Koen dc

I'm actually really happy with LHW.

The past few months, with my LHW account I booked a few hotels, all at the same or lower rate as Virtuoso:
- Palazzo Parigi - 1 night - received triple upgrade upon arrival (& free breakfast)
- Royal champagne - 1 night - received free champagne on the room
- the lowell - 4 nights - received double upgrade upon arrival (& free breakfast)
- Malibu beach inn - 4 nights - received upgrade upon arrival (& free breakfast)

Also have to admit that last august we booked Vila vita park via LHW with the family for 10 nights and didn't receive anything extra.

For next month I've booked via LHW:
- park hotel Vitznau - 3 nights - rate was lower then virtuoso, will receive double points
- Villa d'este - 3 nights - rate was lower the virtuoso & received single upgrade upon booking
- San clemente palace - 4 nights - incredible rate, upgrade pending, will receive double points
- hotel monte mulini - 3 nights - same rate, upgrade pending, will receive double points
- Villa nai 3.3 - 3 nigths - not in virtuoso so can't compare, will receive double points
- Falkenhouser Schloshotel Velden - 3 nights - not in virtuoso so can't compare, will receive double points

And the points are actually easy to use, will return to Royal champagne in oktober and it will only cost me 5 euro and some points.

Personally, I can understand that for some people and in some countries LHW is not a good option, but for Europe in my opinion LHW is great.

escape4

Koen dc Thanks, that's great to hear. Out of curiosity, are you Sterling member?

Regarding the 3/4 hotels which gave you breakfast, can you confirm that for all three you booked a rate type which excluded breakfast and they gave it to you anyway? If so, then it's quite positive.

Regarding the upgrades I am less impressed. In those 10 nights you had upgrades of +3, 0, +2 (x3), and +1 (x3) so on average it's +1.2 barely above the industry "floor" +1 which we can have pretty much everywhere, with any hotel chain. That plus the other 10 nights in August where you got no upgrade at all, your average upgrade drops to +0.6 in 20 nights. In fairness it's more difficult for a hotel to upgrade such a long reservation though.

Back to breakfast, it's free with most hotel chains so if hotels gave it to you out of generosity it's great news, but it puts them on par with other chains, not above.

Anyway I do not want to sound overly negative because now LHW is free membership so I will dip my toes in the water again and they will get their chance. Agreed that in some destinations in Europe, we cannot compare with big hotel chains so I would be far less critical of the benefits there and might be entirely satisfying.

r281

I think if they reintroduced the 100 USD extra benefit eg F&B credit or spa treatment etc it would be competitive again.

schriste

Will be curious to hear what you think of this hotel.

r281

How will you get to Villa nai 3.3? What are the airport transfer options and costs?

Koen dc

Just finished a great roadtrip.
* Park hotel Vitznau - received a double upgrade - breakfast is included in the standard rate- great property, had an amazing stay here, certainly one of the best hotels In Europe for me
- San Clemente Palace- received a double upgrade - breakfast is included in the stay 4 pay 3 night that we booked - ok property, - no other extra’s offered
- Monte Mulini - no upgrade - breakfast included in the standard rate - ok hotel - no other extra’s offered
- Villa nai 3.3 - no upgrade - breakfast included in the standard rate - this is real luxury and is for me one of the best hotels in Europe - Different small additional extra’s offered during the stay -
- Falkensteiner ​​​​​— no upgrade- breakfast included in the rate but offered as part of the Standard lhw benefits - check in and conciërge service and room are not at the same level as the other hotels I’ve stayed in during the 3 weeks roadtrip - room is ok but very basic ( Schloss suite)
>In total received 4000US$ worth of lhw points during the trip
Balance: average of 0,75 upgrade per night and a good amount of points, , for me the points beat the 100 US F&B credit

escape4> 0,75 is indeed loper than 1, but at the same time August is peak Season in Europe and all of the hotels we stayed in were almost fully booked
schriste- we are still at Falkensteiner and are currently dissapointed in the hotel
r281- we did a roadtrip, so we drove to each hotel ourselves, we took the Ferry from Zadar for 60 euro,s, it took 1 hour 15 minutes. Other options are speedboat from Zadar or helicopter ( Villa nai 3.3 has a helipad). We (my wife, me and my 2 daughters) loved the hotel and will most certainly come back, next time we will fly to Zadar and hope that the heli service at Zadar airport is back in business, (currently it is not operating due to COVID) it is certainly the best way to get to the hotel.

escape4

Thanks for the great summary!

I have no problem whatsoever with no upgrade when a hotel is full or almost full. I am more concerned about properties which are stingy because they don't have the willingness to upgrade when they could have upgraded.

offerendum

Villa nai 3.3 looks stunning, but location is quite remote.

r281

Huge thank you Koen dc for the reviews!!

r281

Did you use any of the pre arrival upgrade requests? Are you a Sterling or Aurelian level member?

submonte

How did you get double points? I just stayed this week 3 nights at Byblos St Tropez and got 1 point per US-$ spent. It brought me Sterling status. Was it a special rate or promotion for double points?

offerendum

There was a promotion. My problem is mostly that the upgrades (at least the one in advance) only apply to rooms and in most properties I want at least stay in a Junior Suite.

submonte

I booked a Duplex Suite. The LC pre arrival upgrade appeared during booking as excluded by the hotel. During check-in I was told we were upgraded, but still we got a Duplex Suite, however it was in perfect condition (235), view somewhere towards backside. We got two expensive bottles of wine as welcome amenity and complimentary breakfast. It was a fantastic stay and we liked especially the breakfast, Cucina restaurant, and we loved the Beach Club. I will write an review soon with pictures.

r281

Doesn’t look like this hotel is part of LHW anymore?

Satie

hey! I was in October at the Brenners for a two night stay in an amazing deluxe park room (they could be considered a junior suite). The hotel is not part anymore of LHW, the same goes for le Bristol (the strategy of Oetker seems to be to withdraw progressively of LHW.

My stay, booked with an Oetker preferred partner rate, was a bit disappointing on some levels; very slow response time for pre-arrival mails, staff is generally nice but some concierge are a bit cold and arrogant (is it because I’m young?).
Also the hotel has cut back on welcome amenities (which seems to be only reserved for influencer nowadays) with only a tiny bowl of nuts and almonds, instead of the big fruit bowls and macarons in all my pre-covid stays. This is an issue I’m observing increasingly in luxury hotels, while many are charging higher rates than ever…
Thus said, 170€ f&b credit is a very nice perk, breakfast a la carte from now ob and improved, housekeeping is very good and spa is world class.