Home » Hotel Groups (Page 29)
Category Archives: Hotel Groups
My review of Hilton Cardiff
I booked Gainsborough Bath Spa via FHR because of the annual $200 credit offered by the US Amex Platinum card. As a result I was also looking for another hotel nearby, ideally with executive lounge and spa facilities, and Hilton Cardiff turned out to be the obvious choice.
The hotel sits comfortably next to the Cardiff Castle, about 15 minutes’ walk from the railway station.
On the day of arrival I inquired about suite upgrade, and got offered a Junior Suite which I’m more than happy about. One feature I love about Hilton is the floor plan and online check-in, with which (and Google Street View) you have enough information to choose the room you want.
They have very few suites, but plenty of junior suites available, so upgrade to the latter shouldn’t be difficult for Diamond members.
The room has an unconventional shape, but quite spacious nonetheless. It’s clearly refurbished in recent years, and generally very comfy. However like the former Le Meridien Piccadilly the bedside sockets are of a very old type, by which you can tell the hotel has some history.
I selected a west-facing room, as the view appears to be much nicer despite being smaller. It turns out to be a great decision, as others have shared online that the east-facing rooms can be heavily disturbed by the bars downstairs.
The bathroom is also big with both a shower and a tub.
The spa at the hotel is quite popular. It’s a member of Hussle so in case you are based in Cardiff, you could probably get a free day pass via Hussle’s various promotions to give it a go.
Swimming pool:
Jacuzzi:
Sauna and steam room:
The gym is next door. Although not large, it’s got enough lighting and view of the swimming pool is quite refreshing.
Breakfast buffet is served in the main restaurant. You must book a one-hour slot for weekends.
My day of arrival is the last day before Wales relaxes its Covid restrictions. The executive lounge is closed and relevant services are moved to the lobby bar – it’s an applauded move, as most hotels that have closed their executive lounge don’t bother to provide any alternatives.
The executive lounge on the 7th floor reopens on the second day. It has a magnificent view of the castle, but unfortunately it rains a lot during my stay.
Afternoon tea is served 3pm-6pm.
Happy hour is served 6pm-8pm, with a couple of hot items, some canapes and the usual beers and wines.
The lounge is decent enough. However it’s not open until 3pm, which prevents you from having soft drinks or a cup of coffee there which is annoying.
In general I’m very happy about the stay: a hotel at central location, with executive lounge, swimming pool, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna, and costs less than £70 a night. If you are looking for a weekend getaway as well, I’d definitely recommend Hilton Cardiff!
10,000 bonus points for joining InterContinental Ambassador
A reader has got in touch to share an incentive that he received for joining the InterContinental Ambassador program.
The email text says:
As a thank you for your recent stay at InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, we would like to grant you 10,000 bonus points upon enrolment into InterContinental® Ambassador. This elevated member benefits programme provides a suite of indulgences to enrich your global travel experiences at over 220 InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts and participating Regent™ Hotels & Resorts* worldwide.
He redeemed an award night at an InterContinental hotel last month, which seems to have triggered this special offer for 10,000 bonus points as long as he joins the program. Remember the other enrolment promotion which also entitles you to 20,000 bonus points, and I believe the two offers are stackable.
If you are yet to join the Ambassador program, and have stayed / will stay at an InterContinental hotel, watch your inbox for the offer.
My review of Hotel Indigo Kensington, London
Hotel Indigo Kensington has a pretty good 3-for-2 offer via the IHG Luxury and Lifestyle program, and I also had a targeted 5,000 bonus points offer, so I decided to spend my first 2022 hotel stay here.
The hotel is only two minutes away from Earls Court, which is especially convenient if you want to visit the museums. Sat on the Piccadilly Line it’s also handy to travel to the city centre or Heathrow.
Unsurprisingly the front desk has no clue what the Lifestyle rate is, although being very friendly. After checking with the reservation team the second day he confirms the $50 / £40 credit for my stay.
I booked the Premium Room directly as its rate is only a touch higher than the standard room. The only upgrade option available at the time was for a Premium Room with Extra Bed on the basement floor, which I declined.
The room feels pretty Indigo-y, and big by London standard.
The positioning of TV is a bit weird. Air conditioning doesn’t work (in my room) so they provide a portable heater instead.
Minibar is free to all hotel guests. There are two bottles of water, two soft and two alcoholic drinks.
I was upgraded to a Suite the next day.
It’s not noticeably larger than the Premium Room, but has a separate living room, one more TV and better natural light. However the bedroom is quite squeezed.
It’s totally down to personal preference, but I think the Premium Room is more comfortable.
If pre-booked breakfast costs a very reasonable £10 per person. It’s got a small buffet area which doesn’t offer much:
But you can also choose one main and one hot drink from the menu. The mains include full English, pancakes, eggs Benedict and porridge etc.
To spend all my credit I had a dinner at the hotel restaurant too and ordered Penang Curry Chicken, with the complimentary cocktail for Spire members. The food is good.
