The Top 10 Best Hotel Chains for Families

Budget-Friendly and Family-Focused Conveniences Offered Nationwide

 Parents magazine today revealed the top 10 Best Hotel Chains For Families, perfect for family road trips, holiday travels or weekend getaways. Parents’ magazine editors and travel experts evaluated 60-plus hotel brands across the country to identify chains offering families great space and comfort, high satisfaction ratings, affordable rates, and entertaining kids’ programs. The full list is available in the November 2015 issue of the magazine and on Parents.com.

According to Parents, the year’s best hotel chains for families include:

Best Budget Chains

1. Residence Inn

With 650+ U.S. locations, the hotel offers extensive in-room amenities and a seasonal “Residence Inn Mix” program, featuring food-truck fare, restaurant pop-in tastings, and a backyard BBQ, depending on the night and location. (Fall rates for a Studio Suite start at $84 per night; residenceinn.marriott.com).

2. Hyatt Place

Perfect for keeping kids healthy on vacation, these properties offer a free breakfast buffet which has expanded in most locations to include more nutritious options, many packed with fruit, veggies, and protein. (Fall rates for a room with two queen beds start at $134 per night; hyattplace.com).

3. SpringHill Suites

Known for its roomy living areas and creative breakfast options, the chain’s special touch lies in a showcase of more than 2,000 pieces of artwork displayed throughout its lobbies. (Fall rates for a suite with two double beds start at $79 per night;marriott.com/springhillsuites).

4. Hilton Garden Inn

The hotel’s redesigned rooms are more family-friendly than ever, providing more counter space, clothes storage, charging stations, and seating. Hate waiting in line? Use the HHonors app to check-in and choose your room from your smartphone – you may decide on a room near the indoor pool, for instance – then swing by the front desk for the key.  (Fall rates for a room with two queen beds start at $129 per night; hiltongardeninn.com).

5. Wingate by Wyndham

With starting rates of less than $100 per night (and free breakfast!) in many areas, you can’t beat the price of a standard room here. The brand also has a unique loyalty program that allows you to redeem some of your points for discounts on your stay. (Fall rates for a room with two double beds start at $129 per night; wingateatlanta.com).

Best Mid-Priced Chains

1.       Embassy Suites Hotel by Hilton

Every room is a suite here, so forget about splurging on an upgrade for more space and privacy. Additional perks include a free nightly snack and drink reception, training for all staff on interacting with kids, and a new program offering baby care essentials at some locations. (Fall rates for a suite with two double beds start at $189 per night; embassysuites.com).

2.       Loews Hotels & Resorts

From receiving early admission to Orlando theme parks so they can beat the crowds to attending “Farm School” at an organic farm to care for local animals and vegetables in San Diego, families take advantage of the coolest partnerships to keep the kids happy. (Fall rates for a room with two double beds start at $249 per night; loewshotels.com).

3.       Omni Hotels & Resorts

Omni has a knack for taking old, historic resorts and restoring them into family meccas with plenty of adventure. Kids will have tons of fun with the free photo book and game-filled backpack they receive at check in. (Fall rates for rooms with two double beds start at $229 per night; omnihotels.com).

4.       Hyatt House

Many locations offer two-bedroom, two-bathroom suites for what you’d pay for a single room at a higher-end chain. Plus, all room types come with a full kitchen and all the tools you need to cook and eat a great meal. (Fall rates for a one-bedroom suite start at $159 per night; hyatthouse.com).

5.       Sheraton Hotels & Resorts

Sheraton offers the same features as its pricier Starwood cousins, Westin and Aloft, like “sweet sleeper” beds and cribs, pools, and an all-inclusive dining program for kids 12 and under. (Fall rates for suites start at $249 per night and a room with two double beds at $189 per night; starwoodhotels.com/sheraton).

