Photo Review Lodge of The Four Seasons (Sounds Fancy)

Recently I had a business conference at Lake of the Ozarks. The group elected to have it at Lodge of the Four Seasons (yeah, not THAT Four Seasons). When having large conferences in Mid-Missouri there are only really two places at Lake of the Ozarks to choose from traditionally. You can pick Tan-Tar-A (Now Margaritaville) or Lodge of the Four Seasons. Both are historic sprawling resorts right on the water. Both are past their prime but are trying hard. Tan-Tar-A was originally a Marriott resort for many years until they ran out of nearby timeshare houses and ran it into the ground. Lodge of the Four Seasons is a bit more historic. The original family still owns it since its opening in 1955 as a Chase Park property. Many movie stars like Frank Sinatra visited at one time or another but those times are gone. It still has some of that old spark but things have become a bit worn out over the years. I have a feeling that Covid hasn’t helped. Tan-Tar-A was recently modeled a couple years ago since Margaritaville bought them out. It has the edge on shopping and entertainment facilities but both have a lot to offer and neither one is owned by the Byrd’s or any drug cartel as far as I know.

Main Lodge
1955 Style. Hard to get this photo as everyone at the Lodge seems to love this spot with a wood-burning fire going all day.
HK restaurant (understaffed and slow service during our off-season visit).
Main Lodge Entrance

We visited this resort on a very cold week in early April so still off-season. Lake of the Ozarks is a major Summer destination for sure. It didn’t impact us much as we spent 95% of the time inside generic large meeting rooms but it was a fun visit. They seemed very understaffed for food service which would be my main complaint. The staff really made this resort shine but they need more staff for the bars and restaurants. It was difficult to impossible to get a beer at 4pm when our meetings ended. The staff at the rooftop and main restaurant bar spent much more time trying to get their computer POS to work than serving customers.

Overall I would stay here again as the rooms are dated but spotless. Next time I hope they provide bars of soap but no other complaints about the room. Think old Marriott hotel. I wish they have some affiliation with a hotel chain for points earning or elite perks but that isn’t too big of a deal in this area as most don’t.

I think a visit in the Summer would be the best idea for this property to take full use of the outdoor pools, lake, boating, and golf course but they do have a Spa and indoor pool (sorry no photos). This hotel could use some remodeling and I hope they do so long term as the buildings are starting to show some wear for sure. It might need a major influx in cash to return it to its historic glory. Here is the non-affiliate link if you want to check it out. https://4seasonsresort.com/

Marriott $25 gift card on 7+ night stays targeted offer. AKA: Travel Makes us Joyful in 2022

Marriott has a niche, targeted offer out where you get a $25 grocery gift card for 7+ night extended stays at “Participating” properties using corporate/coupon code ES7 in the booking details. The offers says “Hang out with us for awhile and save with extended−stay rates and a $25 grocery card on 7+ nights.” If you are targeted you may find this in a recent email with the subject line “FOR YOU: Special Offers on 2022 Travel”.

Credit: Marriott email offer

Travel Makes us Joyful

Need to Know

  • Earn a $25 Grocery Gift Card
  • Package available for guests staying 7+ nights
  • Book by April 6, 2022
  • Promotional Code: ES7 What’s this?
  • Valid Stay Dates: January 1, 2022 – June 19, 2022

Description

Settling in for an extended stay in the New Year? Receive a $25 grocery gift card on us when you stay for 7+ consecutive nights.

Available at participating properties in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Latin America.

More offer details show:

How to Book:

Be sure that the Promotional Code appears in the Corporate/Promotional code box when making your online reservation, or call 1-800-228-9290 and ask for the promotional code. For toll-free numbers outside the US please visit Global Reservation Numbers

T&C

Terms & Conditions:

Includes a $25 grocery gift card for every 7 nights consecutively stayed; grocery store location may be preselected by hotel. Minimum length of stay required (varies by participating hotels). A minimum length of stay may apply. Offers may be advance payment/non-refundable and non-changeable. Offer must fall within valid dates and is only valid through the stay window end date. Limited number of rooms are available for this promotion. Tax is additional. Offer does not apply to groups of 10 or more rooms. Offer cannot be combined with any other promotions. Blackout dates may apply. Advance reservations required. Other restrictions apply. Rates are per room, per night and based on availability at the time of reservations.

