The Neighborhood Has Its Own Rules Book Review
April 22, 2020
As of this writing, about lxxx% of the hotel rooms in the United states are empty. That'due south a depressing figure, no dubiety, just look at the situation from the flip side: One in five hotel rooms remains in use, and that proportion is just going to abound from now on.
Travelers will e'er use hotels, then for the hotel industry to survive until the period of recovery, it has had to shift how it operates. Everything about staying in hotels is in flux right at present, but that doesn't mean you lot accept to be confused.
Here are some of the ways hotels are changing and how you can harness the adjustments for your side by side stay—may it be presently.
E'er pay with a credit card.
The logic here is uncomplicated: If for some reason the hotel is unable to evangelize services, your credit bill of fare issuer will refund you. Cash flies away forever, merely credit can exist restored.
Hotels tin and will get out of business during this storm, so you always want to be in a position to get your money back if you lot have to.
The best place to book is on the hotel's own website.
Even in normal times, hotels often hope the best rates and perks if you book direct rather than through a third-political party site such every bit Booking.com or Expedia. Nosotros've been giving that advice for years, and not just because information technology'south the surest mode to rack upwardly loyalty points.
In 2020, booking directly has another benefit: It confirms that the property is open and accepting reservations. Don't assume that a middleman website knows everything nigh a hotel'due south electric current situation. If the hotel changes its operational plans afterwards you've booked with a third-party website, you may non even be alerted.
At that place's no amend way to define a hotel's status and hereafter prospects than by dealing direct with the hotel.
Discover out which properties are open by searching online.
A master effect facing travelers right now is figuring out which hotels are open, which ones are airtight, and which ones are open but might exist reserved for housing first responders and medical staff—Hilton solitary has donated around a million rooms to that cause.
Phoning i hotel after another would be a fool'south errand. If yous but search past destination on most of the major corporate hotels' websites, they'll do the work for you. Only hotels that are available for booking will exist displayed in the search results. Airtight hotels will either be hidden or they'll be marked every bit "sold out" or "not available for check-in," as on Marriott'south site.
The meeting planner site EproDirect is as well maintaining a database of hotels that are open for concern to the full general public, even noting which properties are accepting group bookings. Visit EproDirect.com for that info.
Cheaper hotels are more likely to be open.
Upkeep hotels and motels are much more probable to exist open up for business than luxury resorts. In that location are a few reasons for this, merely the net upshot is that if you need a room, check the lower end of the cost register start. Motels about highways and major transit routes are too more likely to be functioning because they're helping keep our infrastructure going.
Pick a hotel for the rooms, not the amenities.
Don't pick a hotel because it has a great spa, a lush fitness eye, or a terrific vestibule bar. Those things probably won't be open correct at present.
The aforementioned goes for hotels that are known for costless buffet breakfasts. Sorry, but you lot won't be able to make your own waffles with a group of strangers for a while.
But other arrangements are being made. For case, Drury Hotels and SpringHill Suites are providing grab-and-go breakfasts that guests can take back to their rooms.
If breakfast is not part of the hotel's standard room rate, consider packing your own food. It's non similar you can swing down to the lobby coffee shop correct at present. The same goes for booze—the last affair yous want is to be captive to a minibar with no other options in the building. Some hotels are elimination in-room minibars anyway.
When yous pick a hotel, assume y'all'll merely exist seeing the inside of your own space. That means you might desire to steer clear of properties with tiny guest rooms—it's likely you won't be able to hang out in the foyer or at the pool until things accident over. If there was ever a fourth dimension to splurge on a room with a view, now is that time.
Make sure you lot'll be welcome.
Right now, it's likewise wise to give the hotel a call to make sure bookings are open to everyone.
That might sound foreign, but some places are trying to restrict reservations to people traveling on essential concern. So when yous decide where you lot desire to stay, it's smart to pick up the phone and double-check. Don't worry—the room will almost certainly not exist snapped up by someone else while you practise that. Things just aren't that decorated notwithstanding.
Cancellation policies are looser.
