott, so anyone wanting a BA account this is a good opportunity to get one).

(Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Hotel Hotsheet reports that Marriott will roll out “Total Trip Pricing” — a commitment to show “all in” costs for their hotel rooms on their website. In other words, taxes, surcharges, and resort fees will be fully disclosed.

Small steps towards a better world…

There’s a new co-branded Marriott Visa with some pretty good benefits for folks who regularly stay at Marriott Properties.

The 15,000 bonus points with first purchase is pretty standard.

So is a free night certificate that comes with the card — though in the past I believe the certificate was good on properties up through category 4 and this says good through category 5. This card comes with the free night certificate once a year rather than just when first getting the card.

The biggest changes with this card are in the points-earning structure and the way that elite status comes with the card.

• Earn 5 points for every $1 spent at over 2,600 Marriott locations.
  

• Earn 2 points for every $1 spent on airline, dining and rental car purchases as well as 1 point for every $1 on all other purchases.
  

• Receive 15 nights toward your next Elite membership level in Marriott Rewards every year, enjoy Silver Elite status or better.

Previously holders of a Marriott Visa got Silver status for their first year of cardmembership. Now you get that status — at least — as long as you have the card. And more importantly for those seeking higher levels of status, the card doesn’t get you just silver. It gets you nights towards whatever status you’re working towards. When you get the card it only takes 60 nights for Platinum status and 35 for Gold status.

This is a pretty innovative benefit, and extends the trend towards counting activity with a co-branded credit card in factoring elite status — recognizing the important role that financial services companies play in travel provider bottom lines.

The card has a $65 annual fee, though, which is pricey for a hotel card.

Update: Don points out that the stay certificate you get when signing up for the card is good at category 1-4 properties, and that the certificate you get at renewal is good at category 1-5 properties.

Marriott’s ‘MegaBonus’ returns from February 15 through May 15. You must register to find out which bonus you’re targeted for. The possibilities:

MGS61 - Earn 2,500 points/stay, beginning with 2nd stay, up to 10,000

MGS62 - Earn 5,000 points every 3rd stay, up to 25,000 pts

MGS63 - Earn 10,000 points every 3rd stay, up to 30,000 pts

MGS64 - Earn 25,000 points for staying 15 nights or more

MGS65 - Earn 35,000 points for staying 20 nights or more

(Hat tip to Flyertalk.)

Since I’m not a Marriott regular I’ve been assigned 2500 bonus points per stay beginning with the second stay.

I spent a long weekend at the Renaissance hotel in Boca Raton. I’ve stayed here before, it’s the most convenient hotel to my grandparents’ place in Boca. It’s also the only 4* property in the relevant zone on Priceline and I managed to score the place for $55 — for a weekend in December!

While it’s mainly geared towards business travelers — the club lounge offers breakfast Monday to Friday and evening hor d’ourves Sunday through Thursday — it’s a nice escape for leisure travel as well.

The Renaissance is convenient off of the 95 freeway, all you do is turn onto “Renaissance Way” after exiting Glades Road. When I first stayed at the hotel the street name was “Sheraton Way” giving away the fact that the property used to be a Sheraton. It’s right next to two strip malls and just down the street from a major mall which has everything you could need. On the other side of the mall is the Boca Raton Marriott, a nice hotel where I’ve stayed at as well. That hotel seems to generate higher average room rates (my impression only), though I’d gladly choose the Renaissance from among the two.

Staff here are some of the friendliest I’ve encountered. Greetings from every staff member on property are on par with well-trained Ritz-Carlton personnel.

The pool area is fabulous for a non-resort hotel.

There are plenty of trees and a rock formation waterfall. The grounds are immaculate. The only aesthetic drawback to the public spaces is that tiles on the roof of the hotel are missing, victims of the late-October hurricane.

There’s free parking, free wireless internet in the rooms and public spaces, and throughout the day free treats are in the lobby. For most of my stay there were fresh baked cookies, mimosas, and orange juice.

Turn down service included the obligatory chocolates and water bottles. The nice touch was that, after the maid noticed ice in my ice bucket when cleaning the room the second day the bucket was filled with ice the second and third evenings I was at the hotel.

The rooms themselves are fairly standard. There are a handful of suites, but otherwise the rooms seem all the same in configuration. The only differences are whether or not you have a pool view, and club floor and ‘female friendly’ rooms have additional amenities such as plush robes.

Perhaps the only fault to the service was they housekeeping didn’t refresh the toileteries in the bathroom at all during my stay. I had plenty, so I didn’t go without, but I found it odd.

Continue after the jump for more photos.

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Marriott is offering double Marriott Rewards points on stays paid with Visa between October 1, 2005 and January 31, 2006 — beginning with your second stay during that period. Registration is required.

Through May 31 American is offering a 20% bonus on points converted from Marriott. Registration required.

Marriott is offering 2500 bonus points for each of the second through fifth stays between March 1 and June 1. Registration is required by May 15.