My review of Westin Bahrain City Centre
After two uneventful nights at Hilton Bahrain, I moved to the Westin hotel for a change and, Marriott’s great Q1 promotion of course. Out of all the hospitality groups Marriott does the best job – Ritz Carlton is one of, if not the best hotel of the country, and there are Le Meridien, Westin and Residence Inn too, which are good candidates for point redemptions.
Bahrain is a small city and it took me only 10 minutes to Uber to the Westin. The building’s architecture is very interesting: Westin, Le Meridien and the City Centre shopping mall are share the same complex.
You can navigate between the shopping mall and two hotels indoors very easily, and City Centre has quite a few fast food outlets if you don’t want to travel far. As you need to travel by car to virtually everywhere in Bahrain, the location doesn’t matter much.
Unlike the Hilton I didn’t receive a welcome email, but the check-in experience is nonetheless quite smooth. All hotel staff are very well trained, would stop what they are doing when they see a guest and greet.
My three-night stay is upgraded to a one-bedroom suite at the 8th floor and south facing. The living room is bright and cheerfully designed and it lights up my mood immediately:
Both suites have a very similar layout, but at Westin it is classier and more comfortable. In short it feels more like staying at hotel.
Welcome gift – baklavas:
The brick wall is cute and I like the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The bathroom is connected to both the bedroom and the living room, and it’s quite modern. The glass is switchable.
There is small walk-in wardrobe.
My suite overlooks the high road so there’s barely any view per se, and it goes a bit noisy at times. You might want to pick a north-facing room instead, although don’t have high hopes for the sea view, as you can see from the lounge pictures below.
Take the lift to floor 3 for the swimming pool, which is shared with Le Meridien.
Unfortunately Bahrain in February is way too cold to get into the water.
There is an indoor spa for sauna, steam room and jacuzzi.
Breakfast is served in restaurant Furn, which is located right beside the shopping mall.
The buffet is on a similar standard with what Hilton offers. I tried some fried rice but it’s not fully cooked!
The barista coffee is awesome though, which is not commonly seen at hotel breakfast.
The Westin has a reputable seafood restaurant but their price is really steep. I had a lunch at Furn instead.
Bahrain definitely isn’t cheap – my Spaghetti Bolognese costs £20. Both the spaghetti and local naan are very tasty though.
The Westin Club is located on the 10th floor and manned all day. It’s got a lot of natural light and has a nice layout.
The sea view on the other hand, isn’t very impressive.
Snacks and fruits are available throughout the day, but drinks are served by the waiters only. Happy Hour is 6pm – 8pm, and you expect hot food such as:
- Roast vegetables
- Fried noodles
- Fried fish
- Curry vegetables
- Curry chicken
- White rice
The food is not fancy, but sufficient for a light dinner.
In general I’m very happy about my stay, and it’s one level above the Hilton. Its neighbour, Le Meridien is usually a lot cheaper but shares the swimming pool and has their own club lounge, which is worth a shot too.
I Prefer new website launch and 2,500 points promotion
I Prefer, the loyalty program of Preferred Hotels, has launched a new website and app. To give them some credit, the website is a great leap forward compared against the old one.
You can view your account activity, as well as book reward nights on the portal.
However, not all Preferred Hotels are bookable with points. In fact many are still missing, and it seems that I Prefer hasn’t made much progress in the last couple of years.
The celebrate the new website and app, I Prefer has also started a new promotion. All stays booked by April 30 and completed in 2023 will earn 2,500 bonus points.
Hilton Q2 offer: up to 4,000 bonus points per stay
Hilton’s new global promotion is open to registration, which allows you to earn up to 4,000 bonus points per eligible stay.
You can sign up to the offer here.
- Stay between May 1 and September 5
- Earn 4,000 bonus points per stay at Hilton resort hotels
- Earn 2,000 bonus points per stay at other hotels
Note that the bonus points are posted per stay, not per night. The full list of resort hotels can be found here – the majority of the resorts appear to be in Asia and United States, and the only UK one I can spot is the Doubletree in Glasgow.
For a one-night stay at a resort hotel, 4,000 points is decent return. Otherwise the bonus is a bit underwhelming. Considering that travel restrictions are almost totally gone and summer is coming up, it’s unsurprising that we don’t see great hotel promotions.
My review of Hilton Bahrain
As Hilton had that “Stay once to keep Diamond” promotion, I’ve chosen to the Hilton Bahrain hotel to start my trip. It is a very new hotel, charging just over £120 per night, and somehow is even cheaper than the Hilton Garden Inn. I spent 82,000 points on two award nights as I have nowhere to spend my Hilton points.
I received a welcome email one day before my arrival that offered me an airport transfer for 10 dinars. It isn’t much more expensive than Uber (~6 dinars) and I took it.
