Euro Trip 2019 Planning: Booking initial hotels (Part 1)

In the previous installments in this series, I wrote about having a blank slate for this year’s journey and selecting our transatlantic flights. I then discussed how I decided where we would actually go once we arrived in Europe. Today’s article is the first of two which will cover booking our initial hotel stays. I will describe my general strategy for making lodging reservations, along with the short-list of properties that I am considering and why they made the list. I will use Milan, Italy for this detailed discussion though I employed this approach for all bookings for this trip.

IHG PointBreaks: Two nights for 9,000 points!

The fall/winter 2017 IHG Rewards Club PointsBreak promotion is active. For the hotels on this quarter's list, you can book reward nights for just 5,000 points. I snagged two nights for a grand total of just 9,000 as a IHG Rewards Club MasterCard cardholder!

Fall 2017 hotel promotions: Marriott Rewards

"Mega Bonus" from Marriott Reward can be very rewarding to a customer who makes only a couple of stays...literally...this fall. If you complete two stays, you will earn a free hotel night. That is a very attractive promotion!

Winter hotel promotions

If you will be traveling in winter or early spring of 2017, you will want to be registered for the promotions of your preferred hotel chain. Get the details here for Starwood, Marriott, Hilton and IHG.

Marriott Autograph Collection to add two Atlanta hotels

Atlanta's TWELVE Atlantic Station and TWELVE Centennial Park hotels will soon join the Marriott Autograph Collection. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that an investor group will buy the hotels, renovate them and convert them to the new branding.

HotelsDerek CookDecember 22, 2015Marriott Hotels, Marriott Rewards, Marriott Autograph Collection, Atlanta

Thoughts on Marriott acquiring Starwood

Marriott recently announced it would acquire Starwood hotels, creating the world's largest hotel company. While there is good reasons for this mergers, questions remain as to the impact on the Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty programs.

Derek CookNovember 25, 2015Marriott Hotels, Starwood Hotels, Starwood Preferred Guest, One Mile at a Time, merger, Hyatt, Marriott Rewards