Bruin Steve

Hotel Pricing 101 Okay, a little background... I am retired now...but, II had a 35+ year career as a corporate attorney and executive...and I started out, back in 1977, working in the hotel industry--for Motel 6, Inc. Before you all laugh, realize that, at the time, Motel 6 was the most profitable chain in the hotel industry. The guys who founded it were, for all intent and purposes, business geniuses. They understood how to build cheaper, market more efficiently and fill their motels at a higher occupancy rate than anyone else ever. But, there was one aspect of their original scheme that soon required a bit of tweaking. The original concept sold every room, on every date at every property for the exact same nightly room rate. Problem is that your costs were not the same at every property. You could make an incredible profit in, say, Winnemucca, Nevada in the 1960s selling rooms at $6 a night...because the cost of building that motel were extremely low--since the largest portion of your initial cost was the purchase of the raw land. Of course a $6 room rate was merely competitive there. However, when you built that same hotel on the beach at Santa Barbara, California--where property, even in the 1960s was EXPENSIVE, it was very hard to make a decent profit at $6 per night. And, of course you filled to capacity every night--because no one amongst the competition could charge anywhere close to that low rate--even in the "off-season" (if there was one). So, Motel 6, as it grew, learned that you could still blow away the competition and fill all of your rooms and charge a competitive price. The lesson is that ALL hotel rooms, wherever you go, are priced based on several factors. Most importantly, NO ONE is in the business to lose money. If you build a hotel or purchase a hotel, there is a cost...and you need to make a return on that investment. To operate a hotel, you need to have staff...and, you have to pay them a wage commensurate with wages in the area so they can afford to live there. In Southern California...especially in Coastal Southern California, real estate prices are extremely high--especially for choice, well located commercial property zoned for hotels...and wages are high. Building and operating a hotel in prime Long Beach requires a very large investment. You only get that money back charging what seems to you a high room rate. It's unavoidable. Now, you also have to recognize that all hotel room rates depend on the laws of supply and demand. If demand is very high--like when there is a major convention in town--or, in the case of Long Beach, an event like the Long Beach Grand Prix--room rates will shoot through the roof. In any cruise port, hotels near the port will have a spike in rates when there is a ship embarking the next day (and, in Long Beach, that is almost every day). Now, you will see another result of supply and demand. When hotels first open their reservations for a particular date, they have their entire room total empty and many people are not thinking about where they are going a year in advance--high supply, low demand--and prices will be RELATIVELY low. As rooms fill and more people are closer to their stay date, supply lowers and demand raises. Hence, higher prices. BOTTOM LINE: 1) "High Prices" is a relative term. Long Beach prices seem high to you because, relative to wherever else you have been traveling, they ARE high...because costs are high and demand is high. Compare them to hotels in, say, Beverly Hills...and they are low. Actually, they are exactly where the market and the realities of the business say they should be. 2) Always book early--if you can. Best to book early with a cancelable rate...that way, you can monitor your prices--if they go down (which happens, however rare) or you find another better deal somewhere, you can cancel and change. 3) Be very wary of extreme bargains--especially in an otherwise high price area. You may be looking at a hotel that is in a very bad or dangerous area or that is poorly run and maintained or both. If you fing a $100 hotel in a $300 town, realize that there is a reason. You did not find a great deal, you found a distressed or scary property. 4) If you are spending thousands of dollars on a nice cruise vacation, don't ruin it trying to save $100 on one pre-cruise hotel night. Start your vacation like you are already on vacation. Stay in a nice environment in a nice location with nice nearby restaurants and places to walk and visit in your free time and with easy logistics in getting to your cruise. It's worth a little extra money. Good luck.

