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IHG’s “Straight to Diamond” offer returns with a catch
Last year IHG initiated a “Straight to Diamond” offer for select corporate clients and made it public by mistake, and many people had signed up to it before the loophole was closed. IHG has brought back the offer now, but is being much more careful this time.
You can check the offer details here. Quite similar to what was offered last time, a member receives a 120-day Diamond trial upon successful enrolment, and they would need to stay 10 nights within 90 days to complete the status challenge.
However, you cannot sign up yourself this time. Only IHG’s sales team, or any full-service hotel in Greater China can enrol you manually. To be eligible, you need to work for a company that is invited by IHG to partake in this promotion.
If you believe you are eligible (e.g. your company has agreements with IHG), especially if you have a recent / upcoming stay with an IHG hotel in Greater China, it’s worth enquiring with the relevant department or the hotel to see if they can register you.
(Gone) Zurich Marriott, Club Room for 100 CHF!
Zurich Marriott is offering a great deal which is well worth considering if you plan to visit the city in the next month.
Marriott’s price calendar suggests that rooms are being sold for circa 100 CHF on many March dates (until April 1st), whereas the usual rate is over 300 CHF.
If you click through, it is very obviously a pricing error. A single rooms is priced at over 260 CHF, whereas the Club Room with Lake View at less than 100 CHF…
I stayed at the Zurich Marriott Hotel in 2021 and reviewed here. It is not an inspirational property by any standard, but does its job. Club Room comes with access to the M Club, which offers breakfast and evening canapes / happy hour.
100 CHF is an amazing price for a five-star hotel in central Zurich. Beware that hotels tend not to honour such error rates though, so wait at least one week after you’ve booked to see if they get cancelled.
Horror: IHG clamping down on Ambassador Diamonds?
We once wrote about a unpublicised benefit of the InterContinental Ambassador program, that your Diamond status gets renewed by another year when you purchase or renew the Ambassador membership. The perk may be coming to an end now.
I extended my status through 2023 using this trick last year, but when I log into my IHG account now, the expiry is reverted to 2022:
I’m not alone, as there are many similar reports online and amongst my readership, but in the meantime it’s not happening to everyone. The inconsistency makes me wonder whether it is actually IHG closing that loophole, or just a temporary system glitch.
Anyway, we will find out on March 1st when IHG’s status is refreshed. As Diamond Elite comes with free daily breakfast in the new program, it would be very sad to lose it :/
My review of St Regis Shanghai Jing’An
This is not gonna be any other review that you’ve seen of a hotel – before returning to the UK I had a two-day layover in Shanghai, and it’s when China had the massive covid outbreak and everyone was catching the virus. Your future experience staying at the same hotel will be very different to mine, but it could still be an interesting read 🙂
Shanghai has many hotels, but not so many outstanding ones by China’s standard. I was told that the St Regis Jing’An hotel is decent, and at 34,000 points per night it seems to be a good deal. If you are a first-time visitor, I recommend the Waldorf Astoria for its history, location and great view.
The St Regis sits in the Jing’An district, which is probably the most central area of Shanghai
The hotel looks quite low-profile from outside.
The lobby is quite ordinary for a five-star hotel in China which hasn’t been refurbished for a while.
This is a rare St Regis hotel that features a Club Lounge. Marriott elite members are not entitled to Club benefits at the St Regis brand, but if your suite night award clears into a room type with that feature then it’s granted at this property. My two SNAs cleared and I was upgrade to the Caroline Astor Suite.
The lobby is very quiet. As I had expected most of the hotel staff are sick and the shortage has been going on for a while. The receptionist informs me that most of the services such as housekeeping are cut or heavily reduced right now.
My Caroline Astor Suite catches her by surprise. She says that no room is available yet but it may take two hours for one to be cleaned. Remember that it’s already 4pm when I arrived.
I don’t understand why they couldn’t have checked what room types were booked on the day and make arrangements beforehand. She didn’t even try to apologise at all, which made me uncomfortable.
Fortunately I ran into the manager Douglas when I just sat there trying to figure out what to do next. He came up to me and said hi, and I took to chance to complain about my situation. He’s very generous and offered me a two bedroom apartment in the residence!
Regular rooms (and suites) are located on the 61th floor and below, whereas floor 62-68 is the St Regis Residence for long-stay guests only. You can’t book the residence on marriott.com, instead you need to talk to the hotel’s sales department.
