This is my review of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dusseldorf.

I had to spend a night in Dusseldorf last week.  My ‘go to’ hotel is the InterContinental Dusseldorf which is on Konigsallee, the Bond Street of Dusseldorf.  My wife likes it for personal stays due to the location and, in my banking days, it was just around the corner from our German office.

I thought it was time to try something new.  Having been impressed with how Hamburg is regenerating its old harbour area, I was tempted by the Hyatt Regency which is only a couple of years old and promised modern design and water views.

I booked using HotelTonight where I had some referral credit to spend.  I could have used Hyatt Gold Passport points (12,000 for a standard room or 17,000 for club lounge access) but I value my Hyatt points too much to use them when there is a good alternative.  The room price would have justified using points as it met my ‘£10 per 1,000′ valuation head on.

An innovative room design

You probably think you’ve seen everything in terms of hotel room layout.  No!  Take a look at this.

I need to explain this because it is not fully clear.  When you open your room door, you are IMMEDIATELY in the bathroom.  There is no little hallway, nowhere by the door for your shoes!  The room door can be seen on the left in the photo above.

Immediately in front of you when you come into the room is the sink.  If you turn right, you walk around into the area where the bed is.  The bed faces the window and the TV is in front of the window.

(To be annoying, the hotel does not give out wi-fi codes – it is shown on your TV on a specific page.  This is a pain in itself, more so for me because it turned out my remote control was dead.)

To the right is the shower and the bath.  The shower is ‘open’ to the bath (ie if you shower, the water splashes into the bath).  The bath is ‘open’ to the bedroom as you can just see to the right in the photo above.

I was there on my own so the open bathroom was not an issue.  I can imagine how some people who are sharing a room would not be happy with this.

You get a good view if you are on the harbour side of the property:

The club lounge

I asked at check in about an upgrade to the club lounge and they quoted €60.  This included an upgrade to a harbour facing room on a high floor.  (I was on floor 8, street side, and ended up on floor 17).  As I wasn’t going out in the evening I took it.

(If you are booking using Gold Passport points, it is arguably better value to just spend 12,000 on the basic room and then pay €60 in cash for the upgrade to Club rather than use another 5,000 ‘hard to replace’ Hyatt points.)

The lounge is a decent size given the scale of the hotel.  Food is served from 6pm to 8pm but, apart from soup, this is mainly salads and cold desserts.  It was all very good but the variety was limited and I would have liked a hot option.  There was no shortage of drink available during this time.

The lounge has no private areas and no business facilities.  As well as the long table in the photo there are a series of tables by the windows.

Breakfast was similar – more than satisfactory but mainly cold items (there were boiled eggs too).  Including the room upgrade, and factoring in the lack of alternative breakfast venues within a short walk, €60 was fair.  I don’t know if that would have the same price for two people.

The local area

This is where the Hyatt falls down for tourists.  Unlike Hamburg, the harbour area in Dusseldorf is a long walk from the main shopping area.  It took me around 45 minutes.  You can get a taxi, of course, which will cover the ground in a few minutes, but it isn’t quite the same thing.  There is a subway station nearby but it is still too far to easily walk with luggage – you could easily fail to find the hotel as well because of the way the harbour is laid out.

There is a lot going on around the Hyatt for design lovers.  These apartments – by Frank Gehry and covered with stainless steel plates – were very close.  You have the standard waterfront industrial mix of media and design businesses and the cafes and restaurants they bring with them.

Conclusion

You probably know by now if the Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf would be for you or not.  If you think the apartment block above is somewhere you’d want to live, it is your sort of place – you will find the hotel worth a visit.

For a first-time casual visitor to Dusseldorf, especially if you are on a weekend break, I would strongly recommend something more central like the InterContinental Dusseldorf and save the Hyatt for a future trip.

If the Hyatt is out of your budget, Melia has a branch of its budget design chain Innside almost next door, and there is a Radisson Blu across the harbour footbridge from the Hyatt.

When I wrote about the new 40,000 points sign-up bonus for the American Express Platinum card on Friday, there were some queries about the Fine Hotels & Resorts hotel booking programme.  I thought it was worth running over the key benefits again – I will also explain how you can get similar benefits without a Platinum card.

FHR, as it is known, is a collection of 600 luxury hotels worldwide which commit to offering special benefits to American Express Platinum cardholders when you book via Amex Travel.  FHR bookings can be made online via the Amex Travel website or by calling.

The 2015 directory of FHR properties is here – this is a US website so don’t try to book through that as it will not accept your Platinum card number.  Note that you cannot book for 2016 until quite late in 2015 because the hotels included change from year to year.

The special FHR benefits are:

Noon check-in when available (I value this at nothing!  I want it guaranteed or it is useless.)

Room upgrade on arrival when available (can be very good but not guaranteed)

Free breakfast for two people (very valuable at expensive hotels)

GUARANTEED 4pm check-out (very valuable)

Free in-room wi-fi (very valuable, luxury hotels still like to charge)

An additional benefit, usual $100 of food and beverage credit per stay

Where FHR really works for me is the guaranteed 4pm check-out.  If you are on a short break with an evening flight home, you really don’t want to be checking out of your hotel at noon.  Yes, the hotel will store your bag for you, but it isn’t the same as having full access to your room.

The big downside of Fine Hotels & Resorts is pricing.  Rates seem to be fixed in advance for the year so it is possible that, if the hotel starts discounting, the FHR rate may be higher than the highest flexible rate on the hotel website.  That said, on a shorter stay the $100 food and drink credit usually offsets that and you still have the benefit of free breakfast, late check-out and potential upgrade.

It is worth noting that Fine Hotels & Resorts rates DO quality for points and status credit if you stay at a chain hotel.

Park Hyatt Hamburg

I used Fine Hotels & Resorts last month to book a room at the Park Hyatt in Hamburg.  We stayed there for a Saturday night on our way to a beach resort on the Baltic.

