By Robert McGarvey

Hotel cybersecurity stinks.  There’s nothing new in that pronouncement.  I’ve written about that for years.  

But now there is more – and worse – news.  Tech company Akamai has reported that a new and super slick phishing scheme is now targeting hotel guests and successfully collecting credit card info for exploitation by cyber crooks.

The theft gets its start with an infiltration and hacking of the hotel’s computers.  It begins when the cyber criminal makes what seems to be a legit hotel reservation.  That is followed up with what appears to be a benign email about more info that is needed, nothing unusual.  Perception Point cyber researchers document what happens next: “Once the targeted hotel’s employee replies, the attacker ups the ante. Their follow-up email is carefully crafted to elicit both empathy and a sense of urgency. For example, they might claim that their son is prone to anaphylactic shock due to specific allergies. In other cases, the attacker could appeal to the hotel’s sense of responsibility towards elderly guests, stating they have parents over 70 and wish to print photos for them during their stay.”

Then the attacker sends an email with a URL – purportedly perhaps to their parents’ medical records –  but when that is clicked on malware downloads to the hotel computer and InfoStealer tools busily siphon off sensitive information from the system.  

Sounds bad? It is, very bad. But what Akamai has now reported is an update to the InfoStealer that directly puts you in the crosshairs of this cyber attack.

Picture this: you have a reservation for a hotel room in Manhattan during a busy week when you know rooms will be in demand.  You get an email that says: Due to an update of our reservations system we need you to confirm your credit card details.  We apologize for this but it is essential for us to hold your reservation. Please use this link: MyBooking.MyHotel@hotel.com

Understand: the crook knows you have a reservation. Probably the email even specifies the correct dates, maybe even your room rate. They have scraped that data off the hotel computers.

This email is not one of those idiot messages – I get them weekly – telling me a package cannot be delivered because of an inaccurate address, please update your delivery information here.  Aside from the misspellings, the message just screams: cretin amateur.

Not the message from your hotel. It has the facts that will probably persuade you this is legit.

But click that link and you just stepped into a world of misery because you have downloaded slick malware. Akamai tells what has happened: “This downloaded script is designed to detect the victim’s information and ensure that it would be difficult to analyze or understand by security analysts. This obfuscation technique speaks to the sophistication of the attacker(s) who are behind this.”

You did not even notice malware has been downloaded. It happened in the blink of an eye.

In this process you will be asked to re-enter your credit card info – number, expiration date, security code.

Why wouldn’t you enter that? You already gave the hotel this info and so in your mind you are just reconfirming what you already told them which you do because you really want to hold that room.

But when you do that, you are screwed.

So what should you do if you get that email asking for a reconfirmation of your credit card data?  Call the hotel.  Don’t email. Use the phone.  Call and ask to reconfirm a reservation.

Alternatively, go directly to the hotel’s website and find your reservation info.  All looks fine? You are ok.

Should you mention the email you got? Up to you. The hotel probably already knows this is happening because it is happening to many guests but if you want to be an Eagle Scout and blow this whistle, do it.

The bigger issue is: this attack dramatically ups the sophistication of the scam.  It is easy to see many of us falling for this.  You’re checking email early in the a.m., you see that hotel email, you’re leaving tomorrow for New York so, sure, you click the link.

If you had had that second cup of coffee maybe you wouldn’t have. But you didn’t and you did.

Before you click on any links in emails about your upcoming hotel stay, remember what you read here. And just don’t.

By Robert McGarvey

Google, make no mistake, is not in AI to be an also ran.  Its plan is to be the winner in this high stakes game and travel is emerging as a particular hot spot for AI innovation.

Case in point: Google just a few days ago tweaked Bard, its AI tool, so that it integrates with multiple Google products including Gmail, Docs and Drive and if you use those apps you are missing a bet if you don’t also use Bard.

The real payoff for travelers using Bard is that it can now scrape data from those core apps and it also is updating its database realtime including data from Google Flights and Google Hotels.

