When it comes to finding the best hotel deals, it's always best to shop around, a mantra that pretty much everyone but our dog knows by now. (Then again he's pretty smart. We bet he would do it for some "human" food.)
Shopping around usually means comparing the rates offered on two or three third-party booking sites next to what the hotel is offering. It may also involve doing some more research on message boards if you are looking at blind bidding sites like Hotwire or Priceline. HotelChatter's Deals Guru Tim Leffel explains all here.
And don't forget about loyalty program rewards points, credit card points, AAA discounts and the like.
But lately, we have been seeing a trend where the hotel is offering either the same or sometimes less rates than the third-party booking sites. And more and more hotels are offering Best Price Guarantees--meaning if you found a better price on another site, the hotel will match that price.
Today's WSJ has an article about guests' frustrations with the recent hotel smoking bans implemented by big box chain hotels like Marriott and most recently, Sheraton.
This of course, is not news to us as our Open Thread: Marriott Smoking Ban as been steadily added to for a year and a half. Indeed the story from at least one guest featured in the WSJ's article, came straight from a HotelChatter member. The reporter Sarah Nassauer even contacted us directly about speaking to our Hotel Mavens and thus we set her up with some sources. (Sadly, there's no mention of this in her article.)
Anyways, thanks to all of you who keep contributing to the OpenThread--you're really giving fellow hotel guests some useful info so please don't stop. If you want to contribute your own experiences, you can do so here for Marriott's ban or here for Sheraton's ban.
In other news: · The Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach has started its $170 million makeover. Plans include a new guest tower, pools and cabanas, and a rooftop garden with sky bar. [Hospitality Design] · Luxury Hotel Scene in Sonoma, Calif.? [Bloomberg] · Two good reasons to avoid the Chateau Marmont: Nicky and Paris Hilton. [PageSix] · Desperate to watch Oscar-nominated movies before the Oscars? You could always rent a cheap hotel room with LodgeNet offerings. Or do what we did last year, fly Qantas to Australia and back and make use of seat-back TV screens. [Little Blog on the Prairie]
[HotelChatter OpenThreads are a place for readers to get in here and talk about hot stories and issues of the day in an open forum.
If you are already a HotelChatter member log in to comment, if not become a member for free and comment away.]
Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced the further de-smokification of their brands with 300 Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton locations in the US, Caribbean and Canada going smoke-free by December 31st, 2008. Previously in January 2006, Sheraton's sister brand Westin went smoke-free throughout the US, Canada and Caribbean - with the properties in Fuji, Australia and Scotland following due to its popularity, and Marriott announced a similar policy in 2006 as well.
What this means is over 8,000 rooms where guests were previously allowed to smoke will undergo extensive cleaning, public spaces will undergo the same process. Not to worry, those who just cannot bear to be away from a smoke will still be able to utilize designated smoking areas at each property.
What will this mean for Sheraton's convention business? Lately Starwood has been repositioning their Sheraton brand as a convention hotel, and according to some of our members who posted on our OpenThread for Marriott's No-Smoking policy, Marriott lost some business due to this change.
What do you think? Will you be more or less likely to book a room in a Sheraton or Four Points because of the non-smoking policy? Does it make a difference to you one way or another? Chime in this OpenThread and let us know!
Hotel Riverview residents and its past guests are strongly against the Goode/MacPherson takeover. No surprise here, although if you didn't know it yet, G & M are probably working with BD Hotels--they of the embittered Hotel Chelsea takeover.
The comments and emails about the historic hotel's transition to a hip West Village boutique hotel are filling up our inboxes and burning up our comments feed, particularly under this story about the pending eviction of tenants.
This group is also protesting the notion that the hotel is full of drunks, drug addicts or homeless people--as suggested by the tipster who told us that Goode and MacPherson had officially purchased the hotel. Here's one guest's response to that characterization.
I have served five years in the US Army, Attended the University of Hawaii and traveled through eight countries. I was, am not and will never be any of those adjective you used so gallantly.
You need to be taught some respect for people's transitions as we all have human experiences. I wish Messrs. Macpherson and Goode all the best on their new project. As for you and your tipster, try another angle, b/c this one is tacky.
Needless to say there's a lot of strong emotions about this pending hotel project and we can't post every email so we urge you to...
On Monday we published the Thompson Hotels Map, to track the aggressive growth of Thompson Hotels. We questioned whether or not Thompson would be able to provide the high level of customer service needed when you pay Thompson prices as they rolled out multiple hotels at the same time.
We all know certain Thompson hotels have had some customer service issues in the past, but when we heard from Stephen Brandman, the Thompson Hotels co-owner, the other day we began to wonder, is Thompson fast tracking so many new "lifestyle" hotels in 2008 because they are aggressively and successfully addressing guest services?