I am not going to review the hotel, although it is worth saying that my wife is crazy about the place and always insists that we stay there.  To be honest, I don’t find it as polished as it used to be – no-one bothered to help us when we turned up at the door in a taxi with two suitcases, two bags, a buggy and a 4-year old.  The hotel is now 17 years old and has not had any major refurbishment, albeit it is well maintained.

The Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts rate was €245 – the same as the flexible rate on the Hyatt website.

Last time I stayed on an FHR package I was given a huge junior suite.  This time we were upgraded to the executive floor, which meant we got access to the club lounge for free.  (Neither of us has Hyatt status.)

Overall, we got:

free breakfast (could have had it in the lounge but we went to the restaurant as this was part of the FHR deal – and the Park Hyatt does a great breakfast)

€85 of food and beverage credit, which we used in the lounge – it would also have been valid for the main restaurant, but not via room service

additional evening snacks and drinks from the club lounge, due to our executive floor upgrade

We didn’t need the late check-out on this occasion.  Hyatt now gives free wi-fi to all guests so this benefit was also unused.

The stay posted perfectly to my Hyatt Gold Passport account.  I had been tagetted for a ‘3000 points for your next stay as we haven’t seen you for a while’ promotion, so I got around 4,500 points in total.  This is worth around £45 of free Hyatt stay at some point in the future.

The hotel also forgot to enforce the ‘you must pay with an Amex’ rule.  This meant that I was able to use my Travelex Supercard and avoid the 3% foreign exchange fee.

If you don’t have an Amex Platinum card, you can often get similar packages of extra benefits on luxury hotel stays by using an upmarket travel agent such as our booking partner Propeller Travel (details here).

As it is a quiet Bank Holiday weekend, I thought it was worth taking the time to remind you of three potentially OK ‘buy points’ offers which are currently available from three hotel chains.

All of these offers close tomorrow.

50% – 100% bonus with IHG Rewards Club

IHG Rewards Club is offering a targetted bonus of 50% – 100% when you buy points.You need to log in to the IHG ‘buy points’ page here to see what you are being offered.

If it is a 90% or 100% bonus, it is well worth considering.  I ran the numbers in this article.

80% bonus with Hilton HHonors

Hilton is offering a flat bonus of 80% to everyone via this link.

You should take a look at my analysis from Thursday which is here.  This offer may make sense if you tend to stay at low category Hilton properties or need to top up your account.  It does NOT make sense to buy points to stay at their most expensive hotels.

30% bonus with Hyatt Gold Passport

This is the weakest of the offers as I wrote here.  The 30% discount is only worth a look if you are looking to top off your account to reach the required total for a redemption.

On Tuesday night, I was invited to the Hyatt Games, an quiz event for travel professionals at the Andaz hotel at Liverpool Street.  I am delighted to say that I lead Team 5 to victory after being put forward to represent them in the final solo play-off!  All of Team 5 were the proud recipients of a medal and a $50 Hyatt Gift Certificate!

I’ve been to the Andaz for events before but there was one part I had never seen before Tuesday.  Whilst the building was being converted back into a hotel in 2005, the builders tore down a wall and found a hidden Masonic Temple.  This had been bricked over in 1939 and forgotten about.

Here is a photo I took inside the Temple, which is now being used again:

The hotel is running a series of horror movie nights in the Masonic Temple this Autumn.  You can see A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Omen, Halloween and The Exorcist.  Tickets are a bargain at £15 each, including a welcome drink, or £30 to include a two-course dinner in the Eastway restaurant.

If you want something different for a London night out, this may be something to consider.  Booking has just opened up and I was told that, based on last year, tickets are expected to sell out quickly.  Full details are on the Andaz website here.

PS.  If you have ever stayed at the Andaz, you may be interested to know that it will be fully refurbished over the next two years.  During the quiet Summer periods in 2016 and 2017, half of the hotel will be taken out of action at a time in order to fully renovate every room and the public spaces with an entirely new look.

News in brief:

IHG’s Winter Sale to return on 5th November – rooms from £29?

IHG announced yesterday that its Winter sale will be returning on 5th November.  Full details are here.

This has, historically, offered excellent deals – as low as £20 per night in Central London!  Last year, the deals were more muted.  Whilst there were £29 Holiday Inn Express rooms in the regions, the cheapest half-decent London room last year was £49 at the Holiday Inn Kensington.  The Holiday Inn Stratford at Westfield, pictured below – which I booked for £20 in 2013 – was £89.

You will be able to book for stays between 18th December and 29th February.  As the current Accelerate promotion runs until 31st December, you may be able to pick up the remaining nights you need at a low price.  I will remind you when the sale is live.

British Airways to launch Heathrow to Billund

British Airways has made another slightly bizarre route announcement for Summer 2016!  From 3rd May, it will operate 11 flights per week from Heathrow to Billund in Denmark.

Billund is best known as the home of Legoland and is the global HQ for Lego.

What is odd is that British Airways – via its franchisee SUN-AIR of Scandinavia – has been running a successful Billund service from London City for some years.  I would be very surprised if the market could support 11 Heathrow flights plus the London City service.

I can imagine that the SUN-AIR people are not very happy about this, to put it mildly, as Billund was the biggest route they had.  Perhaps there is more to this story to come and we may be about to hear that the SUN-AIR franchise deal is ending?

Hyatt to buy Starwood?

There have been plenty of rumours this year about the fate of the Starwood hotel group following the resignation of its CEO earlier in the year.

A number of names have been in the frame at one point or another, including InterContinental.  Just 48 hours ago, it was reported that three separate Chinese groups were looking at the company, with the Chinese Government intervening to stop them outbidding each.

Yesterday, however, CNBC reported that a deal is about to be agreed with Hyatt for a cash and shares acquisition to be unveiled as early as next week.

The deal makes sense, with Hyatt and Starwood being the smallest of the global chains.   From a loyalty point of view, the merger of Starwood Preferred Guest with Hyatt Gold Passport may have some benefits.

