Hotels, hotels, hotels

2109 update – Marriot, SPG, and The Ritz-Carlton Hotels have now combined their loyalty program into one combined program, that is called “Marriott Bonvoy“. 

The loyalty benefits are still almost the same as before. However, there are now six membership levels: Standard Member, Silver Elite, Gold Elite, Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite, and Ambassador Elite. Details of the program benefits and how to reach each level can be found here. Good think for the customers is that there are now more than 6700 hotels and resorts using the same loyalty program – many hotels to choose from!

Below is the old blog post that you may still find interesting to read.

How to Maximize your Hotel Benefits

That’s the topic of the day.  It is not the most exciting subject but I feel it is necessary for me to talk about hotels before I start posting more travel related articles. Hotels play a big part in corporate pilot’s life. I, for example, spent about 190 nights in different hotels in last year in 2017. That is over six months worth of hotel stays instead of staying at home. So yes, I have some experiences with hotels. In this post I will introduce some hotel chains that I use when I travel for work, and how I choose my hotels for my leisure trips. Also, you will find out the benefits of sticking with one hotel chain and taking advantage of hotel loyalty programs if you are a frequent traveler or a business traveler.

How we pick our Crew Hotels

When we get an email about an upcoming trip we have a choice; we can let our customer service people at the office choose hotels for us or we can choose them by ourselves as a crew. Normally if we go to new destinations I like to research the best hotels for our crew. We have certain price limits of course, so we can’t choose anything we like. But for most locations the price limit is high enough so we can stay in four or five star category hotels. A brief explanation of the star rating system below:

Hotel Star Ratings

  • 1 Star: Small to medium sized hotel with basic room options. Usually don’t offer room service or any public facilities.
  • 2 Star: Basic room options, television in room and possibly a restaurant on premises.
  • 3 Star: Multiple room options, with restaurant and gym facilities on premises. Room service availability may vary.
  • 4 Star: Multiple rooms and suite options, restaurants and bars on site, business facilities, concierge services, swimming pool, gym and laundry service.
  • 5 Star: Luxury accommodation with all of the above facilities and more.

There is no international standard for the star ratings. For example a two start hotel in one country could be a three star hotel in another and so on. Anyway, we normally stay in four or five star hotels when we travel for work.

Although the lesser ranked hotels might be nice we have certain needs as a flight crew. We need to have a laundry and dry cleaning service available to us where ever we go. We are supposed to look presentable when we go to work so we can’t wear dirty or wrinkled uniforms. Also we need to have food options available. If there are no restaurants at the hotel when we have a busy schedule, or if we visit unsafe countries, it might create stress to us when we are supposed to be well rested. Rest is what we need when we get to our hotels so it is important that the location is not too noisy and the walls block the noise well enough.

Hotel Chains

To get consistent quality service we usually stick with certain hotel chains. When you stay with one hotel chain, and become a frequent guest in their properties, you start to enjoy many benefits. All the major hotel chains offer loyalty programs with similar terms and benefits. But some programs offer more value than the others.

We normally stay in Starwood Hotels and Resorts or Marriott Hotels, or in Hilton Hotels that we have recently started using.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts (SPG)

Starwood manages the following hotel brands with over 1500 locations worldwide:

  1. Westin
  2. Sheraton
  3. The Luxury Collection
  4. Four Points by Sheraton
  5. W Hotels
  6. St. Regis
  7. Le Méridien
  8. Aloft
  9. Element
  10. Tribute Portfolio
  11. Design Hotels

Even with this one chain we have eleven brands to choose from. Last year I stayed 56 times that totaled 126 nights in SPG brand hotels. Since I joined their loyalty program I have spent 587 nights with them.

SPG Starwood Hotels
My SPG stays in 2017

When I first got this corporate flying job we always stayed in SPG hotels. Their loyalty program is probably the best one around. You only need 10 stays or 25 nights annually to reach a Gold status, and 25 stays or 50 nights to reach their highest Platinum status. 25 stays or 50 nights is fairly easy to reach in this job. Once you are Platinum you get more SPG points per dollar spent, free room upgrades, access to the executive lounges where you often get free meals and open bar, and you get many other benefits. More about SPG Member Benefits here.

Marriott International

On November of 2015 Marriott International announced that it would purchase Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Although uncertain at the time this ended up being a good deal for us and to all SPG and Marriott customers. Marriot is now the parent company but Starwood hotels are still using the old point system, but as a result if you have Gold or Platinum status in one of the chains you could now have the same status in the other. Since I was Platinum with SPG I connected it with my Marriott account, where I barely had any stays, and I instantly became a Platinum member in all Marriott brand hotels.

