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My review of The Abu Dhabi Edition
I went to Abu Dhabi in March because of Etihad’s €70 fare and I needed some winter (spring?) sun. It turned out to be a wise move – weather aside, you can find many luxury hotels here of top quality which are much cheaper than in Dubai.
Many hotels in Abu Dhabi offer in their respective VIP rate plans, e.g. Hilton Impresario, Marriott Stars and Hyatt Prive. Sofitel was the cheapest at £80 per night, others like Fairmont, Conrad, Edition, Grand Hyatt, Rosewood and Four Seasons were between £100 and £150. Remember that you are entitled to free breakfast, room upgrade and $100 credit etc courtesy of the VIP rates.
As I have never been to an Edition hotel yet, and the rate is so good, I booked the Abu Dhabi Edition for three nights. I used Airalo eSIM for data roaming in Abu Dhabi which I highly recommend.
The hotel is located at a small marina in west Abu Dhabi. It’s not central, but I find that you need Uber / Taxi to travel anywhere anyway so it doesn’t matter at all. The hotel has a residence section for long-stay guests.
Once you enter the lobby you are embraced by the signature Le Labo fragrance which is quite refreshing.
The receptionist is very familiar with Platinum and Marriott Stars benefits. Here is what Platinum members can choose as a welcome gift.
Very generously, they’ve already upgraded me to a suite on the fourth floor (it has six floors in total). The living room is massive. The blend of beige and brown colours resonates with the natural and simple theme that the Edition brand stresses.
I can’t figure out why they welcomed me with a cereal bar though…
There is a small bathroom to the left of the living room.
You can go out to the balcony from the living room, but there isn’t much of a view here due to the height and aspect. AI Hudayriat, an artificial island you can see at a distance, is worth a visit.
The bedroom also has that Scandinavian feel. I’m new to this style but I don’t diske it.
Surprisingly such a huge suite doesn’t even have a bathtub. Some friends of mine really like Le Labo and took away many bottles with them when they stayed at Edition hotels. However they’ve only got large bottles here and there are price tags attached to them…
They smell really good, but I don’t like the shampoo as it doesn’t foam at all.
The $100 credit is exchanged into 350 dirhams. The steakhouse looks way too expensive, whereas I’ve heard bad things about the other Mediterranean restaurant. By the way it happens to be Ramadan right now, but hotel restaurants operate as normal and as a tourist I don’t feel affected at all.
In the end I decided to try the room service instead.
They are certainly no delicacy, but decent enough for the price and to fill my stomach. The two meals didn’t use up all my credit so I packed some cakes from the dessert shop for my flight back.
Note that there’s no complimentary breakfast for elite members at Edition hotels, but thankfully it’s offered by the Stars program. I read some very positive reviews of the breakfast so was looking forward to it.
Conveniently the breakfast is served until 12.30pm, so you don’t need to worry about an early morning if you are suffering jetlag.
There’s both indoor and outdoor seating.
The service is a-la-carte only. I ordered the eggs benefit on the first morning which was nothing to write home about.
The cured meat is made from beef instead of pork, and I’m not used to the taste.
Then next day I ordered the chilli scrambled eggs, and I have to say it is so different to the other scrambled eggs I’ve had in the past! Very Instagrammable and tasty.
The outdoor swimming pool is pretty good but closes early at 6.30pm. There’s also a sauna room nearby inside.
There another swimming pool on the rooftop of the residence building. It’s smaller but with a view.
The gym:
It’s fair to say that my first close encounter with the Edition brand is quite positive, but by the UAE standard I don’t assume it would stand out. I would love to try out the Emirates Palace hotel some day, but either I’d need to earn more money, or Mandarin Oriental needs to allow me to spend my points…
Book The Singapore Edition for only 40K points!
Marriott Bonvoy’s Edition brand is launching another location in Singapore, and they’ve now started to accept bookings from December onwards. It is a great opportunity to burn your Marriott points!
As you can see from the rate calendar, award nights in December starts at only 40,000 points.
Unfortunately the price climbs up quick from January to up to 70,000 points. However, as its cash price hovers around the 800 SGD mark (~$600), it still yields outsized value.
For the date I checked in December, the Edition costs only marginally more points than the Aloft and Courtyard. As Marriott has a dynamic pricing system in place, I’d suggest you to lock in the redemptions sooner than later if you have any travel plans.
My review of Leeds Marriott Hotel
This is a quick review of the Leeds Marriott Hotel. I was half-way through my £100 off £300 Amex cashback offer and needed to find a participating Marriott property to fulfil the spend requirement. I didn’t want to travel far, and Leeds Marriott came to my attention.
The hotel sits in front of the Trevelyan Square. It is very close to the train station and Trinity shopping centre.
The lobby and restaurant:
I received an upgrade to an executive room on the top (sixth) floor, which is actually a corner room.
The room is bright with large windows on two sides of the walls.
Here’s the problem though: noise level here can be really bad. The rail tracks are 50-ish yards away. And as if that’s not enough, there are many bars and pubs just around the corner.
I complained the next morning and they moved me to a double-double room which is sort of interior facing. It is a lot better.
Set-up of the executive lounge is a bit strange. It’s like another boutique lobby inside the lobby area.
Presentations are nice, but it is a very small lounge. You can imagine it being very busy in the evening.
Soft drinks, fruits and coffee machine are available throughout the day.
Happy hour is hosted between 5.30pm and 7.30pm. Two hot dishes and a decent spread of canapes are on offer.
