Roger

Currently MR Gold (recent change from Silver), I'm looking to book some revenue stays at Protea hotels in Western Cape in Q1 2017.

Earlier reports from Shareholder and others suggest that MR benefits are not applied as standard at Protea hotels, though I had internet access at Protea Sea Point Arthur's Road earlier this year.

Has there been/Will there be any movement on this? I'm thinking of complimentary breakfast as a start. Thanks.

aaupgrade

Gold benefits

Free breakfast is not an elite benefit at Protea or many other Marriott brands. Lounge access/Free breakfast is only an elite benefit at JW Marriott®, Autograph Collection®, Renaissance Hotels® and Marriott Hotels®. A few brands choose to provide breakfast to all guests, but that has nothing to do with elite benefits.

Marriott Reward benefits are applied as outlined by Marriott for Protea hotels. The elite benefits at Protea include Gift Shop Discount, Ultimate Reservation Guarantee, Room Type Guarantee, room upgrade based on availability at check-in, and free enhanced internet. See Elite T&C for details.

sdsearch

Some Protea properties give free breakfast to all. (When they do, it's mentioned on their website.)

Those which don't, they don't give free breakfast to elites either.

So think of it as a brand that's sometimes like a Fairfield and other times like an AC Hotel, in terms of breakfast cost to elites, and you'll have it about it right.

Roger

Thanks for the clarification, aaupgrade and sdsearch.

Safti

I actually contacted the Protea and African Pride hotels in Jo'burg and neither one provide free breakfast with MR gold/plat elite status.

Happy

It is a disappointment that Protea does not provide continental breakfast to Plat and Gold.

Stayed at a few Protea hotels recently. None provides breakfast as Plat/Gold benefits. However they did provide welcome gifts in the form of fruit plates or fruits and local jerk meat/nuts combo. Very decorative too at the JNB Protea (the one outside airport). That location was very keen in signing up Marriott Reward members. At check in the associate handed me a form to sign up for MR before she even pulled up my reservation. May be there are some incentives on signing up new members. lol. It also has a one hour happy hour for all Marriott Reward members with one free drink during that nigh with the invitation handwritten at the back of a picture card but the card was placed with the picture side up so we totally missed it. I wasn't aware the happy hour until being asked by the Concierge the next morning whether I enjoyed it. However this apparently was not a regular thing as on our return stay I made a point to look at the back of the picture card which only had welcome words on it and no free drink offered!

Caution: Protea hotels do not know how to process Point Saver award. When they saw the cert had less points than their level, they pulled another cert from your account. It took a couple weeks for me to fix one such error. Luckily I discovered the error just ahead of another award stay at the same hotel that committed such error, and was able to prevent the error from being repeated. Still took multiple emails to get it fixed and had 10,000 pts refunded to account.

Finally for those who plan to visit Kruger, the Protea Kruger Gate is a very nice property and is only 100 meters to the Kruger Gate. We bookended our visit to Kruger with one night at the Protea at the beginning and the ending day. We drove pass the Hazyview location and the hotel looked a lot less desirable than the Kruger Gate location. I would say the Hazyview location looks like a 2 star to me while the Kruger Gate location is a solid 3.5 or even 4 star property.

For those who plan to drive the Garden Route, there are some nice looking Protea on that route we saw last year but did not stay as the price tag at that time was a lot higher than we would pay when there were enough B&B types to choose from. However with the Cat 1 redemption level and the 1 to 3 translation from SPG, these become very attractive options for our 2017 trip.

Finally I know this is Marriott thread and there are may be a doz Protea hotels in Cape Town to choose from, but I still like to mention that the Radisson Blu Water Front by far is the best location for us on our 2 trips to Cape Town - Mar 2015 and Sept 2016. Spacious and modern decor in the public area. Standard rooms are a bit small but the business class rooms are spacious, especially those with balconies facing the sea. Room service prices are extremely reasonable and foods delicious.

There is also a cheaper Radisson Blu Le Vendome at Sea Point. Its interior looks like a grand residence in UK or Europe. The stair case goes up to every floor is decorative and is prominently located. Hallways also look very European. A completely different style to the very modern decor at the Waterfront location. We stayed 2 nights at the Sea Point location before moving to the Waterfront location. The Sea Point location is also quite good. Hotel provides shuttle to the V&A. We did not use it as we had a rental car.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update & additional information.

Edited to add: It will be a few years yet, but Marriott is adding 3 properties to Cape Town: "These three planned developments will add over 500 rooms to Cape Town’s hotel accommodation offering. Bringing 189 additional rooms to Cape Town, the AC Hotel Cape Town waterfront will be located at The Yacht Club in the Roggebaai precinct at the gateway to Cape Town’s waterfront, while at Harbour Arch (the current Culemborg node), currently the location of several major construction projects, will be the site of the 200-room Cape Town Marriott Hotel Foreshore and the 150-room Residence Inn by Marriott Cape Town Foreshore."

Cheers.

SkiAdcock

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/27386532-post69.html

Now open. Protea Hotel Ndola, Zambia

ozflier

Can you please advise .
I look like staying a few nights at JNB airport.
Does the Protea Hotel there offer any benefits for Gold Elites?

sdsearch

There are actually two Protea Hotels at JNB. There's the Transit hotel inside the airport, and then there's other hotel right outside the airport. Which one are you referring to?

ozflier

Thank you for responding.
It is the outside one.

Happy

Obviously the poster refers to the hotel outside.

You can NOT stay at the hotel in the transit area UNLESS you arrive on international flight - as you would NOT go thru immigration at all and remain in the transit area. By virtue, you would NOT be able to access the transit hotel if you are outside the transit area.

I gave a good review literally only 2 posts up on the treatments for elites at the Protea just outside JNB. The poster just posted the question without even read it.

Though I am not sure why the poster wants to stay a few days at that Protea unless he has a need to be near the airport. Otherwise it is not practical to go in town even via the Gautrain everyday (and return).

ozflier

You are correct re the note several posts earlier.
I should have gleaned more info from it.
I need to stay at the airport as I will be doing a one day run to CPT and back.

mnscout

You sure about upgrade? Can't find anything in the T&C.

aaupgrade

Yes

Click on this Elite T&C link or the previous one I provided in my post above and read # 5 under the section titled Additional Platinum and Gold Membership Benefits:

5. Complimentary Room Upgrade: Based on room availability at check-in and limited to a Member's personal guestroom. Upgrades may include rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities, rooms on Executive Floors, or suites. All upgrades are granted on a space-available basis, as determined at the time of check-in. Upgrades are subject to availability and identified by each hotel. Not available at Marriott Vacation Club.