The living room is very bright with a great view of Shanghai’s skyline.
The kitchen is fully equipped with a fridge, an oven and hobs.
There’s a small guest bathroom to the right, with a walk-in shower.
A study squeezes in between the bathroom and the guest room.
Guest room:
The master bedroom is a lot bigger:
And it comes with a walk-in wardrobe and a dressing table.
The main bathroom is also fairly big with a bathtub.
According to their website the apartment measures 109 sqm but it feels even larger. On the other hand it doesn’t feel like a hotel room anymore, which may be to some people’s liking but not to the others.
This is a list of the original club benefits.
Unsurprisingly the Club Lounge is closed. In fact the only eatery still open is the Social Restaurant on the ground floor.
Oriental buffet:
English breakfast:
Food stations for noodles and omelettes etc.
Salad, fruits and desserts.
I don’t the noodles, but otherwise it’s all ok.
As the Club Lounge is closed, we are invited to have lunch and dinner at the Social Restaurant instead, whereas the afternoon tea is cancelled. You can order one soup and one main from the menu:
A few items from the menu weren’t available anymore during lunch, and it became much worse at dinner.
I tried the tenderloin and fried rice, which are anything but tasty.
They don’t even offer any drinks for free, although a lot of alcohols were at display (for purchase) during the “Happy Hour”. From what I’ve heard the Club Lounge’s usual offering is very good, but sadly the execution is just terrible at this special time.
The swimming pool is nice though. You need to wear a swimming cap but it’s provided for free.
The gym:
My unique experience is unprecedented, and unlikely to act as a reference point for anything in the future. I’m grateful to the manager Douglas for a chance of trying out the two bedroom apartment, but to be honest the service I experienced here is well below par.
Last chance to buy Accor Gold & Oneworld Ruby for only £65!
We wrote about fast track opportunities for Accor a while ago, and one major shortcut was to purchase the ibis Business card, as you are granted Gold status for as long as you have a valid membership. Sadly it is coming to an end soon, and you need to jump onboard before it is too late!
As explained by Accor, the ibis Business program will discontinue on March 22nd and be replaced by a new program called ALL PLUS ibis, which will continue to offer some sort of discount for ibis stays. The new membership doesn’t gift Gold status anymore, but offers ten night credits annually instead.
If you join ibis Business now, you are still gifted Gold and it will be valid throughout your subscription period. So the best strategy would be:
- Buy ibis Business now – reports suggest that the Gold status is valid through 2024
- You will earn additional ten night credits on March 22nd
For the UK, a one-year subscription costs £65 whereas it’s £119 for two years, and it’s usually €90 / €159 for most other countries. I’m not sure if the two-year subscription comes with a longer Gold validity.
Accor Gold isn’t hugely useful outside China where they offer daily breakfast for one, but room upgrade and late check-out are still something. Beware that buying ibis Business will create a new Accor account, so if you have an existing account you might need to merge them.
Qatar Airways has an ongoing promotion with Accor, which allows Accor Gold members to fast track to Qatar Airways Silver after only one flight. Silver status (Oneworld Ruby) offers extra baggage allowance and free seat selection when flying Qatar Airways and its partners (BA, AA, Cathay etc.), plus you can access the dedicated Silver Lounge at Doha.
There will also be a new ALL PLUS Voyageur membership (converted from the old Business Plus program) which offers 20 night credits annually.
IHG fast track: Diamond after only 8 nights!
IHG had an Instant Diamond offer last year, and we were one of the very first to cover it. It looks like another fast track offer has just landed, although it is less interesting this time.
You can access the Private Diamond Offer here.
- Sign up and stay by March 31st
- Earn Diamond status after staying 8 paid nights
- Status is valid through 2024
The Register Now link has a promo code attached to it, so if you fail to register you are ineligible. However the offer seems premature to me – the terms still mistakenly refer to Platinum a lot, so it may be that the offer isn’t really live yet, and you may want to try again later if it doesn’t work.
(Update: there are many reports of receiving an offer email, so it is live.)
IHG Diamond comes with very good benefits, and although it is harder to earn it under the current offer compared to the last one, it is still much better than the normal / hard way.