Cindy, the cruise ships dock near the southern terminus of Las Ramblas...so, it's a fairly short distance to most of the hotels people recommend on ths board...and a fairly inexpensive taxi ride--which is how you are going to want to go from ship to hotel...especially with luggage. From whichever hotel to the airport for Sunday, it depends on your budget...you can always pay for a taxi or limo to the airport...but, if you want an easy and inexpensive way, again, use the Aerobus. It goes from the northeast corner of the Placa Catalunya to the airport, departing every few minutes with only a couple of stops. There are several hotels walking distance to the bus stop...I like the H10 Catalunya Plaza--just across the square. There is also an Iberostar hotel right near the bus stop and a few others fairly close...But this is the area you should really look at. Almost everything you might want to do in your short time in Barcelona is close by...lots of restaurants and a great El Corte Ingles department store and supermarket right there on the eastern side of the Placa as well. Good luck.

And, if I don't want to pay for all-inclusive, I can also cruise Royal Caribbean and for my Diamond Plus status, I get 5 free drink vouchers per day, usable ALL DAY (and since my wife doessn't drink that much, I get some of hers too), a free bottle of wine in the cabin plus half a dozen free bottles of water, one bag of laundry each, two full 24 hour periods of wifi each (and can use each others' log-ons) and a Diamond Club with great service, appetizers in the evening and a 24 hour free cappuccino/espresso/latte machine.... The point remains that, even at its most advantageous, Captains Club benefits have gone downhill and those points really aren't worth chasing.

If you're a point from Elite, they're worth, maybe, a little... For a lot of us, they are virtually worthless... I am Elite plus...but, even after my currently booked cruises, I'll still be just over 1,500 points from Zenith! So picking up a handfull of PUP points is like getting a Fifty Cents Off coupon towards the purchase of a Mercedes Benz... But, for the rest of you, what does making it to "the next level" really mean? With All-inclusive pricing, the only real perk you get is a bag of laundry. Even without AI, the proliferation of Elite members has already caused Celebrity to do away with the Elite Lounge...So, if you can get a server to take your order in an overcrowded bar (and not the MDR if you eat dinner in that time frame), you may get a free $10 drink or two...Oh, just not on the first night... As far as cruising other lines? May be well worth it. We just came thisclose to booking a cruise on Princess. For about $60 extra per person per night, they were offering a Premium drink package ($20 per drink limit), 4 device wifi, gratuities and two free specialty restaurant nights per person. Pricing blew away the AI pricing on Celebrity for same length cruise...and with better perks. If I get very limited Captains Club perks or very high premiums for AI on Celebrity, it makes Princess all that much more attractive.

I'll be on Quantum in two weeks...supposed to stop in Juneau...wonder how this affects that?

I understand Tokyo is "manageable" on our own...We just like having a tour of some sort for orientation purposes in an unfamiliar city. It also becames a method of efficiently organizing the day. The Tokyo tour is only one day of the five we will be there. Doing a tour to Nikko would just be a way of having a guide to take us out of the city. As to Kyoto being a focus, we will actually be visiting Kyoto for a considerable amount of time. We are on two 12-night cruises and both itineraries have two-day stops in Osaka in order to visit Kyoto...as well as a stop in nearby Kobe). Day 1, Thu, Mar 28, 2024 TOKYO (YOKOHAMA), JAPAN Departs: 7:00PM Day 2, Fri, Mar 29, 2024 MT FUJI (SHIMIZU), JAPAN 7:00AM to 3:00PM Day 3, Sat, Mar 30, 2024 KYOTO (OSAKA), JAPAN Arrival: 12:00PM Day 4, Sun, Mar 31, 2024 KYOTO (OSAKA), JAPAN Departs: 6:00PM Day 5, Mon, Apr 1, 2024 KOCHI, JAPAN 7:00AM to 6:00PM Day 6, Tue, Apr 2, 2024 AT SEA Day 7, Wed, Apr 3, 2024 OKINAWA, JAPAN 7:00AM to 5:00PM Day 8, Thu, Apr 4, 2024 ISHIGAKI, JAPAN 8:00AM to 4:00PM Day 9, Fri, Apr 5, 2024 AT SEA Day 10, Sat, Apr 6, 2024 JEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA 8:00AM to 4:00PM Day 11, Sun, Apr 7, 2024 KAGOSHIMA, JAPAN 10:00AM to 6:00PM Day 12, Mon, Apr 8, 2024 AT SEA Day 13, Tue, Apr 9, 2024 TOKYO (YOKOHAMA), JAPAN 6:30AM to 7:00PM Day 14, Wed, Apr 10, 2024 MT FUJI (SHIMIZU), JAPAN 7:00AM to 3:00PM Day 15, Thu, Apr 11, 2024 KOBE, JAPAN 12:00PM to 5:00AM Day 16, Fri, Apr 12, 2024 KYOTO (OSAKA), JAPAN Arrival: 8:00AM Day 17, Sat, Apr 13, 2024 KYOTO (OSAKA), JAPAN Departs: 5:00PM Day 18, Sun, Apr 14, 2024 KOCHI, JAPAN 7:00AM to 5:00PM Day 19, Mon, Apr 15, 2024 AT SEA Day 20, Tue, Apr 16, 2024 BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA 7:00AM to 4:00PM Day 21, Wed, Apr 17, 2024 AT SEA Day 22, Thu, Apr 18, 2024 HAKODATE, JAPAN 9:30AM to 8:00PM Day 23, Fri, Apr 19, 2024 AOMORI, JAPAN 7:00AM to 5:00PM Day 24, Sat, Apr 20, 2024 AT SEA Day 25, Sun, Apr 21, 2024 TOKYO (YOKOHAMA), JAPAN Arrival: 6:30AM

