jja79 said:

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Have you ever stayed at El Capitan in Van Horn? Sneaky good bar and restaurant.

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Love that place. Try to stop there every trip between LA and Houston.

Went out to Big Bend in December and accidentally discovered a similar place in Marathon - Gage Hotel.

Killin Me Smalls said:

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Which Marriott in Bangalore? I'm there next month.

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Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield
https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/blrwf-bengaluru-marriott-hotel-whitefield/overview/
That's where I stayed up late to watch my youngest daughter march in the Trump Inaugural parade with the VMI Corps of Cadets back in January 2017.

My most recent trip to BLR was in February 2020 and I stayed at Le Meridien. They were having some sort of political unrest (unrelated to Covid, Covid hadn't happened yet in India) and they stopped selling alcohol across the state of Karnataka. But... they still hooked me up in the Lounge - for free no less. I don't think that Le Meridien exists any longer.

Also, I don't know if you've been to BLR before but the commute times in the evening are ridiculous. If you get up and go to work at a regular western time like 8am, the commute isn't too bad. But don't expect the locals to show up until 9:30am or 10am. I would not try to have any meetings before 10am. Enjoy.

Nice. I'm booked at the Courtyard Outer Ring, and it's right on campus with our office. I'm hosting a client and they are staying at the Leela Palace, so I might end up getting guilted into moving over there.

HollywoodBQ said:

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jja79 said:

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Have you ever stayed at El Capitan in Van Horn? Sneaky good bar and restaurant.

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Love that place. Try to stop there every trip between LA and Houston.

Went out to Big Bend in December and accidentally discovered a similar place in Marathon - Gage Hotel.

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My dad was school superintendent at Van Horn which by default also made him superintendent at Guadalupe Mountain National Park. Marathon was down the road from where I went to school. The desert southwest is amazing. 27 years in Houston and no one would believe me there's a desert with mountains in Texas.

jja79 said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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jja79 said:

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Have you ever stayed at El Capitan in Van Horn? Sneaky good bar and restaurant.

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Love that place. Try to stop there every trip between LA and Houston.

Went out to Big Bend in December and accidentally discovered a similar place in Marathon - Gage Hotel.

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My dad was school superintendent at Van Horn which by default also made him superintendent at Guadalupe Mounyain National Park. Marathon was down the road from where I went to school. The desert southwest is amazing. 27 years in Houston and no one would believe me there's a desert with mountains in Texas.

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Did you ever try introducing them to the new fangled technology called "maps"?

Killin Me Smalls said:

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Nice. I'm booked at the Courtyard Outer Ring, and it's right on campus with our office. I'm hosting a client and they are staying at the Leela Palace, so I might end up getting guilted into moving over there.

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I've never stayed at Leela Palace but my old APJ manager would only stay there and he's Punjabi.
He also talked all the other foreign visitors into staying there. If Leela Palace is an option, I'd do that.

Looks like you're a bit further south than where I used to go frequently on Outer Ring Road in Bagmane.
The last time I was in BLR in Feb. 2020 was to see HCL in Electronic City. Enjoy your trip.

On the topic of this thread, Courtyard in India is much nicer than the Courtyard in the USA. I stayed at a Courtyard in Mumbai and it was fairly upscale. And now that I think about it, the Courtyard in Mumbai had a lounge but it didn't have any food service when I was there.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Killin Me Smalls said:

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Nice. I'm booked at the Courtyard Outer Ring, and it's right on campus with our office. I'm hosting a client and they are staying at the Leela Palace, so I might end up getting guilted into moving over there.

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I've never stayed at Leela Palace but my old APJ manager would only stay there and he's Punjabi.
He also talked all the other foreign visitors into staying there. If Leela Palace is an option, I'd do that.

Looks like you're a bit further south than where I used to go frequently on Outer Ring Road in Bagmane.
The last time I was in BLR in Feb. 2020 was to see HCL in Electronic City. Enjoy your trip.

On the topic of this thread, Courtyard in India is much nicer than the Courtyard in the USA. I stayed at a Courtyard in Mumbai and it was fairly upscale. And now that I think about it, the Courtyard in Mumbai had a lounge but it didn't have any food service when I was there.

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I've stayed in the Leela Mumbai. By far my favorite hotel. Has a very old school Victorian flavor. Especially spicy when the Black Mamba's are hanging out in the trees above the pool.

Didn't matter to me. People that don't get west of Sealy wouldn't believe it.

I've been a Marriott guy for the past 13 years. I achieved lifetime Platinum a few years back and can honestly say Marriott was a great choice for me. My travel was primarily 6 Midwest states including Texas, then just Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. I now travel mostly between the Northeast US, Louisiana, and South America

If you travel more to Europe or Asia, Marriott is not as strong as other brands there outside of the major cities so that may factor into your decision. Figure out where you may travel and search properties in those areas. Marriott was an excellent choice for me though.

Hyatt has best point value and overall best perks if you hit their top tier (Globalist, 60+ Nights) or you usually can get a corporate status challenge where they will give you Globalist status after 20 nights.

Downside is the footprint is the smallest of the big chains. Still, their top tier hotels are only 40k points/night and you can get a Hyatt Place a lot of places for as little as 3,500 points/night. Globalists get free breakfast at any hotel (when we stayed in Napa we got $100/morning breakfast credit and used every dollar of it). Room upgrades that are actually given (including suites), free parking on free nights, waived resort fees on all stays, etc.

