HotelChatter contributing editor Tim Leffel is moving around British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, seeing the hotel scene from a family travel perspective. All prices are in Canadian dollars--which currently trade slightly higher than U.S. dollars. Enjoy.
The Marriott Pinnacle Vancouver comes across as your basic high-rise business hotel, but with a gracious staff and a hotel restaurant that gets high marks on its own, this one is a cut above the norm.
You will recognize the furniture and the bedding as it sticks to very bland Marriott look, but the service goes beyond business traveler briskness to help tourists make the most of their time in the city.
While it's not quite a cash-back incentive for travelers who have to pay the new checked baggage fees, Marriott's loyalty program, Marriott Rewards has teamed up with The Luggage Club to allow its members to use their points to ship luggage.
Travelers' baggage can be picked up at their home, office or location of choice and delivered to their final travel destination, and returned again at the end of their trip. Plus, The Luggage Club has no limits on size, weight or number of pieces that can be shipped.
The Luggage Club however is not cheap. We checked rates to ship a 70lb upright bag from LA to NJ and the cheapest rate was about $245. And that was for our bag to be in transit for five days on either end of the trip.
Marriott Rewards points can be used as gift cards in increments of $50, $100, $250 and $500. So you might not be able to pay for all of that bag shipping but you can probably get a nice discount.
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Avoid a room on this side of the Marriott Hotel Jackson in Mississippi unless you have a particular fascination with parking lots. Personally we'd rather stare at closed curtains than look out over these pretty bland buildings and endless rows of cars.
The Marriott Jackson website does freely admit that the hotel is in the heart of the business and government district, and since they've just done a multi-million dollar renovation, the inside must be looking much better than the view. Rates start at $139 a night with romantic getaway packages (romantic view not included) from $149 including champagne and strawberries.
The opening party for the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel has received all sorts of love and attention from its corporate parent, Marriott. From its own Flickr set, to a YouTube video, the hotel's opening is probably one of the most-promoted Marriott openings in recent history.
But what we were even more pleased to learn about was the creation of Celtics-inspired cocktails that were served at the party:
Two signature martinis were also created in celebration of the Boston Celtics' 17th victory in the NBA's Championship. Downstairs at the party, the Celtics' 3 Point Shot featured Stoli Blakberi, fresh cranberry and orange juice, served with a fresh orange and blackberry garnish. Upstairs, the Seventeeni (pictured on the left) combined vodka, Midori and fresh pineapple juice, straight up in all its green glory.
What? No "Anything is Possible" Cosmo or "I Am Certified" shots? Also, we think Ray Allen deserves his name on that 3 Point Shot drink but we won't bicker about that now.
Rooms at the hotel are available now, starting at around $249 a night.
Calling all Fertile Myrtles and their significant others: you can be one with the sea turtles and conceive your child at the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort!
Oh no, we're not kidding. Their Fertile Turtle package (greatest package name ever) is indeed meant for couples who are interested in pregger-nating on their vacation:
As sea turtles are known as a symbol of fertility, lovebirds have the opportunity to watch sea turtles eggs hatch, right on the resort's very own three-mile stretch of beach, while trying to fertilize an egg of their own.
Bill Marriott's baby boy, David Marriott, 34, was just named Regional Vice President of hotel operations in New York City, Baltimore and Philadelphia -- three of Marriott's key markets.
Is he being groomed to take over the family company? Maybe, says the Washington Post:
Although Bill Marriott, who recently turned 76, says he has no plans to retire soon, that hasn't stopped rampant speculation about his successor, especially because in the company's 81 years there have been only two chief executives, both with the last name Marriott. The topic is so sensitive that most people in the hotel industry will not talk publicly about it.
In his new position, David will be the go-to guy for hotel ops in those three cities, and he'll get to experiences all facets of the day-to-day operations of the properties.
Is he being groomed to be THE Marriott in charge when Bill Marriott eventually retires to become a full-time blogger? Time will tell.
Ok. If you are a devoted reader of HotelChatter and you catch our semi-regular recaps on Bill Marriott's "Marriott on the Move" blog, then you will know that we have always doubted that Bill, at the tender age of 76, is a real blogger.
In fact, in our last recap of a Marriott post we surmised how Bill "writes" his blog posts.
The protocol we believe goes from Bill Marriott to his secretary's steno pad, then to her typewriter then to the communications department via interoffice memo...
While we still don't know the exact protocol of the blog writing, Bill did confess to not writing every blog post. Derek Gale at Hotels Magazine reports:
Mr. Marriott also admitted this morning that when it comes to his blog, he write some of the posts, and his PR department writes and fleshes out some of the posts for him. But he says most of the ideas are his, and notes that he is "still waiting for my commission" on the US$4 million in business that has been booked from his blog!
Sigh. It's like this, we knew the truth would be ugly. But we aren't prepared to deal with this heartbreak so early in the AM.
Gone are the fantasies of us and Bill blogging and laughing side-by-side in Starbucks, tagging one another on Facebook pictures, lugging our laptops through the airports together, helping each other search under hotel room desks for outlets, griping about internet fees on our check-out bill--oh the pain is too much! The future looked so bright for us.
Alas, he was not the blogger we hoped him to be. But the folks at Marriott's communication dept. deserve a big raise.
According to Mr. M's latest post he stopped by his property's latest roll-out -- welcomed by adoring staff and the hotel's general manager.
They took a see-through elevator ride to check out the overhaul, spearheaded by architect John Portman, whose other properties include the New York Marriott Marquis, the Westin Warsaw, and the Hyatt Regency Hangzhou.
Portman is a big fan of immense, dramatic atriums, and the Atlanta Marriott delivers -- according to Bill, it has a 47-story atrium, a gargantuan indoor sculpture reminiscent of an oriental letter, a unique semi-convex exterior, a lobby bar, Pulse, that sits beneath a giant blue sail that changes color throughout the day, and thousands of feet of meeting space.
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by Tim L.
