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The big news is, that the consortium led by Anbang (the Chinese insurance group) has pulled out of the race to acquire Starwood. They left as quickly as they entered, and it is now all up to Marriott to clean up what remains, and complete the deal, once the shareholders vote in the next few days. Here's more... If you've been following the story of Starwood's acquisition by Marriott, you'll know that in November last year, Marriott made an offer to acquire Starwood  in a mostly-stock deal that valued Starwood at US$12.2 billion.  Things looked pretty set for a while (except for SPG loyalists), until the middle of March this year, when a rather-little-known Chinese insurance company called Anbang made a counter bid (via a consortium that it led) for Starwood, in an all-cash deal, for $13.2 billion , significantly topping Marriott's original offer. Marriott then responded within a week, with a counter-offer of $13.6 billion . Each of the counter offers so far represen...

Hyatt's next promotion is called "Stay More, Play More", and starts tomorrow. While the promotion was announced in advance to members, the registration page opened up only some time in the last 24 hours, which is why we didn't write about it earlier. The promotion is valid for stays between 1 April 2016 and 30 June 2016, and happens to be Hyatt Gold Passport's first major promotion in nearly 9 months. Registration is required for this promotion, which can be done here . Under this promotion, you will earn points in step-levels, after completing a determined number of stays, as follows: Stay Earn Total Points Earned 5 Nights + 5,000 Points = 5,000 10 Nights + 10,000 Points = 15,000 15 Nights + 15,000 Points = 30,000 20 Nights + 20,000 Points = 50,000 25 Nights + 25,000 Points = 75,000 So, if you are able to use this promotion to the fullest, you can earn 75,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points. Based on our January 2016 valuations, a Hyatt Gold Passport point is valued a...

Marriott operates 30 hotels across India, of which 7 are JW Marriott hotels. My stay count so far has been 3 of those 7 ( Bangalore - twice , Delhi Aerocity and Sahar Mumbai ). I realise now that I haven't written about my stay at the JW Marriott at Aerocity Delhi. I haven't been able to find the pictures I'd taken (yes, shameful!). Nonetheless, I thought I'd write about my stay at the JW Marriott in Juhu, Mumbai, from a couple of months or so back. They've got a fabulous location - the rear of the hotel is on the beachfront with direct access to the beach. View of the beach from the poolside Also, they've done a good job with the overall decor, etc, especially in the public spaces of the hotel. However, the general exterior and the rooms gave me the feeling that this was a relatively older hotel (it is 14 years old), and that they aren't looking to upgrade themselves in a hurry. Plus the food was pretty average, as was the F&B service experience. Anywa...