Faced with a realtime decision – should I book an Airbnb whole condo in Madrid’s Lavapies neighborhood at an attractive price, Bard told me to go for it.  Or, rather, it gave me a neighborhood thumbnail that told me this works well for me.

So I booked.

Next I asked what’s the best tapas bar in Lavapies – because time in Madrid without tapas is time not well spent.  It came back with a group of five and the bonus is that in addition to one sentence write ups about each Bard placed them on Google Maps for me.

OK, so now I want to know how to get to the Prado, really the centerpiece of any Madrid holiday. Back comes Bard with an 11 minute trip on the metro – and call me weird I adore taking subways pretty much wherever I go.  Of course there’s a Google Map view too.

Where to eat dinner – which, you’ll recall if you have been to Spain, isn’t served until 8 pm?  My choice from Bard’s group of five is Los Porfiados with its rescued furniture decor.  Of course Bard offers up four more options so I will eat eclectically during my stay. There’s a Google Map, natch.

Sure, I’ll want to eat in the Airbnb apartment, at least occasionally, so where to buy groceries? Bard offers up five choices and the expected Google Map. Probably my winner is Carrefour but you might prefer Foodland Madrid which Bard tells me is an Indian market.  

A question I should have asked long ago is how get there from the airport. Bard knows and tells me it will take 47 minutes, just 15 more than a taxi and lots cheaper. Also great fun for a subway maven.

Couldn’t I get most of this info through a simple Google search? Not exactly. Yes, the bare facts would pop up in search but what Google is cleverly and seamlessly doing is weaving in various of its tools.  The map integration is especially useful for a traveler as is the convenience of the integrated package especially if you are hunting for info on a mobile phone as I often will be doing on a mobile phone (thank T-Mobile for free data in Spain).  

The potential payoffs multiply when planning a group trip is on the agenda. Here’s what Google says: “For example, if you’re planning a trip to the Grand Canyon (a project that takes up many tabs), you can now ask Bard to grab the dates that work for everyone from Gmail, look up real-time flight and hotel information, see Google Maps directions to the airport, and even watch YouTube videos of things to do there — all within one conversation.”

Losers in this rise of very useful travel AI of course will be guide books.  I still see value in highly targeted guides such as John Brierly’s extraordinary Camino de Santiago books or Bebe Bahrami’s wonderful guide to historic places, sacred sites and more along the Camino Frances but when you want the Joe Friday, just the facts info Google Bard is hard to beat.

Incidentally, Kevin Roose at the New York Times is down on this new Bard which he describes as “a mess.”  I don’t actually disagree but what I see is a first draft that has immense potential and I also believe Google will get most of the parts working in harmony soon.  Probably very soon because Google is in overdrive on this.

So if you are heading to parts unknown next week, don’t be too quick to jettison your traditional info sources and put all your faith in Bard.  But if the trip you are researching isn’t until 2024…I know I won’t hesitate to give Bard a tough trial run.

by Robert McGarvey

File this under: What you don’t know that you don’t know can hurt you.

That’s my takeaway from a long conversation I recently had with Bryce Deeney, a co-founder and CEO of equipifi.

Deeney and I had talked about BNPL two years ago and I thought I knew all I needed to know about it – it’s interest free, short term, small dollar loans much loved by Gen Z who use it to pay for stuff like a Taylor Swift MP3. Default rates were unknown but thought to be double digit. And there’s no way to track how many active BNPL loans a particular consumer has so lending money is definitely a crap shoot. No wonder credit unions, most of them, are sitting on the sidelines.

Color me out of touch. What I knew had been true a couple years ago but no longer, Deeney patiently explained to me. Pretty much everything I “knew” was flat out wrong.

The more I’ve thought about what I learned in my talk with Deeney, the more I realized I needed to rethink my beliefs about many other hot credit union topics such as AI, instant payments, crypto currency and more. Down below these issues are briefly addressed.

Continued at CUInsight

by Robert McGarvey

Shut my mouth: I would have sworn that it is high prices that are persuading many of us to fly less these days but turns out fares – at least for domestic travel – just may qualify as cheap. A recent story in SFGate reported: “The post-pandemic travel boom is slowing down, and flight prices are falling along with it.”

