jerryhung

I have a separate question, Seth

does HH only display "lowest nightly rate" if the stay has different rates? like SPG I tried for Four Points Barcelona (cat 2), weekday is 4000 points, weekend is 3000.

HH shows 3000 points (which is not wrong) but just surprised when I tried to book online (I actually did not know there are Weekday vs. Weekend point differences)

Thanks

lili

Well, Skokie IL is just 15 miles from Prospect Heights IL.

sbm12

This is fixed now. I have a filter which automatically ignores hotels which are too far away, but that only works when I know where the hotel is. In this case the hotel was new and I didn't have its location in my database so it didn't get dropped for being too far away.

Turns out that Belgrade is in Serbia, not Slovenia. Apparently that makes a difference.

If you do a search which includes a weekend night then SPG shows "from" the lower rate so that's the number I use.

That's actually how it is working. The Club Carlson site is very "helpful" when it comes to trying to figure out what you actually meant if it doesn't have any hotels at the location you type in.

st1575

I am seeing strange results when I search for SPG hotels. For example, if you search for in St. Louis, using "STL" sometimes works but an actual zip code (e.g., 63105) always returns no results.

SanDiego1K

I just found a very interesting use of the tool. In general, it doesn't show hotels that are sold out. This has a downside in being unaware of certain properties that might be available a different night. But I just discovered a great use of the tool thanks to this feature. A young friend is getting married Labor Day weekend. We offered to provide the wedding night hotel. Grandparents and parents are providing time shares for the bulk of the honeymoon. Getting a one night stay at an aspirational property on the Saturday night of Labor Day weekend is tricky. I can easily find Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Residence Inn in office parks. None are quite what I had in mind. I've been using the tool daily to check on availability. Suddenly, today, my number one property popped up with availability. I had contacted my Private Line Agent earlier this week and had no joy. So now I have the property held that I'd like to give him as a gift. Thanks, Seth.

sbm12

I'll look in to this. Most likely a variation on the name used to define the search criteria coming from different data tables and therefore being slightly different.

Interesting use case; I like it. One of the drawbacks to the way the alerts are created now is that you have to see the revenue rate on the same dates at the property to create an alert. I've considered changing that but, for the most part, it works really, really well and users are not confused by it.

But if you ever have a one-off request like this and want an alert set just let me know and I can create one or edit an existing one manually to be more of what you actually want.

sbm12

I’ve hesitated about including the Le Club Accor affiliated hotels into the Hotel Hustle search interface because they operate on a fixed reward rate; getting a great redemption deal is simply not going to happen. But with nearly 4,000 properties around the world it is hard to ignore the value of having them in the search results. And so, over the past week or so, I’ve done the needful and added Accor Hotels into the search results.



Unlike the other properties you will not see award rates nor be able to set award alerts. Because awards are just paying cash out towards the room rate based on a fixed point value conversion. But you will see the cash rate option and, like all the other hotels, be able to click through to book if the rate appeals to you. And, especially in France and the rest of Europe where Accor is a strong brand, having the extra options in the search results can be quite useful. The other filters all work, too, so adding and removing them from the search results should be pretty easy to manage.
n.b. The link above is to my blog or to one which I am a regular contributor. FT rules require that I disclose that in the post.

mattvorwald

Is the search function for Choice broken? I do not see any hotels populate anywhere, regardless of location or date.

Same question for Starwood?

sbm12

Looks like Choice is broken; I'll troubleshoot that tonight. SPG appears to be working for me. If you have specific dates/locations which are not let me know.

sbm12

This should be fixed now. Seems they changed their site and didn't bother to notify me.

Still chasing down the intermittent SPG issues.

jerryhung

Seth

is Park Inn (by Club Carlson) supposed to be included in search?
I didn't see it included for Prague (say 28K points/night) or Dubai (has both Park Inn & Radisson)...

actually, as I tested for Dubai for Nov 2015, no CC properties at all despite them having 5+ hotels there? temporary bug?

Also, is there way to say 1-click on hotel chain on left side and only shows that?
vs. right now, I have to click the ICON to un-select it, and needs to click 8 times to unselect 8 out of 9 items...to see "Club Carlson only". Thanks

sbm12

There should be a * to the right of the brand name. Click on that to select only that brand.

I'll look in to the CC issues.

The Club Carlson issues should be fixed now, too.

jerryhung

Thank you
I see the *, didn't know it was clickable

CC hotels show up now
but it misses 1 Park Inn in Dubai and 1 other? "Park Inn by Radisson Hotel Apartments ", I know it changed names and etc..
CC website shows 9 - for Nov 2015
HH shows 7 in results - I know Park Inn is available for 38K points for sure...

maybe says displayed Prices are in USD somewhere, in bigger fonts? small detail
I do see bottom text "* = Rate converted to USD from hotel site booking currency to facilitate redemption valuation comparison" to cover that

sbm12

Only 8 of the 9 are open; all 8 are showing for the search I just performed. If there is a specific date you're not seeing one let me know.

jerryhung

Hmm, now I look more carefully. Seems all good, nvm

CC shows 9 - but only 8 are open and available
HH show 8 red pins - not sure if I just counted wrong before

Thanks again for the quick responses/fixes