Marriott refuses to pay maids decent wages, so they want to browbeat guests into doing so

    Instead of paying its housekeeping staff a fair and decent wage the Marriott Corporation has a better idea. It’s attempting to browbeat its guests into paying the help.
    Marriott is going to put tip envelopes in every hotel room instructing its customers of their obligation to pay for Marriott’s hired help. This rather than simply paying them a decent wage.
There has been a movement for some time by America’s elites to browbeat us into leaving daily tips for the hotel maid. USA Today is so pro-tipping that they have printed obviously false information.
    In March of 2005 USA Today spent a day with a maid at an upscale Maryland hotel, going from room to room as the maid cleaned. Virtually no one tipped. One maid interviewed cleaned 14 rooms without receiving a single tip. In the face of this fact, USA Today printed the following:

Mike Lynn, a Cornell University Hotel School associate professor who studies tipping, cites polls that found only a third of hotel guests tip housekeepers. ‘The social norm is that you do (tip), though not everyone knows it.’

    Consider this for a moment. The USA Today reporter just personally observed that very few hotel guests tip. Then a college professor allowed that two-thirds of hotel guests do not tip. And yet we are still told that, "The social norm is that you do (tip), though not everyone knows it."  Sorry, but if two-thirds of hotel guests don’t tip, then the social norm is not to tip.

    The Marriott initiative, called “The Envelope Please,” is designed to educate the public of the need to tip hotel maids. Or, to put it another way, it’s designed to turn a non-tipped position into a tipped one, thus shifting the burden of paying the maids from their employer to the customer.
    When we go to a restaurant we tip the waiter or waitress because we know they are only making $2.13 per hour. For good or bad, the system that has evolved so that waiters are almost completely dependent on tips. It's also created a surly class of waiters who feel they are entitled to a giant tip just for opening a bottle of wine (tips should be based on the cost of the food, not the wine).
    Tipping the hotel maid is not the norm, however. And so to hire maids the hotels have to offer market wages. Hotels – like any business – have a simple formula for every employee hired: they pay as little as possible and as much as is necessary.
    In some markets hotel maids are paid quite well. In Washington, D.C., maids earn almost $20 per hour, or $40,000 per year. In New York City maids earn in excess of $50,000 per year. If the hotels need help in attracting and keeping help, they should pay more, not browbeat the customer into giving tips.
    For what it’s worth, sometimes I tip the hotel maid, sometimes I don’t. If I’m on the late side of checking out, I usually tip. If my children are with me, I tip, because they tend to really mess up a room. But if I’m by myself and don’t create a mess, then the compensation is the duty of the employer.
    In other words, I tip on those occasions when my behavior might have caused the hotel maid to work above and beyond her usual amount. But I’m not going to tip someone extra just for doing their job.
    As public policy, creating yet another tipped position is a step backwards. Our goal should be a society in which people are simply paid, not one in which more and more people are made dependent on tips.
    We don't need a campaign designed to browbeat us, the customers, into paying for Marriott's hired help through tips. Instead, we need to start a campaign designed to browbeat Marriott into paying its employees fair, decent, and market wages.

Marriott summer promotion a a dud for casual travelers, but frequents guests doing fine

    The Marriott Rewards gravy train is dead. Long live the Marriott Rewards gravy train.

First the bad news
    Marriott Rewards has released its second Megabonus-type offer of the year, and it doesn't include the stay-twice-get-a-free-night room certificate offer of which I've been so fond. Casual travelers such as myself are offered the chance to earn double points starting with the third stay during the promotion.
    There has been a great deal of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth over on the Flyertalk board by Marriott customers upset over the changes. And indeed, for casual travelers the new promotion is virtually worthless.
    For two or three years now Marriott has targeted the free night certificate offer to its low-end customers. It was a sweet deal. Twelve Mariott Family stays per year would yield six free-nights at either Cat 1-4 hotels or Cat 1-5 hotels. If used wisely it was almost like getting a 100 percent rebate on the cost of a hotel room.
    I tend to stay at the cheaper Marriott properties, with room rates in the $79 to $129 range. So four stays with the old Megabonus offer would likely cost me about $450, and in exchange I would get two free nights. We've almost always gotten $150 in value out of our certificates, and I am using my Fall 2013 certificates for a $250-per-night hotel. So with most of the past Megabonus offers I've been about to spend $450 and get certificates worth $300 to $500.
    The new offer gives double points starting with the third stay during the promotion. My expected bonus after spending $450 on four stays will be about 2,200 point. If valued conservatively at a penny a point the value of the bonus is about $22. So not such good deal.
    Frequent travelers tended to be targeted for a better deal. Jinny was offered a 25,000-point bonus after 15 nights (not stays), with an additional 10,000 points after five more nights. She had the same offer in the last Megabonus, and earned the 25,000 points with exactly 15 nights. She earned an additional 25,000 through regular point earnings and elite bonuses, for a total haul of about 50,000 points.
    Marriott has one of the best aspirational awards in the loyalty club business, with a travel package offering seven hotels nights plus 120,000 airline miles for 270,000 to 540,000 points. That's enough airline miles for two round-trip tickets to Europe in the shoulder season, and unless one just has to stay in a Ritz-Carlton most hotels are available in a package costing 360,000 points or less.
    So even though Marriott Rewards has pulled the rug out from under casual travelers, the program continues to be very generous to the most-frequent hotel guests.
    I have a few Marriott points of my own. Spouses are allowed to pool their points with Marriott, so by my calculation we ought to have enough points next year to redeem for the free trip to Europe (or elsewhere). Where do we go? Ask Jinny.

