I’d like to dedicate a post to talking about one of my favorite hotel amenities — club lounges. What are they, why do I love them so much, and what does their future look like?
Continue reading: Hotel Club Lounges: What They Are, And Why I Value Them So Much
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Granted it was for breakfast so probably the best time to go, but the Westin St Louis was the best (of the admittedly few) hotel club lounges I've visited in the US. Breakfast was basic, but it was uncrowded, food was fresh, and TVs were silent. Still nothing compared to the the Prince Sakura Tokyo or even the Sheraton Grand Hiroshima in Japan, but I've found that unless I'm really pressed for time in the morning or the breakfast offerings are hot/high quality, I have no reason to get lounge access. I'd rather walk somewhere nearby to eat/drink. The only time I've ever gone to the lounge outside of breakfast was pre-dinner drinks at the Sheraton Hiroshima.
I still think about my 2018 breakfasts at the Westin Sendai and Conrads Tokyo and Osaka, though in those cases the breakfasts were all in the actual restaurant so no reason to even visit the lounge.
Most half-decent hotels have rooms that are large/well-designed enough for working and/or comfortable lobbies. Being in close proximity to people who make 'important' phone calls is bad enough in an airport lounge and I certainly don't feel like risking some more of that the experience when I can choose to have more space to myself. Just do your research before booking somewhere, it's not like people don't publish a gazillion photos and reviews of travel experiences on Instagram or whatever.
I've only really enjoyed my time in a hotel lounge once- I was on a solo trip to HKG and bumped into a few surprisingly interesting people during the happy hour, at a Novotel of all places! The lounge breakfast at the Gardens Hotel in CAN was also very good, though I didn't try the lounge in the afternoon or evening.
Everything else's been either pretty drab and underwhelming with the exception of a couple of downright obnoxious experiences.
My view: Some value in Asia. Some value at resort properties to access club lounge/restaurants. Zero value at domestic US properties.
For hotels where it's a "true" club (i.e. not akin to a depressing airport lounge), I'd argue that the biggest value is actually dealing with their team. Using FS Maui as an example, working with their club concierge team vs the general hotel's concierge team is a night-and-day difference.
In terms of amenities, I loved the Kempinski in Tel Aviv's club lounge. If I recall, it even has its own (smaller) pool, with great views.
Agreed on the economics - club lounges are dying because hotels created their own problem by handing out elite status like candy through credit cards. When half your guests get 'free' access, you can't justify quality food/service. Ritz-Carlton figured this out by charging everyone, which is why their lounges actually work. The Asia vs US quality gap also reflects different service expectations and labor costs. The pandemic just gave cost-cutting hotel owners the perfect excuse to permanently close what were already marginally profitable amenities.
Rosewood's Asia properties (Hong Kong, Beijing, etc) offer an executive lounge (the Manor Club) which is on another level. Great food, caviar, butler service, etc.
Don't know how common this is but a bunch of us from my office (like 10) were going to Indianapolis for a conference (none of us have real elite status, and travel is not that common in my offive) and our administrative assistant helped negotiate a rate at the JW Marriott that was the same as the Fairfield Inn next door.
The sales agent gave just our administrative assistant Club Lounge access (who also came to the conference) as a thank you for helping us. There were defiantely some espressos taken from the lounge for others in our group. It felt like a nice touch!
If you want a hotel with a club lounge.
Try taking cruises. It's this gigantic floating club lounge with full amenities.
Main lounge bait for me:
1. Jet lag. Nicer lounges mean no foraging beyond that.
2. Culture shock. Noisy crowded streets when foraging for food.
3. Heat and humidity.
4. Working remotely from hotel.
There is a time to cocoon!
So you have to spend even more $$$ at your hotel to get free breakfast and somewhere quiet/more comfortable to do some work? Seems like scam to me.
