Hotel Loyalty

The IHG Ambassador Program is made up of a loyalty status that you can pay for (IHG Ambassador) and a status which you can only attain via an invitation from IHG (Royal Ambassador). The former costs $200 to join (more information here) while the criteria for Royal Ambassador are not published and appear to change from year to year.

Since Marriott introduced its new award chart in August it has been possible to book awards at numerous aspirational properties around the world for just 60,000 points per night but, sadly, that's only going to be the pricing for a limited time. The window to book these properties for 60,000 points per night will probably close on 1 January 2019 when Marriott is expected to introduce a Category 8 level into its award chart - a category into which all the aspirational properties will be placed.

Before Marriott Rewards and SPG were merged Marriott didn’t officially offer its elites upgrades to suites. Very occasionally (and usually on short trips) Marriott properties have upgraded me to a suite in the past but, more often than not, the upgrades I’ve received have been to a slightly larger room on a high floor. That’s always been fine for me as I rarely need the space that a suite offers but I know that the lack of suite upgrades has been a bugbear for some. Those crying out for suite upgrades had their wish granted when Marriott updated its elite benefits following the merger of the Marriott Rewards and SPG loyalty programs but, now that the new rules are in place, I’m not sure guests will be getting what they may expect.

I really like Mandarin Oriental hotels...and that's coming from someone who has never actually spent a night at a Mandarin Oriental property in his life. I've visited a good number of the chain's properties around the world but I've only ever been inside to look around, to enjoy a great bar (Las Vegas) or to dine (London, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Milan) but each time I've noticed just how good and attentive the service seems to be.

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (which was always a mouthful) has been rebranded as the "Radisson Hotel Group" with immediate effect and alongside the group's name change come changes to the group's loyalty program too.

Hilton has been putting through a number of changes to its Honors loyalty program recently and, having sat back and taken a look at what's been happening, I'm not sure I understand what Hilton is up to. From where I'm sitting it would appear as if a large portion of the chain's customers no longer have all that much incentive to make more stays at Hilton properties than they may otherwise have done....and isn't that what the Honors program is supposed to encourage?

On a recent visit to the JW Marriott Hong Kong I found myself at the front desk politely requesting a room upgrade my Platinum status entitles me to (per Marriott's own rules). I posted this fact in my review of the property and a reader commented that he agreed with my stance but that a poster on Flyertalk had said that requesting an upgrade was "gauche" (even if it's an upgrade you're entitled to).

Marriott's takeover of Starwood threw into question the future of the hotel chain's credit card contract. Marriott has traditionally had its co-branded cards issued by Chase while Starwood has had a long association with Amex and we've been waiting to hear what the outcome of recent negotiations would be. Now we know.

IHG purchased Kimpton back in 2015 but, at the time, chose not to integrate Kimpton’s Karma Rewards program in to its own IHG Reward program. This was seen by many as a peace offering to Kimpton loyalists who didn’t want to see their preferred boutique chain engulfed by the IHG behemoth. Since then there have been various rumors circling around as to what IHG had planned for Kimpton Karma Rewards, but nothing much ever seemed to happen….until today.

It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone when I say that you should never take at face value anything a loyalty program representative says/types when they announce something. Loyalty programs have been lying to members for as long as I can remember and, while the person delivering the message may not be aware that he/she is lying, someone high up inside the loyalty program always knows exactly what they're doing.

I'm certainly not going to put myself forward as an expert on all things Hilton but a recent change Hilton has made to the wording of how its "5th Night Free" benefit works reads like a massive devaluation to me.

All of the big hotel chains offer some sort of a "best price guarantee" but, as the hotel chains have started to use any excuse to weasel out of their own guarantee, they have become more of a marketing gimmick than an actual benefit to customers. Hilton is the latest of the big-chain hotels to change its best price guarantee and, as long as you can get the chain to honor it, the change could be a positive one for a lot of travelers.

The May Fair is a hotel that falls under the umbrella of the Club Carlson loyalty program and is a property at which I've stayed a few times. In the Club Carlson point heyday (when the top Carlson hotels cost 50,000 points and when you would get the a second award night for free just for having the Club Carlson credit card) this property was fantastic value - you could have a weekend in London's Mayfair for just 50,000 points! Now the same weekend will set you back 140,000 points so things are a little different.