Now the good news
    Marriott Rewards has gotten rid of the free-night certificates, which certainly hurts occasional travelers like me. But they have a new promotion that gives members up to 2,000 points per month for "Liking" and promoting Marriott on various social media platforms. The promotion lasts six months but we can hope it will be extended.
    The program is called Marriott Rewards Points Plus. You can sign up by clicking here. The Loyalty Lobby blog has a good description of how the program works. For a husband and wife team, that's 24,000 points for a few "likes" on Facebook, Foursquare, etc. That's about seven percent of the points needed for the free European vacation.
    A spoonful at a time, folks.

If you haven't joined Marriott Rewards, join now and get a free night; or two!

    New Year's is just over a week away and it's time to make those resolutions. Most of these can actually be made at any time, but I have one that is best made at the start of the year.
    It's this: If you plan to spend two or more nights in hotels over the next 12 months, you need to join a hotel loyalty program.
    Hotel loyalty programs are a lot like the airline programs were 15 years ago, in that there are some really generous offers to be had out there. For example, Jinny and I both recently got a couple of free nights in Raidisson hotels that would have cost us more than $300 merely by spending a single night apiece in a cheap Radisson. It was as if we had been given a free $600.
    The Radisson deal is long gone, but there are still plenty of very generous offers out there. For casual travelers, I've been touting the Marriott program and its Megabonus for some time. If you aren't already a member of the Marriott Rewards program, pat yourself on the back for refusing to listen to me earlier. Because they are giving a free hotel room to new members.
    That's right, sign up, stay twice over the next 120 days and get a free Cat. 1-5 room night. This offer is stackable on top of Marriott's thrice-yearly Megabonus offer, which for most casual travelers is a stay-two-get-one offer. So for new members, stay twice and get two free room nights.

    In other hotel loyalty club news, Priority Club, now known as IHG Rewards, has a promotion called The Big Win that, like the Marriott Megabonus, gives a custom offer to each member. IHG is punishing its most loyal members by giving them crappy offers, but casual travelers can come out just fine on this.
    Both Jinny and I got Big Win offers that total around 87,000 points. Her offer requires a bare minimum of 11 stays, two of which must include a Saturday night. Mine, on the other hand, can be completed with just four one-night stays.
    Needless to say, I'm going for the points. Jinny will likely devote her business elsewhere.
   

One Day More -- Nov. 15 is the last day to claim your free Marriott room nights

    Each day offers differing opportunities and dangers for every person. This is a reminder that you have one day more to sign up for Marriott's Megabonus offer, which for most will offer a free room night for every two stays. The promotion period lasts through January 15, but November 15 is the last sign-up day.
    The Megabonus offers are individualized, but for most casual travelers the offer will be a Category 1-5 room certificate for every two stays, up to a maximum of two. We've used these certificates to attend away football games, for a quick trip to New Orleans, or just when traveling.
    We usually use our certificates for hotel nights that would otherwise cost us in excess of $150. So 12 one-night stays per year yields six free-night certificates worth $900 in hotel stays. Oh, and you should earn in excess of 15,000 Marriott Rewards points over those 12 stays, which is enough points for a night at a Category 3 Marriott-family hotel. So 12 stays equals seven free nights. The math is pretty good on this one; if you have the need for hotel stays over the next two months then failing to sign up for these free room certificates is just silly.
    If a husband and wife both travel a little bit, just double it and make it 12 free-night certificates a year. That's about as many free nights as a family can possibly use.
    For those who keep up with such things, Marriott has one of the best aspirational awards going: Seven nights in a Marriott-family hotel plus 120,000 airline mile. The point cost varies, but most will end up spending 300,000 to 390,000 points for this.
    So what is the air-hotel package worth? Well, 120,000 airline miles will get two tickets to Europe in the shoulder season, which if purchased for cash could easily cost $1,500 each. Seven nights at the Paris Marriott Opera Ambassador Hotel could easily cost 2,400 Euros, or about $3,250. So the value of the flight-hotel package is about $6,000. Spouses can pool their points when redeeming these awards.
    Of course, it will take a while to earn that many points, and there is always the risk that the award chart could be gutted. But if the chart stays the same then  in two more years Jinny and I will get a heck of a vacation.