While it seems many hotels don’t allow this rate code it could be valuable. My random search for a Wednesday night in mid-February in Chicago (not tourist high season of course). Only showed two properties you could book this for at this moment in time.

Apparently cold weather and hot chocolate is involved with this marketing effort.

Photo Review Marriott Waikiki Beach Hotel

We recently had a short two night stay in Waikiki. Thanks to the Marriott points temporary discount I was able to use two of my 35k free night certs that are usually useless on Oahu.

Due to my low Gold status I did end up in a nice beach view room. We really enjoyed the large balcony and view of the nearby hotels.

Pros of this hotel include location at Waikiki and near the Zoo. Friendly staff and recently renovated rooms.

Cons of this hotel include $50 resort fee per night, $45 per night parking fee and location on Waikiki which is Branson Missouri west with tourists and traffic. Noisy night and day and also tons of homeless citizens all over the beach. Also the band at the hotel next door plays late into the evening which you can hear in your room. Street racing on the street below with horns, people yelling all night etc.

Overall I would stay here again and enjoyed most of it. The check in using the Hawaii covid website is a real pain as the hotel won’t take a printed QR code, they make you log in and go through 2 factor authentication to show them it on your phone while a line forms at the check-in desk.

Photo Review of Super 8 Elgin Illinois

This is a budget hotel that is well located in the NW Suburbs of Chicagoland. I’m not a big Wyndham fan but stayed here for work location purposes. It’s a clean hotel that is decent and being remodeled to boot. The staff is friendly but breakfast is underweleming. Toast, cold cereal and coffee are the highlights. No pool or fitness stuff to weigh down the cost but good safe location with comfortable rooms and beds.

Hotel Photo Review Holiday Inn Express West St. Louis Wentzille

This HIX hotel is a brand new hotel right on I-70 near Exit 208 in the far West Suburbs of St.Louis. It is a typical new design. I love new hotels as they are usually spotless and clean. This is no exception. Indoor pool is nice, sorry no photos as too many people swimming during my stay.

The real bright spot of this hotel is the great staff. Only downside is that breakfast doesn’t start until 6:30am which isn’t the end of the world unless you need to leave early.

Photo Review of Intercontinental Dan Tel Aviv Israel

We had a 2-night stay with 3 standard rooms at the Dan Tel Aviv Intercontinental hotel. This is one of my favorite hotels in Israel and we’ve always been treated decently. I run a very exclusive private tour business and stayed here with 5 clients on this tour of Israel. All of my clients loved this hotel.

As an IHG Spire and Ambassador, the service was good with no complaints about the rooms. I was a bit disappointed (but not shocked) that they do not offer free breakfast or lounge access at my elite status on award nights. We also had a bit of disappointment that the pool closed early prior to 8pm during our stay. They did give me several free gifts of wine, fruit, soaps, late checkout, free movie credit, and beverage credits but I would have exchanged all of that for lounge access. Again no complaints really though.

This hotel is located across the street from the beach and near the old Joppa port area. It’s also near one of our favorite restaurants, Bezzo’s Pizza and the local market area. I hope to stay here again on our next trip to the area.

Hotel Review of Holiday Inn Express Phoenix Airport University Drive PHX

Quick photo review of the Holiday Inn Express Airport. This was a quick overnight before an early morning flight. Overall this is a very nice HIX a couple miles from PHX and they do have shuttle service and free parking for guests.

I was disappointed to find that breakfast isn’t served until 6am which normally would be OK but airport hotels should know better. Many people staying at airport hotels have early departures of course.

There is a waffle house in the parking lot but no other restaurants within walking distance except the Hilton Garden Inn nearby.

Because of my Spire status I was upgraded to a Junior Suite which was very nice and roomy. Overall I slept well with good AC on a day with 113 degree temps. I didn’t try the pool but i enjoyed the stay here.

