Bolt on Points

Hotels

Marriott extending status through February 2022

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Better late than never! Marriott has announced that all members will see their status extended through February 2022. This announcement comes on the heels of Hilton (the first) and Hyatt announcing extensions in March, along with several airlines programs (including United, Delta, Alaska) announcing blanket extensions as well.

The official communication came from Marriott this morning. Beyond the status extension through February 202, the other key takeaway is that prepaid reservations will be allowed cancellations through June 30th, 2020.

For Our Customers
We remain committed to ensuring our customers experience flexibility during these challenging times, so we have further extended our cancellation policy and I wanted to give you an update on those changes.

For guests with existing reservations for any future arrival date, including reservations with pre-paid rates that are typically more restrictive, we will allow full changes or cancellation without a charge up to 24 hours prior to arrival, as long as the change or cancellation is made by June 30, 2020. Please note that any changes to existing reservations will be subject to availability and any rate differences.

For guests making new reservations for any future arrival date, including reservations with pre-paid rates, between March 13 and June 30, 2020, we will allow the reservation to be changed or cancelled at no charge up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival date.

Please continue to visit our website for the most up-to-date information.
For Our Marriott Bonvoy Members

I also want to take a moment to address our Marriott Bonvoy members. Like many of you, frequent travel is a way of life for me and most of the Marriott team. It is the way we connect, get inspired and evolve our business every day. While it is the right thing to do, it’s been hard not to be able to travel. We know that when you get back in the air and on the road, your points and status will be important to you.•Status Extension: We want you to be able to enjoy the status that you earned in 2019. With that in mind, the status you earned in 2019 will be extended to February 2022.•Points Expiration: To provide you ample time to redeem points, the expiration of points will be paused until February 2021. At that time, your points will only expire if your account has been inactive for at least 24 months.
As the days unfold, we will continue to monitor and evolve our program requirements as necessary.

Marriott helping out

Marriott also shared that they’re helping out locally and nationally through a couple of programs:

With support from our credit card partners, American Express and JPMorgan Chase, Marriott has committed to provide $10 million worth of hotel stays for healthcare professionals leading the fight against COVID-19 in the United States. The initiative, called Rooms for Responders, will provide free rooms in some of the areas most impacted including New York City, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C. and Newark, N.J. To implement this initiative, we collaborated with the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Nurses Association to match doctors and nurses with free accommodations at participating hotels.

In a separate effort for frontline healthcare workers, we have joined with a number of our hotel owners and franchisee partners to launch the Community Caregiver Program. This initiative, available in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America, provides significantly discounted rates for first responders and healthcare professionals who want to book rooms at hotels in close proximity to the hospitals where they’re working. The rate is available on Marriott.com at nearly 2,500 hotels.

Both Marriott and the franchises of their hotels deserve a lot of credit for what they’ve contributed to the entire coronavirus response. I know that in my home of San Francisco alone, the city has about 5,000 hotel rooms for those in need during this time. While the city is paying for it, Marriott and franchises are no doubt taking a financial hit, starting with the rate and finishing with a thorough cleaning of the entire buildings.

It’s also awesome to see that they’re providing low cost hotel rooms for healthcare workers near their place of work. Healthcare workers across the country are already maxed out, so hopefully this at least gives a percentage of workers a break from their commutes (at a reasonable rate).

My take

This is another development in the travel world that’s a win for customers. No one should be traveling right now, so I really appreciate the fact that hotels and airlines have taken the incentive out of unnecessary trips.

Personally, I’m happy to be keeping my Ambassador status for another year, however I’m more concerned about whether my actual ambassador is going to be keeping her job. When I emailed her a couple of weeks ago to see how she was doing, I was met with an indefinite out of office. Alie really has been a great steward for not only Marriott, but her members as well. She’s always gone to bat for, and I appreciate how passionate she is about her job. I hope Marriott does that right thing and not only ensures she has a job in thenear future, but is continuing to pay one of the faces of the company to their most valuable customers.

The state of the Marriott Ambassador Program (and Bonvoy)

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Le Meridien Bora Bora

For Marriott loyalists, Ambassador Elite status is the pinnacle. A holdover from the SPG days – and as the name suggests – customers that meet the qualifications get a single point of contact to deal with all things Marriott. In addition, the members get access to the (questionable) Your24 benefit, where theoretically, you can check into a hotel at 10pm after a late flight, and check out at 10pm the following night. I’ve never had success with it and I know a host of others that haven’t as well (it’s up to the hotel’s discretion).