When I was the Clark Marriott in the Philippines for quite a while for work I got the Amex Marriott Brilliant from Amex. That gave me Plat Status with them which my stay turned that into Titanium. Anyhow free breakfast, free dinner, snacks, coffee and open bar. Holiday events they had quite a spread. That had a $$ value if I was to get the same out in town. Well worth the cost of that card.
Beautiful views and a quite place to do some work occasionally.
For each person, it will be different. I usually have a room with sufficient space to work and relax. I usually have breakfast in the room and dine out for other meals. If there's a lounge, it's a nice but unnecessary treat. Again, it's a choice.
I agree with you Ben. I also go out of my way for club lounges, although many times I'm disappointed with their offerings.
On the positive side, I noticed club lounges were stripped to 'barebones' offerings in 2009 and 2010 when business & leisure travel dropped...only to see many hotels increase the quality in the years after.
On the negative side, one of my favorite lounge hotels (Hyatt Regency Amsterdam) reduced their offerings in the past year. While they still have an amazing lounge manager (something very few hotels offer) and that alone will keep me coming back, they used to include free self-service liquor during happy hours. That, along with fresh-squeezed oj and some higher-end food offerings were removed at the end of last year. The explanation given to me was that the hotel owner said other HR hotels in Europe weren't offering these things, so they felt it wasn't needed at their hotel. Totally disappointing. It's also not even accurate, as the HR Churchill (another amazing lounge hotel) offers liquor in their club lounge during happy hour.
With only a few exceptions, it feels like Marriott's lounges will always be awful going forward, simply because they offer lounge access to too many elites--they should restrict it to Titanium & Ambassador only.
I think the only way for hotel owners to not view lounges as a cost center is to make the offerings worth the add-on so some non elites will pay for it. Then advertise the upgrade option after booking. Back in the day, the Sheraton Waikiki used to have great lounge offerings. A manager there once told me they had many more people paying for access than elites and it showed. Certainly its location helps, but you still need customers willing to spend the $$$ and for that you need compelling food & drink along with ambiance. Here's to hoping lounges can survive...
Best article in a long time!! It's so ironic how Airlines have really upped their game. Even Frontier is adding first class... meanwhile, you need to beg for cleaning service in a Hilton or Marriott.... Let alone get a complimentary soda in Hilton Longue or club level.
I should also add that the best Marriott Longue that I ever experienced was open weekends back in the day and it was lovely with all kinds of candy and snack options in the Mariott Marquis D.C. by the Convention Center.
Domestically, I see virtually no benefit to hotel club lounges anymore. Many are closed, and those that are open are so frugally run that you’re lucky to get some celery sticks and saltine crackers—it feels like prison rations, not a premium experience.
Internationally may be different, but no matter where you go in the world, there are usually better local boutique hotels for 30% less than the western “flag” hotels are charging these days. With those savings, I’ll have a better hotel stay and get to discover a local patisserie or cafe that I otherwise wouldn’t have discovered, and visit a well-regarded local cocktail bar for drinks—made to order—rather than pouring myself a G&T in what is essentially a public hotel suite.
Ben, you really should stay at more Accor hotels (and book a club room). Bonvoy/hilton seems to be stuffed with CC elites but Accor does not even have a CC program - at least in Asia, their lounges are thus a lot less crowded and more pleasant.
I'm sure some of the Asian Accors have good lounges, but Mövenpick NBO is a very solid hotel which however has a lounge which can only be described as lame. I much preferred working at the downstairs bar.
The problem is the differenciation of lounges even within the US and therefore not knowing what to expect. For example, some Ritz Carlton lounges are full service lounges with almost multiple meals per day (breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, cocktails, dessert), but some are almost a nicer version of a Marriott lounge including with breakfast and cocktails but limited snacks throughout the day. Perhaps mid level brands like JW are somewhere in between. On the other hand Courtyards outside of the US often times have lounges.
In the US, I have been offended before when a hotel attempted to charge for food and drinks in the co-called club lounge. Not the honor system as many have, I mean charge. Made me wonder what the point is - then it's just another hotel F&B outlet.