I am not talking international travel. It is expensive. Per Google’s Bard, “international flights are 30% more expensive than last year. The average international ticket price is $1,368. The average ticket to Europe is around $1,100, and the average ticket to Asia is over $1,800.”

That 30% bump in cost is why this year I am not planning an international holiday. It’s just too expensive.

Domestic is an entirely different matter. The SFGate piece pointed out that while many of us believe domestic airfares are at high marks, we are very wrong. Kind of sort of.

Per SFGate, NerdWallet travel expert Sally French wrote in an email “In 2023, airfares are about 19% lower than a decade ago.”

But that is where the kind of sort kicks in. We are not exactly comparing apples to apples and that is because of the rise of ultra discount, no frills tickets that do not include such basics as a carryon bag or seat selection. Personally I do not even notice those fares – there are levels of misery I will not endure when traveling – but those numbers just might skew the whole equation.

Google Bard tells me the average cost of a roundtrip domestic flight in 2013 was $383.32. In Q1 2023 the average cost was $382. In that period cumulative inflation bumped prices up by 25% so today’s price rolled back to 2013 translates into around $290 – which indeed puts a sharp point on the question of why many of us are doing our best to avoid domestic air travel these days. Even when we ignore super discount fares, ticket prices today are low. That is fact.

So why aren’t we flying?

But maybe that question isn’t so hard to parse. The reality is that today’s domestic travel is for masochists and suckers. As Joe Brancatelli wrote in a September 9 eblast to members of JoeSentMe, “Today has been a horror show: FlightStats.com has registered more than 1,300 cancellations as of 11pm ET….Delays and cancellation have plagued all the major airports in the Northeast: New York/Kennedy lost 12% of its slate of flights and about a third of the rest have been delayed. That’s a lot of unhappy international flyers.”

The worse news is that eblast wasn’t an anomaly. Brancatelli has sent out similar on numerous occasions this year and, boiled down, the message is unpack, stay home, and if you gotta go, maybe drive because domestic air has become a brutal game where there are no winners, at least not among those of us who fly commercial carriers.

Private plane flights, not surprisingly, now make up about 25% of US flights and growth is steady, year in, year out. But for many of us – definitely me – private planes are out of budget.

Face reality: we are not flying commercial not because the fares are too high but because the experience too often is terrible. When the choice is between navigating the crowds at EWR and getting turned away from too crowded clubs and sitting on a plane where all too often irrational violence erupts or sitting at one’s desk in a comfy chair and chatting via Zoom, you know what wins.

It’s not even a close choice anymore.

As Whizy Kim wrote in Vox, “For travelers, taking to the skies feels like it has reached a nadir. Not only were there bigger crowds and more delays to contend with at airports, but when delays happened, they caused more stress than usual.”

When I hear “we’ll fly again because face to face is better,” I know I am dealing with a broken record. Sure, face to face has advantages – but do they outweigh the suffering involved in getting there? Lately the answer of many of us is a resounding no. That’s not likely to change until carriers recognize their need to change and to improve the entire flight experience, on the ground and inflight.

I’m not holding my breath.

by Robert McGarvey

Usually around this time of year I have begun to plan a European holiday – be it in Spain or France or Ireland, I am convinced fall is the best time to go for fewer tourists, better prices and more temperate weather – but I am not planning such a trip this year.

I have in mind something completely different.

This Reuters headline tells you why: Record number of Americans plan on traveling abroad in the next 6 months.

The hellscape that is 2023 travel just keeps burning hotter. Airports are jammed, flights are full and expensive, hotels are pricey, and matters are especially unappealing in western Europe.

So do I just stay home as I did in 2020? Of course not. That was the first Covid year (I had it in March 2020) and it wasn’t until December that a vaccine hit the street. Staying home in 2020 was the only rational choice.