The friendly chauffeur was already waiting for me at the arrival hall when I landed, and it was smooth 10-minute drive to the hotel. The occupancy seems low – the receptionist lady addressed me with my name immediately when she saw me.
The hotel has 45 floors and features an executive lounge. However it is still under constructions and not many facilities are available yet. In fact when I did the online check-in the highest floor presented to me was like 33. This might explain when the hotel’s rate is so low.
Daily drinks vouchers are offered in lieu of the executive lounge.
Hilton Bahrain is more of a residence than a hotel, as all guest rooms are actually (at least studio) apartments that feature a proper kitchen and washing machine etc. I received an upgrade to a one-bedroom apartment on the 27th floor.
Living room:
The apartment is indeed very well furnished, with refrigerator, dishwasher, hobs, washing machine, plus cutlery and plates. There’s even a water dispenser, which I haven’t seen since my childhood in China!
Bedroom and bathroom:
The TV set doesn’t support Chromecast. I managed to connect to Smart View with my phone but it’s not as convenient.
It is not the average hotel room you see elsewhere. In fact it doesn’t feel like a hotel at all, but rather an apartment you rent on Airbnb.
Both the living room and bedroom have access to the balcony:
The view isn’t particularly scenery here. There are multiple construction sites next to the hotel which is an eyesore.
That says something about the hotel’s location. The zone is under heavy construction and not much is happening around here. I crossed a few construction sites to finally reach the park by the sea but it’s very underwhelming. The Grand Mosque is not too far away though.
My welcome gift: a fruit plate and baklava.
Breakfast is served in the restaurant on the third floor. It’s the classic English breakfast buffet and some local delicacy such as foul medames and egg shakshuka.
There’s Asian cuisine as well, but hmm very fused. I was reaching out to the spring rolls, but then was put off by its cheese stuffing.
Menu for eggs:
The swimming pool is just outside the restaurant.
It’s February and just over 20 degrees in Bahrain. The pool isn’t heated and a bit too cold.
The jacuzzi is broken and can’t be turned on for safety reasons. There is an indoor spa though that offer more facilities.
The sauna room is terribly flawed. I think they chose the wrong material for floor and bench, and you don’t want to stay in unless you are not afraid of being burnt!
Gym:
I had no problem getting 3pm late check-out before I moved to the Westin. The service at Hilton Bahrain is good, and the room / facilities are okay too, especially if plan to stay for more than just a few days. However, for a five-star hotel in the Middle East it doesn’t quite meet the standard, but hopefully thing will pick up once the construction has completed.
Up to 55% conversion bonus from hotel points to Cathay Pacific miles
Cathay Pacific has launched a conversion bonus promotion for select hotel programs, and you can view the details here.
Until May 15th, you will earn a bonus when converting points from participating hotel programs to Asia Miles, including but not limited to:
- Shangri-la: 30% (1000 : 1300)
- IHG: 25% (10000 : 2500)
- Accor: 15% (4000 : 2300)
- Hilton: 15% (10000 : 1150)
- Hyatt: 15% (5000 : 2300)
If you have never converted any points between April 1, 2022 and April 11, 2023, you will earn an additional 25% bonus when converting Shangri-la and IHG points.
The bottom line is, even after factoring in the bonus the conversion still loses a lot of value in most cases. IHG may be the only outlier here, where you get 3,000 miles for 10,000 points if you meet the qualification criterion.
As you can buy IHG points at 0.5 cent during their sales, you are essentially paying 1.67c per mile under this promotion, which is not great but a lot cheaper than the official rate. If you have a stash of IHG points and need to top up your Asia miles account to redeem a flight, this offer may be useful.
My spending strategy in Argentina under the new foreign tourist dollar policy
Argentina is a great country to visit, but unfortunately they’ve been experiencing extortionate inflation over the last decade. Spending money there as a foreign tourist becomes unnecessarily complicated as a consequence, as there’s an official exchange rate that is almost irrelevant, and another “blue dollar rate” at which people actually exchange currencies.
Luckily the Argentinian government has finally decided to do something. They introduced a thing called Foreign Tourist Dollar this year, which allows credit cards issued in countries other than Argentina to trade at a preferential rate, which is great news!
[How it works]
Per the official announcement, only Visa and Mastercard are mentioned in the new deals. However from my personal experiments, as well as online reports, American Express works the same way too. I’m not sure how other credit cards such as Discover and Union Pay work, but I hope you have at least one of the three cards above.
They work slightly differently though:
- Visa transactions post at the preferential MEP rate immediately
- Mastercard / Amex transactions post at the official rate initially, and an adjusted refund posts a few days later (5-10 days)
I noticed transactions in Argentina took longer to process too. Under normal circumstances it’s about two days before a transaction becomes confirmed from pending for me, but in this case it’s about four days for the ones I made in Argentina.