I've been treated a heck of a lot better at Hyatt, even before I was Globalist, than I have at Marriott or Hilton. Family member spends 100+ nights/year on the road and is a lifetime Hilton Diamond. He recently switched to Marriott despite this as he said Hilton has gone way downhill in their product.

SupermachJM said:

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Hyatt has best point value and overall best perks if you hit their top tier (Globalist, 60+ Nights) or you usually can get a corporate status challenge where they will give you Globalist status after 20 nights.

Downside is the footprint is the smallest of the big chains. Still, their top tier hotels are only 40k points/night and you can get a Hyatt Place a lot of places for as little as 3,500 points/night. Globalists get free breakfast at any hotel (when we stayed in Napa we got $100/morning breakfast credit and used every dollar of it). Room upgrades that are actually given (including suites), free parking on free nights, waived resort fees on all stays, etc.

I've been treated a heck of a lot better at Hyatt, even before I was Globalist, than I have at Marriott or Hilton. Family member spends 100+ nights/year on the road and is a lifetime Hilton Diamond. He recently switched to Marriott despite this as he said Hilton has gone way downhill in their product.

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I think the Hyatt was usually out of the GSA per diem range for my engineering travel.

Now, traveling with the marketing department was a different world. Apparently money DOES grow on trees for them...GSA per diem was not something they ever considered to my knowledge...

Hyatt is the best redemption, but also the slowest to earn. It's not an easy formula. Hardest part is finding them at a reasonable price in most places I visit, that's why I've stuck with Marriott. Latest trend is charging for parking on regular surface lots. Not too pleased with that.

I feel like if you're smart they can all have good redemption values….

We're Hilton.

Yeah, if you use 60,000 points to book a $100 hotel room outside houston, that sucks.

But we did a week plus stay at the Conrad in the Maldives. Waited for a sale when we got a free night and it came out to something like 70-80K points a night for a room that was over $1k a night.

Next identified point trip will be doing is likely the grand wailea waldorf resort in Hawaii. Won't get as good of a value as Maldives, pretty sure points have been devalued some, but way better than most local stuff.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Look into the rewards tiers.
And note that they are subject to change.

Here's the Marriott Bonvoy Tier list:
https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/member-benefits.mi
Silver - 10 nights
Gold - 25 nights
Platinum - 50 nights
Titanium - 75 nights
Ambassador - 100 nights + $23,000 spend

I worked for a company that forced us to use Marriott (they didn't care about price, only the brand) and I spent about 7 years in a situation that required me to spend about 8 weeks on the road (I've spent over 300 nights at the Santa Clara Marriott).

I'm lifetime Platinum which doesn't really do much for me now that WFH is the norm and I'm hardly traveling at all.

Perks that were worthwhile:

• Sometimes free or preferred parking.
• At Marriott badged properties, access to the Lounge and free Breakfast in the Lounge. At International locations, the perks can be really good such as the Lounge access in Bangalore.
• More points and the ability to redeem them for other people and cancel with no penalty.

Are you going to be traveling to the same place every time? Or will it be different locations?

I've been Titanium a few times which reminds me, some of the room upgrades can be pretty good when you're redeeming points.

Also, when you pull into a Marriott at some rural location and they don't see a lot of high points status members, the reception staff will usually go out of their way to give you a free drink, or a nicer room.

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Same here. Lifetime platinum and have been Titanium several times and I do not travel much anymore. Will continue to prefer Marriott. My wife is from Houston, and her parents live there. For a few years, she was traveling there for weeklong periods to take care of her dad and mom…and staying at the Westin at Memorial City Mall. I think she became a family member of the staff and they always upgraded her to an apartment - mostly 2-3 bedrooms because of my Marriott status. Based on what that one location did for her, I will still give preference to Marriotts given similar prices, etc.

I still have gold Hilton status, but routinely, in travel throughout the US and internationally, Marriotts generally recognize us for our travel loyalty more than others.

jja79 said:

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Have you ever stayed at El Capitan in Van Horn? Sneaky good bar and restaurant.

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I've eaten there. Good spot for sure. Actually ate there a few weeks ago. I hung out at the bar with some "regulars" that were business travelers that crossed paths there from time to time.

The weirdest upgrade I got was probably 10 years ago. I was in Laredo at an Marriott property and they told me they upgraded me. I ended up with a king bedroom and a suite connected by a meeting room with a long conference table in it.

It was completely useless to me, but I thought it was hilarious.

Definitely unexpected in Van Horn.

I've been Hilton forever, but my last few stays at Marriott properties are making me rethink. I have memberships in both and higher status in Hilton, but the Marriott properties have been noticeably better. I'm particularly partial to the Aloft properties - much better than the Hilton Garden Inns in the same category.

CDub06 said:

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The weirdest upgrade I got was probably 10 years ago. I was in Laredo at an Marriott property and they told me they upgraded me. I ended up with a king bedroom and a suite connected by a meeting room with a long conference table in it.

It was completely useless to me, but I thought it was hilarious.

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That happened to me at the College Station Hilton of all places a few years ago on business. I couldn't help thinking I was probably sleeping in the same bed that Nick Saben slept in.

I like the Hilton app that allows you to skip the front desk and open your room with your phone. I travel mainly rural area so Hampton Inns and Holiday Inn Express are my go to's. Make sure to sign up for special offers that can build up your points. Kind of fun to stay in rural Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Panhandle and cash in stays at the Kimpton in New Orleans, Kimpton in Barcelona.