My review of Palace Hotel, San Francisco
I spent my first two nights in San Francisco at the InterContinental hotel, and for a change of scenery I’m moving to the Palace Hotel from Luxury Collection for the third night. Thanks to the $200 credit from my U.S. Amex Platinum card, I paid just over $100 for the FHR stay.
The general manager sent me a few emails before my stay to ask for any special requests and offer some general information. He sent me another email to ask for any feedback on the day I checked out. Although many people may find it unnecessary, I think it’s a nice touch to show that the hotel cares.
Palace hotel is not far from the InterContinental, and right next to the Montgomery metro station. However, I find its location more handy than the InterContinental, as it’s closer to the metro station, and walkable to more local attractions including the Chinatown.
The building and its lobby have an ordinary look. The agent who checks me in is very familiar with the FHR benefits. In fact if you are Marriott Platinum or above, the main add-on is just the $100 on-property credit. Some hotels (especially in the U.S.) refuse to honour Marriott benefits when you prepay your FHR booking because it’s backed by Expedia, but this time she explicitly offers me the 1,000 welcome points since breakfast is already included.
A truffle chocolate box is offered to me as a welcome gift, then another two white chocolates at the turndown service.
The serenity of the guest room areas is reminiscent of my stay at St Regis New York.
I fared a free upgrade to the Junior Suite. I had thought about using a suite night award here, but then the so-called Superior Suite is only 480sqt, so I backed off.
When you enter the room, there’s a walk-in wardrobe on the left.
Overall the room looks very classy, and the (oversize) bed is quite comfy. The bathroom has no tub, but does have a Washlet seat which isn’t commonly seen even at five-star hotels.
Slippers are quite fluffy.
I assume it’s a board game?
The hotel has only nine floors and I’m on the fifth. If you expect a view, then the InterContinental hotel is a much better option.
You have to give some credits to their guest room, but the most prestigious thing about this hotel is far more than that. Right next to the lobby there’s an extensive and glamorous gallery:
And there’s some memorabilia on display, which tells the history of the Palace Hotel. It may remind you of museum – and there is indeed a small museum, named Landmark 18, in the gallery.
When it opened in 1875, the Palace Hotel was the biggest hotel in the world. Unfortunately the hotel was hit by a fire in 1906 and it took three years’ restoration for the hotel to reopen. In 1954 it became a Sheraton hotel and a lot of its original features were lost to accommodate the brand standard, which was then reverted in 1973 when the hotel was finally purchased by the Japanese Kyo-Ya group.
The most stunning piece of the hotel has to be the Garden Court restaurant, which became a landmark of San Francisco in 1969.
Many people come here for the afternoon tea experience, and I’m here for breakfast. FHR comes with $30 credit per person, and as I’m travelling solo that’s $60 for myself. I thought it would buy me loads of food until I saw the menu:
Yogurt for $6 and orange juice / coffee for $8, so $60 doesn’t really get you far at all, and don’t forget the tips. I didn’t notice the buffet option at the top for $43, which is probably what I should have gone for.
The $100 FHR credit can be spent at the Pied Piper restaurant, which is famous for that painting. I ordered some chicken wings and a steak, which came to 90-odd dollars including taxes and tips. If you are travelling with a partner, the $160 credit is just enough for the breakfast buffet plus a couple of drinks.
The swimming pool is on the fourth floor. Similar to the Garden Court it has a nice glass dom.
But the pool is only 1.2m metre deep, so more like a children’s playground.
The jacuzzi is broken, although the water is still warm…
Sadly there’s no sauna or steam room.
The Palace Hotel is a landmark of San Francisco, full of history, and a hotel well worth experiencing. If you happen to be in the city, I recommend popping in and have a look even if you don’t stay at this hotel.
Marriott’s dynamic pricing starts to bite (hard)
Marriott introduced Flexible Redemption Pricing for stays commencing this year, and per our recent observation it didn’t hit us that hard. It turns out that we were being too optimistic though, as some properties have seen a massive hike in redemption price overnight.
According to a Wechat tracking application that my friend maintains, JW Marriott Shenzhen has just broken their original 20K cap by a huge margin:
The property has gone up to 51,000 points on certain nights, which is a 155% increase overnight. It sets a precedent in the Marriott Bonvoy program and I won’t be surprised to see more properties joining the league very soon.
It’s saddening to see how Marriott has decided to follow Hilton’s path. You may want to make some speculative bookings if your destinations have outsize redemption opportunities.