This year, yes, we are seeing a small uptick in Covid cases but most are reportedly quite mild and, besides, I have had every available vaccine round and soon will be in line for the next version, due to be out in a couple weeks. And make no mistake, it was the vaccines that led to a revival of travel in 2021 and 2022 continuing into today.

But for Labor Day this year, I set out on a holiday even before getting the next vaccine and this holiday involves no airport or airplane – it’s camping at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, about a 425 mile drive from where I live in Phoenix.

A campsite costs $10 per night with a Senior Pass ($20 for full freight).

Aren’t there other expenses? You bet. Lots of them. Know this: I have never owned camping gear, never thought I’d have the interest but this year the thought surfaced in my brain and it wouldn’t go away. No crowded airports, no stuffed planes, being outside. In 2023 that seemed a formula I could embrace.

Before you decide also to take the plunge, accept two facts: the national parks, most of them, are overcrowded. Bryce Canyon, in south-central Utah, is an outlier. Beautiful, unique landscape – but it’s remote and also overshadowed by Zion to the west and Arches to the east. I made my reservation a couple months ago; there were still a few available campsites. But booking into a national park is hit and miss and as for the celebrated parks (Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone), forget about it. There now are lotteries to pick lucky winners.

The other fact: the campsites are cheap but you will pour out money getting prepared. A decent (not great) tent for two will cost $100+. Sleeping bags cost around $100 apiece for a three season sack. You also need sleeping pads between the bag and the dirt – $50 apiece. And you need a sleeping bag storage sack, $15 – trust me, you need the sack to prolong the life of the bag.

Then there are innumerable small items – a camp lantern. plus batteries, around $25; headlamps, around $6 – it’s dark outside at campsites; a coffee percolator, $35; a tent footprint, that is a tarp that goes under it to provide better protection from nature ($25); tent seam sealant ($10); cookware ($70); dinnerware and utensils ($25); cooking utensils ($25) camp pillow ($25); and of course you’ll need a camp chair ($60).

You also need a 25 liter pack away cube to stash all this small stuff. At least most of it fits in mine.

That’s approaching $600 in equipment.

If I am not a veteran camper how do I know so much? I took free classes at REI where the presenters do not shill for REI branded stuff. They do a good job of presenting a balanced view of the gear you really need and what you don’t.

(Note: none of the above links is an affiliate link; I get no kickbacks on your purchases. Probably should – just about every publication today is chockablock with affiliate links. But not me, not yet.)

How do I breakeven on my outlay? Repetition.

Remember, I told you national parks are jammed? True. But national forests aren’t and I have five nights reserved at Manzanita camp grounds in Coconino National Forest later this fall. At $18 per night. In Sedona, where a decent hotel room costs $250, a good one is $500, and, bar the door, if you want to sleep in the best accommodations where rates can top $1000. I’m out $90 for five nights.

In November I have also booked a couple nights at Windy Hill Campground in Tonto National Forest by Lake Roosevelt, maybe 100 miles from where I live in Phoenix and the weather will be lovely by the lake. At $17 per night.

Understand, these are equipped, serviced campsites at all three places. Not so called “dispersed camping,” where you put your tent up on vacant ground and that’s that – no services are provided. I am at sites with toilets, fire pits, Bryce Canyon even has showers, and there may be cellular service.

Also understand I am car camping so I am indifferent to the bulk and weight of my gear. Backpackers who carry all their stuff are significantly more streamlined with their gear. Usual advice is to backpack no more than 20% of your weight, meaning a 200 pounder might carry 40 pounds, max. But as one REI presenter recently said in response to a question about how much was too much to bring, it’s up to you and what you are comfortable with.

Now I only hope my camping does not resemble the Three Stooges’.

By Robert McGarvey

What to do in Phoenix, in September, with daytime temperatures over 100 and no interest in doing anything outside? That last is crucial because, for six months of the year, there is plenty to do outside with hiking topping most lists.

But not in early September.

The question assumed some urgency because a relative is coming to spend a few days and a good host always has to-do options.

My mind was coming up short of options – probably I’m just shorted out by the heat.