About Parents

Parents was founded in 1926 and, along with American Baby, FamilyFun, Parents Latina and Ser Padres, makes up The Meredith Parents Network portfolio of parenthood brands.   Parents is the leading voice for a community of more than 15 million moms who are engaged and inspired by the brand’s trusted content. In turn, these moms enlighten and inspire others by joining ongoing conversations about parenthood via Parents.com as well through Parents’ robust presence on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.  Parents is dedicated to engaging and inspiring moms with the information they need, wherever they go.

The Definitive Ranking Of Hotel Chain Rewards Programs

It doesn’t take a lot of work to be loyal to Marriott, Hilton or IHG. If you stumble into a town – any town – you’re reasonably likely to wind up at one of their hotels. On the other hand, it takes work to be loyal to programs that are smaller like Starwood Preferred Guest and Hyatt Gold Passport. That’s why smaller programs have to try harder. They need to give you a reason to be loyal.

US News offers a ranking of the best hotel rewards programs. It isn’t very good. (In fairness, the attempt is better than their airline frequent flyer program rankings.)

JD Power also tries to rank hotel loyalty programs. (Here’s my strong critique of JD Power’s survey, to which JD Power offers a spirited defense in the comments.)

The key thing to understand is that different programs do different things well – to understand the value proposition of each, and pick the one whose strengths match what you value most.

• Hyatt Gold Passport has the best elite benefits, and the best value redemptions if you like to spend your points for suites, but has a small footprint. There are only about 500 hotels in the chain.
• Starwood Preferred Guest offers strong elite recognition and has some of the nicest hotels. The program isn’t nearly as rewarding as others for the spend you do at their properties.
• Hilton HHonors is everywhere. They have fantastic value awards for low-end hotels, with the best hotels much more expensive. Their mid-tier Gold elite level is the best combination of easy to get and rewarding (although their Diamond level is not comparatively strong, and can be had for just $40,000 in spending each year on their credit card).
• Club Carlson has the cheapest reward nights. The problem is that the chain is relatively small, and most of the hotels aren’t very nice. Their elite benefits aren’t competitive. Club Carlson is strongest in Europe.
• Marriott Rewards has hotels everywhere. They’re consistent. The program doesn’t promise very much, but what it does, it delivers.
• IHG Rewards Club is similarly ubiquitous, and offers average value but frequently runs strong promotions. It’s difficult to deliver on top elite recognition since the chain is skewed towards mid-tier brands like Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.

Best Elite Recognition

The status recognition benefits that elite members value most are usually upgrades and club lounge access or breakfast. Here are the rankings of how each program does with those.

Suite at the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur

Upgrades

1. Only Hyatt lets Diamond members confirm a suite at booking from any Hyatt rate (4 times per year, up to 7 nights each time).
2. Only Starwood promises to give Platinum members an available standard suite at check-in, if available. Starwood also lets their Platinums who stay 50 nights express priority for suite upgrades up to 10 nights a year, since members care about upgrades most when traveling on vacation with family and least on one night business stays when they’re alone.
3. While Marriott and Hilton allow hotels to upgrade elites to suites, no hotel is required to do so.
4. Club Carlson similarly only says that top-tier Concierge members “may be eligible for an upgrade to the next room category or to a standard suite, if available” which is pretty weak sauce.
5. IHG Rewards Club offers upgrades which are 100% ‘determined by the hotel’ and hotels areexplicitly not required to upgrade members to suites or even ‘specialty rooms.’

“Extreme Wow Suite” at the W San Diego

If you’re not an elite, you can still use your points to get into suites.

Club Lounge or Breakfast

Hotels generally give top elites access to club lounges where breakfast and evening snacks are served.

1. Hyatt wins as the only chain which guarantees a full (not continental) restaurant breakfast for Diamond members when no club lounge is available and for up to four guests registered to the room.
2. Hilton gives breakfast to mid-tier members at all of their properties where breakfast is sold.
3. Starwood lets Platinum members have continental breakfast when there’s no club lounge available.
4. Marriott doesn’t offer breakfast at Courtyard properties or at resorts.
5. Club Carlson gives continental breakfast for one person only to Concierge members.
6. IHG doesn’t offer breakfast at all.

