Hotel upgrades

Here's a decent article I came across today about getting free upgrades.

The best piece of advice from the article is also what I tend to tell our clients:

The greatest piece of overall advice is simple: Be nice. Leave the diva act to the actual divas. They can get away with it because they can leave paths of $100 bills in their wake. To win the favor of desk clerks and ticketing agents, always be polite, friendly and honest. Flight attendants can smell a fake honeymoon couple a mile away, but if you're a likable person with a specific, reasonable request, doors will be opened for you … and maybe even a curtain.

Click on the title below to read the full story.

HowStuffWorks "How to Get Hotel Upgrades"

Not all hotel upgrades are created equal. Some people only want the luxury suite, while others just want a bigger bed, a better view, wireless Internet access or the farthest room from the cacophonous ice machine [source: Mueller Shulte]. Simple as it may sound, the best tip for getting exactly the kind of upgrade you want is to ask for it. If you're friendly, polite and personable, the desk clerk might just play ball.

Of course, there are several things you can do to increase your upgrade odds. For one thing, if you're swinging for the suite, don't book the cheapest room in the hotel [source: Mueller Shulte]. The staff is much more likely to bump you up from a second-tier room to a top-level suite than to pull off a miracle upgrade from the $53 Web-only special.

Which brings us to another tip: Don't book your reservations online. A phone reservation gives you the opportunity to make a personal connection with the hotel staff [source: Klein]. This presents an excellent opportunity to mention any special circumstances that could lead to a courtesy upgrade: first time in the city, anniversary, birthday or romantic vacation. If staff members can match a human being with the name on the reservation, they'll be more likely to help.

Continue to make personal connections during your stay at the hotel, particularly with the general manager. Ask to see the manager and mention a few things you really like about the hotel. Give the person your business card and tell him or her that you hope to stay at the hotel again. Next time you plan to stay at the hotel, call the general manager directly to make your reservation, and you might end up getting VIP treatment [source: Mueller Shulte].

If you want guaranteed VIP status, you must first prove your loyalty. Sign up for the frequent stay card. Get everyone at your company to patronize the same chain of hotels. Mention your company's policy when you're making your reservations and when you check in. Hotels love frequent business travelers (and their expense accounts), so they'll be much more willing to fulfill any special requests.

If all else fails, try these proven strategies:

• Stay on slow days (usually Sundays and Mondays)
• Check in late in the day
• Make a last-minute reservation at a busy convention hotel (all of the cheaper rooms will already be booked, but they might upgrade you to keep your business) [sources: Detwiler, Klein and Mueller Shulte]

Now let's look at some tips for nailing that elusive first-class upgrade.

Hotel Urban sale

I came across this really good special/sale today:

Urban Hotel Group Throws One-Week Summer Sale

With the first days of summer only one month away, designer hotel group Urban is throwing a seven-day sale with its luxury hotel rooms available for just $99 per night.

Starting this Sunday 25 October, and running for one week until Saturday 21 October, travellers can book rooms at any of the three Urban Hotel locations during the period of 18 December - 18 January 2010 (at the Sydney and Melbourne properties) and 18 December - 14 February 2010 (at the Brisbane property) for the half price rate of $99 per room per night (average full price room is $199).

Urban Hotels are the contemporary choice for the country's leisure and business travellers elegant locations, chic interiors, independent gourmet restaurants, unique little touches, and some serious customer service together create a trio of hotels that are the perfect place to lay your head away from home.

Urban Brisbane's art deco exterior features a Manhattan-style pool terrace and the team have just added the finishing touches to a top floor penthouse suite for intimate functions. Urban St Leonards lies on Sydney's North Shore, a favourite with business travellers thanks to the soothing surroundings, on-site putting green, and organic restaurant. And Urban St Kilda is a funky haven in the heart of Acland Street, complete with the popular 'round bedroom' and Suger cocktail bar.

The Urban Summer Sale applies to king, queen or twin rooms and is subject to availability. Visit www.hotelurban.com.au for more details.

Mantra on Queen refurbishments

I ducked out of the office yesterday afternoon to have a look at the recently refurbished Mantra on Queen. Pre-GFC (global financial crisis) we used to make a lot of bookings at this hotel but it had been a while since I've actually seen the rooms.

Mantra on Queen has always been good value and great for longer stays but some of the furnishings were starting to date and I'm glad to see they've done a nice job of updating them. The main changes in the apartments are the TV's, beds, bedspreads, bedheads, paintings and some of the furniture.

Travel funnies

I've been a bit slack in reading industry newsletters of late, but I found some funny travel stories in one of them today. The first appeals to me because I spend so much time online and the second is funny because one, I used to work for Starwood and two, the crooks had to be drunk or stoned when they first thought of the idea.

