Not hating, genuine question, but based on the frequency of Compensation Clinics posted by LL about honestly minor things and requesting large amounts of points, how has he not yet been told he is no longer welcome from various hotel chains?

There has been a trend as far as I can see on FT of hotels and chains cracking down on serial complainers seeking compensation, based on the frequency of such posts, I would have imagined LL to be one of the more egregious ones.

Feel free to read his Tripadvisor reviews. It looks like half of his reviews from 2020 (~15) are negative with three or less out of five. It may add fuel to your theory that he is a serial complainer seeking compensation as many GM's respond providing their email for him to get in touch.

It looks like the Waldorf Astoria Maldives has called him out for his "abusive" behavior towards their staff. It appears he left a scathing review of the property mid-stay threatening to leave their property early due to their amateur hour operations. Here is what the General Manager of the property had to say:

Dear LoyaltyLobby,

Thank you very much for choosing to stay at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi and taking the time to share your experience!

We are very disappointed to learn that we gave you a compromised experience and we sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you.

Further to your arrival experience, we would like to highlight that it is a shared yacht transfer and the waiting time will be 30 to 60 minutes. The same was communicated to you prior to your arrival. Nevertheless we took good note of your concerns and actions are being taken and addressed. Additional new luxury yachts will soon be added to the fleet which will drastically diminish the waiting time at the airport. At the same time the resort is currently working on creating its own branded airport lounge.

Upon further investigation regarding your In Villa Dining order, the order was delivered to you in full and you signed the bill for the same.

Our records also show that we have diligently informed the sharing guest in your villa regarding the wireless charger being not available, as you were unavailable.

We certainly believe that there are always areas of improvement and we thank you very much for your feedback. However please understand your abusive and abrupt behavior from the time of arrival at the airport until your departure towards our Team members and senior management is not acceptable.

Kind regards,

E D
General Manager

Loyaltylobby is one of the more honest travel spaces on the Internet in that it doesn’t default to play apologist for travel service providers and governments and doesn’t censor criticism of the the institutional parties involved in our travel experiences. That, unfortunately, cant be said about most internet sites where travel is the topic.

About the TripAdvisor review above, it seems like the customer’s criticism was legitimate and the hotel knows that it had a failing in providing a transfer service but wants to blame the customer to make the criticism look like less of an issue than it was.

John has lived in hotels virtually full-time for many years AFAIK. This does literally mean that he understands how things should be done better than the majority of staff and indeed the majority of hotel management. I think it can go two ways if you live like this - a) you either end up not sweating the small stuff, because you've seen it all before - which is probably where I am or b) you expect everything to go like clockwork because this is your life, not your holiday, and you need and expect things to do at the right time and in the right way.

I would say, however, that 'whine' content doesn't always go down well with readers.

I do think that John doesn't get enough credit for LL. Along with Frequent Flyer Bonuses, it is one of the few places where you can be pretty sure that every new promo and news item has been covered. I know how hard it is doing this from just one point of view (ie the UK) but he manages it from a global perspective.

If you live for extended time in various hotels and bounce around a lot of hotels, then you probably also have a broader pool of experiences — and a chance at a broader perspective in some way — and thus have more opportunities to experience something to write about.

I hope LoyaltyLobby keeps doing what it does.

I think you are overlooking the entertainment value of these TA reads. I've had the pleasre of reading some of his TA reviews - to him outloud. He's clearly passionate about good service and properties living up to their brand standards and own marketing and is not afraid to call them out. Some may find the reviews over the top, but as noted here, any bias is his own - he's not funded by credit card companies, hotels or airlines; a rarity of most of the "external" blogs discussed in this forum.

There is a huge misconnect between promise and delivery in the luxury hotel sphere which should be addressed where you find it. Based on my time in Dubai over Christmas:

* Burj Al Arab - could not check us in until 6pm and would not upgrade us to get around the problem (they comped me a night after I complained which was actually a very good outcome given I was on a 342 as well)

* Waldorf Astoria Dubai - full of people paying $1,000 per night who were not happy at joining long queues for breakfast and not being able to get sun loungers on the beach or by the pool, I did not get a Diamond upgrade and was given a room facing a brick wall

* InterCon Festival City - as a Royal Ambassador, was upgraded from a standard room to an identical Club Room, the difference being Club access (which I get automatically as an RA and so no upgrade in theory although it technically meets the RA scheme rules)

Letting brands get away with this stuff doesn't help anyone.

WA Dubai treated us extremely well last February - suite upgrade with sea view on a redemption stay as Gold.

Perhaps that is a great new slogan idea for John?

I've found the content useful - and got on some specific Hilton promo codes last year that I would have missed otherwise. I do find the site a bit cluttered though.
Overall, one of the good BA blogs

Loyaltylobby.com is not a Boardingarea.com blog.

Ah, you're right. I assumed it is(all similar names gets me confused). I must have found it while searching for hotel deals

Loyaltytraveler.com is a BoardingArea blog, and is run by a different FTer than Loyaltylobby.com. For a very brief while years ago, I would sometimes type out the wrong one when looking for the other.

Loyaltytraveler.com is more US and Europe hotels-deal oriented, while LoyaltyLobby.com is more global in coverage in the miles and points space. Both have been useful for me, but LoyaltyLobby provides me more bang for the time in the mile and points space than VFTW, OMAAT and a whole host of other BoardingArea blogs combined nowadays. As happened to CNN in a world where Fox News became big, so in the miles and points/travel blog space: riling up an audience to run up consumer engagement became more core to the business and opinionated entertainment became more core than information.

Is it or me is the "everything is a scam" gotten even worse lately?
The post where John bragged about being nasty and abusive to an IHG employee, and then defended it in the comments, may have been the Rubicon for me.