Best Hotel Loyalty Promotions For Fall 2016 Travel

Between Aug. 5 and Sept. 18, Best Western guests that stay at least three times, five nights, or earn 5,000 points via hotel stays will receive a free upgrade to Gold elite status. (Photo: Best Western International)

Plan your fall vacations early, and in style, with these great hotel loyalty program promotions.

Get to the Gold (elite status) with Best Western.This clever promotion from Best Western Hotels and Resorts is running in tandem with the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic games. Between Aug. 5 and Sept. 18, guests that stay at least three times, five nights, or earn 5,000 points via hotel stays will receive a free upgrade to Gold elite status. The upgraded status comes with bonus points and room upgrades.

Earn 10% cash rewards via The Guestbook. Members who join earn 5% cash back when making direct hotel reservations either from The Guestbook’s site or the hotel’s site. There is also the option to receive 10% back if it is applied toward a future stay at one of the portfolio’s 500 independent & boutique hotels. When you use the service, it directs you automatically to the hotel website, which allows you to double dip earning benefits associated with a direct hotel booking as well as cash back from The Guestbook. A unique feature is that the program’s Global Giving initiative also rewards nonprofit organizations with additional funds when guests reach certain milestones - $10 after 10 stays, and $25 after 25 stays.

IHG offers $25 gas card for Club Vacation reservations. Book a two-night or more stay at any Holiday Inn Club Vacations property and receive a free $25 gas card to help fuel up and get you there. Reservations must be made with a special rate code through the dedicated website.

Choice Privileges gives mega point bonuses for repeat stays. Between Sept. 1 and Nov. 11, every second stay at a Choice Hotels property will rake in 8,000 bonus points. This offer can be earned up to three times. This is a similar promotion to what was also offered this past summer. Be sure to register for the promotion before the first stay to be eligible.

Starwood launches a big fall promotion. Starwood wants to compete extra hard for your business between Sept. 12 and Dec. 18 and will offer travelers double points for stays of two nights or more on weeknights and triple points for stays of two nights or more on weekend nights. Registration for this promotion is required, but it is not available to do so until Sept. 12.

Free nights and points up for grabs with Starwood. Enter this daily sweepstakes from Starwood to see if you are eligible to win a free night at any Starwood hotel or a chance to win Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points. This sweepstakes runs between now and Sept. 12, and each daily visit counts as an entry to win 50,000 SPG points plus five one-night award stays.

Double points continue for Hilton HHonors members this fall. Hilton’s summer promotion for double points at hotel stays was so popular that the brand decided to keep the fun going. Between Sept. 1 and the end of the year, all stays at Hilton family properties will be eligible to earn double points. There is no minimum night stay requirement (like the Starwood promotion) and there is no maximum cap on the points that can be earned (like the Choice Privileges promotion). Keep an eye out for the promotion registration page, which is coming soon.

IHG Accelerate launching this fall. Earn extra reward points with IHG’s Accelerate offer, which provides each member with a tailored promotion that awards points when members reach various thresholds with stays between Sept. 6 and Dec. 15. Tasks to reach various thresholds include staying once during specific months of the promotion or staying at multiple brands during the promotion. This could be a pretty lucrative chance to bulk up your account.

By Ramsey Qubein, Special for USA TODAY

The Latest News From The Dominican Republic #GoDomRep

DR’s National Parks See Tourism Boom | Dominican Republic’s protected areas reported a total of nearly 1.38 million visitors in 2015, 80 percent of which were foreign visitors.   Moonlight Zipline Tours Now Available | Several new tours have been added to Dominican Republic offerings, including the only moonlight zipline excursion in the country. The additions were announced by tour operator   Runners Adventures, and also include city tours of Higüey and Santo Domingo. www.RunnersAdventures.com   4,000 Hotel Rooms Under Construction in Punta Cana | Punta Cana expects to add a total of 4,000 new hotel rooms among the area’s 64 hotels by December 2017, totaling more than 40,000 rooms upon completion of additions.   New Santo Domingo Hotels to Open | Two new hotels are coming to the capital – set to open this summer, the Hotel Real InterContinental Santo Domingo will offer 227 rooms in a centrally located entertainment and business district, with the new Hampton by Hilton Santo Domingo Airport offering 104 rooms near Santo Domingo International Airport (SDQ) beginning in 2018. www.IHG.com / www.Hilton.com Major Resort Chain Wins Awards, Announces DR Renovations | Palladium Hotel Group reports it won over 90 awards in 2015, announces major expansion to Punta Cana location. www.PalladiumHotelGroup.com      Explore upcoming events in Dominican Republic: www.GoDominicanRepublic.com/events/upcoming