And then I discovered Google’s Things to Do and, yes, there are many dozens of websites centered around things to do in Phoenix but in my case my default is usually just to ask Google so why not ask it what to do?

Google did not fail.  Its suggestions included the Desert Botanical Garden; the Heard Museum, probably the nation’s best collection of Native American fine art and I live next door; and Phoenix Art Museum. All are on my personal go-to list so, sure, they should suit a visitor too. The first two also are distinctively Phoenix.

There are tabs for neighborhoods, too, which matters because Phoenix is a huge, sprawling city.  I have never been to most of the city and am comfy in my ignorance. So I clicked the tab for downtown Phoenix and was presented with many options near me including tabs for Visit Phoenix and Downtown Phoenix, both of which are filled with suggestions of where to go in my environs.

So far so good with Phoenix.

Next up I tried Jersey City and here the results were puzzling and unuseful.  The Staten Island Ferry, for instance, prominently popped up – although it does not run to Jersey City (many boats do but not the ferry).  Under neighborhoods of interest I am presented Soho, Greenwich Village, Tribeca.  Seven tabs in and there’s Newport, the first Jersey City neighborhood on the list.  What about Paulus Hook (a charming old neighborhood), the Heights (a rapidly rebounding neighborhood where I lived for eight years), or Downtown?  Under arts and culture, I’m pointed to Branchburg Park (lovely, possibly the nation’s best cherry blossoms, but it’s in Newark), the Hoboken Historical Museum, and the Holland Tunnel which definitely is of historical interest but it’s not a pleasant place to hang out unless you have a thing for auto emissions.

I saw little of value in Google’s portray of Jersey City.

I clicked over to Dallas, where I am soon going and have not been in many decades, and Google suggested the Dallas Museum of Art and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey, both good choices. I have little free time in Dallas, those suggestions will suffice.

A possible takeaway: Google’s Things to Do just is better with genuinely big metros, not so much with smaller cities (Jersey City).  Is it the final stop in crafting a detailed to-do for a multi day trip? Nope. But it just may save a lot of time at the front end of a quick business trip, it may offer just enough info to get more out of travel.

Then I decided to throw Google a wild card. I punched in Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where I’ve been twice in recent years for about a week total.  I know it, sort of, but a lot of that week was spent recuperating from two Camino walks.  I did some exploring but not that much. It’s a very hilly city and after walking hundreds of miles I did not really want to face another hill. Of course I have been to the famous Cathedral, probably four times, but I did not even know there is a Contemporary Art Center of Galicia or the Museum del Pueblo Gallego.  At a glance there really is much to do in this town that I did not know about – I need to explore it more on my next visit

My verdict on this new Google tool – it’s a work in progress. Don’t take it as gospel and do more exploring online.  But it is a good starting point.

by Robert McGarvey

Howls are heard across the Internet about Amex’s move to hike the fees for additional card holders. Right now I pay $175 for my wife’s card. When it next renews I’ll be dinged $195, $20 more.

Big deal? You are right so far as that math goes but that same $175 could have bought me cards for two additional cardholders at no extra charge., Now Amex wants $195 for each cardholder.

The applause you hear are mine and I will take you back to Denver Airport a short time ago when I started towards the Centurion Club but as I was about to take an escalator to the lounge level I saw a person holding a sign indicating the wait to get in the Centurion Lounge was 30 minutes.

I stopped in my tracks and sought other amusements at the airport.

Let’s be honest: for at least a year screams have been loud that the onetime glorious Amex Plat perk, admission to the Centurion Lounge, was now of little appeal – long wait times to get in and often crowding inside the lounge had ruined the experience. Personally I had begun to not even think of the Centurion Lounge and I wasn’t alone. Amex knew it had a problem here. Angry posts were plastered on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, you name it.

Earlier this year a big shoe dropped when Amex ended free Centurion access to guests of the cardholder unless the cardholder spends at least $75,000 per year on the card. Guests now cost $50 ($30 for minors). That had been a major shift – but it obviously was insufficient (witness the wait time I experienced at Denver).