So how do you earn such a status? It used to be that SPG required 100 nights to earn Ambassador status. Since the merger, Marriott has introduced a $20,000 spend requirement as of 2019, which translates to a $200/night average. If you have a Marriott credit card with annual 15 night credit, then the nightly average jumps to about $235.

How the status has evolved

Let me backtrack by stating that even Platinum (50 nights) with SPG was a legendary status. The differentiation between SPG Platinum and the upper levels of Platinum (Plat75 and Ambassador) were much larger than the differentiation between Marriott Platinum, Titanium, and Ambassador. I held Ambassador status with SPG for about three years, which meant for three years, I was pretty much treated as royalty at the hotels I stayed. I frequently got big suite upgrades, along with beer, wine, and snacks waiting for me in my room (ambassadors ask for food and drink preferences upon status achievement).

A welcome gift at the Element Vancouver

The true perk of the status is the single point of contact. If I have any issue with a hotel – an incorrect folio, poor service, or even lost item – I can throw that over the fence to my ambassador who will handle it for me. Further, when trying to plan special occasions, having one person to work with makes a huge difference.

The other big perk is that Ambassador Elite members are theoretically supposed to be at the top of the upgrade queue. I’ll get into this more in a bit.

Overall, I used to think it was worth it to do a mattress run if I was close to achieve Ambassador status. These days, I don’t think it is (especially if you’re short on the spend requirement).

The biggest change is that Marriott is the first word in the program and not Starwood. With that came lots of things, most notably a huge influx of people. Starwood – like Hyatt these days – was always more of a boutique option for hotels. Members had to go out of their way to stay at SPG properties, and in turn, were handsomely rewarded. No matter how high end the property was, elites were always given free breakfast and the ability to upgrade to suites. In fact, the language of the SPG program mandated that if a suite was available at check-in, the hotel must give it to an elite.

These days, you could trip on the sidewalk, look up, and see a Marriott property (almost 8,000 hotels worldwide, compared to Starwood’s 1,500 at the time of merger). With the numbers increasing so much, it’s become hard not to feel like anything but a number with Marriott. The merger by all accounts, didn’t go well from an IT perspective, which certainly didn’t endure goodwill from anyone. Further, all of the additional members have made competition for upgrades even more competitive.

As for the Ambassador program, it too has become a victim of Marriott’s success. Because the spend requirement didn’t kick in until 2019, I imagine that the number of Ambassador users was astronomical in 2019. Marriott never had such a program, but they certainly had thousands – if not tens of thousands – of members that routinely stayed 100 nights. Now that the revenue requirement has kicked in, I imagine that number has depleted some, but nowhere close to where things stood pre-merger.

What’s changed

It had not occurred to me until Leigh and I were at the JW Marriott Phu Quoc in December and she said, “what happened to all the goodies you used to get?” She was of course referring to the bottle of wine or champagne that was routinely left for us upon check-in. At the JW, we were given a drink voucher that was only good during happy hour.

I hadn’t put much thought into it, but she was right. I hadn’t received the same level of service from the hotels as I had in the past. I spent a week or two mulling it over, even asking other ambassador members their thoughts, before emailing my own ambassador to get hers.

Before I get into her response, let me start by saying I lucked out with my ambassador. She’s thorough, helpful, and comes from SPG, so she knows what the intention of the program really was/is. After my email, she called me, saying that I wasn’t the first person to mention that I thought the service of the ambassador program had been deprecated.

A few points from her:

  • The old SPG mantra was under promise and over deliver. These days the Marriott mantra is over promise and under deliver
  • Each ambassador is responsible for more members than the entire ambassador program under SPG (!!!), meaning she can’t possibly provide personalized service. My ambassador is responsible for more than 500 members alone.
  • Ambassadors don’t get any sort of report of when or where their members are staying on a weekly or monthly basis. In practice, this means that if there’s a special stay coming up, you need to let your ambassador know about a week out, otherwise don’t expect much.
  • They continue to have issues – mostly at legacy Marriott hotels – with enforcement of standards and recognition of Ambassador Elites. She alluded that each hotel has a budget to do things for ambassadors, but many still choose not to (again, legacy Marriott hotels). This is why I prefer legacy SPG hotels whenever possible (Westin, W, Luxury Collection, St Regis) to Marriott legacy (Marriott, Courtyard, Ritz).
  • In order to provide better service in 2020, she plans on working extra hours because that’s what we deserve after spending $20k with her employer. I said that’s really not what the solution should be, but rather a better ambassador:member ratio. She alluded that they’re hiring more people, though many of the new hires are questionable in her opinion. 

My Take

On the one hand, I’m sort of relieved to hear it’s not just my imagination that things have gone downhill on the Ambassador side. On the other, it really sucks that Marriott has deprecated such a unique program that did provide some value for its best customers. Marriott is continues to show that it’s going to just be the 800 pound gorilla rather than trying to earn customer loyalty.