Kimpton To Open First Hotel outside The Americas In Amsterdam

(Photo: Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants)

Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants will open its first hotel outside of the Americas, just a year after the boutique hotel chain was acquired by hospitality giant InterContinental Hotels Group.

The hotel will debut in Amsterdam in 2017. It will be a conversion from a Crowne Plaza, another brand underneath the IHG umbrella.

“This is really a pivotal moment for Kimpton,” Kimpton CEO Mike DeFrino told USA TODAY at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles. “This is a time in our history that we didn’t know would ever come frankly. It’s an important threshold to cross because people need to know we can do it and our brand and our style and our attitude and the way we deliver is important and appealing.”

Kimpton started in 1981 as a small boutique chain in San Francisco. It has grown to 59 hotels in 30 U.S. cities.

IHG has 10 brands, including Kimpton, and franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,000 hotels across the world.

Acquiring Kimpton strengthened IHG’s foothold in the rapidly growing boutique hotel segment. Becoming part of the IHG family meant Kimpton could expand worldwide.

“IHG’s ability to take Kimpton to new markets and geographies was a key part of the transaction and we’re delighted to announce this important milestone for the brand,” IHG CEO Richard Solomons said in a written statement.

USA TODAY

IHG to buy boutique hotel chain Kimpton

Kimpton’s first hotel outside of the USA will open in Grand Cayman this year. Moving across an ocean to Europe marks a big leap for the company, one that DeFrino says would not have happened without IHG and its relationships with owners and developers overseas.

“There’s no way we could have gotten in front of the guys doing this deal, the guys who own the hotel and had the imagination to turn it into a very upscale boutique hotel,” he says.

DeFrino says he hopes to open Kimptons in major Asian gateways such as Hong Kong and Tokyo, and in places where IHG already has a strong presence such asSoutheast Asia.

“We think those are places where we can perform very well,” he says.

The Amsterdam Kimpton, which has not yet been named, will have a fully renovated lobby, restaurants, facilities, and guestrooms. It will have 270 rooms, a destination bar and restaurant, gym, and meeting spaces with up-to-date technology.

Kimpton hotels are known for perks such as a complimentary wine hour, bikes, and yoga mats in each room.

The hotel is owned by YC Amsterdam BV.

Source: Nancy Trejos, USA TODAY

5 Healthy Travel Trends For The New Year

The New Year is a time when people announce resolutions and work to create new habits. However, out of the 45 percent of the population that is estimated to make them, only around 8 percent actually achieve them. Even within the business travel world, there are plenty of resolutions and trends that people will set, as they make their way around the country and world in the name of business. There are some emerging trends for the New Year that will help keep travelers healthy as well as happy.

“Anytime we can maintain healthy habits while traveling, we are doing great,” explains Jayne McAllister, of Jayne McAllister Travel Wellness. “Traveling can be demanding for anyone who is even remotely health conscious, but times are changing as indicated by exciting new trends that facilitate keeping a healthy mind and body on the road.”

Here are 5 healthy travel trends for the New Year:

1.    Health Oriented Hotels. It used to be that you stayed in a hotel that boasted a mediocre workout room down the end of a dark corridor and a restaurant with one menu item highlighted as heart healthy. Business travelers now have true wellness options in the shape of hotels whose brand is geared toward the health-conscious traveler. IHG’s EVEN Hotels has been going strong in the mid-price range for a couple of years now. At the luxury end of the market, famed gym brand Equinox is entering the hospitality business and developing its first hotel in Manhattan which is due to open in 2018. The property will include a 60,000 square foot fitness center. The trend has filtered to mainstream properties, which have amped up their facilities for healthy travel. Westin has long led the way with its WestinWORKOUT rooms, followed by other hospitality groups. Since 2012, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has offered dedicated Stay Well rooms, designed by Delos, which include – among other features – an air purification system, aromatherapy, long wave night lighting, and vitamin C-infused showers.