With the SPG acquisition Marriott has now more than 6000 properties in 122 countries around the world. They operate 30 distinctive brands, including the SPG brands, giving us a great variety of hotels to choose from while enjoying all the platinum benefits.

Without the SPG status match I would need 75 nights per year to make the Marriot Platinum member tier. Compared to SPG it is more difficult to achieve, so if I were to start from zero status I would join the SPG and get to platinum status through them first. More about Marriott Rewards Benefits from here.

Marriott International

Marriott Rewards

Hilton Hotels

Hilton Honors Program

Hilton Hotels

6000 hotels not enough? Well, no. Go to Finland for example; there are no Marriott hotels, there is only one SPG hotel, but there are at least three Hiltons. Also on my visits to UK I have found out there are many Hilton properties around the country while Marriot’s and SPG’s are concentrated only in London. So, yes sometimes we have to use other brands.

Until last summer I had stayed in Hilton hotels only once or twice. Then I found out they were willing to match the member status from other hotel chains such as Marriott or SPG. I suppose they were trying to steal frequent travelers from the other chains. All I had to do is email a copy of my membership status in one of the other chains to Hilton and they would match it. I sent them a screen shot of my SPG platinum card and they upgraded me to Hilton Honors Diamond membership status! Nice huh?

But there was a catch. I would have to accomplish at least 8 stays or spend at least 20 nights in Hilton hotels during the next three months. My new Diamond status was only valid for 90 days unless I would meet the requirements. Eight stays was not to difficult to achieve considering my busy schedule, although it got close. I actually ended up using some of my newly gained Hilton points for a free night in a Hangzhou Hilton hotel to get the last stay. It was worth because my Diamond status was extended by two years. Hilton operates under another 14 brands and 5100 properties. A nice increase to locations where can enjoy an elite status with suite upgrades and such! To maintain that status I need to either have 30 stays or 60 nights per year in Hilton hotel brands. As long as I keep traveling as much as I do now it shouldn’t be a problem.

The Ritz-Carlton Luxury Hotels

Just to make things little better for us travelers the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain also has a partnership with Marriot. With connected SPG, Marriot and Ritz-Carlton I am also a platinum member in the Ritz-Carlton Luxury Hotels even I have only stayed with the chain once. This partnership added about 100 hotels to our go-to-hotel list.

Looking for Lifetime Elite Status?

Yes, you can become a life time elite member in these hotel chains. But start early; it takes ten years. I have now been SPG Platinum member for five years. If I keep the status for another five years I will become a “lifetime platinum member”, meaning that for the rest of my life I don’t have to worry about meeting certain nights or stays every year to keep the status; I can skip a year and never stay in a hotel and I am still a platinum member when I check in next time. The great thing about this of course is that I can book the cheapest room and often get upgraded to suite for example!

With life time SPG status I should automatically get a lifetime Marriot and Ritz-Carlton elite status as long as they don’t change the rules. For lifetime Hilton Diamond status I still need nine years, but it should also be easy if I keep flying since after five years I don’t need to worry about the other hotel chains. If I change jobs then I’m not going to worry about Hilton.

Then there was More..

Hotels, car rental companies, airlines, restaurants, they are all connected through the hospitality industry. All these hotel chains have different partnerships with other companies that can bring them customers.

This is a video tour of my room in the Westin Beijing  Hotel. It was one of my first free suite upgrades and I was impressed about the full body massage chair and the hidden TV. If the video doesn’t work in China you can see it from YouKu Westing Beijing

Airlines

For example Marriott has a partnership with United Airlines. Even though I rarely fly with United I was upgraded to a Premier Silver status with United Airlines after connecting the accounts. This way I got free upgraded seat with them both times I flew with them after the upgrade. Also because I am Premier Silver with United it makes me Silver member with all 28 Star Alliance airlines giving me additional benefits. My SPG account is also connected with Delta Airlines where I can also get free seat upgrades, and with Emirates Airlines from where I can get SPG points when ever I fly. China Eastern Airlines partnership with SPG is even better because with them I can get access to airport lounges, priority check-in and priority boarding.

Those are the airlines that I try use whenever possible due to the added benefits. Unfortunately they are not convenient for me when I travel from China to Finland for example.

Restaurants

Some restaurants also offer discounts to hotel members, but in my experience they are usually just the hotel restaurants.

Car Rental Companies

Many of the major car rental companies have some kind of deal with some hotel chains. On my recent trip to Greece I rented a car from Sixt car rental company and because hotel memberships they upgraded me to platinum status and upgrade my car from Toyota to BMW. In addition I received 250 SPG points for the rental.

Hertz car rental company also has a partnership with Marriott that provides similar benefits.

How to use the Hotel Points?

