Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A list of the World's Best-Reviewed hotels is out

The top USA hotel on the list was the Four Seasons Miami, listed at number 5. I adore staying at Four Seasons Hotels but they don’t have an Elite loyalty program, luckily, I can still earn loyalty points if I book on Expedia. With the Expedia Rewards™ program, you're not limited to a single hotel brand or airline. Instead, you'll earn points on hotel stays and flights. They even have special Expedia® Elite Plus® for their most frequent travelers with these benefits:

  • Receive complimentary room upgrades at top hotels.
  • Be treated with priority customer service.
  • Earn additional Expedia Rewards Points for free travel.

On the subject of travel sites, … what do you think about the report that Orbitz travel site treats visitors differently? Please hit the comment button below. They are starting to show Mac users different, and sometimes more expensive, travel options than Windows visitors see.

lastminutedeals

I suspect that CTO Liew has a Mac because he told The Wall Street Journal that his “intuition told him that this was the case, and we were able to confirm it based on the data," Orbitz does not take into account that most PC users are Enterprise users so they work for big companies where PC’s are predominantly used. Often they shop around for hotels at work but make their reservation on their private Macs when they are at home, where they can enter their private info.

Orbitz said that Mac computer users spend as much as 30 percent more per night on hotels, and has begun showing different hotel offers to Mac users than PC visitors. An Orbitz spokesman said that the prices are the same but they offer Mac users more of the upscale hotels. I have a Mac Safari browser on my PC and I use internet explorer equally, so I’m not sure that they can really tell.

Expedia is the world's leading online travel agency, and they said that they do not show different hotels based on your browser. Expedia’s 2012 Insiders' Select® rankings, is an annual crowd-sourced list of the world's best-reviewed hotels. Expe hotels that consistently deliver value, in the form of competitive pricing, good amenities and customer service, see that commitment rewarded in their ranking. Sabre and Expedia, have renewed their technology partnership. Only 650 hotels from among the more than 150,000 properties available on Expedia sites are designated as Insiders' Select hotels. Expedia only accepts reviews from verified customers. The top ten hotels in this year's ranking include:

  1. Marrol's Boutique Hotel (5 stars, Bratislava, Slovakia)
  2. Hotel Al Codega (4 stars, Venice, Italy)
  3. Hotel Royal Corin (4 stars, Costa Rica)
  4. Hilton Garden Inn Aberdeen (4 stars, Aberdeen, Scotland)
  5. Four Seasons Miami (5 stars, Miami, Florida)
  6. Madison Hotel Hamburg (4.5 stars, Hamburg/Hanover, Germany)
  7. Element Omaha Midtown Crossing (3 stars, Omaha, Nebraska)
  8. Sonnenalp Resort of Vail (4.5 stars, Vail-Beaver Creek, Colorado)
  9. Taj Lands End (5 stars, Mumbai, India)
  10. Mr. C Beverly Hills (5 stars, Los Angeles

Don’t forget to check out the daily special last minute offers. I booked the Miami Hilton Airport hotel for only $96 today.