Here’s My 2019 Hotel Wishlist

Shae and I spent all of 2018 living in hotels and Airbnbs while on our 50 state road trip.

As a result, we’ve stayed in more than 50 different properties and have been extremely fortunate to not have any terrible stays.

Well, other than the septic tank backing up in one Airbnb so that everything – and I mean everything – came up into the shower. To be fair though, that wasn’t a terrible stay – it was just an unlucky circumstance on our final night following some heavy rain the previous week.

Despite having so many good stays overall, each hotel chain has its quirks and there are ways that each of them can improve, so here’s my 2019 hotel wishlist:

1) IHG – Improve Status Benefits

First up, a recommendation for IHG overall – sort out how you reward your members! I’ve had their top-tier Spire Elite status for the past year and it’s virtually worthless. It’s good when it comes to earning points on paid stays as you earn double points, plus you can choose to get 25,000 bonus points when earning the status.

Other than point earning opportunities though, Spire Elite status is awful. I have Hyatt’s top-tier status (Globalist) and it gets me four suite upgrades awards that can be booked ahead of time, suite upgrades when checking in if they’re available, club lounge access, a free night at any of their hotels worldwide and much more.

As for IHG? Nothing remotely like that. They don’t even offer free breakfast when staying at a Holiday Inn. By comparison, Hilton offers free breakfast to Gold members and that’s not even their top status.

We’ve stayed at 11 IHG properties over the past year and only received a room upgrade at one two hotels. Room upgrades are one of the Spire Elite benefits, but it’s not guaranteed and so the fact that it’s listed as a benefit is effectively worthless. Even when asking for an upgrade to a one bedroom suite at one hotel they didn’t give it, even though they had several of those rooms that could still be booked when we were checking in.

We’ll still likely stay at several IHG hotels during 2019 as they can still be good value using points or when booking paid stays during promotions due to how many points you can earn. The lack of loyalty benefits though means we’re less likely to book with them than other chains.

2) Hyatt – Microwaves In Rooms

We stayed about 75 nights in Hyatt properties in 2018, most of which were spent at Hyatt Places. I think of them as a nicer version of Hampton Inns and Holiday Inn Expresses as they’re all brands that offer free breakfast.

Hyatt Place has the edge over those brands though for several reasons. Every room has a large corner sofa and the rooms tend to be much more spacious. There are also loads of category 1 Hyatt Places, so they only cost 5,000 points per night which is great value.

There’s one minor improvement they could make though and that’s to include a microwave in each room. Every room at a Hyatt Place has a dry bar (or occasionally a wet bar) as well as a fridge. Given that we live in hotels full-time, this is helpful as it makes it easier to make our own meals.

I tend to make a lot of meals using my Instant Pot (here are some recipes I use), but we often have leftovers. All Hyatt Place hotels we’ve stayed at have a microwave available in the breakfast area for guests to use, but it’d be much more convenient to reheat leftovers in our bedroom.

3) Marriott – Reasonable Pet Fees For Shorter Stays

We stayed almost 35 nights in Marriott properties in 2018. That number would’ve been higher had it not been for one thing – their expensive pet fees.

56% of Marriott’s ~5,000 hotels in the US are pet-friendly, but many of them have a $100 pet fee regardless of your length of stay. That was fine when we stayed 10 days at a Residence Inn in Atlanta as it worked out at $10 per night. For a one night stay though, that pet fee could double the cost of your stay.

It’s especially frustrating for us as Truffles doesn’t pee inside and she’s hypoallergenic and so doesn’t shed. That means it doesn’t cost hotels anything for her being with us other than the small pieces of bacon or sausage I sneak her from breakfast in the morning 😉

I’d therefore prefer that Marriott charged lower pet fees. For example, many Hyatt properties accept dogs for a $75 fee when staying 1-6 days which is better. Even better would be for them to have a pet policy like some other hotels we’ve stayed at. Those have a $15 fee for the first night, then a $10 fee for each subsequent night. That’s much more reasonable and encourages us to stay with them for shorter stays.

4) Hilton – Amex Offers Triggered By Advance Purchase Rates

If you have an American Express card, one of its benefits is access to Amex Offers. These offer statement credits or bonus Membership Rewards points when spending a certain amount at a retailer.

There are frequently Amex Offers for Hilton brands, such as spend $175 at a Hampton Inn or Hilton Garden Inn and get $40 back or 4,000 Membership Rewards. These can be a great way to save money on hotel stays, but there’s one issue with them.

With Hilton Amex Offers, Advance Purchase rates are excluded. Advance Purchase rates are ones you book ahead of time, can’t be cancelled and are non-refundable. This lack of flexibility results in a lower rate and so it’s the type of rate we book for paid stays to save money. That means you have to book a more expensive rate to take advantage of Hilton Amex Offers, negating much of the savings.

5) Choice Hotels – Able To Book Pet-Friendly Rooms Using Advance Purchase Rate

Choice Hotels brands aren’t my first choice for our hotel stays, but they can be a good low-cost option. Many of their hotels are pet-friendly which is also helpful for us.

The problem I’ve come across several times relates to their pet-friendly rooms. It’s often not possible to book an Advance Purchase rate (what they call Pay Now And Save) for a pet-friendly room. The Pay Now And Save rates frequently state ‘No Pets’, with pet-friendly rooms only available for booking at the more expensive ‘Pay At Check-In’ rate. As a result, some Choice Hotels properties have missed out on our business.

6) Wyndham – Follow Lead Of La Quinta And Not Charge A Pet Fee

Another pet fee request, this time for Wyndham. About a year ago or so, Wyndham announced it was buying La Quinta. La Quinta is a pet-friendly hotel chain that doesn’t charge a pet fee, so I’d love for Wyndham to follow their lead. If nothing else, I hope Wyndham doesn’t introduce pet fees at La Quinta properties.

7) Hotels.com – Offer Cashback When Booking Stays With Gift Cards

When booking paid stays at most hotels, I click through from a cashback portal to earn some money back. Hotels.com offers cashback on all paid reservations except when paying with gift cards.

That’s a shame as it’s frequently possible to buy discounted Hotels.com gift cards for 15-20% off. I tend to stock up on those, so we currently have $1,000+ of their gift cards to use. I’d therefore love to earn ~5% cashback when redeeming those gift cards.

8) Airbnb – Introduce A Loyalty Scheme

We’ve spent ~$8,000 on Airbnb over the past year as it’s often great value and means we get a kitchen. Most of our stays were booked using gift cards we bought for 15-20% off, so our net cost was less.

One downside of picking an Airbnb property over a hotel stay is that there’s no loyalty scheme. I’d therefore love for Airbnb to introduce some kind of loyalty scheme in 2019.

To be fair to Airbnb, they’re limited as to what they can do. Given that homes listed on there are owned by regular people, it’d be hard to require that they offer specific benefits. Instead, I’d love for there to be some kind of reward scheme based on how much you spend.

Something along the lines of what Hotels.com offers would be perfect. Hotels.com has their own loyalty scheme called Welcome Rewards even though they’re just an OTA (Online Travel Agency). For every 10 nights you stay, you get a free night based on an average cost of those 10 nights.

If Airbnb were to do the same, we’d have gotten back ~$800 during 2018 which would be huge. I imagine that this would be very costly though, so I’m not holding my breath that they’d run a loyalty scheme in this way if they ever did introduce one.

Your Wishlist?

How about you? What would be on your hotel wishlist for the coming year? Let me know in the comments below.