The St Regis Florence – celebrating our anniversary

Will this cause me to break up with Marriott? No, but I have already started diverting a good portion of my hotel stays to Hyatt, especially as they continue to grow their footprint. It’s impossible to talk about the Ambassador program without talking about Marriott Bonvoy overall, since they keep moving the goal posts. Examples include:

  • Category changes – Just last week, Marriott announced its annual category changes that will go into effect March 4th, and nearly a third of all properties are changing (22% are increasing in award price, and only7% decreasing). This is a substantial increase in mid-tier properties and will negatively affect far more people that the Gritti Palace or St Regis Maldives increasing in price. This is on top of the introduction of Category 8 in March 2019, meaning the highest priced hotels went from 60k/night to 100k/night within 6 months, a 67% increase!
  • Peak pricing – The bait and switch introduction of peak/off peak pricing in September 2019 was not what anyone (blogger, or otherwise) thought would be the case. Marriott sold it as being based on seasonality (i.e., ski resorts costing less in summer), but in fact, it’s dynamic pricing that’s based on occupancy. In practice, this means that the sooner you book, the better rate you get.
  • No blackout dates – Marriott promised to adopt SPG’s policy of no blackout dates as long as a standard room was available. What came to pass was hotels being given the ability to designate a small fraction of rooms as a standard rooms, then play games with whether it was available or not. I’ve seen this myself at the Los Alcobas Napa Valley, and all you have to do is visit any Marriott forum to see a list of others not playing by the rules. Even months out, there will be seemingly no availability, even when standard rooms are available using cash.

Eventually, Marriott’s degradation of the program will catch up with it, I just don’t know that it’ll be anytime soon. Their footprint is massive and they really do have a huge portfolio of aspirational properties. As for the Ambassador Program, it’s a nice-to-have, but nothing worth going out of your way for, especially given the revenue requirement.

My strategy moving forward is to keep Marriott Platinum (50 nights) or Titanium (75 nights), which includes the 15 night credit from any number of Marriott Bonvoy cards (like the Bonvoy Brilliant card from American Express). I’ll then spend the rest of my time in Hyatt properties, because as a Globalist (60 nights), I find that I’m treated as well or better than many Marriott properties, without the hoops to jump through.

What are your thoughts on Marriott’s changes to the Ambassador program or the Bonvoy Program overall?

Review: Las Alcobas Napa Valley

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I decided to surprise Leigh for her birthday with a trip to Napa Valley. From our house in San Francisco, it’s about 2 hours on a normal day. On the Friday afternoon we went, it ended up being 3+ to get to St Helena, which is on the northern end of the valley.

We ended up arriving around 5 on the first Friday in November. Despite all of the news about the fires in Sonoma and Napa counties, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Having lived in the Bay Area during other devastating fires, I wavered on whether we should go through with the trip. Ultimately I decided that we should still go, especially since the Las Alcobas hotel is notoriously hard to book on points. Marriott has given hotels too much leeway – in my opinion – to deem what is and isn’t a standard room. At the Las Alcobas, it appears that they only make one or two available for the entire property.

Booking

I booked this weekend approximately 8 months in advance; prior to the March 9 addition of Category 8 hotels. My preplanning paid off: the Las Alcobas would be moving up to a Category 8, so locking it down at the Category 7 level of 60k points per night ended up being a steal, especially at a hotel the usually goes for around upwards of $1000/night.

The Stay

Driving north on Highway 128, you’d be forgiven if you missed the entrance. Upon turning into the property, the driveway winds up and around the (main) Acacia House and into a cul-de-sac, where the valet resides. We were warmly greeted by the valet attendant, followed by Angie, the front desk attendant that would show us to our room. Since I’d already checked in on the mobile app, there was no paperwork other than a signature.

The Acacia House

She gave us a brief history on the property, showed us the spa, and then walked us to our room. We went up to the third floor, to room 332. Though I was annoyed at how late we arrived, it turned it to make for an incredible entrance to the room. The Golden Hour was upon us, and the view was made that much more spectacular.

Grape harvest had just happened in the weeks prior, so the many of the vines had already turned a fire orange to crimson red color. This is absolutely the best time of year to visit wine country.

The room itself was spacious and was tastefully – but minimally – decorated. Considering the view, I see no reason to inundate the room with bright colors or other unnecessary things.

