Loyalty Traveler

Hotels-and-Points provides room rate analysis and savings tips for frequent guests.   

• Show you ways to find lower prices for hotel nights.

• Analyze hotel guest program promotions and potential savings opportunities.

• Explain the benefits of hotel brand loyalty and hotel guest elite status.

Hotels-and-Points is a specialized information publication designed for hotel frequent guest travelers. 

  Chances are that you don’t know about many of the great hotel stay promotions currently available through hotel loyalty programs in the major chains of Hyatt, Hilton, InterContinental, Marriott, and Starwood Hotels.

  FlyerTalk.com is a bulletin board which will discuss 95%+ travel bargain and loyalty program topics. If you want the best source for free information, then FlyerTalk.com is the place to start.  I have participated in FlyerTalk discussions for over 8 years and one of the reasons I started Hotels-and-Points is to have a resource that filters out the best loyalty program information to focus primarily on hotel loyalty programs.

  In the years I have analyzed travel planning on the internet, the primary difficulty with efficient travel planning has transformed from a problem of finding accurate and expert information to one of filtering through all the expert information and opportunities to focus on the best values in travel.

  Who does not want to fly in First Class and stay at a five star hotel?

Budget is the primary factor in travel planning.  The reality is deciding how much you can afford and then finding the best deals in your budget range. I have done the First Class frequent flier lifestyle and it is great. For several years I managed to reach top elite, 100,000-mile frequent flier status, for around $3,000 per year price tag. Flying is a significant investment of time and money. Planning frequent flier status and staying on top of airline promotions is challenging and time-consuming. I have worked as a consultant and I was employed as an airline loyalty programs analyst for First Class Flyer.

  Can you find most of the hotel loyalty program information and promotions on the internet for free? Sure you can. 
Will you find all the information? Unlikely.

Hotels-and-Points informs you about the best promotions available from the major hotel chains. The report covers lucrative promotional values like opportunities to earn enough bonus hotel points for a free night.

(www.PointMaven.com is a good resource for specific hotel promotions). 

  If Hotels-and-Points does not meet your needs, then I’ll refund your money.  I want readers who see the value in hotel loyalty programs.  For some readers, the Hotels-and-Points report will open doors to the world of travel, and for others, the newsletter will be of little interest. I back up my work with a money-back guarantee.

You may think, "I already know how to find low hotel rates so what can Hotels-and-Points do for me?" 

I know there are many of you who are as well-versed or even better informed about a specific hotel loyalty program.  Honestly, I have to rely to degree on other people's anecdotes about elite status and program benefits because a single person would require over 200 nights per year in hotels to have top elite status in all 5 major loyalty programs.  Hotels-and-Points keeps tabs on the best promotions across more than 40 hotel brands.

• You may not have known about a free instant upgrade to Hyatt Platinum elite status for new enrollees if all you do is follow Starwood and Hilton promotions.

• You may not have known that you could have earned free nights at Le Meridien hotels during a Starwood promotion by planning your vacation hotel stays at Le Meridien and paying $20/night more than the hotels you actually booked.

• You may not have known that you could pay $50 and buy Priority Club points and book a PointBreaks award night at the InterContinental instead of paying $219 for the Marriott in Berlin.

I analyze hotel loyalty promotions for their potential value in earning free hotel nights, bonus points, and elite status. I cover the major promotions across the hotel brands to share the most lucrative and generally widespread geographical applicability promotions.

Hotels-and-Points is not designed for everyday travel interest reading.

Hotels-and-Points is a specialized publication with a narrow focus on hotel loyalty programs and strategies for saving money when booking 4-star and 5-star hotels around the world. Readers are more likely to be the hotel travelers staying in hotel suites for hundreds of dollars less than other paying guests.

Hotels-and-Points will focus your hotel planning by directing you to some of the best currently available promotional values, even if that does mean you still need to get on the computer and make your own travel arrangements.

Loyalty has privileges.