Hotels can be more generous than the loyalty program promises. No hotel breakfast I’ve experienced was more over-the-top than the St. Regis Bali. But overall Hyatt does breakfast best.

Caviar for breakfast at the St. Regis Bali

Here are nice charts showing each chain’s elite benefits in one place.

Late Checkout

Late checkout is one of the most useful benefits of elite status. Both Starwood and Hyatt offer their top elites 4 p.m. late check-out (at non-resort properties, and excluding designated convention properties and dates). Starwood even guarantees it for their mid-tier Gold members and Hyatt offers 2 p.m. checkout for their mid-tier members. Those two programs do late checkout best.

By contrast, Marriott’s late checkout benefit is subject to availability, by request on the day of departure. That’s especially weak considering it takes 75 nights to earn Platinum with Marriott, compared to 25 nights or 50 stays at each of Starwood and Hyatt.. and both Starwood and Hyatt offer guaranteed late checkout even to mid-tier elites.

Overall Elite Ranking

1. Hyatt Gold Passport
2. Starwood Preferred Guest
3. Hilton HHonors
4. Marriott Rewards
5. Club Carlson
6. IHG Rewards Club

Best Value for Earning Free Nights

At its most basic level, here’s what hotel programs offer as their cheapest room redemption and how much you need to spend with the chain to have enough points for it.

(For Hilton I’m assuming that you choose to earn “points and points” rather than “points and miles”.)

Of course, most of us don’t want the ‘category 1’ hotels that are also cheapest to pay for with cash (and of which there also aren’t very many). Once you get into mid-priced hotels, the kind you’ll find plenty of in major cities, you’ll find that Club Carlson gives you the most bang for your buck (plenty of Radissons in Europe are quite nice) and that Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Hyatt all offer pretty similar value.

Starwood is an outlier in that it takes the most spending at their hotels to earn enough points for free nights. Starwood points are also the most valuable, though, and offer the best transfers to airline miles by far.

Find the Chain Which Best Matches Your Needs

What matters most is which chain has the hotels that match your redemption patterns — hotels in the right places (does Hyatt or Starwood have a big enough footprint for you) and at the right quality level (do you want to stay at most Radissons, and do Marriotts offer the local character you may be looking for).

You need to determine whether or not the rest of the features of a hotel chain work for you.

• Are you going to be an elite member?
• Does the chain’s benefits make sense for you — Will you get suite upgrades? What about breakfast? Will the chain even honor elite benefits on reward stays (IHG doesn’t require their hotels to for most benefits)?

I like Hyatt and Starwood best. I’m a Hyatt Diamond member and a Starwood Platinum. But their footprints mean that there are plenty of small towns where they just don’t have properties. By contrast, Marriott loyalists most often tell me what they like about the chain is “no matter where I go I can earn my points” and “I get a consistent experience every time.”

By garyleff , www.roadwarriorvoices.com

Silk Road Treasure Tours Debuts New Luxury Tours To Central Asia And The Caucasus

Superior first class accommodations with butler service, fine food and wine with tailored menus, private luxury vehicles, exclusive access to closed venues, and VIP treatment throughout, await you on a Silk Road Treasure Tours' Luxury and Immersive, Once-in-A-Lifetime Travel Experience at the Crossroads of the Silk Road, where the ancient civilizations of East and West merged.

Silk Road Treasure Tours, the premier American tour operator with founding roots in Central Asia, announces its new luxury tour offerings. 

Says Zulya Rajabova, Uzbekistan native, and President of Silk Road Treasure Tours, "I designed these travel itineraries to specifically offer the richest cultural experiences combined with the most comfortable accommodations, most modern and convenient luxury transportation, and superior, personal service."
 