Perhaps the most important reason to take advantage of hotel memberships is to collect their points. The points can be changed to free nights at selected brands, free meals at some restaurants, or even free airline flights.

Last year I flew from Hangzhou to Sydney in Australia for a vacation. At the time I had enough SPG points to pay for six roundtrip tickets for the trip. But I chose to pay it by cash and get some extra points. The monetary value of the points varies with what you use them for, and I have noticed that you get the most value when you use them for hotel nights. Good thing about SPG points is that they are accepted as a payment by dearly all airlines; you just have to book your flight through spgflights.

How I choose hotels for my Leisure Trips

Because of all the points I collect I rarely have to pay for my hotels when I am on a vacation. And I get to stay in some of the nicest hotels for free. Only time I have to pay for hotels is if there are no SPG, Marriott, or now even Hilton hotels around. For my leisure trips I have actually started to choose my destinations based on what hotels they have available. I don’t mind backpacking occasionally or staying in lower end hotels if these chain hotels are not available, but it just feels so good to stay in a nice hotel and get treated like a VIP.

But if I really want to visit someplace that doesn’t have my preferred hotels, then I choose my hotels based on customer reviews and price in TripAvisor or Agoda. For bookings I normally use Agoda, which I have used for years, unless I can get a better deal directly from the hotel website. Customer reviews are important for me because they are usually more truthful compared to the photo shopped images in the hotel website. That is why, as a frequent traveler, I feel I should start making my own reviews to help other travelers.

How my Life has Changed

Hostel in Kuala Lumpur in 2008

At the end I just want to share a some hotel experiences I had visiting Kuala Lumpur. My first time there was early 2008. I traveled there by myself just for the fun of it. With lots of student loans to pay I didn’t have much money at the time and I didn’t care too much about my accommodations then. Dormitory type hostels, before where you share a room with a bunch of other people, were not new to me. But this time I wanted my own room, so I booked a room in a well reviewed hostel for 25 Malaysian ringgit per night. That is 7.71 USD for a night. I stayed there four nights, paid USD 30.86, and it was awesome! See the pictures!?!

I spent four nights in that room. The bathrooms and showers were located on a rooftop in open air sheds. It was certainly an interesting experience. From Kuala Lumpur I continued by bus to Penang and finally to Langkawi. In all places I had similar accommodations. Good times!

Kuala Lumpur Booking

Kuala Lumpur Booking Confirmation

Kuala Lumpur Hostel Room 1

My room door with cloth hanger that would lead to the hallway and the shared bathrooms located in shed at the rooftop.

Kuala Lumpur Hostel Room 2

My hostel room with all the furniture.

Kuala Lumpur Hostel Room 3

Selfie from the room mirror. I’m fri, fri, free!

Second Visit to Kuala Lumpur in 2017

Nine years later I visited Kuala Lumpur again. This time as a crew member. We stayed in Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur. Because of the hotel membership programs I got upgraded to a three bedroom suite with a personal butler service. Nice improvement from my previous stay in the city!

Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur
Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur Livingroom

Ritz-Carlton Livingroom

Ritz-Carlton Kitchen

Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur Bedroom

Ritz-Carlton Master Bedroom

This is a video tour of my hotel room in the Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur Hotel. I was upgraded to a three bedroom suite with a kitchen and personal butler service. If the video doesn’t work in China you can see it from YouKu Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur

Conclusion

Although this was not the most exiting subject I think this post included necessary content for my travel related website. Later on I will start to publish some hotel reviews in my hotel page.

Staying in nice hotels is a nice benefit for corporate pilots, but it is always good to spend more time at home. Since I don’t have any kids I can still handle all this traveling fairly well, but I have seen other pilots with families struggle with extended trips. I can only imagine the feeling if you constantly miss your children’s birthdays or your wedding anniversaries, etc. which is very common for pilots.

This post only scratched the surface of all the point systems that connects hotel chains, airlines, car rental companies, travel agencies and other companies. But if you travel a lot I hope my post gave you some advice. If you only have 10 SPG hotel stays per year it could open you up for some nice benefits after connecting all the accounts.

If you decide to join any loyalty programs the best way to do is from the hotel chain website. Once you have joined make sure you make your bookings from the hotel website such as marriot.com or spg.com. If you use any thirds party booking agencies such as Agoda or booking.com you won’t earn any points and you won’t get any qualifying nights for your membership. So only do bookings directly from the hotel website if you interested in earning points or nights, otherwise those booking agencies can be very convenient and offer good value.

I hope you enjoyed reading! Check out my next post: “Flight Experience 3 – The Day I Almost Died!”

Thanks for reading!

-Vesa

For more travel related posts please check out my Travel Page! 🙂