We arrive in Tokyo on a Saturday and stay five nights in Shinjuku prior to our back-to-back cruises embarking on Thursday. Figuring Saturday is getting to the hotel, checking in, relaxation and acclimating ourselves to the time change, that leaves Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...leaving Thursday for checking out and checking onto the ship. Never been to Tokyo before. I have heard itr's easy to get around...but, for orientation and simplification reasons, we always like to do an organized tour or two. I've found a full day Tokyo tour for, likely, Sunday...and figure we can do something more unusual Monday, then leave Tuesday and Wednesday for "on our own". Found a full day tour for Monday that leaves the city and heads to Nikko-- --Nikko Tosho-gu World Heritage Shrine --Irohazaka Route --Kegon Falls --Lake Chuzenji --A volcanic lake at the foot of Mt. Futara. Is this a reasonable use of one day of our four available? Sites worth going to? It's a bus tour, so a fairly large group...$117 pp including lunch. Seems to be a break from the hustle and bustle of the big city on days 1, 3 and 4. Or would it be better to go to Kamakura & Enoshima-- Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Daibutsukiritoshi/Great Buddha statue, Hase-dera Temple/eleven-headed statue of Kannon the Goddess of Mercy, Enoshima Island...Also a one day bus tour, $65 pp, lunch not included. Any thoughts? Thanks...

The only major tour company that picks up at the pier and drops off at LAX: Sunseeker Tours – Sightseeing in Hollywood, Los Angeles Tours Might have to do a custom tour to get to LAX when you want...but I'd contact them and ask.

I have two cruises with "all inclusive" bookings where the website shows only one of us (me) having the drink package and the wifi...My wife, apparently doesn't get the perks...And it's not because it was recently added. We originally booked in 2019 and "lifted-and-shifted" every year since. OTOH, we've had the same thing happen on two other recent cruises--and it all mysteriously cleared up just before the sail date nd the perks finally showed up. Of course, nobody has threatened to cancel my cruises...So we can be patient.

It's not particularly "unsafe"...It's, basically, in the middle of a very industrial area. There is a little bit in the way of shopping (Whole Foods Market, TJ Maxx, Nordstrom Rack) within a couple of blocks to the north...and a variety of places to get some food--though mostly fast food (In'n'Out Burger, Jersey Mike's, Dunkin Donuts, California Fish Grill, kabobs). To me, it's just not a very attractive area to stay in...nor is it all that convenient. It's sort of out of your way (I assume you are cruising Carnival?). The Carnival cruise terminal is about 8.5-9 miles from here, depending on route--all surface streets with numerous traffic signals. To go by Freeway is considerably longer. I wholly recommend staying in the "Convention Center" area of Long Beach (and beware of hotels calling themselves "convention center" when they are clearly not in the right area)... Look at the Maya Doubletree and Residence Inn Downtown--both walking distance from the Carnival port...or the Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Centric at the Pike, Renaissance, Westin, Hilton...All close to the pier, close to restaurants, shopping, attractions ...and in the best tourist area of Long Beach.

