One week left for our special discount offer with point.me & we have a new hotel reviews page

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. Today's update is brought to you by the HSBC High Rate Savings Account with which you can enjoy a total annual interest rate of up to 2.65% on new deposits± Click here to learn more about this offer

 There is one week left to grab the special Rewards Canada discount with the new award search site Point.me! When you use our exclusive promo code RWRDSCA you can choose to receive your first month point.me membership for only US$1 or you can choose a yearly membership and receive 20% off the annual price. To use the promo code you will need to choose the Standard Plan, select either Monthly or Yearly, and then enter the promo code RWRDSCA. This offer is only available for sign ups until May 31, 2022.  You can sign up with point.me here.

Be sure to read our introductory review of Point.me here!

Hotel Review: Delta Hotels by Marriott London Armouries

We are pleased to present another Rewards Canada Hotel Review! This review is provided by Dee who has contributed to Rewards Canada in past with flight reviews, lounge reviews and several Aeroplan articles.

Recently I completed a stay at the Delta Hotels by Marriott London Armouries on a trip for work in London, Ontario. The hotel is located on the corner of Waterloo street and Richmond street, right downtown near by the Citi Plaza Mall. I found the area no be very busy, and it was quiet at night during my stay.

Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Saskatoon Centre

 
Another Bill W review for you! Bill is a true road warrior, his work has him driving and flying across Western and Central Canada every week while staying in a variety hotels from a variety of chains.  Bill is a regular contributor to Rewards Canada and has been reading, following giving tips and providing updates for a very long time so let's welcome him back with this latest review!  

This Holiday Inn Express Hotel underwent extensive renovations that were completed in late 2019. The renovations transformed the hotel into a very modern and upscale place to lay your head. 

Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa 2 Bedroom Villa - The Second Chapter

The Rewards Canada family took a last minute vacation back to the Palm Springs area during the high season (right after Christmas) and hotels were at a premium. When we travel we always get two rooms now as a room with two queens and one bathroom just doesn’t cut it for two adults and two teenage daughters. In many cases this means paying full price for two rooms or at the very least full price for one room and up to 50% off for the second room.

Rewards Canada Tip:
The 50% off for the second room typically isn’t advertised by hotel chains as they know in many cases when you are booking online you think you have to pay the full price and do so. Case in point is Hyatt Hotels - when you book online you won’t find family rates that offer 50% off the second room but if you call Hyatt reservations and specifically ask for the family rate for multiple and/or connecting rooms they will give you the discount. Now this could vary by location but it has worked for us at a few different hotels.

Having this in mind and seeing what places like the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage were asking per room we decided see what we could get a two bedroom villa for at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa. We had stayed there earlier in the year (read the review here) and loved the resort and even though we’d have loved to try somewhere new this resort beckoned us back with decent pricing for a two bedroom villa. So we had it booked once again and I’ll say it’s not cheap but getting a whole two bedroom villa for less than two 2 queen rooms at the Ritz or other higher end hotels in the area I consider it a deal.

Now when booking I did see two bedroom bungalows listed as well and thought to myself that’s weird, I don’t recall there being two bedroom bungalows when we stayed there about 8 months prior. Turns out two bedroom bungalows is something new the Hyatt Indian Wells is trying out. They are the 600 series of renovated villas that we were in during our first stay. Makes sense why they were newly renovated at the time as that was part of the plan of the new 'bungalow' rate option. So what exactly is the difference between a two bedroom bungalow and a two bedroom villa? Outside of being renovated nothing at al. They are the same size and have the same layout. The difference comes in what is offered with the bungalow. When you book a bungalow you'll get the renovated room plus daily valet or parking fee, the resort fee, bungalow host gratuity, daily housekeeping gratuity, and a $300 daily resort credit redeemable at any property food/beverage outlet, Agua Serena Spa, Camp Hyatt and the Indian Wells Golf Resort. The 'Villa' option doesn't have the $300 daily credit, fees covered etc. However when I was booking the 'bungalow' rate was $700 more per night than the 'villa' rate. Now, even if math isn't your strong point $700 per night for about $400 worth of credits doesn't seem like a good deal. So that settled it for us - a villa suite it is! Just so you know the villas still have the butler service as we detailed in our last review which is no longer called butler service but rather a dedicated host service. The difference is that you'll have to tip as the 'bungalow' rate includes the gratuity.

We arrived to the Hyatt in the early evening as we took one of WestJet's later in the day YYC-PSP flights and were able to get the keys to our villa right away. You may recall from my last review that wasn't the case for our first stay! We were now assigned a 700 series villa which are the non-renovated ones and weren't sure what to expect as we hadn't seen them before. We made the 5 minute or so walk to our villa as we wanted to avoid using the dedicated host golf cart service not to mention it is nice to walk about when it 18 degrees C outside when back in Calgary it was much colder!