If you're sitting on unused Marriott Rewards certificates, book your stay by May 16

    I've said for some time that the Marriott Rewards program is one of the best for casual travelers who want to score free lower-end hotel rooms with a minimum number of stays.
    The Marriott Megabonus, offered three times a year, offers most members a free-night certificate for each two paid nights. In the past these certificates have been limited to Category 1-4 hotels. So in New Orleans we could get a free room at the Springhill Suites in the Warehouse District, but not at the full Marriott on Canal Street. This suited us just fine.
    Earlier this year Marriott announced a pretty massive "devaluation," whereby many of its Cat 4 hotels were moving to Cat 5. This leaves us without an acceptable hotel option in New Orleans, Little Rock, and elsewhere. The silver lining is that the changes don't take effect until May 16 -- that's tomorrow!
    So if you're sitting on some of these certificates -- Jinny has five of them -- now would be a good time to book a possible trip. I'm studying the Ole Miss "Away" calendar and trying to think of a good time to visit New Orleans this fall. If you don't book now, your options may be limited.
    The "Loyalty Lobby" blog has a good explanation of these changes, along with advice to book rooms one night at a time so one can make changes.
    On the good news front, this summer's Megabonus offer for most is for certificates that are good for Cat 1-5 hotels. So we can still earn the certificates and they still have real value, allowing Marriott to retain its status as the top loyalty program for casual travelers, in my view.

Marriott's free room certificates just became a lot less valuable

    I've repeatedly touted the Marriott Rewards program as the best for the occasional traveler because of their Megabonus program, which offers a free room certificate for every two stays. This is on top of regular point earnings.
    The only drawback to the certificates is that they can only be used for a Catagory 1-4 hotel. This suited us just fine, as I said last October:

For New Orleans, that means the Canal Street Marriotts are out, but the Residence Inn and Springhill Suites a few blocks away in the Warehouse District are in. This is just fine for our family, as these rooms are great for families and our certificates save us about $150 per night. Last year we had a great New Year's Eve vacation at very low cost thanks to free Marriott certificates.

    It looks like our days of free New Orleans hotel rooms are numbered. Marriott just announced a major devaluation of its loyalty program, in which 1,312 hotels are moving up in category and thus point cost while 46 hotels are moving down in category. Most important for me is the fact that 370 hotels are moving from Category 4 to Category 5, thus making them off limits for Megabonus certificates. Marriott has a pdf file available showing the hotels affected by the changes.
    All three New Orleans Warehouse District properties -- Courtyard, Springhill, and Residence Inn -- are going from Category 4 to 5. The Downtown Memphis and Little Rock Courtyards are going from 4 to 5. Jinny and I went to the Ole Miss-Arkansas game this year; I doubt we would have gone without the free room at the Courtyard. Staying at some Fairfield Inn out on the interstate just isn't the same. To use our free room certificates in New Orleans we will now have to stay in Metairie. No thank you.
    The airline and hotel programs are all the same. In order to encourage loyalty to their programs they offer generous rewards. The public responds by patronizing their business. They then realize they have perhaps been a bit too generous and try to find ways to devalue the awards that they've issued.
    While many good hotels have effectively been put out of free-room reach, there are still plenty out there. The downtown Memphis Springhill Suites and Residence Inn remain Cat 4. We're still happy to have the certificates, but there is now a chance that some might actually expire unused. I hope not.
    There are a few bits of good news with the changes. They don't take effect until May 15, 2013, and customers may book 50 weeks in advance. The free night certificates are good for a year, so at least there is one last chance to book these hotels before they go away forever.
    Oh, and the other bit of good news. Although 370 hotels went from Cat 4 to 5, three dropped from 5 to 4, including the Cairo Marriott and the Bahrain Residence Inn. Why waste time on New Orleans when we can visit the Middle East, right?

h/t: Loyalty Lobby

Marriott's Megabonus offer just got better, but you have to act today!

