Vivienne Tam has designed a pair of slippers featuring a “Water Dragon” motif for Hilton Hotels & Resorts’ Chinese hospitality program, Huanying.

The signature slippers will be available beginning this month exclusively for guests of Hilton Huanying, the Hilton Worldwide program offering tailored welcome experiences for Chinese travelers at 70 participating hotels in 23 countries.

International hotel chain Starwood has unveiled a major revamp of its Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program, targeting elite travelers with a host of new benefits.

The chain, which operates Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, Le Meridien and St Regis, says that it’s responding to the global uptick in travel to target the ‘sophisticated’ market, which it believes has become ‘jaded’ about traditional schemes.

Among the most notable aspects of the change is a new service called Your24, which will let frequent travelers pick their own check-in and check-out times within a 24-hour timeframe — so if you check in at one property at 10 PM, you won’t have to check out until 10PM the next day.

Trump Hotels has announced a new loyalty program for its luxury-loving members, promising unique benefits to guests who hand over their Trump Card.

The Trump Card Privilege Program was unveiled by the luxury chain January 25 as a way for Trump to compete with other brands such as Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont, which both offer their own elite loyalty programs.

Unlike its competitors though, the Trump Card is sold on the well-known faces behind Trump, promising access to “once-in-a-lifetime experiences associated with the Trump family and lifestyle.”

Starwood’s Preferred Guest program has topped a list of the ‘best value’ reward programs from US website NextAdvisor.

Preferred Guest, a loyalty program which rewards hotel guests for their stays in Starwood-operated brands such as W Hotels, Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien and St Regis, offered a worth of $0.021 per point when redeemed for a hotel stay.

It isvconsiderably higher than competing programs such as Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors, whose points were worth $0.008 and $0.005 respectively.

Members of the InterContinental hotels loyalty program are to be offered the chance to snap up last-minute hotel deals on points, the company announced August 1.

Last Minute Rewards will offer Priority Club members the chance to redeem hotel nights for 50 percent fewer points than they would otherwise be offered at.

The promotion will be valid at nearly 90 select hotels around the world, including properties in popular holiday destinations such as Orlando, Florida; Berlin; Paris; Shanghai; Bangkok; and Seoul.

Despite the internet now being a basic necessity for just about everything, getting hold of it while traveling can prove frustrating and expensive.

Many hotels around the world, safe in the knowledge that business travelers with expense accounts will shell out ludicrous sums for just an hour’s worth of connection, continue to charge exorbitant rates — sometimes over €20 daily — despite the fact that surveys show that travelers are crying out for free connections.

HotelChatter, which this week released its 7th annual Hotel WiFi Report revealing the best and the worst when it comes to US and international hotels and the worldwide web, believes free WiFi is on the rise as hotels listen to their customers.