So, today is my 47th birthday; we have a family meal booked at a nice Leeds city centre restaurant a bit later, but I've come into Leeds early to enjoy a quiet birthday drink (free voucher!) and 2 complete not 1 but 2 mattress runs. I managed to tell my wife and friends about 1 of them, but could not bring myself to admit I was actually doing 2 on the same day for different loyalty schemes. So I'm using this as my confessional. And to ask "should I feel ashamed and embarrassed of my strange , newly developed, travel hacking behaviour?" Currently sat in my room in the Leeds Hilton, having booked this as part of my previously posted plan to manage 8 stays in 90 days and retain Diamond status. Waiting for the obligatory cuppa to cool down enough to drink it. Have to admit that while this Sunday stay only cost £48, I was disappointed to be told on check-in that they have no upgrade availability. However, that was somewhat alleviated when I found an unusual welcome gift in the room, of locally sourced Gin and Tonic. So as soon as I have drunk the tea, I'm off to the next one, to get checked in before the meal hopefully. The IHG one is for the "stay 2 nights at our new properties for a free night voucher" challenge. Booked for £28.75, thanks again for the massive tip on IHG Mastercard partner rate.
Haha - sounds like totally normal (and, in fact, highly commendable) behaviour to me! Happy Birthday by the way!
Nice one John. I hit 47 this week as well. Did you book a day stay rate at the Hilton? Or just an overnight stay?
Craig I booked it as an overnight stay. I wasn't aware I could do anything else. But I've just googled it to find out more. I only skimmed the basic detail of day stays though, so don't know if they would count towards my 8 stay target for retaining Diamond - happy to be educated.
3,2,1 you're back in the room ! Quite literally in fact, back in my Hilton room 502 booked for last night's mattress run. Digital Key, and checkout by mid-day, combined with a requirement to be in Leeds for a meeting later this afternoon, all mean that I got back here in time for the tail end of breakfast, and am working through lots of work emails and admin (with the exception of this short break). So it's coffee and croissants in the room.
I forgot to add that I had my first experience of a text from someone at Hilton shortly after I had checked in and got to my room, just asking if everything was OK. Never seen that before anywhere and thought it was amazingly good service.
Yes, I was genuinely quite surprised the first time I got one of those. I've never bothered texting back though I don't think, so can't say whether it's actually helpful in practice or not.