NOTE: The gift cards are sold out. But it is possible to buy Marriott gift cards on eBay and elsewhere, just not at a 20 percent discount. So keep your eyes peeled!

    I've posted several times that I think the Marriott Rewards program is one of the best for casual travelers. Their first quarter Megabonus offer provides most casual travelers with a free room night for every two stays, up to three free nights (the offer is personalized, but most receive the stay-two-get-one offer).
    The free room certificates are only good for a Catagory 1-4 hotel, so in New Orleans for example you can use your certificate at the Courtyard or Springhill Suites but not the full Marriotts. That's good enough for us.
    Jinny and I have used some of the certificates, and have yet to use one on a hotel with a rate of less than $150. So they have real value. There are plenty of Fairfield Inns out there with rates under $100, so essentially this offer allows one to purchase three one-night stays for $66. Given the inflation in hotel rates, that's a great deal.
    For today only, eBay is offering $50 Marriott gift cards for $40. So a room normally costing $100 can be had for $80. So three hotel nights can be had for $160, or $53.33 each, and the night purchased with the free night certificate can almost always work out to be a decent hotel with a rate of over $150. So $160 gets you $360 or more worth of hotel stays.
    Now the math doesn't always work out perfectly, but this is as good as it gets. So if you have any travel planned in the next few months, go ahead and get a few of these gift cards today, AND TODAY ONLY.

For the new year, plan your hotel stay strategy to garner the most free rooms

    From time to time I tout various hotel loyalty programs depending on what their promotion of the season is. For the last part of 2012 it was Marriott all the way for Jinny and me as the Megabonus gave us one free night certificate for every two nights stayed.
    Now the certificates were only good in Category 1-4 hotels, generally Courtyards and Springhill Suites but not full Marriotts. This suits us just fine. Jinny and I were able to attend a couple of away football games and will spend a couple of nights in Birmingham for the Compass Bowl courtesy of Marriott free night certificates. We couldn't afford these trips without the free hotel nights!
    So we're a few days away from a new year. If you aren't signed up for hotel loyalty clubs you should be  -- for every single hotel chain where you lay your head at night.
    So where do you stay? At whatever chain has the best offers! And right now that's still Marriott, in my view. Once again they've got their Megabonus promotion going from Feb. 1 to April 30. Each Marriott Rewards member will get an individualized offer on the Marriott website, but most casual travelers will get a stay-two-get-one-free offer, with a maximum of three free night certificates.
    Marriott has three of these Megabonus offers each year, so there is the opportunity to earn nine free nights per year, or 18 nights per married couple. That's a lot of free hotel nights earned without a lot of hotel spending. And of course you'll be earning regular Marriott points along the way, along with Silver status, which isn't worth much but is better than nothing.
    I used to travel quite a bit, but now just every so often. But I still log enough hotel nights to make the Marriott Megabonus deal a great one for me. And of course Jinny is doing lots of travel with work, so she'll earn her three Megabonus nights while still taking advantage of what the other hotels have to offer.
    Here's a quick hotel strategy guide. Be aware that even if you spend only a few nights per year in a chain hotel you can earn free nights. But you have to join the club! I keep all my hotel club numbers in my phone so I have them handy; but remember, whenever possible reserve in advance on the Internet.

    Marriott: Take advantage of the three Megabonus offers that are likely to be offered this year. Stay-two-get-one is a really generous offer and that's what most casual travelers will get as their personalized offer. If 2012 is any guide you will be able to earn nine free nights for 18 stays during the next 12 months. Best of all, you can earn your points by staying in sub-$100 Fairfield Inns and then use the free rooms for Category 4 Courtyards and Springhill Suites that might run $150 or more per night. During the times when the Megabonus isn't active, take your business to greener pastures.

    Priority Club: Priority Club is the loyalty program for Holiday Inn and associated properties. These properties have been getting a bit of a face lift lately. They needed it. Priority Club points never expire and there are quarterly bonuses that you can place on your account to get extra points. Visit the Priority Club Forum on flyertalk.com to find out the details about how you can use this program to your benefit. Ole Miss played Tulane this year on the same weekend as an AARP convention and hotel rates were sky high. We used Priority Club points to get a $450 Crowne Plaza French Quarter room for $70 and 25,000 points. Obviously we couldn't have afforded the trip without the almost-free room. One tip: Priority Club has terrible "elite" benefits, but is a great program for people wanting to earn points for free rooms for family vacations. You are much more likely to get a "family" room in Europe or elsewhere with Priority Club and the points accrue faster.

