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🏝️ We're giving away another trip to Hawaii
Plus, I'll tell you how I navigate choosing hotel brands and give you the chance to ask me literally anything you want.
Mike Dodge
August 26, 2024
Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 51 seconds
📱 Klook has teamed up with TikTok to let users in Southeast Asia and Japan book travel experiences through the app. It's kind of like influencer marketing gone wild, but hey, if the kids are doing it then it's gotta be pretty cool, right? Read more about it here.
Good morning from Baku, Azerbaijan!
Weirdly, this is not my first time in Azerbaijan. In fact, it’s one of the first countries I ever traveled to almost ten years ago.
Baku is a great city, and I encourage you all to add it to your bucket lists.
But let’s get down to brass tacks:
🏝️ We’re giving away another trip to Hawaii
I’m not going to waste any of your time with this one…
Ready?
We are giving away a 5-night stay at the AMAZING Mauna Lani Point by CoralTree Residence Collection in beautiful Hawaii. 🏝️
Holy crap, this place looks amazing…
One lucky winner will get the following:
A 5-night stay for two at the Mauna Lani Point hotel
$2,000 for flights and other expenses
This hotel offers access to beaches, golfing, pools, and much more, and looks like a fantastic place to relax and enjoy the stunning nature of Hawaii.
The best part?
You have plenty of ways to enter and rack up multiple entries to this giveaway by completing some super simple tasks.
So click the big shiny button below, complete those tasks, and enter for your chance to win this epic trip. 👇
You have until September 24th to enter and gain more entries, and the winner will be announced here in Daily Drop on September 30th - so mark your calendars!
🏃🏼♂️ Mike on the Move: Understanding Hotel Brands
As I mentioned, I’m currently in Baku.
As I write this newsletter in a local cafe, I actually don’t have a hotel booked for tonight. 😬
I love hotel hopping and trying out different programs and brands, and since I only travel with a small backpack, I can go out for the day, enjoy the city, and just figure out hotel plans when I feel like it…
Especially here - because there are a TON of amazing hotel options, all of which have award availability 99% of the time.
But in a world where there are literally hundreds of chain hotel brands to choose from, it can be hard to know what you’re going to get.
So today, I want to explain my thought process when it comes to choosing a hotel based on my elite benefits, the cost, location, and more.
One of the more enticing options here is the Ritz-Carlton, which only costs 30,000 Marriott points per night, whether booking far in advance or at the last minute.
That’s obviously a great deal for a new Ritz, but here’s the drawback:
Even the highest-level Marriott elites don’t get free breakfast or lounge access at Ritz Properties.
It’s annoying and just something you sort of have to know about that specific Marriott brand.
On the other hand, there’s a JW Marriott here too. This hotel only costs 16,000 points per night, offering 1.9 cents per Marriott point, which is epic.
The nice thing about JW Marriott is that most of their properties have lounges that offer snacks, drinks, and even dinner for elite members.
As a 5-star hotel, it also has many extra amenities like a spa.
On top of all of that, I get a welcome gift as a Titanium member (as do Platinum members), which I have always loved.
My welcome gift from Hyatt the other day here in Baku
So, for 16,000 Marriott points, it’s hard to beat free breakfast, free dinner, room upgrade, spa access, and an overall nicer hotel.
The issue with this hotel is that it’s a little bit far from the old city and tourist center of Baku…
But you know what’s super close to all of that?
The Intercontinental, which costs 39,000 IHG points per night. 👇
It’s about a 5-minute walk from where all the action is, and one block away from where I’m sitting now, which is a huge plus.
Since I have this credit card, I also have a Free Night Award sitting in my IHG account worth 40,000 points, and this would be a perfect use for it.
The Intercontinental brand is nice, too. It’s a full-service hotel with excellent amenities.
But of course, as a lowly IHG Platinum elite, I don’t get free breakfast here. 😭
And with a cash cost of just $183 per night, there are MUCH better uses for my free night award…
And that brings us to my final option: The Hyatt Regency - a Category 1 hotel that costs just 5,000 Hyatt points tonight.
As a Globalist, I’ll get free breakfast, a room upgrade, late checkout, etc.
Since it’s a Hyatt Regency, I also know there’s a Regency Club lounge there where I’ll get free food and drinks in the evening.
For 5,000 points, this is both the cheapest and highest-value option. But sadly, it’s the worst location of all of the options…
💡 Signing up for this card right now and transferring those points to Hyatt could yield 25 nights at hotels like this one, just saying…
Some brands are cheap; some are expensive. Some are 5-star hotels; some are budget hotels. Some have free breakfast and dinner; some have no extra perks.
By the time you read this in two days, I will have already chosen one of these options.
But just for fun, I want you to guess which one I chose and tell me which one you would’ve picked.
After you vote, you’ll see which one I picked. 😉
🏨 Which hotel do you think I chose?Click to see which one I ended up booking! |
Understanding hotel brands and what they offer (and which benefits you get at which brand) can be SO confusing...
But it’s important to know your options and know which brands provide extra value (or exclude benefits, like with the Ritz).
Later this week, I’ll drop a podcast episode where I break down Marriott’s brands… and I’ll even tell you which one is my favorite (which might surprise you). 😉
Over the coming weeks, I’ll try to do this with other programs as well.
🙋♀️ Ask me anything: Gimme those questions!!!
I get a lot of random questions about travel, points, miles, etc., here in the newsletter, email, podcast comments, and social media.
Sadly, there isn’t really time to respond to all of them… So, I want to give you a chance to ask me any burning questions!
These can be questions about points, miles, credit cards, redemptions, specific destinations, loyalty programs, travel gear, random travel tips, life, philosophy, or ANYTHING else you want.
Based on the questions I get, I’ll respond to as many as possible in a podcast, article, or maybe here in the newsletter.
Do you have a question for me?Click yes, then type your question in the response space. |
So gimme those questions, folks! Nothing is off-limits (just please be nice and respectful 😇).
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…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉
That’s all for today, folks!
I can’t wait for one of you lovely people to win the trip of a lifetime with that Hawaii giveaway… Make sure you tell all of your friends to enter (and subscribe to Daily Drop) so they can bring you along if they win. 😉
See you tomorrow,