Starwood is a far larger company than Hyatt and you would imagine that the SPG programme would be maintained.  Because of the strong links between American Express and SPG, we may find that:

Amex Platinum would give you status at Hyatt hotels, once they were integrated into SPG (Amex Platinum comes with free Starwood Gold status)

There would be a UK credit card which earned points you could redeem at Hyatt (assuming the Starwood Amex was retained)

Membership Rewards points would allow you to redeem at Hyatt properties (assuming that the ability to transfer into SPG remains and the Hyatt properties are added)

Hyatt and Starwood have a relatively similar brand overlap so it would be relatively easy to rebrand one set of hotels – although I doubt the Hyatt name would be allowed to die.  Hyatt would also need to be careful – the percentage of Starwood properties which I would class as ‘poor’ is far higher that the percentage of Hyatt properties, and there is a risk of Hyatt brand dilution.

This is all still rumour for now – more news as it emerges.

I first wrote about Hyatt‘s new ‘cash and points‘ awards back in October 2014 when they were announced.

This is an award which is especially valuable for European members of Hyatt Gold Passport.  With no credit card partners here, the only way to earn Gold Passport points is via Hyatt stays.  ‘Cash and points’ will help you squeeze out more value from what is probably the limited pot you have.

For the last year, ‘cash and points’ awards have only been bookable by telephone.  This can be a frustrating and time consuming experience, because ‘cash and points’ availability is different (worse) than standard redemption availability.

This has now changed.  Effective immediately, you can book Hyatt Gold Passport ‘cash and points’ awards online.

Here is a reminder of the ‘cash and points’ chart:

Essentially, the best deal is at Category 2-6 properties, where you are effectively paying just 1.25 cents, give or take, per point.  This is excellent value.

The rate at Category 1 and Category 7 is a less interesting 2 cents per points, but there are only 6 hotels globally in Category 7.  The Category 1 properties are mainly super-cheap Hyatt Place properties in the US.

The key things about ‘cash and points’ rooms are:

They are capacity controlled.  Just because a room is available for a 100% points redemption does not mean that it will be available for ‘cash and points’.  The good news, now that you can book these rewards online, is that it is far easier to identify when they are available.

‘Cash and Points’ nights count towards status and you earn points back based on the cash element.  This IS interesting, and in itself may be a reason to book ‘cash and points’ rather than a 100% points night. 

Diamond members CAN use a suite upgrade certificate with a ‘cash and points’ room

‘Club upgrade’ rooms also bookable online

You can also now book ‘Club upgrade’ rooms online.  These can offer a very good deal in some cases, especially if you will be in the vicinity of the hotel during the day and can take advantage of the full range of free lounge food as well as the evening drinks reception.

An upgrade to the Club floor costs just 3,000 points per night plus the cost of the standard cancellable rate for that room.

As an example, for 30th November, you see the following for the Park Hyatt Hamburg:

Non-refundable standard room:  €183 / €243 Club

Refundable standard room:  €215 / €285 Club

Club upgrade using points:  €215 + 3,000 points

If you would otherwise have booked a non-refundable room, the Club upgrade is not a great deal – I value 3,000 points at a bit more than €28.

If you would otherwise have booked a refundable room, it is very attractive.  You are saving €75 by using 3,000 points which I would take any day.

It’s not clear whether this is a mistake or a social media marketing strategy.  However, a couple of days ago, Hyatt Gold Passport posted on their Twitter feed that they were willing to match some top tier hotel status card to their own top tier status, Diamond.

(Edit: article has been updated with chains Hyatt had now said it will match.)

Your Diamond status would last until February 2017.  Keeping it beyond that point will require 50 nights or 25 stays in 2016 which is very difficult indeed if you live in Europe.

It looks as if you will receive all of the standard Diamond benefits:

guaranteed lounge access

upgrade to best non-suite room

free full breakfast

free premium internet

guaranteed 4pm check-out

a food or beverage amenity on each stays

a guarantee that if you book a points stay for a friend they will get all the benefits too

and, most impressively, four guaranteed suite upgrades which you can lock in at the time of booking, each of which is valid for a stay of up to seven days.  You should actually receive EIGHT suite upgrades – four will expire on 28th February 2016 and you will receive a new batch of four after that.

… which makes this an exceptional offer.

You won’t find these instructions officially written anywhere.  However, from what has been pieced together by US points bloggers, it appears that you need to email goldpassport@hyatt.com with a screenshot of your top tier status with Hilton, IHG, Marriott or SPG. (No Accor, no Carlson, no Best Western etc.)

Your screenshot must show a recent paid stay as well as showing your status level.  You also need to include your Gold Passport number, of course.

Hyatt may not honour your request.  Demand for this is probably far higher than they expected.  There is also some backlash from existing Diamond members who see their benefits being undermined for the next 15 months.

For the sake of five minutes to put together an email and a screenshot, however, I would do it.  There are not a lot of Hyatt properties in Europe but the ones they have are excellent.  A couple of days in Nice or Cannes at their seafront hotels with a guaranteed suite upgrade and late check-out would not be the worst way to spend a weekend.  Park Hyatt is probably the best upmarket hotel brand owned by a major chain and many of the Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency hotels are also very well regarded.

If you have a mid-tier card (Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum) then there are some reports of getting matches to Hyatt Platinum.  This only requires five stays, however, and the benefits are not substantial – it is worth doing if you have a Hyatt stay planned but not necessarily worth the trouble otherwise.  You won’t be moving stays over to Hyatt just because you are now Platinum.

(Photos: Park Hyatt Hamburg – a regular haunt of ours, Hyatt Regency The Churchill London – where I have been for a couple of events recently, Park Hyatt Zurich – as reviewed on HFP.)

News in brief:

Hilton status matches working OK

I wrote about Hilton HHonors offering to match your status in another existing hotel programme last week.

The good news is that Hilton is now processing the matches successfully.  I sent in a screenshot of my IHG Spire Elite status and my account was upgrading to Diamond.  This is the first time that I have ever had top tier Hilton status, albeit that the extra benefits over Gold are not huge.

The main one, apart from better upgrades, is guaranteed club lounge access.  Click here to see Hilton status benefits in full.