This morning, we upgraded to Concierge Class (and back into the "waiting for assignment" pot) for that $429 pp price...NOT for $1756. If you deduct the $108 for gratuities, paid either way...that would have been an extra $1219 per person. BUT, the wifi really means nothing to us either...We're Elite Plus, so we get 240 minutes each of free wifi--40 minutes per day, easily enough for our needs checking email from time to time...not to mention all the ports being within our coverage area on our unlimited AT&T plan. So, let's discount the Wifi completely. That leaves this: We'd be paying $1219 for unlimited $10 or less drinks. Six days, that's a bit OVER $200 per person per day. At $10/drink, we would need to drink MORE than TWENTY drinks per day each--not including the free Elite drinks we get from 5-7 each night.....Just to make it "worth it"! Imagine that--20 drinks each every night after 7:00 pm!!! You think one would just buy a drink package before buying 20 drinks...Oh wait, you've already bought that drink package--for over $200 per night!

V2...Deck 8 ...#8320

...and today, we got assigned a cabin...AND Celebrity posted a Concierge class Guarantee...at the same $429 pp price cruise only. BUT, the AI price is $1756!!!

I know many here are curious as to when Celebrity assigns cabins on "Guarantee" bookings. From my experience, there's no hard and fast rule--it likely depends on how many cabins they have available in different categories and how marketing is doing. That said, I'll report on this one. We booked a December 1, 2023 cruise on Eclipse (San Diego and Cabo 6 nights) this immediately past Sunday afternoon (July 30)--so, just over 4 months out....and less than 48 hours ago. We booked a "Veranda Guarantee" rate, cruise only, knowing that we could have been assigned the worst Veranda cabin on the ship--and there are a large number of "obstructed view" veranda cabins, mostly on Deck 6, though, at the time of booking, very few of them appeared to be unassigned. My thought was they want to keep at least one or two that way so they can continue to market a "choose your cabin" obstructed view at a lower rate. Well, early this morning--within 40 hours or so of booking the cruise--I checked my account on the Celebrity website and it no longer said "Guarantee". That has been replaced with a cabin number--#8320, a "V2" veranda (formerly 1C) on Deck 8, unobstructed though fairly close to the aft of the ship, Starboard side...other passenger cabins both above and below. Overall, not a bad cabin assignment. My first instinct was to see about getting it moved to another open V2 closer to midship (though the cabins AT midship are V1 and the other available V2 cabins closer to midship are eithe adjoining cabins, sleep 3 or 4 with a sofa bed--and aren't that much clser to midship, maybe 6-7 cabins closer...or a move down to Deck 7-which is closer to the lifeboats-just a deck below)...so I think I've decided not to mess with it...We'll just do a little more walking onboard--which is probably good for us. In any event, by booking the guarantee we saved $780 ($429 vs, $819 pp) off the price of booking the same category with choice of cabins--and, as noted, the choices would not have been that much better. So, for that $780 discount, we "suffered" through about a day and a half of concern over getting stuck with an obstructed view...and, frankly, had we been assigned an obstructed view, for $780, I'd find a way to make the best of it. Heck the Veranda Guarantee rate was $226 less per person than choosing your own inside cabin!