    Choice Hotels: Not many business people on expense accounts stay at Choice hotels. This chain includes Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, Quality Inn, Rodeway Inn, and EconoLodge, among others. But for those traveling on their own dime they are sometimes adequate. And they sometimes have outstanding promotions. Last year they had at least two promotions that awarded 8,000 bonus points for each two stays booked on the Internet. In some cases that's enough for a free night. Sometimes they have Europe sales so that 8,000 to 12,000 points gets a decent hotel in Europe. So two nights in a $59 EconoLodge or Sleep Inn can earn you enough points for a room at the Hotel Diana in Venice or the Hotel Axel Opera in Paris. I've stayed at both at 10,000 and 8,000 points respectively and they are fine budget hotels. Choice Hotels have limitations on how far ahead they can be booked, and the Europe properties aren't always on sale, but this is a fine program for the budget lodging crowd. This chain's current promotion is triple points; not the greatest, but not terrible, either.

    Club Carlson: This loyalty program has essentially bought themselves some attention recently with some unbelievable stay-one-get-one offers. For just a few stays Jinny and I have about 250,000 points between us as well as two free night certificates. Points can be cashed in on free rooms for 8,000 to 50,000 each. This one is worth joining. Keep an eye out for additional generous offers. Club Carlson has both the Radisson hotels, which can be weak and variable in the U.S., and the growing and popular Country Inn and Suites, which I think are a notch above a Hampton Inn. They have a fairly large footprint in Europe with their Park Inn and Park Plaza brands.

    Hilton: I've listed this program fourth. There is nothing wrong with Hilton, but it's really not a great program for casual travelers; certainly not when compared to those above. Jinny is a HHonors Diamond and will likely stay enough next year to requalify for 2014. The Diamond status is great to have and the points do add up quickly for elite members. Hilton's first quarter promotion is double points and it's not a bad promotion, but not nearly as good for casual travelers as Marriott's Megabonus. I just think Hilton is a better choice for those who can earn Gold or Diamond status instead of the casual traveler. On a personal level I used to have Hilton Gold status and I'm now satisfied to stay four times a year to keep Silver status so that I will have access to VIP point redemptions. Hilton has "double-dipping," giving both hotel points and airline miles. The best airline is probably American, even though they have poor flights to Memphis. Their program is so much better than Delta, so their miles are worth about 50 percent more.

    Starwood and Hyatt: Nothing wrong with these programs, but they have so few properties in the South that the average traveler can't take advantage of most of their promotions. But if you find yourself staying in one of them, by all means join their loyalty program.

Hold your horses! Radisson offers one free night certificate for one paid night, must book by Oct. 31

    Okay, I said in my previous post I had only one word for travel and that word was Marriott. Well, add one more word to that list for one stay: Radisson.
    Club Carlson is offering a 1-for-1 offer for stays at Radisson hotels booked by Oct. 31 and completed by Dec. 31. The free night can be used at any Radisson or Radisson Blu in the United States, Canada or the Caribbean and expires after one year. So before you start booking those Marriott stays you do need to book one night at a Radisson!
    You must be a Club Carlson member. To sign up for this promotion click here.
    Club Carlson has been offering some pretty good promotions. Earlier this year they offered 50,000 points for a single stay at Country Inn & Suites and another 50,000 points for a single stay at any Radisson.  50,000 points is enough for a free night at virtually any Radisson in the world, and is worth anywhere from $200 to as much as $500, depending on where you decide to land. Jinny and I both took advantage of this offer, and I took advantage of another offer for 25,000 points. So for very little spend we have roughly 250,000 Club Carlson points between us. Hopefully we'll both be able to take advantage of this most-recent offer so that we'll have an embarrassment of Club Carlson riches.
    One of the reasons hotel chains offer these deals is to try to reel in new customers. To earn her bonus Jinny stayed at the New Orleans Country Inn & Suites on Magazine Street, which is really more of a boutique hotel than a run-of-the-mill Country Inn, and I think it is her favorite New Orleans hotel. She may be a Hilton Diamond and  Marriott Silver, but this is where she would rather stay in New Orleans. It's frequently booked, though.
    I would describe most of the other Country Inn & Suites as a notch above a Hampton Inn and a notch below a Hilton Garden Inn. I like them.

