Melissa Dewalt caught the travel bug a decade ago when she drove from her home state of Pennsylvania across the country to California to visit her then-boyfriend. She then road-tripped north to Seattle.
20.08.2024 - 19:19 / skift.com / Sean Oneill
Marriott and Sonder are teaming up in a 20-year licensing deal that lets members of Marriott’s loyalty program earn points at Sonder’s roughly 200 properties—about half of which are apartments. The deal is the latest in a string of similar licensing tie-ups led by Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Hyatt.
In the past year, loyalty licensing tie-ups have included Marriott with MGM Resorts, Hilton with Small Luxury Hotels of the World, IHG with Iberostar, and Hyatt with Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
“Each partnership will be crafted to support different objectives, whether it’s member acquisition, member retention, trying to capture more share of wallet, or get a higher number of members spending within your network,” said Chris Holdren, a former hospitality executive.
Here are 10 things to know about the trend.
IHG was one of the early pioneers of a loyalty licensing partnership.
In 2010, IHG signed a license agreement with Las Vegas Sands to affiliate The Venetian and The Palazzo at the Venetian with its loyalty program. Today, the properties are branded “IHG Alliance Resorts” on IHG’s site and app.
That same year, Marriott added The Cosmopolitan to its Autograph Collection of hotels, making it available for booking and rewards participation through its system.
In 2013, Starwood teamed up with Ceasars Entertainment to let customers earn points for stays across their networks. The deal ended soon after Marriott’s offer to buy Starwood closed in 2016. In 2017, Wyndham became Caesars‘ new loyalty partner.
In 2023, Marriott did a loyalty tie-up with MGM Resorts.
A common driver of these deals is that the major hotel groups have been mostly locked out of the Las Vegas market by a few local players, but their customers like to visit Las Vegas. Loyalty partnerships allow hotel groups to give guests access and allow gaming resorts to enjoy the hotel groups’ cost advantages in marketing and distribution.
In March, Hyatt began allowing members of its loyalty program to earn and redeem points at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Vegas.
Geographic coverage can also drive non-gaming tie-ups. Sonder runs many properties in residential neighborhoods where it’s hard to open new hotels, so Marriott has extended its reach through a tie-up.
Similarly, Small Luxury Hotels of the World also has luxurious properties in tiny towns, villages, and remote resort areas where new hotel creation is difficult. So Hilton’s deal with that collection of hotels extends the group’s reach.
Why are hotels pursuing deals that are soft and temporary tie-ins rather than acquisitions?
“Because traditional hotel signings are at a low point, and because existing hotel brands are priced high, the traditional metric of room count growth has become a
Melissa Dewalt caught the travel bug a decade ago when she drove from her home state of Pennsylvania across the country to California to visit her then-boyfriend. She then road-tripped north to Seattle.
Ski season is just around the corner, and the Ikon Pass is making it even easier to ski across the country by adding a new California mountain to the mix.
A few years ago, when flight prices were awfully expensive, I saw an Amtrak ticket from California to Washington, DC, for just $250 and snapped it up.
Travelers to several major cities in the U.S., including Honolulu, Boston and San Francisco, should be prepared for possible disruptions to hotel stays as thousands of hotel workers prepare for potential strikes.
Clarksville, a historic district of Austin, Texas, has lately emerged as a stylish dining and shopping enclave. Among the area’s most compelling new businesses is La Embajada, a design shop housed in a 1923 Craftsman bungalow. Combining the hospitality and interiors expertise of its founder, Raul Cabra — who has designed tableware for some of Mexico City’s most celebrated restaurants, including Rosetta and Pujol — La Embajada presents a refined, regionally diverse selection of Mexico’s artisanal offerings. A series of small rooms display vintage and contemporary furniture, from stately midcentury armchairs and 1970s glass sconces to a minimalist agave fiber rug by the Oaxaca-based textile artist Trine Ellitsgaard. The house is also an actual residence. Cabra often stays in the bedroom up the creaky stairs, and he’s recently made it available for short-term stays (bookings include a daily basket of baked goods from Austin’s Swedish Hill). Guests can purchase the room’s handmade décor, such as a pair of sleek bedside lamps in milky white onyx, a 1960s La Malinche dresser and a bedspread from a Michoacan manufacturer that once supplied Herman Miller. Downstairs, glassware, candles and gifts fill a section modeled after a typical general store in a small Mexican town. But La Embajada’s heart is its inviting kitchen, where visiting chefs cook elaborate meals and staff prepare ice cream and coffee. In another twist, every bespoke detail — including a hammered copper sink, caramel-colored tiles and waxed pine cabinets — can be custom-ordered for one’s own home.
As the summer travel season comes to a close, travelers have a new way to save on fall getaways. JetBlue recently announced the «Game On» fare sale, which offers flights as low as $49. The promotion is a nod to the fall football season, however the fares can provide an affordable options for early fall vacations, or last-minute trips. As an example, JetBlue shows a fare of $49 one-way from New York's JFK airport to Nashville, Tenn. for travel in both September and October.
Disney Cruise Line is sharing more details about its newest ship, Disney Destiny, including its inaugural sailing date and some itinerary details.
Frontier Airlines unveiled 11 new routes across 15 airports that are scheduled to launch in October and November.
As summer begins to wind down, travelers are starting to hunt for bargains on fall and winter travel. Allegiant Airlines, a discount carrier based in Las Vegas, recently released tons of deals on flights for under $50 on theirdeals section throughout November, which they describe as a «great value.» Customers can get flights to popular destinations throughout Florida including Tampa and Orlando, as well as vacation spots such as Vegas or Nashville.
Aug 23, 2024 • 7 min read
Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, August 22, 2024, and now, here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
The luxury and lifestyle hotel sector continues to be the bread and butter for Hyatt.