Breakfast in the main restaurant isn’t comp’ed, but you can have it in the executive lounge.
It is an average Marriott hotel you expect in this country, and there’s nothing particularly good or bad. If you are a light sleeper and sensitive to noises though it may not be for you.
Marriott Q3 promotion: 1,500 points per stay
Marriott has revealed their Q3 global promotion, which is called Go Your Way + Earn Bonus Points.
You can view the details and sign up here. Note that the registration hasn’t officially open yet, so don’t panic if you see an error. In summary:
- Register by November 22
- Stay between September 12 and December 6
- Earn 1,500 bonus points per eligible stay
- Earn 3,000 bonus points for every three brands stayed
As usual, certain brands including Marriott Executive Apartments and Homes & Villas are excluded. Only paid stays count – reward nights and free nights won’t.
Remember that Marriott hasn’t proactively offered any good incentives for a while, and in that context this offer is quite decent, especially for cheap one-night stays.
My review of The Westin Excelsior Rome
I found myself a ridiculously cheap flight ticket from Rome to Abu Dhabi, and I took this chance to properly visit Rome for the first time. Being a major city in Europe, Rome hasn’t really established a massive portfolio of good hotels. Waldorf Astoria is maybe the only one that comes up in my mind, but it is quite far out of the city.
I booked the Westin in the end, which like many other hotels are situated in the Borghese Park area. It looks very close to the Spanish Steps, but the roads here are very hilly and crooked and it’s not as easy to walk around.
I arrived into the Rome Central station via Leonardo Express from the airport, and then it took me 15 minutes to walk to the hotel. The hotel has definitely seen better days, but it’s not as worn as I had feared.
I received a one-level upgrade to a Grand Deluxe room, which measures 40 square metres.
Premium wi-fi is chargeable, but waived for Platinum members upon check-out.
I chose breakfast as my welcome amenity.
There’s a swimming pool in the basement.
There’s an ice cream shop across the street called Neve di Latte that I highly recommend – I truly enjoyed my massive four scoops for only €5!
I wasn’t aware of the hotel’s atrocious 7.2 rating on booking.com until after I have completed my stay, but honestly speaking it doesn’t feel that awful. InterContinental Rome has opened its door recently, and I might try it out next time.
Buy a Marriott bed or mattress and earn two free nights!
Marriott, or more precisely Shop Marriott has launched an interesting promotion.
The headline says “2 Free Night with Bed Purchase”, whereas here are the terms:
Marriott Bonvoy Members receive two 35,000 point Free Night Awards* with the eligible purchase of a mattress set. Exclusive to Marriott Bonvoy Members purchasing mattress and base sets between August 10th and August 20th for beds that are delivered in Europe. Marriott Bonvoy Number must be entered at checkout. Free Night Awards will be issued up to 4 weeks after mattress delivery.
If I understand correctly, you can buy either a bed or mattress to qualify.
The two free night awards are worth at least $400 so it’s a good rebate. Remember that you can top up as much as 15,000 points, so each free night award can be redeemed at a 50K property.
However they are not an average mattress you see on Ikea or Amazon! The cheapest mattress (British Model – Double) costs €1595 or $1435.
When you’ve accrued 50 or 75 night credits in a year, one annual choice benefit you can pick is $100 off a mattress purchase, which makes the deal much more reasonable. However, I’m not confident that the two offers can stack, although there’s no evidence that suggest otherwise.
New wave of Marriott devaluation landed
Marriott transitioned into dynamic redemption pricing a couple of years ago, and although it was all good news at the very beginning, devaluation has progressively spread at many regions / properties since. It seems that a new major wave kicked in last Saturday (August 5th).
My friend Zaozao who developed a pricing monitoring tool, noticed the phenomenon and here are sone examples of the price increase:
From left to right these three hotels are: W Osaka, Westin Singapore and St Regis Bangkok.
The devaluation seems to be still unfolding and stabilising over the last few days. Here is how Westin London City’s prices changed over night:
Hilton has completed sabotaged their program after the introduction of dynamic pricing, and it looks like Marriott thinks it’s a good idea to follow the same path. Thankfully, IHG appears to be in their right mind and they still offer many great redemption options.
My review of Le Meridien Barcelona
I was close to accepting a job offer finally, and I decided to treat myself to a holiday in Spain! I’m staying three nights in Barcelona before heading to Valencia, and besides the two nights with Hyatt for the Q1 promotion, I’m staying at Le Meridien for one night as well for its more central location.
The hotel acts as a great base to explore Barcelona. It’s near the Universitat metro station, with many shops and restaurants nearby, and you can even walk to the beach.
The receptionist lady is very friendly and professional. She welcomed me warmly, explained all the benefits and hotel facilities, as well as offered me a choice of different rooms.
If I remember correctly they are usually quite generous with room upgrade. Unfortunately there happens to be an international mobile conference going on in the city so they are a bit tight on availability. I chose a Premier Deluxe room on the first floor.
Size-wise Premier Deluxe rooms are identical with the standard Deluxe rooms, but they are more recently refurbished.
The sixth floor and higher appear to be a totally different building. Rooms look much nicer at least from the outside.
The hotel has rooftop terrace, with a (small) pool, jacuzzi and sauna / steam rooms. They are good enough for me.
Breakfast is served in the lobby restaurant.
Spread is decent with quiche and churros!
Lacking a club lounge and a proper swimming pool, Le Meridien Barcelona may not be my first choice of the city. The location is great though, and if I can fare a good upgrade I wouldn’t hesitate to come back.