5 Star City Center Hotel | Le Méridien Barcelona (marriott.com)

Yeah...It's a Veranda Guarantee for a cruise only base of $429...6 nights with only two ports--Cabo and San Diego, so taxes low, price with taxes and fees around $1200 for two. No idea what eventual assignmeb=nt could be...could be obstructed though, right now, only one obstructed cabin left unassigned,

It's not just guarantee bookings...I've seen others that are way out of whack as well... For me, it becomes VERY hard to book AI even when the pricing is at a slight advantage. As Ken pointed out, Princess charges about $60 per day. When you factor out the gratuities...and figure they allow drinks up to $14 or $15, it's like paying for three drinks a day and getting the fourth and after free and free wifi. And since we don't otherwise get any free "loyalty" drinks on Princess, their AI really makes sense. We've done all of our recent Princess cruises we've done the AI--no brainer. But, for me, with Celebrity, that $70.99 per day drink package price and $10 drink limit, it means my wife and I each have to consume SEVEN drinks per day BEYOND what we get for free anyway as Elite Plus (5:00-7:00 pm). The WiFi is near worthless on this one...We only go to San Diego and Cabo and AT&T covers us in both...and we get the Elite Plus complimentary 240 minutes each... So, even at a "discounted" amount--like that $519 pp (absurdly booking the one bad obstructed cabin by paying $342 per person more on the base rate), I'd do this math: It's $519 minus the $108 in gratuities--So, really $411 pp for drinks/wifi...or about $68.50 per person per day... For that, we get drinks after 7 and the right to waste a lot of extra time on the internet (past the 80 free minutes per day we have between us and all the free access while in port or docked)...So, we'd need to STILL have to drink about 7 drinks each EVERY night after 7 pm just to break even. IT IS STILL NOT A GOOD DEAL.

Actually, it's stranger than that... Obstructed view where you get to choose that one remaining cabin is $771 cruise only, $1290 AI... Unobstructed is $819/$1338!!!

I just booked a cruise on Eclipse for December... Now, when they first started offering "all-inclusive", there wasn't a "cruise only" choice. We really didn't know how much we were paying for drinks, tips and wifi since it was just packaged into the price. Mostly because of this, every Celebrity cruise we've done since the pandemic has been all-inclusive. But, now, there's an option. So, when booking this December cruise, I noticed the best price seemed to be a veranda guarantee. It's a short cruise, I'll take my chances...it won't be the worst thing to get a lifeboat in front of our balcony...but not a bad gamble as they only have one unassigned obstructed view cabin showing right now...and lots of unobstructed. So, we go to the next step--the "cruise only" vs. "all-included" choice...and here's what comes up: Cruise-Only Enjoy dining, entertainment, daily activities and more; tailor your add-ons later. /content/dam/celebrity/new-images/promotions/banners/upgrade_best_price.png $429 USD* avg per person CONFIRM & CONTINUE All Included Get our most popular amenities—drinks, Wi-Fi, and tips—prepackaged when you add All Included. Save $200-$800, only when you complete your booking now.Learn More /content/dam/celebrity/new-images/promotions/banners/upgrade_best_value_orange.png $1,449 USD* avg per person CONTINUE WITH ALL INCLUDED Okay--$1020 per person for the "perks"...Remember, it's a SIX-night cruise. Gratuities are $18 per day--$108 pp for the cruise...Right now, they are selling the classic drink package for $70.99 per person per day...add 20% gratuity, that's $511.08 per person for the cruise (at least that's the math they use on the X app). Wifi--$23.99 per day per person. So, $143.94. Okay, forgetting that, for us, we're Diamond Plus, so buying these seperately, we have discounts as well...but, lets ignore those for now... $108 PLUS $511.08 PLUS $143.94...Equals...$763.02!!! Celebrity wants to sell us All Inclusive...because we'd be paying them $2,040 for $1526 in extras!!! You give them an extra $514...WHY??? And I am sure lots of people are paying that....

Tonight, I am not able to sign onto my account on Celebrity's website or app...or Royal Caribbean's website or app... Enter email and password and websites just go back to sign in page...On the apps, I get a message "Sorry, we hit a snag"... I tried three different devices--PC, iPad, iPhone...problem same on all three. Anyone else? Ordinary maintenance? Servers down?? Or am I doing something wrong?