IHG 2nd Quarter Accelerate Promo Now Live but….

holiday-inn-express-art

In case you’re not familiar IHG Hotels has for many years run a quarterly bonus point earning promo called Accelerate. It has been decent for many years however it is targeted and seems to track how often you stay at IHG. So in other words, if you don’t stay at IHG hotels (Holiday Inn’s, etc.) often then you tend to get really good offers. Like “Stay 1 Night and earn 4,000 bonus points” or whatever. If you stay at a lot of IHG hotels the offers tend to get harder to achieve but also may offer greater rewards. For example “Stay 26 nights this quarter and get 20,000 bonus points” or whatever.

IHG says:

Complete your customized offers now and get your points. With offers designed for the way you like to travel, Accelerate helps you experience more of life. Earn bonus points, get rewards, and make every stay count more.

How does it work?

1. Book and stay at any IHG® hotel around the world from now until August 31.
2. Earn bonus points to use for great rewards and moments that matter.

So we get to:

Have: Customized offers, great (See above)

Offers that are designed for “the way you like to travel”, Apparently not the way others like to travel for me to travel the way I do or something.

“Experience more of life”. Apparently by staying at IHG hotels “life” is more of an “Experience”

And we get to “make every stay count more”.

All sounds great unless you get a crappy offer like my wife did this year.

Here is her offer:

FireShot Capture 048 - IHG® Rewards Club - Earn the extra rewards you deserve - Register Now_ - www.ihg.com

OK let’s say you aren’t familiar with this promo and think this is a great offer. That would be good if you didn’t know that my wife usually has an Accelerate promo worth like 50,000 points but can be hard to reach. She stays about 100 nights a year in hotels so targeting 24 nights’ish in a quarter to get some bonus works for her and IHG. This promo is so low AND requires her to stay for leisure to obtain it. Since she is a business traveler she doesn’t usually stay over on Saturday night. She doesn’t usually book for points & cash and uses a business credit card. Kind of disappointed.

Before you accuse me of kicking the gift horse that IHG Accelerate usually provides I will point out the offer I got below. Why is mine better? Because IHG had done the same to me in early 2018 and I moved all my stays over to Marriott in early 2018 to try and reset the clock with IHG. Good plan right? Sure except I found out that I REALLY like Marriott. In the marketing world, I would consider that a failure. So by IHG having targeted promo’s that punish loyal customers (11,600 versus 60,100) it can backfire I think.

FireShot Capture 049 - IHG® Rewards Club - Earn the extra rewards you deserve - Register Now_ - www.ihg.com

I won’t bring up the registration process issues on this latest promo. Mine worked fine and my wife’s didn’t load until after May 1st. Not sure why. I assume IT issues and not that they more closely reviewed her’s for extra crappy-ness.

Anyway. I urge you to register if you even think you’ll stay at an IHG hotel soon.

How does it work?

1. Sign up for Accelerate.
2. Book and stay at any of your favorite IHG® hotels from May 1, 2019, and August 31, 2019.
3. Earn bonus points to use for great rewards.

You can sign up for the latest promotion by June 18, 2019, and each offer must be completed between 5/1/18 and May 1, 2019, and August 31, 2019.

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Photo Review of Marriott Town Place Suites McKinney Texas

Nothing too surprising to report at this typical Townplace Suites. I enjoy this Marriott brand as the hotels are laid out nice and fit my travel needs well. I wish they could redesign the weird closets at these hotels but I “get” the purpose for extended stay folks. This location has somewhat small TVs and lacks the Netflix internet TV option. Other than that the service was great and spotlessly clean. This hotel is well located for runners with good sidewalks and trails not far away. Also near shopping and restaurants. I’d stay here again for sure.

Holiday Inn Express Early Texas Photo Review

The HIX in Early Texas is a new, nice hotel with great staff. 6am breakfast, 24 hour large fitness center with excellent equipment and a nice outdoor pool cap off an excellent experience. Although the somewhat thin wall construction next to a busy road subtract some this is likely the best hotel within an hour or more in any direction. I will also note that Verizon has terrible coverage in this town. The free WiFi helped a ton on this stay.