The hotel is too small to have a gym, let alone a swimming pool or other facilities. In total I paid £260 for three nights in a Premium Room inclusive of £40 credit, which is a deal well worth considering in central London.
Hotel Loyalty Programme Series – Leading Hotels of the World
The Leading Hotels of the World, or LHW, is a collection of 400 luxury hotels in over 80 countries in the world. Like other hotel groups LHW has a membership program which entitles you to additional benefits when you book directly with them.
[LHW Brands]
LHW acts mostly as a marketing platform, so there’s no strong branding within the group and many hotels are actually independent. It’s also common to see LHW hotels affiliated with another hotel chain.
For example, the Hotel Adlon Kempinski in Berlin is also part of GHA Discovery – actually all Kempinski hotels belong to GHA Discovery because of the deal, but the same isn’t true for LHW. LHW also has a few Gran Melia hotels in Spain, which are part of the Melia group.
In terms of geographical distribution, LHW is best represented in Europe, with especially strong footprint in Italy and Switzerland.
[Membership Tiers and Benefits]
You used to have to pay $175 a year to enrol in the LHW program, but it has been made permanently free since mid 2021. LHW has three membership tiers: Club, Silver and Aurelian.
Club – entry level
- One Pre-Arrival Upgrade each year after their first paid stay as a new Club Level member
- Upgrade priority at arrival based on availability
- Early check-in and late check-out considerations upon availability
- Complimentary Wi-Fi access throughout their stay
- Complimentary continental breakfast for two for each day of the stay
Silver – $5000 annual spend requirement
- Five Pre-Arrival Upgrades each year
- 5% stay points bonus in addition to 1 point for every USD 1 spent on qualifying stays.
Aurelian – invitation only (top 1% spend)
- Unlimited one-category Pre-arrival upgrades
- No Black-Out dates for redeeming free nights
- 10% stay points bonus in addition to 1 point for every USD 1 spent on qualifying stays.
- A USD 1000 Annual Premium Ground Transportation Budget
- And a Guaranteed 4 PM Late Check Out
Everyone can start enjoying Club benefits by signing up to the program for free. There’s some value here, especially the free breakfast and room upgrade – the latter doesn’t look great on paper, but some of my readers suggest it tends to be quite generous (including suite upgrade) in practice.
Silver status doesn’t sounds exciting to be honest. Its top-level invitation tier Aurelian is exclusive to the heaviest spenders only which is quite similar to the Royal Ambassador status in InterContinental Ambassador, but the benefits are weaker.
[Earn and Spend]
You earn 1 point for each USD spent on qualifying room rates for up to three rooms in the same reservation. Until recently it was only possible to earn points on direct LHW bookings, but it’s now expanded to some other channels:
- Luxury consortiums such as Amex FHR and Virtuoso
- Business travel bookings made via corporate travel agencies and corporate booking tools
Be careful that direct bookings with the hotel don’t qualify for points accrual. This is one main difference with other hotel groups.
Points can be redeemed towards an award night, at the rate of 100 points = $8. Note that cash + points is not an option so you must have enough points to cover the entire cost, which can be an issue if you only have a small stash of points.
Given its earning structure, you basically earn 8% cashback when making an LHW booking, which is just okay.
[Summary]
The only time I stayed at an LHW hotel was at the Gran Melia Fenix Hotel in Madrid, where I booked using Melia points. It’s unlikely I’ll ever use LHW’s website to make any booking, as the perks don’t excite me.
On the other hand, a lot of people do think very highly of their hotels. Now that FHR / Virtuoso are also qualifying rates, you might as well bag some points when you book a relevant hotel.
Register Now: Marriott Q1 Every Night Counts promotion
Marriott’s Q1 promotion Every Night Counts is now open for registration.
You can access the offer here.
- Register by April 20th
- Stay between February 8th and May 4th
- 1,000 bonus points and 1 additional night credit for every paid night
- Homes & Villas, Marriott Vacation Club and Marriott Executive Apartments excluded
It’s quite similar to what Marriott offered last year, except that double points becomes 1,000 bonus points. The offer is very enticing, especially as Marriott is not giving free night credits this year like the last two, so maintaining elite status is not that easy anymore.
There was a sweet spot last year, where you could do 5 award nights + 1 paid night and earn double points/credits for the entire stay. I don’t think it will work this time, as it says every paid night instead of every paid stay, however the official FAQs should follow suit very soon to confirm.
Register now: earn double IHG points
IHG had a targeted 5k bonus points offer earlier, and they just released a global promotion for Q1.
You can sign up to the offer here:
- Register by Jan 31st
- Stay between Feb 1st and March 31st
- Earn double points for all qualifying stays
Not a great offer, but to my surprise the bonus points are elite qualifying. Remember that soon it will be much harder to retain status via elite qualifying points, so if it’s your usual approach it may be worth planning a few stays between February and March.
