Sunday, January 18, 2009

Luxury Hotel Deals - How to Get 'em

With thousands of hotels, all offering promotions, finding a real luxury hotel with a genuine offer is a challenging feat.

Then, getting the best deal at one of these places compounds the degree of difficulty.

One has to be part accountant, attorney and travel agent to be sure the best value is obtained. Let me explain:

First you need to be a travel agent or rely on a trusted one to pick the right hotel. Then you literally have to do the math while comparing nightly rates on an apples-to-apples basis in terns of room categories once you hone in on the place you'd like to stay. Then you have to have a legal mind to sort through the conditions of the deal.

In our experience, hotels concoct special packages with all sorts of value added inclusions. Oftentimes we find that the actual room rate has not been discounted at all and just the inclusions are slightly lower than if one were to purchase them a-la-carte. This is my opinion, is not a real deal!

The real deals are those that include a FREE Night. Free Night offers essentially amount to a significant discount of the nightly rate to the consumer (since the average nightly rate drops over the stay when the free night is factored in) w/o jeopardizing the integrity of published room rates, which the hotel "revenue managers" jealously protect.

To help one find these Free night offers, we have a tab on our luxury hotel site that lists luxury hotels from various brands, sorted by geographic location that have such offers in effect.
Here is the link: http://www.whatahotel.com/browse_specials.cfm

What is unique is that we've gone through the exercise of collecting the information from various sources and have consolidated as many as we could find on one site page.

To see the difference, note how we list numerous Four Season Hotel locations offering "Free Nights" on a single page. Even if you were to go to Four Seasons official website, you would have to click into ALL it's locations to see which one might be offering a Free Night. A real time saver !

Thursday, January 8, 2009

World's Best Luxury Hotels & Resorts

WhataHotel.com, created by Coral Gables based Lorraine Travel, which has been in business since 1948, is a website chock-full of luxury hotels & resorts that many upscale travelers flock to.

From Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, site visitors will be enticed with an ensemble of the most outstanding venues in the world. Each of the properties is known for outstanding service, the best amenities and incredible views, while simultaneously raising the luxury bar and enhancing the “wow” factor that all affluent guests expect.

“Luxury Resort stays are definitely in”, says Greg Guiteras, Senior Vice President of Lorraine Travel, who engineered the site to simplify the search for the best places to stay. "We're much more than just another site with a search engine that requires users to complete fields of data before finding precisely what they're looking for ", Guiteras said. "Our staff of professional agents takes an active role in completing any booking at one of these properties. In many cases, our "lower than published rates" may be a factor in securing a booking but oftentimes it's the added value of our exclusive amenities like complimentary room upgrades that our clients benefit from".

For those seeking a spectacular setting close to home or in an exotic destination that culminates in an over-the-top experience, visitors to site will see that it is an invaluable resource for finding the best properties and getting exclusive amenities to make any stay even more memorable.

Be it a rose petal-covered king size bed or a butler-drawn bath, all this and much more can be arranged with the help of agents who personally handle everything but the bill at check-out by tapping colleagues on-site at each of the properties.

Featuring a collection of fabled castles, secluded lodges, storied meeting places, modern retreats and even luxury spa resorts, Lorraine Travel's
http://www.whatahotel.com opens the doors to some of the world's most celebrated places. With locations throughout each continent, its collection of the finest hotels & resorts promises travelers unparalleled settings, rich experiences and lasting memories.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Welcome to World's Best Hotels & Resorts

Hello and Welcome to World's Best Hotels & Resorts! Proudly celebrating its 59th Anniversary, Lorraine Travel is one of the largest privately owned travel management companies in Florida. We know the internet affords you infinite choices but you will always receive competitive, comprehensive information from us, plus advice built on years of experience and personal knowledge.

We specialize in connecting you to the world's best hotels & resorts. Plus, our buying power and personal relationships provide you with incredible values and rare experience from complimentary upgrades and amenities, to special recognition and privileged access.

Please browse our index of Luxury Hotels & Resorts and contact us to secure your reservations.

Please feel free to use our blog to leave comments, exchange experience, and share ideas.