Dead Sea, Israel, Master Thread

[arih]

ok so i will be going to the dead sea for one night in the first week of august
where hotel should i book ?   need a nice place at a great deal
i dont have points or amex starwoods   thanks

[moish]

They're crooked.
But just book this
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/search/results/standard.html?localeCode=en_US&iATANumber=&city=Dead+Sea&stateCode=&countryCode=IL&numberOfRooms=1&numberOfAdults=1&arrivalDate=05%2F23%2F2010&departureDate=06%2F02%2F2010
and then call SPG to take off the dates you don't want. Works like a charm.

so is 9 nights the magic number?

[Dan]

so is 9 nights the magic number?

You just have to keep playing with it.
It's possible that over the phone they can book less nights.
I've never had any issues booking online and having nights taken off though.

[SuperFlyer]

Still not clear why one cannot call up directly spg for the booking...
I'm an inverted genius when it comes to hotels, but I'd still like to understand.
 

[moish]

its usually more covenient online

[arih]

any advie for my upcoming honeymoon in isreal on aug 1st - 15   flying direct with delta

[SuperFlyer]

More convenient, if you anyway have to call?

[SuperFlyer]

About your honeymoon: you would need to know what both of you like (meaning: your wife).
For instance at the meridien, not all ladies feel comfortable being in bathing suit in front of other people, and this is THE main program over there, so make sure you know what exactly you want.

A friendly tip that has nothing to do with your trip. Read "garden of peace" or in easy hebrew "gan hashalom" by R' Harush n"y. Its an excellent sholom bayis guide for men only. I know plenty of people that have thanked me a lot for advising them to read it. (Even people married 30+ years, felt they benefited from it).

[md]

I agree, its an awsome book.

[Deal Guy]

Still not clear why one cannot call up directly spg for the booking...
I'm an inverted genius when it comes to hotels, but I'd still like to understand.
 

Because you will accomplish nothing. They have the same system as you yourself (more or less),  and  if you can't book for less then x amount of days, they can't either. So you just need to book for more days online (or through them), and then at a later time innocently ask them to shorten it, and hopefully it works.

[SuperFlyer]

I booked directly over the phone for 3 days, the meridien dead sea. No problem whatsoever.

[Deal Guy]

I booked directly over the phone for 3 days, the meridien dead sea. No problem whatsoever.

When was that?

[SuperFlyer]

last sukkos.

[moish]

there used to be times i was able to book 1 night with cash and points online too.

[Deal Guy]

there used to be times i was able to book 1 night with cash and points online too.

EXACTLY!!   the problem is that from JULY 1- AUGUST 31, THEY ARE PURPOSELY CHEATING THE SYSTEM, AND NOT PUTTING ANY STANDARD ROOMS AVAILABLE EVEN FOR MONEY not in Eilat nor in the Dead Sea no matter if you put in 4 days or 34 days! They are lying to spg by not putting any Standard rooms, and therefore they don't have to take points!

[steve2]

EXACTLY!!   the problem is that from JULY 1- AUGUST 31, THEY ARE PURPOSELY CHEATING THE SYSTEM, AND NOT PUTTING ANY STANDARD ROOMS AVAILABLE EVEN FOR MONEY not in Eilat nor in the Dead Sea no matter if you put in 4 days or 34 days! They are lying to spg by not putting any Standard rooms, and therefore they don't have to take points!

 WHY ARE U SCREAMING BY USING CAPs!!!

 I know you have read at least 1 time what William has posted on FT, that its 1000% OK for any *W Hotel to sell ALL of its Standard rooms to a wholesaler even for the full year. If it does this then they are well within their Rights according to *W/SPG. that means yes they wont have any rooms to offer for free nights or C&P.

 If U dont like this policy theres a very Simple solution dont accumulate *W pts or stay at any *W Hotel

 William looked into this  in depth when The Plaza was doing the exact samething and posted what I wrote above that they werent doing anything against the T&Cs of their contract = nothing he or anyone can do

 At times when a Hotel does this you can use more pts and get a Deluxe Room, but no Hotel needs to offer these either.

 What I dont understand is why if you know a Hotel is playing do U still want to stay there as most likey they will play games with everything as well. Now I read on numerous posts how people want to Sell their SPG pts or to buy them, or how someone is willing to pay part of the stay if they can get credit for the stay. Well,IMO if you guys can do things that are against the T&Cs of SPG then why cant the Hotels  You cant have it both ways

 I hope people start acting their age rather then their shoe size and this pretains to anyone who is complaining about any *W hotel while they do things that arent Kosher themselves

[SuperFlyer]

An option would be to move to mainland europe, as the shoe sizes are different.
A 3 year old would have around size 20.

[steve2]

An option would be to move to mainland europe, as the shoe sizes are different.
A 3 year old would have around size 20.

 hey I saw your feet today that means its time for U to retire ,LoL

[SuperFlyer]

Actually 42-43. if I need to retire, what's the story with you? Expiring, or just a plain fossil?

Where did you say you saw my feet today?

[steve2]

Actually 42-43. if I need to retire, what's the story with you? Expiring, or just a plain fossil?

 Neither in the US Im known as "the Missing Link"