Revealed: Marriott Q1 promotion to start on Feb 8
(Read here – the promotion is now live)
@sydneyboi on Flyertalk received an email from Marriott today, at the bottom of which there’s a peek of the upcoming promotion:
Coming Soon: Every Night Counts Even More Watch your inbox for our newest promotion! You’ll earn more each night you stay between February 8 – May 4, 2022. Registration starts soon.
So we know the promotion period for certain, and it’s night-based rather than stay-based. From the phrasing I guess it’s similar to what Marriott had last year for Q1: double points and double elite night credits. Registration should start soon anyway so there’s no need for speculation.
In the meantime, Marriott just sent out another wave of targeted offers. Again I received nothing, but watch your mailbox, or check the Promotion Centre on their website.
My review of Ritz Carlton Abama, Tenerife
Failing to visit Mauritius, my friend and I decided to spend the Christmas holiday in Tenerife instead, which is also a popular winter sun destination.
Surprisingly there isn’t a strong presence of international hotel chains on the island – none of Hilton, IHG and Hyatt has any property at all, whereas Marriott has one each of Sheraton and Ritz Carlton. Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, generally regarded at the best Melia hotel, is also at Tenerife, and redeeming points for a half-board package can be an awesome deal.
[Getting Here]
This is the first time I stay at a Ritz-Carlton, and in fact it’s the main reason why I wanted to choose this hotel. From the airport (TFS) we grabbed a taxi which took us only around 20 minutes, and it usually costs between 40 and 50 euros.
It actually brings up my first point – the hotel is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and you have nothing to do or see outside the hotel unless you drive or hail a cab. Unless you want a staycation, don’t pick the Ritz-Carlton and the Sheraton is probably a lot better.
Check-in is very slow although to be fair we are sat down and offered free drinks. The receptionist hands us the room keys but explains nothing at all. We only realise it afterwards and come back to ask about elite benefits, facilities and food options etc.
[Room]
We paid 200,000 points (off-peak) for five nights in a standard room. In terms of upgrade we are offered a choice: standard room with sea view, or junior suite with resort view. We end up with the former.
Apologies for the mix-up, we switched from a double room to twin:
The room is huge, about 50-60 sqm in size. If you are not with kids I don’t see much need of a suite.
Balcony is nice with a partially blocked but still impressive view.
A special holiday gift is prepared in the room – a bottle of Cava and chocolate.
[Facilities]
The hotel is massive and signage can be confusing at times. The swimming pool is well designed:
Very disappointingly, the spa centre is closed due to Covid, which I think is a big let-down for a resort hotel. There’s only a small gym and you need to make prior bookings.
All these facilities are in the main building, a.k.a. Citadel. Behind it there’s also a massive Villa area which offers residences with better privacy.
I don’t get a chance to see the inside (although a friend who used to stay in Villas didn’t like it), but it’s definitely a much quieter area, and feels more exclusive.
Villa guests have their own swimming pools, as well as a mini gym.
If you walk past all the villas, you reach the hotel’s private beach.
There are frequent shuttle buses between the reception, villas and the beach.
A few more random photos of the hotel:
[Dining]
The hotel features a Club Lounge in Citadel and a Villa Club in the villas. However both are closed at the moment.
All paid rates include breakfast, but redemption rate doesn’t. We are offered a half-board package at €65 pp which we think is fair and have accepted.
Breakfast is served in the restaurant La Veranda.
This is literally one of the worst breakfast I’ve ever had at any hotel, to the point that the only edible dish is the freshly-made omelette. I’m shocked how a Ritz-Carlton can get away with it – I guess breakfast is inclusive for 95% of the guests anyway so they don’t need to sell it, and they put you off having breakfast then you have to spend more on lunch and dinner.
Villa guests have breakfast at El Mirador, but it’s also a buffet and I assume quality will be similar.
For lunch and dinner, there are around five restaurants available and you can use your half-board/full-board package at most of them. More expensive items (often half of the menu) require surcharges though.
El Mirador is probably the most popular restaurant, next to the villas.
Txono is another restaurant by the swimming pool. I ordered a wagyu steak at a hefty surcharge, and it tasted no better than a £5 Waitrose steak!
The last restaurant we tried is the Melvin. It’s owned by a Preferred hotel nearby, but Ritz-Calton’s half-package is also accepted here.
Food here isn’t much better than the Ritz Carlton, but service is at a totally different level: the shuttle driver is super welcoming, and a waitress proactively apologises for us waiting too long and offers a couple of complimentary dishes. We’ve had so many issues at Ritz Carlton on the other hand: waiting more than half an hour for the appetisers, the waiter forgetting our requests etc…
If you want to eat out, there’s a small town nearby called San Juan. It costs €5-€7 to get there by taxi, and there are many cheap restaurants in that area. You can have a promenade by the sea too.
In a word, I’m very disappointed by the stay. First of all the location is very weird and it’s anything but easy to get around; secondly the room and hotel facilities don’t feel luxurious at all – I mean they are adequate but far below the Ritz Carlton standard; last but not least, as friendly as they are the staff needs substantial training too, to avoid the so many teething issues we’ve had throughout the stay.