Stays at Preferred Hotels & Resorts now cost up to 87,000 Choice Privileges points per night

In 2021, TPG started receiving reports of erroneous redemption surcharges on select stays booked with points or free night certificates from the Marriott Bonvoy program.

Blackstone, one of the world’s largest real estate investors, said Wednesday it had acquired Village Hotels from KSL Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in travel and leisure. The deal expands Blackstone’s footprint in the British travel sector amid an apparently growing consumer demand for experiences over goods.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, June 26, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today. 

Viator, a TripAdvisor brand, has partnered with Amazon.com to integrate its vast inventory of tours, activities, and experiences into Alexa-enabled devices in hotel rooms. This marks the experience sector’s first major push into voice-activated travel bookings.

The castles of the German and Austrian Alps are known for their fairy-tale quality. The iconic turreted silhouette in the background of the Disney logo was, in fact, modeled after Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II’s Bavarian palace near the border of the two countries. Schloss Fuschl, located on an evergreen-ringed, emerald-hued glacial lake 20 minutes outside of Salzburg, is no exception. Constructed in 1461, the sprawling stone manse served for four centuries as a luxurious hunting lodge for the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, who ruled the area under the Holy Roman Empire, as well as their royal guests. After World War II, the schloss (“castle” in German) was converted into a hotel that operated mostly seasonally, from April through October, until 2022, when Rosewood Hotels & Resorts bought the property and embarked on a restoration. On July 1, Schloss Fuschl will reopen with 98 guest rooms including six stand-alone chalets. There are six restaurants and bars on-site; indoor and outdoor infinity pools; a spa with three saunas and eight treatment rooms; and access to Lake Fuschl: Fishing expeditions, boat trips and herbalist-led nature walks can be arranged. While the schloss was never home to the likes of Cinderella or Rapunzel, it did host a movie princess: Fans of midcentury cinema might recognize the place from the German-French actress Romy Schneider’s “Sisi” films — a historical trilogy about the young Elisabeth of Austria — which were shot there in the 1950s. Today, the Sisi Teesalon bears the character’s name and will offer afternoon tea service with a wide range of homemade pastries including the Schloss Fuschl Torte, a chocolate-hazelnut truffle cake first created in the house kitchen more than 30 years ago. Rates from about $695

Earlier this month, Choice Privileges hiked the award cost of Preferred Hotels & Resorts stays to up to 87,000 points per night. At the time, I celebrated that award nights at Choice Hotels properties still cost between 6,000 and 35,000 points in most parts of the world (except the Asia-Pacific region, where award nights cost up to 75,000 points).

“When they first go to museums, the first two things people want to know is, where’s the gift shop and where’s the bathroom?” said the writer and illustrator Bob Eckstein, 61, whose new book, “Footnotes From the Most Fascinating Museums,” is an illustrated field guide to North America’s cultural and historical repositories.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, June 13, 2024. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

For spring break this year, I took my 9-year-old daughter to Rome for four nights as part of a bigger trip to Italy. I decided we deserved a major splurge and booked a deluxe room with a park view at the Rome Cavalieri, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

The cost of a Schengen visa is going up this June, the European Commission has confirmed.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has a long-term plan to shift its mix of properties to reflect more premium, lifestyle, and luxury brands. But for now, many hotel investors are balking — preferring mid-market and extended stay brands.

Details about a previously hinted brand in the works at the world's largest hotel company emerged this week.