Now Amex has dropped this other shoe. Will it be sufficient to fix the overcrowding problem?

Experts believe the point of this fee hike wasn’t simply to increase Amex revenues, but in fact to cut down on the bodies in the lounges. Will it work?

There’s some skepticism about that. There’s no evidence to suggest secondary Plat cardholders in fact make heavy use of the lounge perk.

For that matter, however, I am unaware of any public tally of the number of secondary Plat cardholders. Is this in fact a sizable number?

Without some basic data it’s not possible to forecast what difference this change in how additional cards are dealt will in fact lead to more reliable lounge access.

But, again, I applaud this step because it at least is an acknowledgement that the lounge situation is out of control. And it will result in some decrease in the number of cardholders seeking access.

Amex probably will have to take still more steps to return us to a time when I walked up to a Centurion Lounge and within minutes was inside and seated and might already have had a beverage in hand.

Personally, I already am dusting off my Priority Pass card – which comes with the Amex Plat – and using those lounges when there is no availability at Centurion. I also often choose to fly Delta which gives access to its lounges to Amex Plat card holders, although I will say recent experiences at Delta also have featured long waits for entrance (so I just walked away).

I also am looking at my Diners Club card which offers lounge access, much the same as Priority Pass if my memory serves, but another quiver is useful in times of scarcity.

Should I get a Chase Sapphire card and/or a Venture X card? Nah, neither has enough lounges to justify getting a new card, at least not yet. But keep an eye on both as they announce plans for new clubs and if there’s one at your home airport, well, that may be a persuader.

That’s because, yes, probably the solution will be more airport clubs, with more fees and, yes, that will bring complaints but already there are so many complaints about lounges, a few more won’t amount to much consequential. The situation needs fixing, no question about that, but fixes won’t be cheap. If we want more, better lounges we’ll have to pay up. There’s no other answer.

by Robert McGarvey

It is time to play hard. Winning at travel rewards requires cunning, guile and, well, a determination to win.

I just won but I am still amazed at what I did to pull this off. It wasn’t hard – quite the contrary – but it seemed so unlike me.

Regular readers will recall that a few months ago I got a barebones Southwest Air credit card via Chase – $69 fee per year. It delivers minimal perks. But – crucially – it offered 50,000 SWA miles when spending $1000 in the first couple months of the card.

I had a trip for two to Dallas on my calendar, just a handful of miles in my Southwest account and not much more at American, and, no, I am not flying Frontier or similar discounters because I’m not. So I was looking at around $700+ out of pocket for air for a short trip to Dallas from Phoenix for two.

I did the math and it seemed to me I was out $69 if I get the card plus, say, $20 in lost Amex miles value for the $1000 spent to collect 50,000 miles – but I would collect $700 in value with the two free tix. Case closed, I got the card, and yesterday I booked the flights for about 52,000 miles (I had the extras in the account from a years ago flight on SWA) plus $11.20.

Add it up and I’m out about $100…but I saved $600 net.

Probably I will cancel the SWA card when it comes up for renewal.

It took me a few seconds to apply for the card, it will take about the same to cancel it.

And then I’ll move on to another card with a sign up bonus. Probably Alaska Air because it has rich payoffs (even if I don’t see me flying it but the transfer partners are plentiful – oneworld members plus a handful more including Aer Lingus).

What is so strange about all this is that, just a few years ago, I looked with pity upon friends who were deeply immersed in playing the credit card and mileage games. It seemed like so much effort. And yet here I am.

What’s changed? Really, it all changed when the airlines ditched their awards charts and instituted “dynamic pricing” aka what the market will bear and, suddenly, roundtrip shoulder flights to Europe in Economy Plus (not business class) cost over100,000 SkyMiles on Delta and who would have thought the cost could hit that mark?

I had always thought miles were a kind of adult Monopoly money and, boy, did that become plainly fact in the era of dynamic rewards pricing where airlines seem to work on the belief that there always is a greater fool so let’s push the cost higher and someone with a bunch of miles who believes they were “free” will plunk them down.