I don't understand your argument about lounges being a good place to work? Most hotels I stay at have a desk or long counter with desk chair. I would find too many distractions trying to do real work in a hotel lounge. Much better in your private room - you say you always try to seek out a private place - I never see a private space in a hotel lounge. How do you work sitting on a couch in the lounge?
Agree completely Ben. The IC and RC lounges in Asia are usually incredible.
In North America - I give a shout out to the Intercontinental Presidente in Mexico City - beautiful lounge with amazing views and great food and service.
Marriott is usually at the bottom - however I will shout out the Marriott IAH airport lounge (if it's still open). Amazing staff and breakfast!
The key to Marriott domestically is to stay at Marriotts with M Clubs - although they don’t have free alcohol, they at least have a higher quality food spread for both breakfast and evening appetizers.
Intercontinental lounges still have free alcohol domestically and are even better overseas.
@Daniel M, I'd say that high quality is not a description I'd apply to many M Clubs. Some absolutely are, but I've been to some where the best thing on the buffet was the packaged granola bar.
My wife and I live in Thailand and are huge fans of the lounges at IC and Crowne Plaza hotels. Our booking decision is heavily influenced by the presence of a lounge. The level of hospitality is very high, and the F&B offerings are usually very good. The lounges are a major factor in our loyalty to IHG.
Obviously, this is a matter of taste, but I have a love-hate relationship with lounges, that veers towards hate as I grow older.
I find them very distracting to work in, with the constant temptation of not-so-great food and snacks (I know - my discipline with food is probably worse than Ben's discipline with sleep). I also noticed that, discipline again, I tend not to explore the place I am visiting as much and to the same degree of enjoyment, than I otherwise would.
My main issue with the lounges, is the growth in people working from them. While I am sure Ben is doing his thing not bothering anyone, most days it is enough to have a couple of people talking loudly on their phones, to ruin my experience.
My best airport lounge experiences were well intentioned. Emirates First DXB , LH First Class terminal FRA , JAL Sakura HND. I planned on spending a few hours there. QF F SYD . I missed out in DOH I was just too jet lagged in between flights but Q suites made up for it.
American Airlines is always bottom barrel. Avoid at all costs.
Hotel lounges not so much. 7 yrs ago 18th floor at a $60 a night Ramada in HK with sweeping views of the city skyline from my room . Roof top pool very tranquil. You could hear the police shooting tear gas echoing during the protests. Then the Chinese military moved tanks into Shenzhen. All 30 non revs got seated in business class on American Airlines both ways. DFW HKG. Good times.
Ben you said it, the best days are absolutely behind us for hotel lounges.
And the same credit cards you like to show on your blog is one of the main reasons, too many people with elite status.
Hurts the people like us who pay our own way, no corporation paying our bills.
But that is the nature of the beast, the hotel industry. It will change, just like the airlines.
Someone with Musk type qualities will come in and change the whole structure and business.
Outside Asia, I value club lounge access at exactly $0. I don’t bother even checking them out anymore, as the only possible outcome is disappointment, no matter how low my expectations.
The best thing is when it's included; if it's an upcharge or daily purchase, not-so-much. That said, wow, Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo and Rosewood in Hong Kong do look like really great club lounges...
Ritz-Carlton Tokyo is far from the best Club level out there. Hong Kong and Shanghai Pudong are the gold standards for RC.
I have not been in a while, but Berlin used to be very nice. Bangkok has a nicer space than Tokyo, and better food. But Tokyo will probably win on the beverage selection.
I'd also put Fukuoka ahead of Tokyo, though I have not been since Josephine left as Club level manager in Fukuoka. She moved to JW Tokyo, and while the level of the lounge is not quite the same as RC, she remains a gem as a manager of the lounge.
