I had been to Boston a few times, but never to the New England coast and was excited about a road trip with friends. Our first stop was Kennebunkport, the weekend home of former US President Bush, and a popular town near the beaches. I picked the Port Inn Kennebunk, an Ascend Collection property, based […]
There are countless blog posts about “the best” hotel rewards program, but because we all have a different idea about “the best” that discussion will go on forever without a resolution. I wrote recently about rewards vs loyalty – and today want to look at the hotel rewards program with the highest reward rate for
Choice Hotels is the second largest hotel company measured by the number of properties and mostly made up of budget hotels like Rodeway Inn or mid-scale hotels like Quality Inn. The Ascend Collection marks the top-end of Choice Hotels and is their conversion brand with 146 properties worldwide, most of them in the US. Find out
For a trip to Washington D.C. with plenty of sight seeing on the itinerary, I was looking for a hotel close to the metro trains at a reasonable price. Shortly before my arrival, I found the Marriott Georgetown at half-price through an Online Travel Agent (OTA) and booked it, despite being an older property
Marriott is the flagship hotel brand of Marriott Worldwide, one of the best known hotel brands in the industry and one of the biggest upscale brands with more than 500 hotels worldwide. Most recently Marriott categorized their 31 brands and their flagship Marrott brand was defined as “classic premium”. Find out more about who they
Fortunately, Hotel News Now’s infographics for the largest hotel company and hotel chain are much better than the info cards at the Oscars, so I didn’t mess up the announcement! Like in any other industry, being “the biggest” gives you some bragging rights, so Hotel News Now has compiled the data for the largest hotel chains
For our second stay in Yangon on my most recent trip to Myanmar, we selected the Best Western Chinatown on the edge of Yangon’s downtown area. It received good reviews online and photos promised modern rooms in a central enough location, but we ended up disappointed after our stay – read on to find out
I have reviewed a number of hotel search sites on my blog, and have my clear favorites – but on a recent search for a visit home to San Francisco, I used a site I didn’t really consider for hotel stays before – Travelzoo! While I have looked at their weekly Top 20 lists before
For my return trip to Yangon, I wanted to stay near Kandawgyi Lake and I picked the Esperado Lake View Hotel based on online reviews I found. It’s a modern, mid-range hotel and has the beautiful lake views its name promises. We really enjoyed our time there and I recommend it – read more why!
A few weeks ago, Hilton announced major changes to their HHonors rewards program. I reviewed it in TravelNews here and concluded that it will be more flexible and easier to use for regular members just looking for a free night, but reflect a devaluation for points & miles enthusiasts looking for the best value for their
The Novotel Sukhumvit Soi 20 is the latest Accor hotel to open in Bangkok. It is one of the more upscale properties in the city and one of the Novotels offering an executive lounge. It’s also in one of the best neighborhoods to stay as a visitor, so I was eager to try it out
Accor Hotels frequently has sales promotions with discounts of 30-50% or points promotions with lots of bonus points for stays. This week, you can book hotels across the Asia-Pacific region at discounts of up to 40% off – I checked a few of my most frequent destinations and found that these are some of the