I also sent over my wife’s Accor Platinum status.  This account shows no stay activity.  She got a slightly bizarre response that said a) she could have a match if she verified the telephone number on her account (?) and then said b) she can’t have a match but if she sent a statement showing stay activity with a competitor she would get a ‘fast track’ offer.  I have no interest in a Fast Track challenge for her – I may well wait until nearer the 11th January deadline for matches and simply re-apply.

Hyatt, on the other hand, has had an about-turn on its own status match.  After offering Diamond to anyone who showed top tier status with a competitor, they are now restricting it to SPG Platinum members only.  Everyone else will only receive Hyatt Platinum which only requires five stays to earn anyway – the list of Hyatt Platinum benefits is here.

Hyatt hasn’t even processed this for me yet, despite sending me an acknowledgement of receiving my match request.  This will cost them some business as I would have moved my upcoming Istanbul trip to the Park Hyatt if I had been able to use a guaranteed Diamond suite upgrade.

30% to 50% off some avios.com ‘non flight’ redemptions

If you move your Avios points from British Airways Executive Club to avios.com, using ‘Combine My Avios‘, you can advantage of some interesting non-flight bargains.

Full details are here.

There are some wine selections reduced by 30%, quite a few ‘experience’ or ‘pampering day’ vouchers and a few annual memberships.  These include the RHS, English Heritage, Tastecard, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and the National Trust for Scotland.

The biggest discounts are on spa days, helicopter rides, indoor karting, indoor skydiving and supercar driving, all reduced by roughly 50%.

These offers run to 14th December.

News in brief:

Virgin East Coast Edinburgh sale for £25

Virgin East Coast is running a special promotion to push its new ’23 trains per weekday’ timetable to Edinburgh from Kings Cross.

Until 4th March, it is selling 25,000 Standard Advance one way tickets from London to Edinburgh for just £25 each.  This are only valid for weekday travel between 16th May and 15th July.

Remember that you will also earn Nectar points or Virgin Flying Club miles on your purchase.  The Virgin miles are worth more (you get 2 per £1 whichever you take) but obviously you need to be an active Virgin collector to get value from them.

30% bonus when you buy Hyatt Gold Passport points

Until 7th March, Hyatt is offering a 30% bonus when you buy Gold Passport points.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca will also be opening this Summer and looks from the images (see below) very impressive.   Prices are a little scary (rooms from Euro 800, or Euro 1,000 if you want a cancellable one) so a redemption would be a good deal.  Note that points and ‘cash and points’ rooms have not yet been loaded on hyatt.com.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

New Hilton ‘lowest rate’ guarantee

Hilton has launched a new ‘lowest rate’ guarantee, promising that you will pay less on hilton.com than you will pay on Expedia, hotels.com etc.

The power of Expedia / hotels.com is so strong these days that they are able to force hotel chains not to undercut them.   Hilton has worked around this by restricting the discount to Hilton HHonors members (free to join, of course) which means that technically the general public is excluded.

Weekend stays booked 15+ days in advance will now be 10% cheaper for Hilton HHonors members (3% midweek).  From 1 – 14 days in advance the discount is just 2%.  The discounts clearly show on hilton.com during a search, whether or not you are logged in.

Buying miles and points is rarely a great deal at the standard pricing although it can (as with the IHG Rewards Club flash sale last week) make sense during special offers.

Of course, if you only need a few thousand points to ‘top off’ an account for a redemption, the price doesn’t matter anyway.

There is a little-known HFP page here which has links to the ‘buy points’ pages of the major airline and hotel schemes.

Here are three new offers which may be of interest.  There will also be a 50% discount on Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles starting this Friday, I can exclusively reveal.

(IHG will also be running another promotion in March, but it will be capped at 60%.  That said, it is worth delaying any IHG purchases you are planning for a couple of weeks.)

United

Until 14th March, you will receive a bonus when you purchase United Airlines miles.  The link is here.

The bonus is:

Buy 5,000 to 14,000 miles for a 25% bonus

Buy 15,000 to 39,000 miles for a 50% bonus

Buy 40,000 to 85,000 miles for a 75% bonus

I only mention this because United miles are hard to earn in the UK – although there is a United credit card – so this may be a decent opportunity to top up (and potentially empty out) your account.

Club Carlson

Until 15th March, Club Carlson (Radisson, Park Inn, Park Plaza) is offering a 10% – 25% bonus.  The maximum bonus only kicks in when you buy more than 30,000 points.  The link is here.

A 25% bonus is NEVER good enough to turn a bad deal into a good deal!  However, if you need to top up your Carlson account then this is better than nothing.

Don’t forget, though, that you can convert Amex Membership Rewards points into Club Carlson at a generous 1:3 ratio.

American Airlines

Until TODAY (1st March), American Airlines is having yet another promotion!  The link to buy is here.

You will receive:

7,000 bonus miles for buying 20,000 to 39,000

15,000 bonus miles for buying 40,000 to 59,000

22,500 bonus miles for buying 60,000 to 74,000

30,000 bonus miles for buying 75,000 to 99,000

42,500 bonus miles for buying 100,000 to 150,000

This is not the best AA deal ever but – if you buy exactly 100,000 – you would be getting a 42.5% bonus.

Hyatt

The Hyatt deal I wrote about last week – offering a 30% bonus – is still running until 7th March.

Melia

Finally, the Melia Rewards discount I wrote about back in December has been extended.  Due to end on 28th February, it now runs until 30th April.  You will only be paying €5 per 1,000 instead of the usual €8.  The link is here.

If the link does not work, once you have logged in, come back to this page and the click the link again.  You will then be taken to the correct page.

News in brief:

hotelroomauction.co.uk launches in the UK

I met up with hotelroomauction.co.uk at World Travel Market last November but they kept slipping off the ‘to write about’ list.  Better late than never though!

hotelroomauction is the UK spin-off of a Dutch website, hotelkamerveiling.nl, which has been in business since 2007.  The company has over 700,000 registered members, receives 1 million visits per month to the Dutch site and has booked over 3 million rooms.

It is a simple platform which allows you to bid on hotel rooms in cities around Europe.  In general, hotels offer 2-day packages, including breakfast, for two people.  Most auctions are for weekend stays and your voucher is valid for 12 months.  Blackout dates are shown in each listing.

