As funny as this may sound, there are times that I will choose my destination based on the hotel. As you can see from some of our Saturday Specials, here, here, and here, we try to stay in hotels that we have status at.
To that end, I’m planning a trip for later this month, and my wife and I are having a hard time deciding where it is we actually want to go. What we do know, is that we’ll be flying Emirates to Singapore, and we’ll be flying via Korean Air from Singapore, but from there, we can jump to pretty much anywhere in Southeast Asia.
The Search
I’m not usually a “step by step” type person, but I feel like this post is needed in the blog-o-sphere, and no one else has done it, so, I am happy to step up and do it, but I may need your help (see below).
Marriott
With Marriott’s new website, they changed things up with how you can search based on destination. That said, I think Marriott’s website is the most user friendly of all the “major” chains. If you want to skip through the screen shots (below), I think this link works to get you right to the search. If you want to roll through, you’d click the upper left (3 lines – think a mobile website experience), then select “Find and Reserve, then “Browse by Destination.” This handy graphic helps too:
What you’ll get next is: Marriott’s Hotel directory. Here you can choose a state or country and look at all the cool properties Marriott has there. For example, here is Malaysia:
Hyatt
Hyatt is easier and yet not as thorough. You can search the country from the main reservation screen, or you can explore a selection of “featured destinations” if you click “Hotels & Resorts” from the main landing page. Other than that, I have yet to find an all inclusive page, similar to what Marriott provides.
Hilton
I don’t have as much experience with Hilton so I had to google this. It looks like this link gets you to the below page, where you can select a country and see the available hotels/resorts.
Starwood
Kind of surprising, but if you just go here, you can search by country. As far as a listing of hotels, you’ll want to check out here.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
While their website isn’t nearly as strong, they do have a “Browse by Location.” Its a bit of a clunky interface with multiple clicks before you get to a particular hotel. Here’s a screenshot of where you start:
Radisson Blu
Radisson seems to have a pretty good interface too. You can find the link to that here. Note, you don’t have to select something in the “What would you like to experience” block if you don’t want to, you only need to select something in the “Where would you like to go.” area. Here’s a screenshot:
Conclusion
I know I missed some hotel chains (like Kimpton). I’ll try to circle back at a later date for those chains. I hope this brief post is helpful, if you ever are looking for hotels of a particular chain. I’ve found that these searches are really helpful for me, primarily because I seldom choose the destination first.