    Be aware that Country Inn & Suites is offering a free-night certificate for two-night stays Oct. 1 through Nov. 29. To book this click on the "Packages" tab when booking Sunday-Thursday stays. The certificates don't have a long shelf life though; they are only good Dec. 15, 2012 through Feb. 15, 2013, and you apparently have to register for the certificate after your stay. So all in all this offer isn't anywhere as good as the Marriott MegaBonus, but still worth a look for those who know they will get all their MegaBonus free nights.

    If you are going to take advantage of these Club Carlson offers, you might as well sign up for some extra bonus points. Click here to sign up for a bonus of up to 6,000 points per night for stays through Dec. 31.

    Jinny has requalified for HHonors Diamond for this year, and certainly there are some great benefits to the HHonors program for elites. But when it comes to bonuses -- things offered above and beyond the regular point earnings -- HHonors sometimes comes up short. For the Fourth Quarter HHonors is offering 1,000 bonus points per night; it takes 50,000 points to get a top Hilton room.
    A quick comparison of some various bonus offerings:

Radisson: Stay one night, get one free night certificate, maximum of one.
Marriott: Megabonus, stay twice, get free night certificate, Cat 1-4, maximum of three.
Country Inn & Suites: Complete a two-night stay Sunday through Thursday, get quick expiration free night certificate (plus earn generous bonus points!).
 Hilton: Stay 50 nights, get enough points for one night at a top Hilton.

    Needless to say, Hilton is at the bottom of Jinny's list until next year.

For occasional travelers this fall and winter, just one word: Marriott

    For those of you with travel plans in the next few months, I have just one word of advice. It's not plastics; it's Marriott.
    For the casual or even not-so-casual traveler, Marriott has the best hotel deal going with their current MegaBonus offer, which runs through Jan. 15. Combined with a current gift card offer, this one can't be beat. You only have until Oct. 31 to sign up though, so hurry!
   So what is the MegaBonus offer? Well, it depends. Everyone gets their own, but most low-level Marriott Rewards members will be offered a free night certificate for each two stays, up to a maximum of three free nights. The free nights are good in any Category 1-4 Marriott Family hotel and expire after one year, which is an improvement over past promotions, where the certificates were only good for six months. This is the offer that both Jinny and I got.
    But each offer is personalized. Other MegaBonus offers which have been reported include:

Earn 2 Free Nights (Category 1-5 hotels)
1 free night certificate earned after every two stays.
Free night certificate valid for category 1 to category 5 hotels and expire one year from issuance. Maximum 2 free night certificates during promotion.

Earn 40,000 bonus points
25,000 bonus points after 15 paid nights
+15,000 bonus points after 20 paid nights.

Earn 50,000 bonus points
35,000 bonus points after 20 paid nights
+15,000 bonus points after 25 paid nights. 

Earn 50,000 bonus points:
Earn 5,000 points every second stay.

        It's important to note that the limitation to Category 1-4 hotels pretty much eliminates all of the top-end Marriotts. For New Orleans, that means the Canal Street Marriotts are out, but the Residence Inn and Springhill Suites a few blocks away in the Warehouse District are in. This is just fine for our family, as these rooms are great for families and our certificates save us about $150 per night. Last year we had a great New Year's Eve vacation at very low cost thanks to free Marriott certificates. Those lucky enough to get a Cat-5 certificate will find a few luxury properties available.
     You'll note I mentioned a Gift Card offer. To take full advantage of this offer, you really need to buy a Marriott Gift Card through the Southwest Airlines website to pay for your stays. You can earn up to 12,000 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points by buying a $1,000 gift card. A smaller purchase earns fewer points. These points are worth $200 when buying a Southwest Airlines ticket. These are actual usable points, so this is money in the bank if you plan to fly Southwest.
    Let's do the math on this offer. A $750 Marriott gift card will return $150 in Southwest Airlines points, so your total investment is $600. Assuming a mix of Fairfield Inns, Courtyards and perhaps one full Marriott, all with one-night stays, you should be able to average six stays at $125 per stay. But thanks to your Southwest rebate, your real cost will only be $100 per stay. In exchange you will likely get three Cat 1-4 free night certificates. When buying the gift card, remember that if you will be charging food and drinks to your room you will want to go ahead and get the full $1,000 card rather than just enough to pay for six nights.
    If you are traveling on business and being reimbursed for your travel, the value of this deal is at least $125 for the free certificates plus $150 for the Rapid Rewards points, for a total of $525 in fairly easy money. If you are traveling for leisure or on your own dime, it still is a way to spend nine nights in nice hotels for an average of $50-70 per night (depending on whether your paid nights are at Fairfields or Courtyards). So it's a way to get Courtyard luxury for EconoLodge prices.
    To sign up for the Megabonus, just go to the Marriott site. Make sure your earning style is set to points and not airlines miles before trying to sign up.They have a Megabonus for airline miles, but it is weak.

