Loews Resorts discontinuing You First Rewards program

[Andysol]

Personally I like that Loews runs the hotels. I think they do a great job, and like their staff.

That being said, I have heard of friction. I think they're the reason you don't have room keys with park admission tied to them like at Disney.

I agree with you, I like the staff and Loews does a great job. I've stayed at a couple of their hotels outside of Orlando and they are very nice.
But staffing and management wouldn't change if Universal were to partner with Hyatt/IHG and purchase Loews. Only executive leadership.

When they partnered with them, having the hotel experience and also being able to share the capital expenditures were certainly valuable. They don't need that anymore. In fact, if I'm Universal, i'd rather eat all the costs and capture all the margin. In particular with park 3 opening.

 

[GadgetGuru]

I have the feeling that Loewe's has some kind of exclusive contract for Universal Orlando.

But, they definitely don't have that for the other resorts. I'll bet money that the on-site hotels for Beijing and Hollywood won't be run by Loewe's. Once Universal opens up on-site hotels at one of those two resorts, I think they'll learn enough about operating hotels that they could safely try a Orlando resort down the line.

 

[Frank Drackman]

Actually, stays at Sapphire were part of the rewards point program, since it's branded Loews. I stayed at Sapphire twice and received the points. CBBR is not branded, thus no points. Hard Rock, probably due to it's ownership program, wasn't part of the program. I also always received points when I used my AP discount....Like Gadget Guru said, I often picked my hotel and days to accommodate the points, since they always took extra care of me with rooms above the class I paid for, plus other special amenities like welcome baskets, turn down service, free paper delivery, late checkout, and other stuff. I really like CBBR but I started doing parts of my vacation at Sapphire specifically because of the points program.....For me this is a real bummer since I got lots of use out of the program. The email hinted that they were still going to do special things for frequent visitors, so that remains to be seen whether it will be anything significant.....Here's the email....
*Thank you for being a loyal guest of Loews Hotels & Co. Travel is highly personal, and we feel the same about our relationship with you. You're not a customer number or a loyalty point count-you're an individual who happens to travel and who has unique interests and needs along the way.
Through valuable guest feedback, we have found the You First isn't enticing or relevant and that a list of pre set benefits has not been meeting our guest's individual needs. At the end of the day, we're confident we don't need a formal program to recognize our very best guests, (their bold) In that spirit, we want to inform you that our You First program will be ending on December 6, 2018. We can assure you that every time you choose to stay with us, we value that decision and want to provide you an exceptional experience.
Here's what to expect next;
*Existing or new reservations through December 6, 2018 will be eligible for You First Benefits. Reservations beginning on or after December 7, 2018 will not receive You First benefits.
*You will be able to seamlessly access your reservation and preference details via a Loews account, similar to what you experienced when you logged in to Loews Hotels: Luxury Hotels | Luxury Accommodations using your You First credentials. There is no action to take now, but this summer you will receive email instructions to reset your password in order to access your Loews Account.
*Finally, rest assured that we are committed to recognizing you as one of our best guests and continuing to make Loews an easy choice for your future stays.

We look forward to making each and every one of your future visits a special experience. We know that hospitality comes from the heart, and we're dedicated to our relationship with you.
...........................................................................................................................................................
My Nov. 28 to Dec. 7th vacation gets in under the deadline, but it's adieu to You First after.

AP rates were included in qualifying stays.

Qualifying Rates include: Consortia, Volume Corporate, AAA, AARP, Government, Package, Group Association, Group Corporate, Group Government, Advance Purchase, Florida Residents and Universal Pass holders.

man, I feel cheated. I know I would go to the Loews first site to see my reservations since it gave me a daily rate breakdown that UNI didn't show me and that is where I always saw 'non-qualifying stay', well 90% of the time....maybe I did not stay enough nights...like I said, I never understood the program. Oh well.

From what I recall, HRH use to award Loews plan until Chief Billie purchased the Hard Rock chain.

You know- just throwing this out there- I wonder if Universal has any interest in acquiring Loews and doing a deal with Hyatt. Universal takes the Orlando properties and Hyatt takes the rest. IHG has been interested in small (8-15 hotel) higher end brands recently too. I wonder if Universal could make a run here or if they’d even want to.
I don’t really see the benefit to partnering with them at this point.

Not long ago, I heard that the Hard Rock sold their Vegas Casino. I wonder if they would get rid of the HRH at UNI...from what I read of the deal their, they share in Porto and RPR and possibly the newer hotels as well, so I imagine UNI would need to work something out with them as well as with Loews...

 

[Mad Dog]

man, I feel cheated. I know I would go to the Loews first site to see my reservations since it gave me a daily rate breakdown that UNI didn't show me and that is where I always saw 'non-qualifying stay', well 90% of the time....maybe I did not stay enough nights...like I said, I never understood the program. Oh well.

From what I recall, HRH use to award Loews plan until Chief Billie purchased the Hard Rock chain.



Not long ago, I heard that the Hard Rock sold their Vegas Casino. I wonder if they would get rid of the HRH at UNI...from what I read of the deal their, they share in Porto and RPR and possibly the newer hotels as well, so I imagine UNI would need to work something out with them as well as with Loews...

Yeah, that used to show up on my You First page of reservations too , no matter what the type of reservation, but they still always posted me my points. It must have been some type of software snafu, and it was there before I completed my stay and paid, cause it disappeared 'after' my stay all the time.