2.    Work out at the airport.  Passengers are taking advantage of airport down time to get moving to counter the effects of being sedentary and stationary. Many airports now boast walking paths and yoga rooms. In 2016, gyms are joining shops, restaurants and bars as airport concessions thanks to a startup company called AirFit. Facilities will include a state of the art workout room, showers, clothing purchase/rental, and luggage storage. First up is New York John F. Kennedy International Airport, followed by San Francisco International Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

3.    Meditation is going mainstream. From Deepak Chopra’s website to the Harvard Business Review, meditation for corporate executives is becoming more common. Many companies are bringing in meditation specialists to teach their executives how to focus, think more clearly and make better, more profitable decisions. Meditation works especially well for business travelers, who are subject to more stress than non-traveling, as it can be practiced anywhere, including on airplanes and in hotel rooms. Apps are available to guide neophytes through the process of meditating (see www.anamya.co). With flight delays or other curveballs that are often thrown at the frequent traveler, the passenger can retreat into a meditation rather than an airport bar or their laptop. Per the Harvard report, the results of a sustained meditation practice are increased resilience, emotional intelligence, creativity, focus and improved relationships.

4.    Adding Personal Time to Trips. “Bleisure” is a fast growing trend of combining leisure time with business trips. Nearly half (46 percent) of business travelers add personal days to all or most of their business trips. The major reasons for this trend, as cited in the Bleisure Report 2014, include wanting to explore new cities, to gain cultural experience and knowledge, and to contribute to work/life balance. Three in five business travelers are more likely to take a bleisure trip than they were five years ago. For most companies, the practice of adding leisure time to a business trip is a win-win. Employees are less likely to burn out and are therefore more productive.

5.    Doing Less to Produce More. Doing more doesn’t make you more productive. Presenteeism is becoming the new absenteeism, especially for mobile workforces. For example, a traveling executive might be tired but feels compelled to work on a plane to make good use of time in the air. Or they might travel home on a Sunday and present themselves at the office on Monday, ready for business as usual. In both scenarios, they might have been exhausted but they have gone through the motions of working yet not performing to optimum capacity. Without the right amount of rest, the work completed on the plane may have to be redone, or the employee returning to the office may not be fully present and effective. The best companies are recognizing that traveling employees need time to recover from travel and allow time off or time working from home to do this.

“Business travel is always going to be a part of our world, but these trends are making it healthier and less stressful,” adds McAllister. “As employees become healthier and happier on the road, they are usually also more productive.”

McAllister has a new book titled “ Mile High & Healthy: The Frequent Traveler’s Roadmap to Eating, Energy, Exercise and a Balanced Life,” where she shares tips and tricks for staying healthy while traveling. The book offers information on eating healthily, exercising on the road, sustaining energy levels, eliminating jet lag, sleeping well, reducing stress, and more.

McAllister provides corporate wellness programs to those companies with business travelers who spend 30 percent of their time, or more, on the road. She specializes in such training issues as weight loss for travelers, healthy eating while traveling, ergonomics for the traveler, functional exercise, jet lag recovery and avoidance, sleep quality, and stress management. She has also created Dine Out Lose Weight, a 21-day guide for dropping weight without setting foot in the kitchen. McAllister’s book Mile High and Healthy: The Frequent Traveler’s Roadmap to Eating, Energy, Exercise and a Balanced Life” is available for purchase online. For more information on her services or to order the book, visit the site at: www.jaynemcallister.com.

About Jayne McAllister Travel Wellness

Based in Vero Beach, Fla., Jayne McAllister Travel Wellness is a company that provides corporate wellness training to businesses with mobile workforces. A Cambridge University graduate, Jayne is a certified integrative nutrition health coach, Pilates instructor, and transformational method coach. For more information visit the site at: www.jaynemcallister.com.