    If you aren't a member of the Marriott Rewards program, please allow Jinny or me to "refer" you to the program. We will both get bonus points for your next five stays! Just click here to send me an email and I will send you a referral! (Or Facebook message me for my friends, so I'll be sure to get your message).

    Here's the link to sign up for Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program. (Note: this link was down when I wrote this but should be repaired soon).

    Here's the link to sign up for the Marriott Gift Card Offer.

    Now as a matter of hotel-point strategy, it's hard to earn a lot of points in the Marriott system, and it's hard to earn Elite Status beyond Silver. I think Marriott has these Megabonus offers three times a year, with a maximum of either two or three free nights. So for the heavy traveler, I suggest planning for enough stays to make your desired tier in the Hilton system, then just graze on the best offers that Marriott, Priority Club, Hyatt, and lately Club Carlson throw out. (And for the "own-dime" traveler, the Choice Hotels program actually has some great offers!).
    Between the various promotions that the various hotel loyalty programs put out there to lure customers, combined with the regular points that one offers just as a matter of course, a heavy traveler like Jinny will earn enough certificates and points for about 15 free hotel nights per year, if not more. Thanks to the Marriott MegaBonus plus some other offers, a lightweight such as myself can still earn five to seven free nights. For example, Jinny and I will soon have 10 of the Marriott free-night certificates between us; our challenge will be to start using them before the first one earned expires in July 2013 (I'm going to save my brother a phone call; these certificates are non-transferable, even to a family member).
    We recently went to New Orleans to watch the Rebels play. Between the Rebels, the Saints game and an AARP convention the city was booked solid, and hotel rooms were literally going for $300 and up per night. We had to do a split stay, but we stayed for free at two different hotels on points. Needless to say, we never would have made the trip if it had involved $800 in hotel costs. So it's nice to have free hotel rooms when you need them.

Marriott has great summer free room offer

    Marriott has a good summer bonus this year. It runs from June 1 to August 31 and registration is required.
    While these bonuses vary by customer, most casual customers will be offered a Stay-2-Get-1-Free offer, with the opportunity to earn up to three free-night certificates. This is better than last year, when only two certificates could be earned.
    The Marriott family includes the obvious named choices, plus Courtyards, Fairfield Inns, Springhill Suites, Residence Inns, plus a few more choices you can find on their website.
    The certificates are only good for Catagory 1-4 hotels, so in most cities they won't be good for the top-line Marriott, but will likely work for the Courtyard or Springhill Suites a mile or two away.
    Jinny recently had some certificates that were about to expire, so we took a family trip to New Orleans for a few days, including New Year's Eve. Our certificates wouldn't work for the French Quarter, but we got a nice room at the Springhill Suites in the Warehouse district, about a 15 minute walk away. It was just fine and it was free.
    Jinny's primary hotel chain is Hilton, simply because every town has a Hampton Inn. She has plenty of points and is treated well. But Marriott has a good offer here, and Priority Club is also worth watching as well.
    I'll be posting later about some great hotel deals that Jinny won't be going after but that I will. You might call them hotel deals for the masses. Stay tuned.

Marriott 2012 First Quarter MegaBonus Promotion -- Stay twice, get one free

    Marriott's first quarter MegaBonus promotion is the same they've had for the past several years. For most customers, it's stay two nights, get a free night certificate.
    Now for the fine print. The free night certificates are only good at Category 1-4 hotels. The certificates are only good for six months or so. And you can only earn two of them.
    But for the occasional customer, the Marriott deal is likely as good as it gets. Certainly anyone who stays in hotels at all would be foolish not to plan four Marriott stays from Feb. 1 to April 30, 2012, the promotion dates. Four stays gets two free nights.
    Admittedly the free nights aren't going to be in a top-flight Marriott. With a Cat-4 maximum, you're looking at a Courtyard or Springhill Suites, not a full Marriott. These hotels still often cost $150 per night, making this a great value.
    It should be noted that the Marriott bonus offers vary. High-frequency customers will tend to get bonus points offers. But the "stay two, get one" offer seems to be available to everyone else. It's a great deal. Some have reported success in calling to have their offer changed, so if you don't like your MegaBonus offer, call to ask for a change. Oh, and for those of you who want airline miles instead of the MegaBonus offer, Marriott is offering 2,000 bonus airline miles per stay. Not bad really, but not as good as the 5,000 Delta miles per stay from the summer of 2010. Those miles sent our Lucy to summer camp!
    Visit the marriott.com website to sign up.