These new luxury Central Asia tours include: a 14-day Central Asia luxury itinerary, featuring Ashgabad, Turkmenistan; Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, Uzbekistan; Bishkek, Burana Tower, and Issyk Kul Lake, Kyrgyzstan; and Almaty, Kazakhstan (from $470 per day, open departures); a 10-day luxury travel experience in Uzbekistan, featuring Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva in-depth (from $530 per day, open departures); and a 10-day luxury culinary immersion in Uzbekistan, visiting the same fascinating Uzbek cities, but highlighting indulgent gastronomical experiences at bazaars, bakeries, gourmet shops, restaurants, farms, wineries, local homes, private estates, and caravan-serais, with hands-on activities and behind-the-scenes access (from $532 per day, open departures).  

In the Caucasus, Silk Road Treasure Tours offers a five-day luxury Georgia tour including: Tbilisi, Sighnaghi, Velistsikhe, Kisiskhevi, Tsinandali, Gombori, Kazbegi, and Mtskheta (the black sand desert). Historians lead travelers to explore and contrast ancient and contemporary churches, synagogues and mosques (some are UNESCO sites), so that they feel the vibrancy of melding cultures.  Guests bathe in ancient hot springs; sip wine made according to centuries' old methods on an estate set amongst terraced vineyards; eat lunch while gazing out at Mount Kazbegi, the mythical home of Prometheus; and learn the time-honored art of Georgian enamel making at a historic cloisonné studio (from $498 per day, open departures). 

In Central Asia, Silk Road Treasure Tours offers luxury in culture, adventure, and cuisine. Whether in a vibrant capital city of Ashgabad, behind sun-warmed adobe walls, in a village nestled in a lush valley, or in a nomadic Kyrgyz  yurt under a sky of blazing stars ornext to a giant, glowing desert crater, guests are presented with both the highest comfort and most authentic experience.

They explore palaces, madrassah, fortresses, and caravanserais from by-gone eras.  They witness classic Soviet architecture amidst soaring minarets, brilliant blue cupolas, lace-like ornamentation and the azure and olive glazed ceramics of medieval mausoleums and mosques. They excite themselves in Central Asia's bustling bazaars - still as busy now as they were hundreds of years ago, where anything is available and everything is on display. They ride horse-back around an endorheic alpine lake or lumber on a Bactrian camel over rolling dunes. They are tempted by the aroma of fresh bread from clay tandur ovens, and the robust smell of Silk Road spices redolent from faraway lands. 

On all these tours, special amenities and luxury arrangements include: first-class train cars on the high speed railway, luxury automobiles, fine food and wine with tailored menus, and exclusive access to closed venues, and VIP Treatment. Furthermore travels stay in Silk Road Treasure Tours' exclusive collection of international luxury branded hotels and local boutique hotels. International hotels include: Ritz Carlton, Hyatt, Inter-Continental, and Serena properties.

Boutique hotels include: Minzifa,  Sasha and Son, and Komil hotels in Bukhara;  Shakhrezade Hotel in Khiva; and the Diyora and the Grand Samarkand Superior in Samarkand. In addition, Silk Road Treasure Tours is now also using two new boutique Bibikhanum properties in Samarkand and Bukhara respectively. The Bukhara property, just opened in November 2014, is adjacent to the 17^th Century historic Labi Khouse Chaikhana complex. 

All these luxury trips are priced land only, based on double occupancy for 4 to 10 travelers, and all itineraries can be customized. 

For more information on Silk Road Treasure visit: www.silkroadtreasuretours.com.

8 Travel Trends We Hope To See More Of This Year (And Beyond)

 

Flickr/Andres Nieto Porras

2014 was a great year for travel. From the introduction of more budget airlines in the U.S. to new hotel loyalty programs, a ton of trends are giving travelers more choices and better prices. Here are our favorites that we hope to see more of, this year and beyond.

1. Budget Carriers (That Aren't Spirit Airlines)
WOW Air recently rocked the Internet with unbelievable, under-$300 round-trip flights between Boston and Iceland — a rock-bottom price. More flights from Baltimore and Washington, D.C. will be added seasonally starting this summer, and if all goes well, we can expect more cheap flights from other American hubs. We were also excited when Norwegian Air Shuttle launched a route between NYC and London last July — the first budget carrier to do so in 37 years — with round-trip rates up to $400 less than those on the major carriers. Of course, these types of airlines are best suited to travelers who don’t require any frills, but more options can only mean better prices for consumers.