1. Whoever devised the acronym for the Wisconsin Tourism Federation clearly isn’t a twitterer and doesn’t frequent Internet chat rooms. Not unreasonably, the Wisconsin Tourism Federation called itself WTF. But anyone who is au fait with pop culture will probably know that WTF isn’t generally translated as Wisconsin Tourism Federation but a more robust phrase, “What the f***”, in case anyone didn’t know.

2. Colin Bennett, former gm for Starwood Hotel Group, recounted the most brazen theft he had ever seen. “I walked into the lobby of one hotel and immediately realised something was missing. It transpired that three people had strolled into reception, dressed in overalls, and had wheeled the grand piano out of the hotel...never to be seen again.

Grace Hotel Sydney - technical difficulties

Here I was earlier in the month complaining about the technical difficulties that Telstra inflicted upon us. Well, that has been put in perspective now by one of the hotels in Sydney.

Last week I was trying to contact the Grace Hotel in Sydney to check availability. I tried their 1800 number, I tried their land line, I tried getting on their website ... nothing. I then rang the mobile number of the sales manager from the hotel ... it was the middle of the day but it sounded like I woke him up. I found out shortly after that he was travelling in Europe on business and it was about 3am in the morning, woops. I asked him if the hotel was still open and he hadn't heard anything about the technical difficulties yet.

I received this e-mail from them yesterday ... a whole week without telephone, e-mail or internet, OUCH!

Grace Hotel Sydney Telephone and Internet Service Outage

Please do not respond to this email.

Dear Business Partner,

You may have heard on the news recently, a set of fibre-optic and copper cables used for telecommunication have been severed, affecting parts of the Sydney CBD.

The Grace has been without telephone, email and internet service since Wednesday 16^th September. The hotel website and general phone line have been restored and some email addresses are operational.

The general hotel line has recently been diverted and is temporarily available. Please call +61 2 `9272 6888 for any urgent enquiries.

Thank you for your patience and understanding while we wait for telecommunication services to be restored. At this stage we have no definite information on when communications will be restored but as soon as this happens we will advise accordingly.

Kind regards
The Grace Hotel

Swine flu quarantine hotel

With talk about the "swine flu" at the moment dominating the news, I came across an interesting article this morning about a hotel that has been quarintined because of the virus.

I had a look at the website of the hotel and I can think of worse places to be locked up for a week or so.

Hong Kong's Metropark: the swine flu quarantine hotel
May 5, 2009

Claims of botched business deals and an endless diet of rice -- guests trapped inside the only hotel in the world quarantined because of swine flu are struggling through their seven-day ordeal.

Hong Kong's Metropark hotel has become a bizarre tourist attraction since it was sealed off on Friday following the discovery that a Mexican guest had tested positive for swine flu.

Passers-by grab pictures of the team of health workers coming and going from the four-star hotel in full protective gear -- unusual garb in a district better known for its strip bars.

But behind the police guards and the sealed doors, the monotony of seven days stuck in a hotel room was beginning to wear on some of the 300 guests and staff.

"Once you have had breakfast and washed, it is back to counting the spots and black marks on the wall again ... before twiddling your thumbs," British businessman Leslie Carr told AFP. He was originally due to leave on Saturday.

Carr has filled the time by blogging about his lunch -- "the choice of rice, rice or more rice with a dash of pork, chicken leg" -- and has even posted videos from inside the hotel on video-sharing site YouTube. One shows how he has used an extension cable as a makeshift washing line.

Others showed more signs of frustration.

One Korean businessman, who gave his name as Jimmy, said he was losing out on a huge business contract because of the confinement. "I am signing contract with (business partners). If I cannot go there (on Monday) the whole contract will be cancelled," he told local broadcaster RTHK. "If I tell them I am in here, then they will never ever see me ... I am a businessman. I don't want to die in this lousy hotel."

But despite the frustrations, some guests were enjoying the attention. "Yesterday's routine was to surf the Internet, and take calls from French media for me and Belgian media for the two other occupants of the room," said French businessman Olivier Dolige via email. "The time passes a bit more quickly as a result."

The city authorities have repeatedly thanked the guests for their understanding and said they have tried to make their stay as comfortable as possible. They have also insisted the measure was the best chance of containing the disease after the Mexican stayed there for around seven hours on Thursday night before going to hospital.

The Mexican remains in a stable condition. There have been no other positive cases in the city.
Cleaning services in the hotel has been stepped up and Hong Kong's health secretary has sent each guest a box of chocolates to thank them for their patience, a government spokeswoman said.

As for money, the cost of the room and expenses would be covered by the Hong Kong government. "They would have been hard pushed to get a credit card out of me after this," said Carr.