As well as an auctioned lot, the site also makes the same packages available for a direct cash payment.  I imagine this is how the site makes the bulk of its money.

The company works with the big hotel groups as well as independents.  At the time of writing, the home page includes offers from Crowne Plaza Rome St Peters and a Radisson Blu in Brussels, although those auctions will be over by the time you read this.

The company brochure lists Wyndam, IHG, WorldHotels, Best Western, Ramada, Carlton and Campanile among the chains it works with.

There is also a longer list of ‘members only’ auctions which can only be viewed if you are registered, which are used by hotels who don’t want to be seen to be publicly discounting.  The home page is here if you think the concept sounds interesting.

Hyatt launches ‘The Unbound Collection’, a new brand for independent hotels

A hotel executive with a major UK group told me recently that she isn’t primarily bothered about other chains these days.  What keeps her up at night is the behaviour of the major online travel groups, primarily Expedia and Priceline / booking.com, who between them pose a far bigger threat to her profitability.

If it is bad for the chains, think about what life is like as an independent hotel, even a successful one.  This is why we have seen the rise of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, the Starwood Tribute Collection and Hilton’s Curio Collection.

These groups – of which only Autograph has critical mass – allow independent hotels to be bookable via the website of a major chain and gain some ‘protection’ in rate negotations with the online travel groups.

In return, they pay a fee on every stay to the chain (to fund marketing, loyalty points etc), must honour – usually in a watered down form – elite benefits and must make rooms available for points redemption.

What the hotels do NOT have to do is meet any service standards.  As Hyatt website says, it ‘works closely with our owners and operators to encourage a Hyatt standard of excellence’ – with the key word being ‘encourage’, not ‘mandate’.

Hyatt’s entry into this space is called the The Unbound Collection.  It launched last week with three hotels – The Driskill in Austin, the Carmelo Resort & Spa in Uruguay (which used to be a Four Seasons I think) and the Hotel du Louvre in Paris (photo above).

The latter is, of course, the most likely to be of interest to Head for Points readers.  That said, Hyatt is already well represented in Paris via a Park Hyatt, a Hyatt and a Hyatt Regency at Charles du Gualle.

A quick look for a random night in May turned up a rack rate of Euro 490 or 20,000 Hyatt Gold Passport so the Hotel du Louvre could be an interesting redemption option.  Hyatt will need to start bulking up the property numbers soon, however, if this is not to turn into a damp squib.

If you wanted to visit the Hotel du Louvre for cash, Hyatt Gold Passport members can stay three nights for the price of two between 1st April and 30th June.  This requires rate code FREE3 on hyatt.com.  The same deal works for the other two Unbound hotels as well.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

News in brief:

How to quickly find Hyatt ‘cash and points’ availability

Via US blog Will Run For Miles comes an easy way to search for ‘cash and points’ nights using Hyatt Gold Passport points.

These have been bookable online for a few months now.  You had to check hotel by hotel to find availability, however, which was slow in cities with a number of Hyatt properties.

It turns out that using corporate code 51440 at hyatt.com when searching for a particular night will clearly indicate, by virtue of the low price shown, which hotels have ‘cash and points’ available.  This is a real benefit in US cities with many Hyatt properties.

New Sheraton resort opens in Portugal

With little fanfare, an interesting addition to the European Sheraton portfolio launched two weeks ago.

The former Vivamarinha Hotel & Suites is now the Sheraton Cascais Resort (photo above).  The PR blurb says:

[It] boasts an enviable location on Portugal’s sweeping Atlantic coast just 30 minutes from Lisbon and 2 kilometres from the famous Guincho Beach, one of the finest surfing spots in Europe. Comprising of 138 rooms and suites, Sheraton Cascais will feature a signature restaurant and two bars, as well as a wide range of leisure facilities including a state-of-the-art fitness centre, outdoor swimming pool and an expansive spa with six treatment rooms and hydrotherapy suite. A perfect location for golfers, the resort is surrounded by seven of Portugal’s top golf courses, all within a 30-minute drive – one for each day of the week.

Rooms are priced from €140 in June, with suites (1,000+ square feet) from €300.  SPG free nights cost 10,000 points.

Redemptions do not look great value at €140 but, at €200 in August, it would be a decent way to spend your Starwood Preferred Guest points.  The hotel home page is here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Hyatt Gold Passport, the loyalty scheme for the various Hyatt brands as well as Andaz, has launched a new promotion for the April to June period.  This is the first ‘open to all’ promotion for six months.

If you could squeeze in a lot of Hyatt nights – and that would be tricky unless you were travelling to the US – it would work out very nicely.

Called ‘Stay More Play More’ it will run from 1st April to 30th June.  You cannot register until 1st April, annoyingly, and at present there is no website at all.

You can earn up to 75,000 bonus Hyatt Gold Passport points:

• Earn 5,000 bonus points after 5 nights
• Earn 15,000 bonus points after 10 nights
• Earn 30,000 bonus points after 15 nights
• Earn 50,000 bonus points after 20 nights
• Earn 75,000 bonus points after 25 nights

If you don’t know Hyatt Gold Passport well, you may not realise how generous this is.  No properties cost more than 30,000 points and that level only applies to a small number.  You would usually need fewer than 30,000 for a leading Hyatt property.

I tend to value Hyatt points at 1p.  A quick bit of maths means that the 75,000 bonus points for completing 25 nights is effectively worth £30 per night – and that is on top of your standard points.

Whilst Hyatt properties in Europe are thin on the ground, those that do exist are generally of very high quality.  Paris, Berlin, Nice, Cannes, London, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Mallorca (image above) etc etc – all have impressive Hyatt properties.

This promotion certainly won’t be for everyone, but if you can make it work for you then it would work out very nicely.

Registration should open on 1st April at www.hyatt.com/staymoreplaymore although, at present, the page is not active.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

News in brief:

Delays in registering for the new Hilton / Avios promotion, now OK

Yesterday was meant to be the launch day for the new Hilton / Avios (via Iberia Plus) promotion which I wrote about at the weekend.

