Marriott intends to increase its ownership stake in Design Hotels to 100%, so what are the implications of that for guests? In 2011, Starwood purchased a 72% stake in Design Hotels, a German company that markets independent luxury hotels. Marriott acquired…
Hotels
In this post I wanted to address a situation that I think just about anyone who has hotel elite status has found themselves in... There are different trips for different occasions -- sometimes I travel alone, sometimes I travel with Ford, and sometimes…
It's always exciting when there are new luxury points hotels in the pipeline. In this post I wanted to cover a property that's now accepting reservations starting for stays in March 2021, which I'm looking forward to checking out. The Alila Marea Beach…
Cape Town will be getting a Hyatt Regency, and we won't even have to wait very long for it to open. It has just been announced that Hyatt has entered into a management agreement with South African real estate company Millat Properties, to operate the…
Over the weekend we decided to do a quick trip from Berlin to Dresden, which is about two hours from Berlin (either by car or train). We decided to stay at the 94-room Gewandhaus Dresden, which is a Marriott Autograph Collection property, and generally…
Shangri-La Golden Circle is more of a niche loyalty program, and not one I talk about much. That's because Shangri-La doesn't have any useful transfer partners, and there aren't that many ways to get outsized value from the program, in my opinion. However,…
For the past several winters we've seen a great promotion for Vancouver hotel stays, given what a seasonal market it is. Well, this promotion is back again this year, as you'd expect. For those looking to travel to Vancouver in the coming months, this…
A much anticipated luxury Marriott hotel will be opening in less than a week... The brand new Tokyo EDITION Toranomon will be opening on October 20, 2020. Unfortunately Japan's borders are closed to most, so it may be a while until many of us will be…
I spend way too many nights per year overnighting at JFK (or at least did before the pandemic). I was excited when I saw the announcement that there's a Hyatt Regency coming to JFK, but now I can't decide if it sounds awesome or awful... The Hyatt Regency…
In 2018 we saw Hyatt and Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) launch a partnership, allowing World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points for stays at SLH properties. In this post I wanted to take a closer look at how exactly this partnership works.…
Marriott may be losing up to 122 hotels in the coming months, which represents around 1.5% of its global portfolio. Marriott doesn't actually own most of its hotels, but rather they're owned by investment companies, and then Marriott just has a contract…
In September 2019, IHG announced a potentially interesting partnership, which could greatly increase its portfolio of luxury hotels. This was supposed to launch in early 2020, but ended up being delayed due to coronavirus -- well, there's finally an…
A few months back I wrote about how a Ritz-Carlton could be coming to the Maldives. Well, the hotel is now accepting reservations, and you can even redeem points here, so I wanted to go over all the details. Marriott has signed an agreement to bring…
For those of you not familiar with Amex Offers, it’s a program available through most Amex cards, where different cards are eligible for different savings and bonus offers. In many cases, the offers can be huge, and more than offset the annual fee on…
Mandarin Oriental and Oberoi have announced a strategic alliance, which I find interesting for just how uninteresting it is, at least for now... I think? Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and The Oberoi Group have announced a strategic alliance, which they're…
Hilton's luxury portfolio just keeps getting better... It has just been announced that the Monarch Beach Resort will join Hilton's portfolio as a Waldorf Astoria property. The exact date for the transition hasn't yet been announced, though I'll be sure…
After spending a night at Jumeirah Frankfurt (following our coronavirus test at Frankfurt Airport), our next stop was Hamburg. That's because my mom had been in Hamburg for a couple of weeks, so our plan was to spend a few nights there, before finally…
Hilton is gaining an iconic property in the United Arab Emirates... Jumeirah is a Dubai-based hospitality company, and it's the brand behind the iconic Burj Al Arab, the world's self-proclaimed seven star hotel. After the Burj Al Arab, I'd argue that…
While Frankfurt wasn't our final destination in Germany, we spent a night there for a couple of reasons: Winston hates flying, so we wanted to fly nonstop from Miami to Frankfurt to minimize Winston's flying time (and then we'd drive to Hamburg, and…
Thailand has some of the strictest defamation laws in the world. An American man living in Thailand is experiencing this firsthand right now, as he's being sued for a negative hotel review that he left online. A Facebook user shares how a friend of a…
Skift has the story of some interesting comments made by Marriott CEO Arne Sorneson in favor of "hygiene theater," and I'm not sure I disagree with him. For the travel industry to recover in any sort of a substantial way, more needs to be done to make…
For those of you not familiar with Amex Offers, it’s a program available through most Amex cards, where different cards are eligible for different savings and bonus offers. In many cases, the offers can be huge, and more than offset the annual fee on…
One of my favorite Luxury Collection properties seems to have quietly left Marriott... Las Alcobas is a Marriott Luxury Collection property in Napa Valley, California. I had the chance to stay at the 68-room property about a year ago, and had a phenomenal…
After a significant delay, the Park Hyatt Auckland has finally opened its doors... too bad most of us won't be able to visit anytime soon, as New Zealand's borders are oh-so-closed. Park Hyatt is one of my favorite hotel brands, and we've seen some noticeable…