That’s not me. Miles I earned flying are miles I feel in my body. I worked for them, I earned them.

Now, miles I get for playing a sign up hustle are different. They are free or close to it.

And, really, the only way to play the miles game now is hustling for sign up bonuses. Earn ’em, spend ’em, move on.

by Robert McGarvey

Don’t think the question is academic. Here’s a firm prediction: we will all be seeing more loyalty plans that involve fees and probably we will pay to join some.

Part of the reason: Wall Street loves recurring fee income. Zuora, which bills itself as an expert on the subscription economy, says: “To investors, the  primary appeal of recurring revenue models is the value of predictable recurring revenue, particularly in comparison to one-time transactions. For example, a $20 million dollar company with eighty percent recurring revenue can count on sixteen million dollars at the beginning of every year. That figure is stable and predictable. Management can plan and invest accordingly.”

Yep.

Already we are chronically pinged to join Uber One ($9.99/month – don’t ask me what the bennies are; I haven’t joined), DashPass via DoorDash (also $9.99/month, altho free to some Chase credit card holders), Panera’s Unlimited Sip Club ($11.99/month buys a free beverage every two hours), and now hotel operator Ennismore has launched its Dis-loyalty club where members pay $18/month to belong.

Watch: if this Ennismore play catches on, many more hotel groups will follow suit. They are desperate to wow Wall Street and a loyalty program with a membership fee would be just the ticket.

And Dis-loyalty just may catch on. Its monthly fee is high but it builds in real value for users.

First however, what’s an Ennismore? Part of Accor, it’s a collection of 75 hotels and 150 restaurants including The Hoxton, 21c Museum Hotels, SO/ Hotels, SLS, and Mama Shelter. Dis-loyalty perks are real. 50% off just opened hotels, 20% off a first stay at a hotel, 10% off return stays, 10% off food and drink at the 150 restaurants, a daily free coffee or tea daily at any of the restaurants and bars.

Did I mention there are no blackout dates?

Notice: you don’t have to earn points, or even track them, to be eligible for a benefit. If the benefit is part of the program it’s yours for the taking.

Live near an Ennismore property, for instance, and a daily coffee would put you richly in the black on a membership. Add a monthly restaurant meal and also a hotel stay and, suddenly, Dis-loyalty is like winning the lottery.

For Ennismore it’s a win too: that member doesn’t need to be marketed to.

And, again, investors love this kind of recurring income.

Personally I belong to a number of loyalty programs: Bonvoy, Hilton, Avis, National -all with elite status via Amex Plat. I also belong to Delta Sky, American Air, Southwest frequent flyer programs. I pay for none.

Would I pay for any? Sure, for the same reason I pay for Amex Plat – if the program paid for itself.

But only if it did.

I would not pay for any that I belong to because I just don’t get enough value to justify it.

But Ennismore’s Dis-loyalty definitely does deliver value if you work it: “As a lifestyle company, with roughly 40% of our gross revenue coming from restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, once you do the maths, it doesn’t take much for you to work out the give-get,” Sharan Pasricha, Ennismore founder, told Fast Company.

One hitch with Dis-loyalty is that hotel reservations have to be made at the Dis-loyalty website. Accor Live Limitless points also are not earned.

But for people who already stay at Ennismore hotels and live near restaurants and already use them, at least a little, Dis-loyalty is a deal. The Fast Company writer notes that Ennismore is opening a new resort this fall in the Maldives – with rates starting at $1282. Stay just two nights at 50% off is $1282 in savings – which would pay for 5+ years of Dis-loyalty.

And the name itself encourages that. It’s called Dis-loyalty because it’s aimed at people who like to try new things, said Pasricha.

I can definitely see a US based boutique hotel group embracing this idea – perhaps Ace or the Standard. Maybe a prolific restaurateur – maybe the Bobby Flay club or the Danny Meyer Pack. The key is to load a program with enough perks to make membership pay for itself.