No. But it's not all that complicated. If you are flying in for a cruise, you can use Uber, Lyft, a taxi or a shuttle service to get from the airport to a hotel...and again from your hotel to the ship (unless you are staying at the port in a hotel from which you can walk or which has their own port shuttle. and you can do the same to get back to the airport. And just book your hotel through the hotel websites or through a hotel booking site if you want. I am not sure why there's a real need for someone to "package" hotel and shuttle in most places.

Does any of this have any effect on getting an Uber or Lyft? We originally booked an airport hotel and, for other reasons, ended up moving the reservation to the Fairfield Inn in Downtown (Seattle Center area). Our plan now is to grab an Uber/Lyft from Airport to hotel (arriving Sunday, August 20, 11:00 am--Alaska Airlines), then, Monday morning, grabbing a quick Uber/Lyft for the short 2.9 mile ride to Pier 91 ... Is it easy enough, under current conditions, to get a rideshare from Alaska airlines arrivals? If not, what alternatives would you suggest?

H10 Catalunya Plaza definitely has it...it's a 37 room boutique hotel right on the Placa. The 1898 has it as well. I wholly recommend both of these hotels. Most of the hotels you will find along Las Ramblas or in the Barri Gotic will be fairly charming--it's the older area of Barcelona and it's not like anyone's torn down historic buildings to build modern skyscrapers in those areas. The Eixample District is the more "modern" section-- largely built in the 19th/early 20th centuries...but it has a considerable amount of charm. Of course that is a little hit and miss. One trip we stayed at the Gran Havana in the Eixample and, though we liked the hotel, it was definitely more of a "modern" hotel. Getting out of this area, we one time stayed at the Hilton on the Diagonal (Financial District) and that was like a Hilton anywhere else in the world. Barcelona itself is fairly charming, but, for you, I highly recommend staying near Las Ramblas. Read reviews and look at the photos on hotel websites.

Yes, the Maya and Residence Inn are across the channel--in a mostly industrial area--BUT very close to the Queen Mary and to the Carnival facility. But here is the good part--The City of Long Beach provides a FREE shuttle (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) called the "Passport" that does a loop around the downtown area--including the "other" side of the channel! Passport | ridelbt.com Long Beach Transit Especially with kids, I would encourage you to come in early if you can, stay in Long Beach...Use the free Passport shuttle to take you everywhere--including the Aquarium of the Pacific (great for kids), to all sorts of shopping and to a large choice of restaurants. It would be like adding an extra day to your vacations...and much nicer than stressing out at the airport.

We've got ALMOST the same situation as the OP...We're cruising on the Millennium March 28-April 21...Also arriving at Haneda...and also staying at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. But, at the end of our B2B cruises, we are departing from Haneda. I took a look at that limousine bus link...and, indeed, it says ¥1,300 pp for the ride from Haneda to the Keio Plaza--at present, less than $10 each...So, it clearly beats the price of a taxi. Questions, though-- 1) Do we need to pre-book and pre-pay (appears so from the website)? 2) If so, it looks like one has to pick a time--but, of course, the concern is a) we don't know if flight will be on time, b) we don't know how long it might take to retrieve our luggage and c) we don't know how long it will take to clear passport control/immigration...So, how difficult is it to deal with changes in schedule? 3) The video showed luggage racks above the seats--which, obviously, will not work for the large 50 lb/23 kg suitcases we will be traveling with. Is there also "under the bus" luggage storage available? 4) Is it easy to find the bus from baggage claim at Haneda? For our trip from the Keio Plaza to the ship in Yokohama, there will be four of us (another couple is joining us for the first leg of the B2B only but arriving Haneda a different day), what is the best way to get four people plus lots of luggage from the Keio Plaza to the cruise port? For our return, we have a tour that will get us from the ship to Haneda... Also, is Uber a "thing" in Tokyo as an alternative to taxi? What is the custom of tipping taxi drivers/bus drivers in Japan? Thanks...