The main bathroom didn’t skimp on the marble
The half bath

One thing that made this room unique is that it had a Japanese toilets. If you’ve ever been to Japan, or even heard about Japanese toilets, you know that it’s a night and day experience from typical western toilets. Complete with automatic seat lifting and shutting, a heated seat, and remote to control all of the “other options”, this bathroom is exactly what I want in my house. If only I wasn’t renting…

The bathrooms also provided Momo toiletries, which incidentally is what W Hotels are switching to. After using the products I can say I’m a big fan. Though I do love Bliss toiletries, I think the aroma is outdated.

The room also had a French press with freshly ground coffee, which was nice, however the directions were confusing AF. We use a French press everyday and the instructions made little sense. I can imagine for those not familiar with how much coffee or time a french press takes, this sheet might be confusing. I loved the kettle too, since it had several temperature settings, which was perfect for the Napa Valley Tea Company tea that was provided in the room.

The hotel also offered daily fitness classes, which we never made it to.

The most impressive aspect of the room was the lanai. It had a daybed, two padded rocking chairs, and a fire pit. One of the reasons Napa Valley is so renowned for its wine is because of the temperature swings. It was between 75-80 degrees during the day, and high 40s at night. I can’t think of a better in-room design aspect at any hotel, and we absolutely put it to good use. There’s no better way to end a day than watching the sun go down over the vineyards.

The Property

Although it was 50 degrees, we decided to check out the pool the first morning. We wore our robes and slippers, all the while sipping our coffee to stay warm. The pool was heated, but Leigh and I both couldn’t help but think how nice a hot tub would’ve been.

We also decided to check out the spa before breakfast. Still in our robes, we entered the spa and were greeted by Lisa and Manuel. Atrio Spa‘s concept is global, in that they’re taking the best types of massages from around the world and combining them into one or multiple sessions. They make all of their own oils in house as well. If I could describe Atrio in one word: zen.

We wanted to take advantage of the steam room, which is free of charge for guests. When we told Lisa that we just wanted to relax, she helped us pick out our own essential oil to add to the steam. Our choice: eucalyptus and orange.

After about 30 minutes, we’d decided that we’d effectively rid ourselves from the previous night’s wine. We rinsed off in the locker room areas, then made our way to the spa lounge / relaxation room.

The lounge included tea service, some nuts, dried fruits, and flavored water. The feel was serene. We had some local tea that was fantastic. Leigh and I were both so relaxed I thought we might melt into the seats.

After our relaxing hour or so at the spa, we wanted to have a quick look at the fitness center in the event we gained some motivation to workout. We did not.

Walking to the fitness center, you walk past the bridge that takes you to Beringer Winery. Guests of the hotel can get BOGO tastings. At $40 each, that’s a nice savings at one of Napa Valley’s most historic wineries.

Food and Beverage

The night prior, we began our evening with a drink at the Acacia House. The vibe really felt like a living room that happened to have a bar. With seating for only about 15 people inside, it was inviting. I ordered the a mezcal negroni which was actually a nice combo. The smokiness of the mezcal played off nicely with the sweet but bitterness of the Campari. Leigh had a glass of wine. Drinks were average for the area: $14-$16 for mixed drinks and $12-$50 for wine.

Fast forward back to our spa morning, we made our way to breakfast (we changed out of our robes finally). As an Ambassador Elite, we received $39 each for breakfast; alcohol was excluded. We put the money to good use, though we still had plenty leftover.

The first day I order the fried chicken sandwich was massive. It was a solid west coast effort, however being from the south, I’ve had better. 😉 Leigh’s food was good, but not standout like either one of my meals. To be fair, she had a “boring” omelette one morning and huevos rancheros the next (which was a miss).

The next day I got the burger, which was a highlight. It was done diner style, with two thin patties, and was far juicer than it looks in the photo.

Service

Before arrival, I was in frequent contact with Mary, the concierge. She couldn’t have been more helpful with setting up a tasting at Alpha Omega winery, where guests get free tastings! Normally they’re $50 per person, so this is a great perk. She also helped with dinner reservations. Keith, the other concierge, was also a pleasure to deal with once we were onsite.

Overall the entire staff was wonderful: from the bartenders, to housekeeping, to the front desk, to the valets…everyone was smiling and looking for ways to improve your stay. I will say breakfast was incredibly slow both mornings despite not being crowded.

Summary

We’ve stayed at some great properties in North America, but I think Las Alcobas just might be my favorite hotel in North America. Everything about the stay was top notch and to make it better, I never felt nickel and dimed. Many high-end properties have a way of not including much in their exorbitant rates, however Las Alcobas included everything. Valet parking, free wine tastings, and a welcome half bottle of champagne: all included in the room rate. Noticeably absent from the property: resort fees.