Brandman, who oversees all of Thompson Hotels operations including staff hiring and training, takes his company's service very seriously. He writes:
Our repeat business at all of our hotels is based on great service. Please remember when you charge a lot of money as we do at Thompson Hotels those that can't afford the experience are more likely to blog about it but really are not our customer.
Our hotels are full and continue to beat our comp set in RevPAR index because our repeat business makes us prosperous. We are not like a lot of other hotels that are bars with rooms attached. Even the Roosevelt is vastly improved over the past year.
Your shots at service are based on what? 60 Thompson has become iconic as a hotel, Roosevelt is famously popular and Gaige House is number 42 on Conde Nast yet you frown upon us? 6Columbus is getting great feedback so far...what gives?
Well, actually, our customer service question was based on experiences like this and the overflow in our inbox from hotel insiders who questioned Thompson's commitment to customer service. However, Mr. Brandman may have a point when he cites "improvement in the last year". Even the recent TripAdvisor reviews for the Roosevelt are above average. So Thompson Hotels is working hard to change that bad service reputation around. And we like that Brandman had the balls to email us in defense of his hotel brand.
However, we want to hear what you think. Help us figure out whether service at the 6 or so Thompson Hotels listed below is manifesto worthy.
Marriott put their infamous Smoking Ban into effect last July but the comments are flowing on HotelChatter's Open Thread on the ban.
The latest comes in from Monmikf who says that he was charged a $250 cleaning fee for emptying old cigarette butts into the hotel room trash can although he never actually smoked inside the room. He writes:
The Marriott hotels must understand that these are hotel rooms and not operating rooms. I paid a hotel rate to stay at this hotel which includes the house keeping staff to clean and freshen up a room for the next guest to arrive after I leave.
They have no right to charge a fee if a room has an "odor" after a guest leaves. Some guests leave trash, piss on bed linens and may spill beer in a hotel room. What's the charge for these types of odors?
If you agree or disagree with Monmikf or Marriott, then add your thoughts to the Open Thread. Meanwhile, we will be devising a pay scale for different room odors left behind for guests. It should make for an interesting Monday.
[HotelChatter OpenThreads are a place for readers to get in here and talk about hot stories and issues of the day in an open forum.
If you are already a HotelChatter member log in to comment, if not become a member for free and comment away.]
[HotelChatter OpenThreads are a place for readers to get in here and talk about hot stories and issues of the day in an open forum. If you are already a HotelChatter member log in comment away.]
We are going to be taking more of a closer look at the World of Disney since it's practically the Las Vegas for Families and our inbox is never wrong about what you guys want to know more about.
As you may have noticed we recently did two stories on hotel deals near Mickey's house and some of you sent in your thoughts, critiques, and added information about these said deals--or were they deals at all?
Realizing, that there are an alarming amount of Disney-philes out there armed with more Disney intelligence than exists in Walt's cryogenically frozen head, we decided that you will be our trusted experts on this one.
So instead of reading all the tips and suggestions sent into HotelChatter headquarters by the Disney army, we figured it was time to put up a Disney Deals OpenThread. This is where you can drop off all your tricks for getting hotels, the latest news on Disney hotel deals and if you're nice enough, you can drop off some of your opinions on Disney Deals.
We'll be watching this thread over the next couple of weeks and highlighting what we find to be the most magical comment in the world.
This year we decided to go one step further with our Annual WiFi Report by taking a glance at what's happening internationally.
Last year, after we released the Best and Worst WiFi Hotels a lot of our tips had to do with international properties which you can check out here. Additionally, our editors and tipsters travel quite often and have enlightened us with their hotel wifi experiences in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and beyond.
What we have found is some of the best International WiFi experiences come in individual, and even independent hotels, thus the best way to tackle this is to list these out experience by experience. Unlike our Best and Worst WiFi Hotel lists, the International hotel WiFi report is meant to be an open thread.
If you think the hotel WiFi scene here in the U.S. is frustrating, fragmented and unpredictable, check out these International Hotel WiFi stories, and add your own International hotel wireless story here. Please remember to list the hotel name, location, and wireless connectivity details. Let's keep this to first-hand experiences only. With your help, by this time next year we can get a definitive list of Best and Worst International Hotel WiFi experiences to guide your fellow travelers.
When it comes to finding the best hotel deals, it's always best to shop around, a mantra that pretty much everyone but our dog knows by now. (Then again he's pretty smart. We bet he would do it for some "human" food.)
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by juliana
Marriott put their infamous 
[HotelChatter OpenThreads are a place for readers to 