Although there’s no fundamental difference between the three card issuers, some might prefer to use a Visa card as it tracks the correct amount sooner.
[What the rates are]
MEP rate is already reflected in Visa’s and Mastercard’s exchange rate calculator. I couldn’t find a calculator for Amex.
I made quite a few purchases with all three cards and got the same exchange rate: 1 USD = 366 ARS. All transactions were made on the same day (April 4th, 2023).
Meanwhile, Blue Dollar rate or the black market rate is 385, which is what you get for exchanging mint $50 / $100 bills at the local Cambios. Double check the rate they offer though, as one attempted to fool me with a very poor 300 quoting the festive period (Easter holiday).
So the MEP rate is still about 5% worse than the Blue Dollar rate.
- Exchanging cash is still the cheapest deal, but you’ll have to carry bricks of money around in your bag! That said, personally I found Buenos Aires to be rather safe.
- Swiping the plastics on the other hand is much more convenient and safer, and if you have a rewards credit card it may partially or even fully offset the 5% loss
I used credit cards as much as I could but also had some cash with me just in case. Credit cards are welcome at most tourist attractions and restaurants. Remember that it’s a very cheap country (a very good meal costs $15~$20 per head), so don’t over exchange at the beginning.
I paid everything with my US-issued credit cards, but I assume cards from other countries work in a similar way.
[Hotels]
On the other hand, it is very important to understand that you should never pay cash at a hotel! Like many other South American countries, foreign tourists are exempt of a tax that would otherwise be payable by local residents. In Argentina the tax rate is as much as 21%!
In addition to being a non-resident, you have to settle your accommodation bill with a foreign credit card, i.e. you mustn’t pay cash. You can either pay cash for that 5% exchange rate advantage, or pay by card to save the 21% VAT – we are not looking at advanced mathematics here…
Check your final bill before you pay, as not all hotels waive the tax automatically. I stayed at two hotels – one was very chill about it, whereas the other one asked me to fill out a form, carried out some identity checks before they removed the charge from my invoice.
And it brings another interesting topic. Hotels in Argentina, at least the better ones, tend to be priced at USD. However, you will be billed in local currency exchanged at the official rate.
That means in fact you pay much less than what the price tag suggests. For example, if a hotel is priced at $100, you will pay 100 * 215 (official FX) = 21500 ARS at checkout. But if you use a foreign card that would actually convert to 21500 / 366 (MEP) = $58.7 only.
In short, you only pay around 59% of what the hotel asks, so Argentina turns out to be even cheaper than what we had thought 🙂
Final tip: use Uber or Cabify in Buenos Aires, as I tried the local taxi once and the meter was twice as expensive! Despite all this money chaos, Buenos Aires is an amazing city and I definitely recommend you visiting.
Hyatt Lindner offer bonus points posted
Hyatt acquired Lindner – a German hospitality group – recently, and launched a bonus points offer intended for existing Lindner members.
After signing up to this offer, you earn 1,000 bonus points per night when staying at any Hyatt property in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. You can earn the bonus up to 10 times.
It might be to tricky to carry out the eligibility check without breaching European data privacy laws, which is why registration is actually open to everyone. I wasn’t sure if the bonus was going to post, but a friend has just shared his success after completing a stay in Cambridge:
Together with the Bonus Journeys global promotion you will earn 2,500 bonus points per night by the end of May, which is very impressive!
My review of BA’s Concorde Room, LHR T5
One of the main driving causes for my Bahrain trip was to try out BA’s Concorde Room. As it is only open to First Class passengers and Gold Guest List members, I haven’t had a chance to visit yet, and I need to change that.
BA’s First Wing is awesome, but sadly I’m saying goodbye to it as being downgraded to Silver 🙁
Through the First Wing you’ll see the Galleries First Lounge, keep on walking and exit on your left, and you’ll now see the Concorde Room.
I like the logo.
Once inside, well, it doesn’t feel much different to the Galleries First Lounge.
The bar is fine, but not as impressive as the ones at the Clubhouse and United Club. One big selling point though is the free-flowing Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle, so arrive early if you are a fan!
As a proper first class lounge, there is a dining room (restaurant) where you can sit down and enjoy a meal.
I don’t find anything aspiring in the breakfast menu though. I found the lunch menu online as well and it’s a bit boring too.
The food is ok. Service is really slow though (and there aren’t many guests) so it might not work if you are in a hurry.
There is a terrace bar if you fancy more light.
Help yourself to the cheeseboard, charcuterie and drinks.
There are two cabana rooms but by reservation only so I didn’t bother to visit. From the pictures from online reports they look ok.
My first visit to the Concorde Room didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Like BA’s First Class cabin, there’s nothing wrong with it, but there’s nothing outstanding either. As I’m now a lowly Silver I will find myself at one of the Galleries lounge next time, but to be honest I don’t feel missing out.