The villa we were assigned was actually two separate rooms - a one king room attached to a one bedroom villa when combined made it a two bedroom two bathroom villa. Obviously these ones can be sold as separate rooms if need be. This was one difference we noted over the 600 series villa we had before - it was a true two bedroom as it could not be split. That being said the layout and size of 1,350 square feet are exactly the same and we just had to enter both rooms separately to begin with and open up the connecting door. We never used the entrance to the one king room after that.

The main entrance for the villa

This villa was definitely a throwback! It felt like we were back in the 70s and 80s! The decor was kitschy but we loved it and thought it was awesome. The colours may not have been as bright as a renovated room but honestly it felt as comfortable as the renovated one although it show some wear and tear. Perhaps Hyatt will renovate these soon to take away the worn feeling. Don't get me wrong - they don't feel that warn, they are totally acceptable and we even said that if we come back we'd be totally happy staying in one of these older villas. Take away the flat screen TV and updated microwave and you wouldn't think it was 2019 in these photos of the living room:

Don't you just love the mirrored backsplash of this unit?

Overall our villa had two king beds, two full bathrooms each with double vanities, separate shower and tub and separate WCs. The living room as you can see from above featured a dining table, sitting area with chairs and a pull out sofabed. The villa also has its own private yard space with chairs to sit in, an outdoor dining table and of course a hot tub!

Here are the photos of one of the king rooms that were part of the villa:

Feel like this fan is better suited for a tropical themed hotel!

The bedrooms provide a lot of room and we find the beds here to be really comfortable. We don't spent a lot of time in them but it is nice to have all that space so that you can utilize two luggage racks in each room.

And one of the bathrooms:

 

 

 

 

If you checked out the review from our first stay you'll notice the difference between the bathrooms as well. These ones were totally fine despite the aged look and colour scheme. There was definitely some water pressure issues (I'd give it 4 out of 10) and temperature as well.  Sometimes it took upwards of 5 minutes to get hot water from the shower and sometimes it would just be warm. That didn't occur at the other villa we had before. Now each villa is part of a bigger complex of four villas so perhaps this set of four is due for a new boiler - that is if that's how the complex works.

The bonus of this villa and other 700 series villas is that you get the updated hot tubs! These ones have a waterfall which any kids (and parents) will love

700 Series hot tub

Compare this to the 600 series hot tub we had before

Another view of the hot tub and patio area:

Service wise the resort the hotel does a pretty good job for the most part. As mentioned above all villas and bungalows come with a host (formerly known as a butler). We only utilized the service a couple of times to restock the fridge as the villas and bungalows come with unlimited free water bottles, juice, pop and sparkling water. One of the hosts was a gentleman who retired to the Palm Springs area from Vancouver but needed to get out of the house so he took the host job! These hosts do a great job (at least for the small things we asked for) but I'm sure they step up to the plate for those who like to make the most of all the things afforded to them for a stay in the villas.

We visited the main restaurant Lantana several times and really enjoy the food there. The Short Rib was pretty amazing! We did order room service twice and that's were the service seemed to fail a bit as it always took much longer than they promised. The one I recall was a 30-35 minute delivery time, at 60 minutes I called and was told it would be another 5 minutes but it ended up being 15 more minutes.

Surprisingly this trip we didn't make use of the pool area as on this trip as we spent more time exploring the area and using our villa's hot tub and yard! The resort does have several great pools and was actually just in the midst of building their new water park that will include a lazy river and new waterslides. From my last review they stated it was set to open in late 2020 so lets hope that's still the case.

Overall we really enjoyed staying at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells for a second time within a year and are pretty sure it may become our usual base for the Palm Desert area. Don't get me wrong, we do love other hotels here and always talk about staying at some new ones but the villas are such a good option for our family, the resort itself is great (and will be even more fun with the new waterpark), it has self-parking (if you know me from other reviews we have a tough time with valet only hotels) and being in Indian Wells it is central to being able to explore the are both east and west with decent drive times.

And I leave you this photo of the amplifier/receiver in the living room shelving unit 😄

Hotel details

Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa (Book here)

Points required for a free night:

• 20,000 Points for standard room
• 27,000 Points for Regency/Club Grand Room
• 32,000 Points for standard suite
• 40,000 Points for premium suite

Points+Cash rates:

• 10,000 + 50% of the Standard Rate for standard rooms
• 16,000 + 50% of the Standard Rate for standard suites
• 20,000 + 50% of the Standard Rate for premium suites 

Points for upgrades:

Room Upgrade Award	Points Per Night
Regency Club®/Grand Club® Upgrade	3,000
Suite Upgrade	6,000
Premium Suite Upgrade	9,000

Talk to us! Have you stayed at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa? What are your thoughts of the hotel? Or are you planning to and looking forward to it? Let us know below!