Something is better than nothing, IMO, even if that lounge is a pile of crap like my recent experience at the Sheraton Philadelphia. It was still convenient for food and drinks. Lounge access plays almost no factor when I book hotels, it is more "a nice additional benefit on the side."
My main issue with lounges is the extreme inconsistency with access, especially with Hilton, where I have had everything from "no access at all" to "there is access for a fee" to "yes you get access" as a longtime Gold member.
With Marriott, it is approaching Hilton's level of inconsistency though I am more successful in getting some kind of lounge access at their properties. Though recent experiences really soured me, like getting a room on the Club level of the Ritz Carlton in Los Angeles but not getting any club access privileges as a Platinum. Switching to the JW Marriott in the same building resulted in the "lounge" being closed except for breakfast.
I won't be surprised if in 10 years time these club lounges are completely shutdown. Just look at the footprint of the club lounges from the past 10 years, it has shrunk. Where it exists the offerings are paltry and the choice of drinks is cheaper. In US most Grand Hyatt lounges are shutdown.
Only in Asian markets where there are more brands competing you still see club lounges operating with some decent level of offerings.
It’s not free. You’re already paying for it, either baked into the room rate or earned through brand loyalty. Originally, these perks existed to win a competitive edge by keeping travelers loyal. But in consolidated markets like the US, where waves of mergers and acquisitions have gutted real competition, the major chains no longer feel the need to try.
In international markets where genuine competition still exists, those same US giants still have to put in the effort. That is precisely why Hilton could slash the complimentary breakfast benefit for elite members in the US while keeping it intact abroad.
If and when international competition dries up in rest of the world, executive lounges will easily be the next casualty.
@BBT Yes. People tend to forget that they are most definitely not free. Like you mentioned, you paid for a room that comes with lounge access, buy a separate lounge access at a set price per night or because of elite status which was earned the hard way.
If it gets harder to sell hotel rooms in the US in the future - which it will at some point because no travel boom lasts forever - some of these lounges may reopen.
My wife and I travel full-time, living in hotels across Asia. We prefer IHG and Hyatt properties. In the past year, we have noticed a decline in the offerings and quality of the lounges. Some more than others. Generally, though, we would be unlikely to stay at a hotel that did not have a lounge. I can usually ascertain the approximate amount of value a hotel ascribes to its lounge by comparing a room rate without lounge anccess annd the same category room with the lounge. If it is substantial, it’s probably a good lounge. Not foolproof, but a rule of thumb we use.
The easiest way to improve lounge quality, is to exclude children under the age of 13. Having young children, screaming, and running unsupervised through a lounge destroys the ambience for everyone.
I totally agree !!
Young children running and screaming are getting on my nervs while I try to enjoy a glass of wine during social evening at a Club lounge.
I also have problems with people who do facetime and Video calls without reduce the volume of their devices.
Thats why I prefer club lounges in Hotels like the CONRAD or Hyatt Regency in Bangkok with strictly rules:
No kids unter 12 allowed during HappyHour (CONRAD).
Voices and volume of devices must be reduced to a minimum-strictly order written on every table (Hyatt Regency).
Point.
We travel with our 7 y.o daughter. Except when she was a baby, we avoided hotel lounges and aiport lounges but ever since she was 2-3, she never did any noise, never screamed, never runned... it's just a question of how children are raised.
I cannot say the same about some adults behaving like idiots in these lounges. Most trouble makers in hotels, lounges, on flights.. are adults
So many of the lounges that are open close for part of the day, early in the evening or for the entire weekend. I value just being able to get a hot drink in the evening and frequently the lounge will be locked. And then Marriott has moved all the "M Clubs" to the lobby level, making them less attractive.
This is my pet peeve. Especially at lounges that are not serviced anyway. Why not have those open 24/7? Are people having a tea before bedtime gonna ruin the hotel's economics?
@stanley-c that too... But at least then they usually give you breakfast in the restaurant. But, really, I would prefer to be able to go to the lounge as well in the morning. Sometimes I just want to grab tea and a yogurt and not sit for a meal.