 

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Sheraton Libertador Presidential Suite

(June 2007)  $400 added value with complimentary upgrade on a $163 room rate.

 

Hotels-and-Points articles show you how to calculate hotel points earnings and strategies for lowering the per night room rate on your hotel stays.

I am convinced that the number one reason travelers are not using hotel frequent guest programs to a greater extent is the inability to determine the value of  the benefits of hotel brand loyalty.  Elite status in a guest loyalty program can easily provide $100 in added value on most hotel stays through complimentary room upgrades, amenity gifts, and program bonuses in the form of hotel points and free hotel nights.

 

Bali, Indonesia  Starwood, Luxury Collection, Nusa Dua Resort 

$150/night added value complimentary upgrade for this poolside junior suite stay.

 

October 2007  Theme: Hotel Added Value	Page Number
Priority Club Triple Points or Miles Fall 2007 Promotion	2-5
Marriott Rewards Points Purchase	6
Marriott Rewards Free Stay Chart - Best Values Analysis	7
Hilton HHonors Points Purchase	8-9
Starwood Cash & Points offers	10-11
Comparison of spending required for a free San Francisco night - Hyatt wins among the major 5 hotel corporations	12

 

 

“The average rate for room nights booked through travel agents for the second quarter of 2007 was 45 percent higher than the average rate for room nights booked via the Internet for the same period. Travel agent bookings represented 78.4 percent of total room nights.” - Source: TravelCLICK’s quarterly e-monitor results.

http://www.modernagent.com/Resources/Editorial.aspx?n=32266

A traveler will be able to save money and book a much more luxurious vacation by learning how to book hotel deals yourself and know you are getting a better deal than 90% of the other travelers at the same hotel as you.

The purpose of Loyalty Traveler  and our newsletter, Hotels-and-Points is to show travelers how to use the internet to save money on travel expenses. Statistics like these from TravelCLICK make me feel good that I am educating the traveling public on ways to get a better deal.  In 5 years the Euro has gone from being worth $0.85 US to $1.47 US.  A room rate of 200 Euro that cost $170 in 2002 is now $294 US in 2007.  Travelers need to know how to find the best deals on upscale and luxury hotels when traveling internationally. 

Another statistic in the report states 78.4% of total hotel room nights booked are made through travel agents. And the agents are booking hotel rates 45% higher on average than travelers who book their own on the internet. That is a huge pool of money being spent unnecessarily by travelers who rely on travel agents for hotel bookings.

Your first step as a traveler is to get on the internet and book your own hotel travel.
Hotels-and-Points provides you with simple mathematical analyses of hotel rates and ways to reduce the nightly hotel rate. While the article may use a San Francisco , New York, or London hotel for the article example, the method of calculating hotel points value and rate discount strategies are applicable to hundreds or thousands of hotels across the globe.  A method for finding a rate discount at a Marriott in San Francisco will likely apply to a hotel in Cleveland, Ohio or Sydney, Australia.  The feature of most hotel frequent guest promotions is the eligibility to earn the promotion at most of the hotel chains properties worldwide. 

2.  Find ways of getting lower rates through the internet channels available. 

The functional purpose behind Hotels-and-Points, is its role as a consumer newsletter for travelers.  Hotels-and-Points provides travelers step-by-step tutorials to help the traveler navigate through the internet booking options and come up with ways to book a better rate than 90% of the internet shoppers booking their own hotel room nights.

Loyalty Traveler's Hotels-and-Points newsletter provides hotel rate savings strategies. Our goal is to provide educational consumer skills for travelers looking to travel more for less money.

 

Hotels-and-Points is published by a hotel frequent guest for travelers who desire to save money on their own upscale hotel travel.

 

 

Hotels & Points Report

by Loyalty Traveler

Ric Garrido, editor

831-649-1499

P.O. Box 1684

Monterey, CA 93942-1684

ricgarrido@hotels-and-points.com