All images courtesy of the author

Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa

Earlier this year the Rewards Canada family spent an awesome 5 days at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa in the Palm Springs area. With short direct flights from Calgary, Palm Springs is a regular destination for us however each time we've gone we've always stay in Marriott/Starwood branded hotels. We thought we'd change it up this time and move further out from Palm Springs by staying in Indian Wells at the Hyatt Regency.

The hotel is beautiful with a nicely landscaped entrance area, a main building with regular rooms and also several dozen one and two bedroom villas. The nicely manicured grounds include several pools, lots of space for lounging and lots of pathways to enjoy the resort. For this stay we booked one of the two bedroom villas. Now that our kids are older and travelling with more stuff (they are teenage girls!) we are finding that we are booking two rooms for our family for almost every stay and when we compared the prices of two regular rooms to this villa, it wasn't that much more so we went for it! Add in the privacy of the villa and the space it would afford we couldn't go wrong with booking it.

Our flight from Calgary arrived in Palm Springs around noon so we asked for early check in knowing we would be at the hotel around 1:30pm. Without Hyatt status this was perhaps a long shot and such was the case. We did not get early check in so we went for lunch at Agave Sunset which is one of the hotel's dining options and then walked around the resort to become acquainted. Returning to the lobby to check in at the actual 4 pm check in time we were told the villa wasn’t ready yet and it should only be about 10 more minutes. We waited those 10 minutes and prior to going back to the check in desks a manager happened to be walking past us and overheard us as a family discussing our villa not being ready yet and he went to find out what was going on. About 10 minutes later he came back saying it’s still wasn’t ready but it should only be about 10-15 minutes more. It was close to 30 minutes. Not sure if he really pulled any strings but we were a little surprised he didn’t offer some drinks while we waited as many hotels tend to do when your room isn’t ready. In the end we didn’t get into the villa until close to 5pm.

When you stay in one of the villas at this resort one of the included benefits is butler service and this starts right from the time you check in. Once we received the keys to our villa one of the butlers on duty drove us in golf cart around the resort to our villa. He then brought our luggage to us shortly after that.

On to the actual two bedroom villa!

First off all I can say is there is lots of room! In fact tons of room! Our two bedroom villa was one that had a single king in each bedroom and a pull out sofa. You can also get two bedroom villas that have one king and two queens.  Included in the villa were a fridge, microwave, fireplace, hot tub, and two very large bathrooms. The 600 series of villas while seeming to have older hot tubs were recently renovated and look nicer and fresher than the 700 series which have waterfalls cascading into some of their hot tubs. Some of the villas also have fire pits or private plunge pools instead of hot tubs.

Here is main living room which has the fridge, microwave, fireplace, dining table and pull out sofa:

 

The hallways off the main entrance each have a closet complete with robes before entering each bedroom:

Here is bedroom number one:

Bedroom number two is exactly the same except mirrored:

There are two full size and as I mentioned before, very large bathrooms. Each one is situated off the hallway to each bedroom:

Each bedroom has their own patio door going out to the villa's private yard. First a panoramic view:

And more views of the outside:

As I mentioned above our hot tub  wasn't one of the cascading water fall ones you may see in photos of the hotel online. I guess that's the trade off from what I can tell - the villa we had had an updated interior versus an updated exterior which is what we'd rather have.

Also as I mentioned previously, all villas come with butler service. We didn’t use the service very much at all. We simply called in on occasion to have them bring up some soft drinks and waters as those are all included with the villas. I don't about you, but for us humble beginnings people things like butler service just seems weird. We are more the type that like to do things on our and get them done on our own. Heck, if we knew where they stocked the drinks we would have never called upon the butler. Even at check out, we didn't call upon them to drive us the check out in their golf card. We walked it and why not - the weather and resort are so nice it would have been a shame not to! 

If you have read other reviews of Rewards Canada family stays you'll know one of our biggest pet peeves with a lot of the higher end hotels and resorts is that they only have valet parking. Well you don't have to worry about that here as the Hyatt has both self and valet parking option. It was nice to have self parking as we tend to come and go a lot and it really gets annoying having to call down to valet to always get our car ready (not to mention tipping!) For us, valet service is kind of like the butler service, not something we really take advantage of.

The resort itself is beautiful with lots of winding pathways lined with native trees and shrubs. There are multiple pools including an adult only one and for the most part they didn't feel very busy thanks to size of the pool areas. Word is they are going to construct a large water park that should appeal to older kids! Look for it to open late in 2020.

