Red Room Chronicles

I got an email a couple of days ago inviting me to take a sneak peek at a new Marriott Rewards ad campaign. The campaign is called You’ve Earned More Than Points™.

According to the email, “The ads reflect just a few of the benefits we offer to make your travel more rewarding.”

The sneak preview of the ads shows customers being reminded of features like the eFolio electronic bill option, extended profile options and Marriott’s new DreamRewards Tracker.

I think that highlighting these features is a good idea to show people that you get more than points with the Marriott Rewards program. You get some great tools to help make travel more comfortable and convenient. I’ve been using the eFolio option as a convenient way to keep track of my bills for business purposes. And I’ve utilized the enhanced preferences as well. Now I need to set up my DreamTracker because I hope to use my many rewards points for a great vacation someday soon.

Tags: Marriott, Marriott Rewards

No shortage of Marriott hotels in the Houston area, that’s for sure.

I just checked in to the JW Marriott Hotel at The Galleria. I’ve stayed here before, always enjoying the great service and the above average fitness center. One bonus I didn’t expect was the very nice flat panel TV in my room. I’ve heard that Marriott was outfitting their hotels with flat TVs but this is the first one I’ve seen.

Don’t take my word for it. Have a look for yourself.

One of the first things that I do when preparing to visit a new client is to stake the Marriott hotel locations in the region. Last fall I started doing some work with a new client in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, my search for Marriott’s near Kennett Square didn’t turn up much. The two closest hotels are the Courtyard By Marriott Brandywine Valley (8 mi. away) and the Courtyard By Marriott Wilmington Downtown (11 mi. away).

Even though those distances might seem pretty close, they’re actually 25 to 35 minutes away from the client due to the fact that all of the roads have traffic lights. And one of the great conveniences I like to get out of business travel is to have a short commute in the morning.

The upshot of this is that I’ve been staying either at a local Hilton Garden Inn that’s 1 mile from the client or a Holiday Inn Express that’s a few miles further down the road. So I’m taking convenience over precious rewards points. It would be nice to see a Marriott pop up a bit closer to Kennett Square but that’s not likely to happen since there’s not much industry in the area and the big draw (the mushroom festival) is very seasonal.

As the end of the calendar year draws near I’ll be keeping an eye on my number of stays to insure I at least make it to gold status again. If it’s close I may just have to drive the extra few miles each way lest I fall into the dreaded “below gold” zone.

Tags: Marriott