The registration process was wobbly yesterday but, by midnight, it seems to have been fixed.  You can register by clicking here.

Here is the important bit of small print we didn’t have before:  “Stays can be booked prior to registration; stay completion required after registration. Additionally, members must register prior to check-out in order for their stay to qualify.”

You can find full details of the offer in my earlier article here – it is worth up to QUADRUPLE Avios points.

Get a bargain at 2pm via SPG Moments

If you have a handful of Starwood Preferred Guest points hanging around, and you are free on Saturday 21st, there is an SPG Moments package in Paris which looks like an exceptional deal.

Take a look here.

There are NINE packages being auctioned, closing at 2pm today.  The bids are only at 5,500 points so far.  This is what you get:

Dig in for an unforgettable dining experience with some of today’s top French chefs. You and a guest will begin in the wine cellar of the Prince de Galles, a Luxury Collection Hotel, with world-class Chef Stéphanie Le Quellec and master Sommelier Clément Gautier. Stéphanie and Clément will guide you through  an exquisite dégustation experience, prepared exclusively for the occasion. After the pairing experience, make your way to La Scène for a several-course lunch prepared by Stéphanie in the Michelin-starred restaurant’s open kitchen.

For dessert, enjoy indulgent creations made by celebrity Pâtissier Eric Lanlard and up-and-coming Pâtissier Nicolas Paciello. When you’ve finished your last bites, you’ll have the opportunity to chat with Eric and Stéphanie and have them sign your books. To top it all off, you’ll receive a small gift from the chefs to remember your experience. Bon appétit!

The French Foodie Experience with Renowned Chefs package includes:

• Dégustation experience for two (2) in the wine cellar of Prince de Galles, a Luxury Collection Hotel, led by Chef Stéphanie Le Quellec and Sommelier Clément Gautier on 21 May 2016
• Several-course lunch for two (2) at La Scène prepared by Chef Stéphanie Le Quellec in the restaurant’s open kitchen
• Dessert for two (2) prepared by Pâtissier Eric Lanlard and Pâtissier Nicolas Paciello
• Opportunity for two (2) have books signed by Stéphanie Le Quellec and Eric Lanlard

I’ve met Eric Lanlard a few times now and he is a great guy to get to know.  This would be a fantastic deal if you can grab a pair of tickets.

Hyatt Place Heathrow finally sets an opening date

It seems a long time since I first wrote about Hyatt Place, the ‘limited service’ Hyatt brand, opening at Heathrow.  The project has been delayed but is now finally set to open on 18th May according to Business Traveller – although the website is only taking bookings from 1st June.

The hotel is technically the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Hayes and is apparently a 20 minute drive from the airport!  I can’t imagine how long the Heathrow Hoppa bus service will take.

The building used to house the Heathrow Gate hotel at one point, see above, but has been totally gutted by Hyatt and the images on the website do look good.

The location may prove a stumbling block although it is a way for Hyatt Gold Passport members to generate a few nights stay credit.

Current Advance Purchase rates start at £76.  It is a shockingly bad deal for a Gold Passport redemption with rooms coming up at 12,000 points or 6,000 points + £52 per night.  I would want at least 1p per point from my Hyatt points.

News in brief:

More good Qatar Airways deals launched

Qatar Airways has launched another batch of 241 business class deals.  As well as being great deals, you will earn Avios and British Airways tier points as Qatar is a oneworld partner.

The UK deals can be found here.  The deals are OK, such as Dubai for £1,300 and Maldives for £1,700, but we have seen better.  Not all deals are listed annoyingly so you may need to run some quotes.

Germany has some OK deals as you can see here.  Bangkok is around €1,400 per person.  Sydney is €2,100.  It is also worth checking out other starting points if you have a specific destination in mind, eg Amsterdam offers, Paris offers.  Istanbul is also worth a look for Sydney although Germany is worth the premium for convenience I think.

You need to book by 23rd May 2016 for travel from 1st September 2016 to 15th May 2017.

30% bonus when you buy Hyatt points

Until 15th June, Hyatt is offering another 30% bonus when you buy Gold Passport points.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as the ones in Paris or Sydney, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash.

The new Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca will also be opening this Summer and looks very impressive.   Prices are a little scary (rooms from Euro 720, or Euro 900 if you want a cancellable one) so a redemption at 20,000 points per night ($360) would be a good deal.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here.

It was due a return and now it is back.  I’m talking about the ‘bonus when you transfer your hotel loyalty points to British Airways Avios‘ promotion.

The ba.com page for the offer can be found here.

This year, the bonus is the biggest ever.  It is usually 25%.  This time, when you transfer hotel loyalty points to British Airways, you get a 35% bonus.

Starwood Preferred Guest is also included, with no restrictions.  That is very rare.

There are a few simple rules you must follow:

Rule 1: You must convert your hotel points to Avios (at ba.com, not avios.com) before 5th July.  5th July is the date by which the points must leave your hotel account, not arrive at ba.com

Rule 2: Only transfers from the following hotel programmes count:

• Club Carlson
• Hilton HHonors
• Hyatt Gold Passport
• IHG Rewards Club
• Marriott Rewards
• Shangri-La Golden Circle
• Starwood Preferred Guest

Le Club AccorHotels is NOT included but that is normally the case.

Rule 3: There are minimum transfer requirements in theory, but these are the same as the lowest possible transfer out of that programme.  Nothing has changed compared to the normal transfer rules.

Rule 4: Only lump sum transfers of existing points get the bonus. Points earned directly from stays (ie 500 Avios for a stay at a Hilton property) do not attract the bonus as they would fall under the minimum transfer threshold.

Rule 5: You can make multiple transfers from multiple programmes and, based on past experience, all will attract the bonus.

So, is this a good deal or not?

I am normally a bit sceptical about this offer when it runs at 25%.  In general, a 25 per cent bonus is not enough – for any promotion – to make a bad deal a great deal.  At 35% we should look more closely.

In general, hotel points are best redeemed for hotel stays. Let’s look at the points needed for a high category room redemption, worth £250 a night.  The Avios conversion does not include the 35 per cent bonus.