We ate several meals at the hotel's restaurants and for the most part the food was pretty good. Nothing spectacular but far from being bad as well. It was especially good by the pool and the pool cocktails were delectable

Overall the villa was awesome and if we'd stayed at this resort again I don't think we'd be able to stay in a regular hotel room, it would have to be in one of the villas!

Hotel details

Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa (Book here)

Points required for a free night:

• 20,000 Points for standard room
• 27,000 Points for Regency/Club Grand Room
• 32,000 Points for standard suite
• 40,000 Points for premium suite

Points+Cash rates:

• 10,000 + 50% of the Standard Rate for standard rooms
• 16,000 + 50% of the Standard Rate for standard suites
• 20,000 + 50% of the Standard Rate for premium suites 

Points for upgrades:

Room Upgrade Award	Points Per Night
Regency Club®/Grand Club® Upgrade	3,000
Suite Upgrade	6,000
Premium Suite Upgrade	9,000

Talk to us! Have you stayed at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa? What are your thoughts of the hotel? Or are you planning to and looking forward to it? Let us know below!

Title image and pool image courtesy of Hyatt - all other images courtesy of the author

Hotel Review: Holiday Inn & Suites Kamloops

Another Bill W review for you! Bill is a true road warrior, his work has him driving and flying across Western and Central Canada every week while staying in a variety hotels from a variety of chains.  Bill has been reading, following and even giving Rewards Canada tips and updates for a very long time so let's welcome him back with this contribution!  

The Holiday Inn & Suites Kamloops is conveniently located ten minutes from the airport in the B.C. Interior City of Kamloops. The room I reserved was with a king-size bed. It was very clean and the temperature was quite comfortable when I checked in. While there is a wall-mounted thermostat, the actual temperature is controlled on the air conditioning/heating unit itself. It was very responsive and maintained the room temperature quite well.

The room was equipped with a 37” flat screen TV and they do offer channels in HD. There was also the usual mini-fridge and coffeemaker (Keurig) along with a microwave. There is also a work desk with 4 outlets available (all located on the wall above the desk meaning you don’t have to crawl under the desk to plug things in).

Only one of the bedside lamps had an electrical outlet for your electronics. Not really an issue unless you use your phone for an alarm (as I do). However, there was a 4-outlet plug behind the bed table with only the lamp plugged in, so the capability to charge other electronics at your bedside was available.

The shower in the bathroom is mounted just under 6’ from the floor of the tub, which will allow taller guests a more comfortable shower without having to duck to get under the waterflow.  The water pressure was good, and the hot water availability was almost instant (even during a potentially higher use time of 7:00 am).

The hotel had a White Spot restaurant attached to it with direct access from the hotel. In fact, the lounge area was inside the hotel itself. It was very comfortable and seated about 40 guests. The back shelf where the liquor bottles are displayed had an actual waterfall behind it (well-lit) and added an extra touch of ambience.  The full restaurant menu was available in the lounge. As there is a restaurant onsite, room service is offered. (A full menu is provided in the information booklet in your room).

The lobby area had a very comfortable seating area with lots of couches for guests to meet other members of their party or just to sit back and relax.

There are plenty of parking spots for the guests, just don’t forget to display your parking pass provided at check-in). They even have a plug for charging electric cars.

This hotel offers guest added security by locking the front doors at midnight.  After that, you will need your room key to open the door or you call the front desk to let you in.

There is a little shop (open 24 hours) located next to the front desk that has various food and beverage items. They even have items that you can heat in your room and also have plastic utensils available to take back to your room. Vending machines are also available on each floor.

The pool area is well lit and has a reasonable sized pool along with a hot tub.  As this is an area that is good for hiking/exploring, it might be a good place to rest and rejuvenate. There is also a small fitness area with treadmills and steppers as well as free weights and an exercise ball.

The Front Desk staff were very courteous and helpful and acknowledged me as a Platinum member of IHG Rewards Club. Both check-in and check-out were completed efficiently. Definitely a good place to stay when visiting Kamloops.

Hotel details
Holiday Inn & Suites Kamloops  (Book here)
Points required for a free night 15,000 Points
Points+Cash rates: 10,000 Points + C$64 or 5,000 Points + C$99


Remember that right now you can earn up to 40,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points for stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide with the Accelerate Part 3 offer! Learn more about it here.

Also be sure to visit and book mark our IHG Rewards Club Bonus Points page for many more points opportunities.

Talk to us! Have you stayed at the Holiday Inn & Suites Kamloops? What are your thoughts of the hotel? Or are you planning to and looking forward to it? Let us know below!