2. Cheap Dallas
Speaking of airfare, can you believe that it used to cost less to fly round-trip from New York City to places like Phoenix, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas than to Dallas? That finally changed this fall, when Southwest Airlines and Virgin Airlines both brought a whole host of flights to and from either U.S. coast, as well as Denver and Chicago. Pro tip: In general, prices drop whenever Southwest and JetBlue add new routes — that’s where the terms “Southwest effect” and “JetBlue effect” come from.

3. Free, Open WiFi
Setting aside Marriott’s embarrassing, major mistake of blocking personal WiFi, the travel industry is starting to come to terms with how important free and open WiFi is to their customers. Major hotel chains now offer free WiFi to either all guests or members of their loyalty programs, most of which are free to join — including Kimpton, IHG, Hyatt, Starwood, and, yes, Marriott. In fact, hotelwifitest said just a week ago that 85 percent of U.S. hotels offer free wifi. (Speed is a different matter, since many brands do differentiate between basic, free internet and premium-speed paid internet.) Up in the skies, JetBlue takes the cake for being the only American carrier to provide free (basic) connectivity, at least for 2015, if not beyond.

4. Car Sharing
Uber has experienced its fair share of woes as it aggressively expanded last year, but we’re going to go back to the assumption that more competition means more and better choices for travelers. These car-sharing services have meant cheaper prices (surge hours aside), easier hailing, and easier payment for those in need of a ride. Of course, Uber isn’t the only one out there. Lyft has been trying to take them head on, and Sidecar is another one to watch. And even if they don’t drop their prices, perhaps local taxi commissions will take a leaf from the car sharing book and incorporate more convenient technology into the hailing process — which black car companies are starting to do.

5. Brand-Agnostic Loyalty Programs
If it’s difficult to rack up those airline miles, it can be even harder for leisure travelers to accumulate hotel points — especially for those who prefer boutique hotels, independent properties, and inns. Enter programs like Expedia+ Rewards, the less-than-two-year-old iPrefer, and Stash Hotel Rewards. These all allow travelers to earn points at hotels beyond the big chains, enjoy extra perks, and redeem award stays more quickly.

6. Longer Airfare Price-Holding
Want more time for price comparison and shopping around than the 24 hours mandated by the U.S. Department of Transportation? You have more options than ever. Just this fall, British Airways started allowing travelers to lock in your price at 72 hours for $10, and other airlines like United and Virgin Atlantic offer similar services for holds up to seven days. There are also independent websites like Options Away, a start-up that lets you lock in a prices between two and 14 days. Of course, there’s no guarantee that prices will drop when you purchase these holds, but the fees are often insignificant enough that it’s worth the potential bet on saving one or two hundred dollars at some point.

7. Swanky HostelsThe definition of luxury is changing, and, we think, for the better. A ton of chic hostels that are looking more and more like affordable boutique hotels are showing that it’s now about how an experience feels, not just how much it costs. Saving big, making new friends, and still enjoying your privacy — what’s not to love about staying at a hostel as a grown-up?

8. Rental Apartments…Managed by Hotel Chains
We all know and love vacation rentals from Airbnb, HomeAway, and the like. You get more space, bigger savings, and a better feel for the local lifestyle. Also cool? Souped up versions managed by hotel chains, through which guests can access extra services like housekeeping and concierge support. The reservations process also more resembles traditional hotel bookings, for less confusion, and you know who to go to in the even that you need troubleshooting. We’ll say it again: Hooray for more choices.

- See more at: http://blog.shermanstravel.com/2015/8-travel-trends-we-hope-to-see-more-of-this-year-and-beyond/#sthash.27FmVnsn.dpuf

Contributed by Christine Wei

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