Club Carlson – 70,000 points = 7,000 Avios

Hilton HHonors – 80,000 to 90,000 points = 8,000 to 9,000 Avios

Hyatt Gold Passport – 25,000 to 30,000 points = 10,000 Avios to 12,500 Avios

IHG Rewards Club – 50,000 to 60,000 points = 10,000 to 12,000 Avios

Marriott Rewards – 45,000 points = 12,000 Avios

Shangri-La Golden Circle – 9,500 points (Shard, Paris, Maldives cost double) = 9,500 Avios

Starwood Preferred Guest – 25,000 to 30,000 points = 30,000 to 35,000 Avios

Looking at these numbers, you are probably better leaving large stashes of hotel points where they are.

With the Hyatt, Marriott and IHG examples, you are trading a £250 hotel room for (12,000 * 1.35) 16,200 Avios points.  That still isn’t a great deal.

The only exception is Starwood Preferred Guest.  Starwood has always been uncompetitive for high end redemptions versus airline miles and even without a transfer bonus miles look a decent option!   I think you get a better deal from 47,250 Avios than one 30,000 SPG points night in a top Starwood hotel.  Personally, though, I prefer to use my SPG points for items such as concert tickets via SPG Moments.

For a small amount of points it is a different game. A couple of years ago I tidied up some of my small hotel balances by converting to Avios, often topping up first from American Express Membership Rewards, and didn’t regret it. If you will never earn enough for a free room, you might as well convert and a 35 per cent bonus is a good excuse.

The other thing to remember is that the hotel chains convert to many airline programmes, often over 20.  You may get a 35 per cent bonus via Avios, but perhaps topping off another account may be more useful?  If you had a huge volume of hotel points, you may be able to get enough points from scratch in, say, the American Airlines programme for a tax-free UK to US redemption.  Avios are not always the answer.

Here is my final thought:

You can transfer IHG Rewards Club points to someone else for $5 per 1000, Hilton points for $25 per 10,000 and SPG and Carlson points for free if you share an address.  Hyatt points can be pooled if you ring and redeem them immediately.

Perhaps a transfer to a friend who can use a larger total for a hotel room is a better deal than Avios, even with the bonus.

PS.  Tomorrow I will look at whether, given some of the current promotions on buying hotel points, there is an arbitrage available.  Can you buy hotel points with a big bonus and then transfer them on to Avios for another bonus?

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)

Until 5th July, British Airways is offering a 35% bonus if you transfer hotel points from seven major loyalty schemes into Avios – click for my article from yesterday.

Since most of the hotel programmes allow you to buy points – and some currently have special offers – I thought it would be interesting to see if any of the deals were so good that you were effectively buying cheap Avios points by buying hotel points.

Test 1:  Starwood Preferred Guest – link to buy points

This is easily the best deal on the table.  Until July 1st, Starwood is offering a 30% discount when you buy 5,000+ SPG points.

Starwood points convert at 1:1 into airline miles.  When you convert 20,000 at once, you receive a bonus of 5,000 miles.  The extra 35% bonus from the British Airways promotion is on top of this.

Until 1st July, the maths looks like this:

Buy 20,000 Starwood points for $490 after discount (£334, plus any FX fees on your credit card)

20,000 Starwood points gets you 25,000 Avios

Additional 35% bonus gets you to 33,750 Avios

Cost per Avios point = 0.99p per point

This is substantially cheaper than buying points at the standard BA rate.

Note that your Starwood account must be 14 days old before you can buy points so this is not an option if you do not already have SPG membership.

Test 2: Club Carlson – link to buy points

Club Carlson devalued its conversion rate to airline miles three years ago and was never going to be a contender here at the standard rate.

40,000 Club Carlson points will cost you $280. These would convert into 4,000 miles + 35% = 5,400 miles. Cost per Avios = 3.54p.

Verdict: Terrible

Test 3: Hilton HHonors – link to buy points

Given the pathetic conversion rate of Hilton points to Avios (10:1) this was never going to be a good deal!

10,000 Hilton points costs $100. Transfers into 1,000 Avios + 35% = 1,350 miles. Cost per Avios point = 5.06p

Verdict: Terrible

Test 4: Hyatt Gold Passport – link to buy points

10,000 Hyatt points costs $240.  This transfers into 4,000 Avios + 35% = 5,400 Avios points.  Cost per Avios points = 3.03p

Verdict: Awful

Test 5: IHG Rewards Club – link to buy points

IHG is currently offering a targetted bonus of 50% to 100% when you buy points.  This offer runs to 18th July.  I was offered 100%.

30,000 IHG Rewards Club points costs $345. This doubles to 60,000 points and transfers into 12,000 Avios + 35% = 16,200 Avios.  Cost per Avios = 1.45p

Verdict:  Cheaper than buying Avios directly from BA but more than I would be willing to pay and substantially more than going via Starwood

Test 6: Marriott Rewards – link to buy points

30,000 Marriott Rewards points costs $375.  This transfers into 10,000 Avios + 35% = 13,500 miles.  Cost per Avios = 1.89p

Verdict: Also no use, more expensive than buying directly from BA

Test 7: Shangri-La Golden Circle

You cannot buy Golden Circle points, as far as I can tell

Conclusion

The only hotel programme where you are likely to get some value from buying points and then transferring them to British Airways is Starwood.

1p per Avios point via this route will be attractive to many people.  I try to avoid paying more than 0.75p per point because I have a large balance and any I buy will not be redeemed for some time.  If you are currently working towards a redemption and are certain that you will get well over 1p of value when you redeem, this is worth a look.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)

Etihad Guest has brought back its offer of a 25% bonus on points you transfer into their scheme.  It is 14 months since we last saw this offer.

You can find full details of this offer on the Etihad website here.  The closing date is 31st July.

Let me say upfront that there is major change this year.  American Express Membership Rewards and HSBC Premier are not participating.  Neither is Starwood, but that is usual.  This means that your three main routes for doing a substantial points transfer are closed.