@AD That is what I would want too but in order to cut costs the lounges open later in the day and would need to have breakfast at the restaurant but they usually give you an elite member seating area and/or special breakfast item.
@stanley-c I haven't run into that... but that sucks. Are you seeing that at a particular chain?
@AD I know that certain IHG hotels would do this where the executive lounges are not opened in the mornings and they either open in the late mornings or early afternoons.
@stanley-c Interesting. That seems like strange and counterproductive behavior for a program that has relatively few people getting free access. But never discount the willingness of hotels to shoot themselves in the foot.
The “M Club” lounge at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, Manhattan is particularly good (I was there with my wife in May on a weeklong trip to New York – got access via my Titanium status). The lounge's breakfast buffet is shared with the actual restaurant. They serve some of the best lox I've ever encountered.
There are snacks and beverages for the rest of the day (except when closed other than for breakfast on parts of the weekend). There is capacity for 200 at a time and although there are a good number of TVs on, they are not blasting and are often on captions only).
I have a soft spot for the Lounge at the InterContinental Mexico City. Great lounge, excellent food and most of the staff has been there for years.
The views are incredilbe from the 42nd floor!
Most of my favourite hotel lounges are actually the ones with very limited/simple catering. Not that I don't appreciate having great food and drinks, but with the recent travel trends, most lounges that offer them attract all sorts of nasty people whose main purpose in life seems to be to shove as much food and alcohol down their throats as possible. These, unsurprisingly, also happen to be very annoying people with poor manners and lack of consideration of others. Consequently, these lounges become essentially unusable during the happy hour.
I much prefer simple lounges like the ones at most Crown Plazas and some DoubleTrees. There's enough snacks to have a little aperitif before dinner, but the "value maximisers" don't have a reason to spend two hours there every evening so if you want a place to relax or work, the lounge can still be used reasonably.
I think the point is that lounges are not being reopened after the pandemic in the US. In Europe and Asia they have by and large reopened. It is another effect of the US credit card market, where people get elite status just for holding a credit card. There are complaints about people being able to buy elite status in China and India, but isn't that exactly the same the credit card holders are doing in the US? Paying a yearly fee, and presto, they are ready to enjoy all the benefits of elite status.
There are plenty of good/solid Marriott and Hyatt lounges in Asia, Oceania, and Europe, even a few great ones. Even post pandemic.
Particularly in Asia, people actually pay for the club rooms to get the access. As it is worth paying for. The problem in the US is that no one actually wants to pay extra for what is offered at Hiltons, Marriotts, Hyatts, where it is offered for elites as well. Because there is nothing worth paying for. That was the case before the pandemic as well. One of my more negative memorable lounge experiences was the Renaissance at LAX back in 2017. One terrible hot dish, awful wines at an additional charge, a few snacks, cold options that were pretty bland. Of course this was only a cost centre, no one in their right mind would pay extra for it. And this was even before the main deluge of credit card driven elite status.
Totally correct @CPH-Flyer. This is what I wrote about before in a comment of mine. Look at the instant Diamond elite with just an Aspire credit card. And so many offer massive sign up bonuses and free night certificates where you just don’t see in other parts of the world. The problem is just how greedy those hotel groups are and their answer is to create another elite level by spending even more nights. Enter the Hilton Diamond Reserve level.
Fairmonts have good club lounges. Fairmont Century City LA is absolutely good. But other Fairmonts also have really decent lounges. Check them out if you get a chance.
I also think a club lounge is very valuable when you have little kids. They get hungry or thirsty and a quick trip can change their state.
The other chain that I feel has very consistent lounges is Fairmont Hotels.
I just noticed the Hyatt Regency Vancouver has just reopened their lounge which is nice to see and may be bucking the trend (fingers crossed)
Too many credit card warrior yahoos thinking they are God's gift to the earth and expecting all this outsized value promised by bloggers...