Hotel companies are being uncharacteristically lax when it comes to cancellations. Hilton, for instance, will let customers to abolish without penalisation up to 24 hours earlier a stay for reservations made until June 30, 2020. Even when that arrangement lapses, equally thoughtful ones are likely to replace information technology until the industry starts to recover.
As long equally you lot know the rules before you pay, you won't be unpleasantly surprised. (This is solid advice in the best of times.)
If a property is cagey or rigid about its cancellation provisions, you might get amend protection past going with a more lenient option.
Don't worry virtually booking a stay just to maintain elite status.
Good news: The clock isn't ticking on your points. If maintaining your elite status ordinarily requires regular stays, near major bondage are not enforcing the deadlines. In fact, some companies are being downright generous.
Marriott'due south Bonvoy program, for example, is extending elite condition all the fashion to February 2022, which means that even if your benefits were slated to end in the coming months, you'll now retain your status for all of 2021 and a bit beyond.
Hyatt is doing something similar: The chain usually requires ane stay a year to go along points active, but that rule has been suspended until December 31, 2020. Hilton Honors is extending your electric current fellow member condition until March 31, 2022.
So far, IHG has non issued a similar extension. Instead, the company is making it much easier to accomplish status past lowering the minimum points/nights y'all need to qualify by nigh 25%. The assumption there is that we'll be traveling once more later this year.
Charge up your phone and download the app.
Corporate chains are leaning on technology to limit social interaction. If a property offers mobile check-in or wireless room keys through its app, chances are management will want y'all to use that option.
Get set for things to look a little unlike.
Sanitizer stations are being set up throughout many hotels. Staff members are being outfitted in masks and gloves. To discourage congregation in public spaces, some hotels are removing furniture in mutual areas.
Fifty-fifty the equipment used to clean guest rooms may be new to you. Marriott has transformed its cleaning standards to include electrostatic spraying technology (pictured below), which, according to the hotelier's printing release, "uses the highest classification of disinfectants recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) to care for known pathogens."
The new-mash cleaning card doesn't end there. Marriott is also testing ultraviolet light technology for sanitizing room keys and other frequently handled devices.
(Photo credit: Marriott International)
Don't assume all brand-name hotels are in good shape financially.
Some brand hotels are corporate-run, simply some, such as the Quality Inn group, are owner-operated. We are by no means saying that franchised hotels or motels are unreliable, just if you're booking a brand because it'southward a household proper name, that'due south no guarantee that the property will remain open up. Book with a credit card (see above) and atone your fears.
Await into buying hotel "bonds."
Travel businesses are cash-strapped right at present. And so many reservations were canceled simultaneously that many companies are finding it hard to refund would-be customers. It's a situation that Frommer's has been advising readers to lookout man out for since this emergency began.
Only some properties accept turned their need for cash assets into an thought that actually benefits customers. The Chicago Tribune reports that the 452-room LondonHouse Chicago is selling vouchers that function a lot like bonds practise at your local bank: If you lot spend $100 on a bond for the hotel today and wait just lx days until the bond matures, it'll be worth $150 to spend on a room from that signal on.
Yous don't fifty-fifty accept to think well-nigh when you want to travel until you're ready. Yous'll simply be scratching the hotel's dorsum by offering it some liquidity, and it'll scratch yours with a 50% return on your investment.
The effort is called Buy At present, Stay Later. New hotels are joining the program daily and being added to a website directory.
"We're doing it to better our greenbacks menses then nosotros can keep people working," a hotel official told the Trib. "And we desire to be forepart of mind for guests when they start looking to volume their travel."
On a similar notation, the manufacture booster site We Travel Forward is building a growing directory of hotels that are offering gift cards and other deals than tin be purchased now—to assistance go on employees adrift—and redeemed later.
A tertiary program, Hotel Credits, rounds upwards similar opportunities at its own website.
You will need to exercise some judgment about the future health of each hotel when you buy one of these—LondonHouse Chicago has been a Frommer'southward recommendation for years.
Not all hotels will exist left standing after the dust settles. Only it volition benefit everyone if we support businesses now and so they can support united states of america for a long fourth dimension to come up.
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Source: https://www.frommers.com/tips/hotel-news/the-new-rules-for-booking-hotels-right-now
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