The only fault I can find is the lack of award availability. At less than 70 rooms, I get that they can’t have everyone there on points, but it’s laughably hard to get in on points. With that said, I can’t recommend this property enough. We will be back, even if the hotel’s scarce award space doesn’t make an appearance.

Resort Fees and really expensive water

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Sheraton Kona Resort lobby

Greetings from SFO! I just arrived back from a weekend on the Big Island of Hawaii. While my brother and I had an awesome time, I can’t help but think about the bad taste that the hotel left me. The Sheraton Kona Resort is and was an overall fine place to stay; good location, killer views, and large rooms, but overall the property could use an update.

I may write a review of the property later, but I want to focus on a specific topic that really makes my blood boil: resort fees. These opaque fees typically include things like bottled water, local calls, WiFi, fitness center access, and maybe some activities that you may or may not want to use. Make no mistake, these fees are used by hotels to mask the total cost of a stay and typically range from $20-$50/night. These fees are used across hotel chains, so they’re equal opportunity offenders. The other thing about resort fees? They’re mandatory, meaning there is no employee or manager that can or will waive them.

The Sheraton Kona had a $30 a day fee, which included:

  • Designer tote bag
  • Complimentary Kona trolley rides
  • Guided cultural and historical tour of Kiholo bay 
  • Hula lessons 
  • Lei making 
  • Ukulele lessons
  • 2 bottles of water per day
  • Mid-day refreshments by the pool
  • Complementary access to hospitality room (if your room is not available for late check-out, they can check you into this room)
  • Complimentary access to fitness center
  • Unlimited use of lawn games
  • Unlimited bicycle rental
  • Unlimited local calls
  • 30 min of long distance calls per day
  • Complimentary use of binoculars 
  • Welcome lei and elixir
  • Complimentary wifi

This list was not reviewed with us at check-in, probably because providing value in the fee isn’t important, but collecting revenue is. What that means is that I would need to know that midday refreshments were offered at the pool as part of the fee, then ask when, where, and what time. We were not offered the “designer tote bag” and the welcome elixir consisted of watered down juice served in cone-shaped paper cups (fancy!). This just screams we want to make this fee worthwhile, doesn’t it?

We were there for three nights, Thursday through Sunday, and many of the activities or lessons don’t happen on the weekends. The only thing on the list that was of any value is the trolly ride into town, saving us some money on an Uber/taxi. That said, it’s already free, the only thing the hotel did was arrange a stop on property. Looking further down the list, local and long distance calls is a laughable perk, wifi is already included for those with any Marriott status, and calling 2 bottles of water in a place that has excellent tap water is ridiculous. At $30/day, this might be the world’s most expensive water!

For our stay, I used points, and unlike Hyatt and Hilton, Marriott does not waive resort fees for award stays. So after three nights of resort and parking fees ($20 a night), our total bill came to $150 before taxes. Since I have to pay taxes on the resort fees, the actual out of pocket becomes about $38/night. So much for a “free stay”! Rates for this property typically go for somewhere between $139-189, making the resort fee a hidden 15-21% markup.

Resort fees add up quickly

Even though Marriott is out of step compared to other programs, the fact that resort fees are even legal is something being challenged in court as I write this. Resort fees are becoming more prevalent, especially in the US, and as the lawsuit says that hotels collected about $3 billion dollars worth of fees in 2018.

There are some fees that can be worth it, but they’re few and far between. For instance, the St Regis New York has a $50 fee, but includes a $100 food and beverage credit and MoMa museum tickets. These kinds of inclusions are the exception.

My take

Resort fees assume that hotels know what customers want, using a one-size fits all approach. For me personally, even if the fees were clearly explained, I probably wouldn’t have used any of them because they don’t match my travel habits.

As I see it, the path forward on resort fees includes:

  1. Until (and if) resort fees are finally killed, Marriott needs to match their competitors and waive resort (and parking) fees for award stays. Nothing says thank you for your loyalty like a mandatory $150 hotel bill while still burning points.
  2. More broadly, the FTC needs to take a hard stance against resort fees and make hotels in include them in the rate they show. For a family staying for a week on their only vacation for the year, this amounts to hundreds of dollars of undisclosed fees that will likely alter their ability to pay for other things on their trip. Resort fees aren’t transparent and don’t show the full cost of a stay, which again, is the intent. The Department of Transportation did this several years ago with the airlines, which is why the price you see when searching is the price you pay (though with basic economy, it now includes less). Further, hotels like the Sheraton Kona are charging the fees and not providing additional service beyond what you would already expect at a resort in Hawaii. Resort fees cheapen the overall resort experience by nickel and diming customers with fees they didn’t know about.