Relevant partners for UK readers are:

Heathrow Rewards
Club Carlson
Hilton HHonors
Hyatt Gold Passport
IHG Rewards Club
Le Club Accor Hotels
Marriott Rewards
Shangri-La Golden Circle

The bonus also applies to transfers from their Middle East banking partners.

Before you top up your Etihad account, remember that it may not be necessary.  You only need to have 75% of the miles for a redemption in your account.   You can effectively ‘buy’ the additional 25% at the low price of 0.58p per mile by doing a ‘cash and points’ redemption.  This is a very good deal as I outlined in this article.

The deadline for transfers is 31st July which is the last day to initiate a move.

Personally, even though I need to top up my Etihad account, I am not impressed by this offer now that American Express is not included.  If I do end up needing a points transfer to get to my Etihad miles target, I would rather do a transfer from American Express – where I have a high balance – than run down my hotel balances.  If you are looking to empty out some hotel accounts, remember that British Airways is currently offering a more generous 35% bonus for another three days.

News in brief:

Emergency Gatwick Express timetable starts tomorrow

I have written recently about the terrible punctuality problems at Gatwick Express.  The company has now brought in an emergency timetable for Monday to Friday use.  This is part of substantial changes to the entire Southern network due to a shortage of staff.

You can see the new timetable here.  During key hours, the service is now reduced to one train every 30 minutes.  This is stretching the definition of ‘Express’ I think …..

Hyatt Gold Passport category changes

Hyatt Gold Passport has announced its annual list of category changes.  These are generally done when the cash rates for a hotel have jumped or fallen for a particular reason and there is a need to bring the points needed for a free night back in line.

These changes take place on 1st August.  It is a ‘no lose’ situation for existing members.  If you need to book one of the hotels going up in price, you have three weeks to do so.  If you need to book one that is dropping, you simply need to wait three weeks to book!

The changes are mainly at the lower end with hotels switching between Category 1 and Category 2 in both directions.  The biggest fall is Hyatt Centric Miami Beach which drops from Category 6 to Category 4.  None of the UK Hyatt hotels are impacted.

Full details can be found here on hyatt.com.

Park Inn Summer Sale – up to 25% and free breakfast

Finally, Park Inn – part of Club Carlson – has launched its Summer Sale.  This covers all of their properties in the UK with savings of 10% to 25% off regular rates.  Their seaside Southend hotel is shown above.

You need to book before 31st August for stays until 4th September.

If you book direct via the Park Inn website here you will also receive free breakfast.  This is probably a more valuable benefit than the cash discount you receive.

For those readers with families, children under 16 stay free when sharing their parents room and children under 12 eat free when a parent buys a meal.

Remember that American Express Platinum cardholders can benefit from their Club Carlson Gold status when staying at Park Inn properties.  If you stay for 2+ nights before the end of July you can also earn bonus points with the Club Carlson spring promotion.

The general view of hotel loyalty programmes is that Starwood Preferred Guest is the only scheme where it is is worthwhile trading your points for airline miles.

There are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is that – since the conversion rate for most airlines including British Airways is 1:1 – it sounds generous.  IHG Rewards Club is 5:1 into Avios which to the average reader appears to be far worse.

Secondly, Starwood adds an extra 5,000 miles to your pot if you convert 20,000 SPG points at once.  This means that you are getting 1.25 airline miles for every SPG point.  Hilton HHonors, on the other hand, only gives you 0.1 airline miles per point.

The ‘Starwood is best’ view simply isn’t born out by the maths.  Inspired by this ludicrously detailed examination of the major hotel loyalty schemes on US site Travel Update,  I thought I would run the numbers.

The question I asked was …..

How much do you need to spend with the major hotel schemes to earn 10,000 Avios?

I am assuming that the reader has whatever status comes with doing 20 nights via 20 one-night stays per year in the relevant loyalty programme.  Given the amount of money they need to spend to earn 10,000 Avios this is a logical assumption.

Marriott Rewards – $2,500

10,000 Avios requires 30,000 Marriott Rewards points.  You earn 10 points per $1 plus a 20% bonus for being Silver.

Starwood Preferred Guest – $3,333

10,000 Avios requires 10,000 Starwood points.  You earn 2 points per $1 plus a 50% bonus for being Gold.

Le Club AccorHotels – $3,583  (€3,225)

10,000 Iberia Plus Avios requires 10,000 Accor points (the conversion rate to BA is worse so use Iberia).  You earn 3.1 points per €1 as a Silver member.  Note that Accor is changing the structure of its loyalty scheme in January 2017.

Club Carlson – $3,703

10,000 Avios requires 100,000 Club Carlson points.  You earn 20 points per $1 plus a 35% bonus for being Gold.

Hyatt Gold Passport – $4,347

10,000 Avios requires 25,000 Hyatt points.  You earn 5 points per $1 plus a 15% bonus for being Platinum.

IHG Rewards Club – $4,545

10,000 Avios requires 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points.  You earn 10 points per $1 plus a 10% bonus for being Gold.

Hilton HHonors – $5,714

10,000 Avios requires 100,000 Hilton HHonors points.  You earn 15 points per $1 when you choose ‘points and points’ earning plus a 2.5 points per $1 bonus for being Gold.

Interestingly, even if we up the ante to earning 25,000 Avios per year to trigger the SPG ‘5000 mile bonus’, Marriott is still in front.  25,000 Avios requires 70,000 Marriott Rewards points which is $5,833 of spending for a Silver member.  With SPG, 25,000 Avios requires 20,000 Starwood points which is $6,666.

This analysis does not consider the fact that some chains let you earn miles directly if you agree not to earn points.  Because these are generally fixed amounts such as 500 Avios per stay they may work out better for you if you do lots of cheap one-night stays.

Conclusion

Despite what many people think, Marriott Rewards is actually the most rewarding programme for earning airline miles if you are looking to convert hotel points.

The only caveat – and it is a large one – is that Hilton HHonors and IHG Rewards Club are more aggressive in terms of running bonus point promotions.  Even with the current Hilton ‘double points’ promotion, however, it is still less generous than Marriott Rewards if you want to convert your points to Avios.