Hotels
CategoryBattle of the Budget MGM Vegas Hotels: Luxor Vs. Excalibur
Are you ready to rumble?
The Deal Kids and I are just back from Vegas, where we stayed at both of the budget MGM properties. I considered posting two normal trip
Camp Mom Update: Germany, Austria, Canary Islands? Where would you go?
A few weeks ago I shared the first of the endless barrage of Summer Camp options coming down the pike. You know the drill…wait anxiously for the opening time, load
August 2022 Park Hyatt Chicago Review
The Park Hyatt Chicago recently reopened after a $60M renovation. We’re just back from two nights in a Gold Coast Suite and came away…
St. Regis Bermuda Review
We’re just back from a week at the St. Regis Bermuda. Wow – what a country. What a destination. Let’s get right into it……
Andaz Scottsdale Globalist Review
We’re just back from a week-long stay at the Andaz Scottsdale. You get to know a lot about a property during a longer stay….
Ventana Big Sur August 2021 Review
We just finished an amazing stay at Ventana Big Sur. Ventana is a stunning property with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean in Big…
Worth Considering: Upgrading Hilton Award Stays with Cash
Last week Hilton announced Confirmed Connecting Rooms. This is a nice feature for families, especially since this can be a point of concern when…
12+ Luxury Expedia VIP Access Hotels to Consider Booking (before 1/31/2021)
We were discussing in Episode 104 of the podcast how the Citi Expedia card is set to devalue its best redemption (booking their “VIP…
Shop Talk: Keep These Things in Mind Before Pursuing Hyatt Globalist
Welcome back to another edition of Shop Talk – our “podcast on paper” where we do a deeper dive here on the blog on…
My Experience Cancelling Award Travel Due to Coronavirus Threat
It’s been a wild week as the threat of Coronavirus has expanded, causing the need for more travel cancellations. Earlier in the week I…
My Experience Pursuing a Hotels.com Price Guarantee
I recently tried my hand seeking a price match from Hotels.com. I’ve never pursued a hotel price match through any booking channel, but especially…
Bonvoyed: Even More Marriott Extra Person Fees
Back in March I described how Marriott Bonvoy was adding extra person fees to award bookings. At the time I was seeing these fees on awards, and paid stays with
Sheraton Bratislava – A review
We had a few days of downtime in between obligations while we were in Europe recently, and happened to notice a friend was in Slovakia. Being that it was a
Marriott Lifetime Titanium Elite Membership Package Unboxing
I feel like this day has been long in coming. I overcame my Marriott Points shortfall, and achieved Marriott lifetime Titanium Elite status over a year ago, at least according
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Diplomat Suite Review
On our way back from Thailand we were transiting through AUH on a stopover between midnight and 10:30a. Rather than get a place in or near the airport I wanted
Amanpuri Review, Phuket Thailand
The main focus of our trip to Thailand was seeing rock formations in the Andaman Sea and staying at the Amanpuri resort in Phuket (pronounced Poo-ket). This post is an
Park Hyatt Kyoto Now Accepting Award Reservations
Park Hyatt Kyoto award bookings are now available for reservations starting December 1, 2019. This is a highly anticipated opening since 5 Star hotels in the area (Four Seasons, ..
How were those non-loyalty European hotels booked through the Chase Expedia portal?
A few months ago I wrote about booking all of the hotels for a week-long trip to London, Venice and Rome through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. It’s powered by
You’re Doing It Wrong: Hotel Loyalty… At All!
This is the most “opinion piece” like post I’ve done in a very long time…
However, I tried to apply my same data-driven approach to analyzing the cost of loyalty.
There are many ..
10 Ideas For Getting Hotel Deals
First, I’ll give my list of hotel deal ideas, and then my thoughts on each one.
List of hotel deal ideas:
Cap1 10x on hotels.com + Hotels.com Rewards 10% back = 20%
Ebates
Bizarro Bonvoyed: How Marriott Award Availability Works In Practice
There’s been a lot of chatter about Marriott’s Bonvoy program lately. Specifically about whether they play games with award availability and what their “no blackout” policy actua..
Bonvoyed: Extra Person Fee
As we were discussing on Episode 17 of the Podcast – we had one last chance to book Marriott properties for 60,000 points/nt before top properties go up to 85,000+/nt
HIP Escapes Deal: Up to 90% Off Hotels & Free 20 Euro Credit
Three years ago I did a Camp Mom solo trip to Provence/Cote D’Azur. While researching that trip I found an amazing website: HIP Escapes (Referral link). Simply put, HIP Escapes..