This is a trend I expect to explode – if the hoteliers don’t screw it up.

by Robert McGarvey

I have long been something of a fan of TripAdvisor, especially when it comes to booking at an independent hotel. Yes, my confidence in it was rocked when it became evident that the site had deleted posts claiming sexual assaults by hotel employees. And then there were the reports of hoteliers offering bribes to guests who had posted cranky reviews if they took them down.

And probably the biggest problem in recent years has been a growing army of scribblers who for a dollar or three write up favorable reviews of hotels they have never stayed in – never even seen in person. But, frankly, this hasn’t bothered me as much as it has bothered others because I thought – possibly stupidly – that I could spot such reviews. The language was usually stilted, the praises were generic, and – always – they were too favorable.

I have long believed it is normal to write a cranky review of a place that disappointed – while you are waiting, maybe an hour, for room service to bring your morning coffee why not tap out a blistering write up?

When I see positive reviews I have been skeptical – but some have convinced me they are honest. I had persuaded myself I could spot the phonies and read the honest ones.

But there now is a new player in town and it will put all the scribblers out of work because it is AI. The Guardian has the headline: Fake reviews: can we trust what we read online as use of AI explodes?

The Guardian’s thesis: “Artificial intelligence produces plausible verdicts on hotels, restaurants and tech in an instant.”

You doubt it? So did I I. So I went to the free version of ChatGPT – https://chat.openai.com/ – and asked it for a review of Enchantment resort in Sedona, a property I know and have followed for a couple decades. It came back with a long review that included this: “Enchantment Resort offers a truly enchanting experience in the heart of Sedona. The combination of stunning natural beauty, luxurious accommodations, superb dining, and exceptional service creates a memorable and rejuvenating getaway. Whether you’re seeking relaxation, adventure, or a spiritual retreat, Enchantment Resort is an ideal choice.”

The review is written in first person and – notably – it included that the easy access to hiking trails from the resort is a real plus. That is true.

Was there anything false? I don’t think it’s in the “heart” of Sedona – it’s out of town – but, really, the review was otherwise accurate.

Duplicate this experience yourself. Here’s the prompt I used – write a review of enchantment resort in sedona. (With large language model AI tools, they kick into action when given a prompt, kind of an AI variant a Google search command. Good prompting takes practice. If you don’t like what you get back, try another prompt.)

The ChatGPT review worried me. So I went to Google’s Bard – https://bard.google.com/ – and gave it the same prompt.

Bard came back with what I judged a better, even more credible review. Again it’s written in the first person and it even included a list of Cons:

• Expensive
• Some of the amenities, such as the spa and golf course, can be costly
• The resort is located in a secluded area, so it can be a bit of a drive to get to Sedona’s main attractions

Bard concluded: “Overall, I would highly recommend the Enchantment Resort to anyone looking for a luxurious and relaxing vacation in Sedona. It is a bit pricey, but the experience is worth it.”

How will we spot these AI generated reviews? Probably we won’t. The Guardian’s reporter, Patrick Collinson, observed that before we could spot fake reviews by their bad English, today “one sign that a review is fake will be that the sentence structure is a bit too perfect.” How are your Chicago Manual skills these days?

Meantime, TripAdvisor et. al. had been fighting trench wars with bogus posters – Collison said it identified 1.3 million fake reviews in 2022, a year that I’d guess saw fewer reviews than most because who was traveling then?

A scary reality is that Bard and ChatGPT spit out those reviews in seconds.

TripAdvisor isn’t clueless about this. It notes in a recent report, “As with all new technologies, the benefits of generative AI also come with challenges, and we expect to see attempts from businesses and individuals to use tools like ChatGPT to manipulate content on Tripadvisor. Our Trust & Safety team will continue to monitor the use of these tools on the platform and will take all available steps to stay ahead of threats to Tripadvisor’s brand integrity.”

Good luck with that. Arguably, AI tools could be trained to spot AI generated content – a kind of real world Terminator battle – but, for now, I am swearing off looking at “user” reviews of anything, from Amazon products to hotels and restaurants.

The machines are winning this battle.