Hilton HHonors offers great fourth quarter promotion

    Hilton HHonors has announced its fourth quarter promotion and it's a great one!
    Last year when all of the hotels were falling all over themselves to offer great promotions Hilton gave out free-night certificates for every three stays. This year the Hilton Fourth Quarter offer is a free-night certificate for every four stays or 10 nights.
    While not quite as generous as last-years offering, this promotion, entitled "Fast Ways to Free Stays," is a good as any major hotel chain is offering this year.
    Marriott has a Megabonus promotion that has some merit, but it is only valid if you pay for your room with a VISA card. Most business people use AMEX, so the Marriott promotion is pretty worthless. Priority Club has a promotion I reported on August 28 that offers 2,000 bonus points per night for members who stay in four different brands, for example, Holiday Inn, HI Express, Intercontinental and Hotel Indigo. It was a good enough promotion that Jinny was planning to move a bit of her business to Priority Club for the fourth quarter. It looks like she'll be coming back to Hilton, although I do think she'll try to stay at four Priority Club brands just to maximize her points on stays that she does have with them.
    The free-night certificates can be used at any Hilton for a standard room. If the hotel is out of standard rooms they can't be used. So there is a bit of capacity control, and Hilton has done away with the "Diamond Force" that gave its most elite members guaranteed availability. That said, most have reported that they've been able to use the certificates in the past at better properties with nightly rates of $300 or more.
    Certificates will be issued within 14 days of their being earned and are good for six months.
    The Hilton elite recognition system is weighted towards stays, not nights. For this promotion, four one-night stays gets the same certificate as one 10-night stay. The latter costs two-and-one-half times as much. In addition, Hilton grants Diamond elite status after 28 stays or 60 nights. So the Hilton reward system creates a perverse incentive to move from hotel to hotel every night; and that's what many point misers do.
    There are plenty of Hilton properties out there charging in excess of $200 per night. Lots more are in the $160 or more range. So these certificates are worth at least $160 each. So for longer stays it is well worth it to check out of one Hilton property and into another (you can't check right back into the same property). Thus on a four-night trip by staying at Hotel A, then B, then A again, then B again you get four stays and a free night certificate.
    Bottom line on this deal is that if you have 12 one-night stays at $150 per night you will spend $1,800 over the three month promotion period. In return you will get three certificates worth at least $160 each, for an effective rebate of more than 26 percent of hotel costs. Add in the value of the hotel points earned, and the rebate gets even higher.
    Of course, it is possible to get even more value out of these certificates. Hiltons in Paris, London, Venice and other European cities often cost in excess of $400 per night. Although not common, one can sometimes find a Hampton for less than $90 per night, all in. So it is technically possible to get a rebate value of greater than one spends on the hotels in the first place, and that's not even considering the value of the HHonors points.
    It's likely a poor idea to stay at hotels just to get the certificates, but many people will book a few extra stays for no other reason than to earn Diamond status. If we should find Dec. 31 is approaching and we only need one more stay to get that certificate, I dare say you'll find us at the cheapest Hampton we can find, letting our children enjoy the pool for the night and planning on how we will use our free room night at any Hilton in the future.

Addendum 9-28-11
    Many or all members of the Flyertalk board have reported that they have signed up for this promotion seeking the free nights and instead have been enrolled in an "extra points" version of the promotion. The extra points version is inferior, having only the advantage that the points don't expire while the certificates do. Probably best to wait a day more to enroll and then call to check and make sure you are enrolled for the free certificates.

    In addition, I stated the value of the rebate to be received as approximately 26 percent. It could easily be much higher. Spend your certificates on a $300 hotel room, such as the SanDestin Hilton or a New York or European property and the value of three certificates is $900. One is likely to earn more than 22,000 HHonors points for the 12 stays which, when used at a top property, are worth at least $200. And if you double-dip for American Airlines miles you will get 6,000 AAdvantage miles, worth about $100. So if used wisely you can easily get a 66 percent rebate out of this offer. Use your certificates in New York, Paris or London and your rebate can exceed 100 percent, but of course you have the expense of getting to these places!