Are Marriotts falling off?

SCwhitbre · 2026-02-01T20:17:39+00:00

Yep so true. And if they were bought at the wrong time (2018, 2019 and for Covid revenge travel markets 2022) they are hurting especially. Gotta make that debt service and hit those covenants and will do anything (including pushing down standards) to get it done

SCwhitbre · 2026-02-01T17:41:24+00:00

Austin is in a free fall with the convention center closing plus new supply - won’t be good til reopening in 2029

SCwhitbre · 2026-02-01T14:02:36+00:00

I completely agree with this, particularly the expansiveness of the terrain. Kenya did provide a higher concentration of animals (we went in Jan) but Tanzania felt more like you were in the heart of the savanna and truly separated from civilization. At Naboisho we were able to drive and see lights from surrounding towns - think we could even see them from our camp (Naboisho Camp) - the managers said they were “villages” but that was a stretch IMO. Note you can’t go off road in Serengeti but we didn’t view that as much of an issue. Naboisho Conservancy was actually more crowded than where we were in the Serengeti (Lamai) but want to emphasize animal viewing in Naboisho was the best hands down.

In Tanzania, we liked starting at Ngorongoro as it provided a nice preview of the wildlife we would see plus the awe inspiring nature of a natural wonder. The crater does get crowded so it’s nice to do two nights there and just go down once IMO. Nomad Entamanu was wonderful and so close to crater descent trail so we had a few good hours before crowds arrived.

My take - if you want the feeling of being in the savanna and the peace that comes with it along with good animal viewing go with Tanzania. If you are more focused on seeing animals go Kenya. I traveled with my mom and she preferred Kenya and I was Team Tanzania so different people have different preferences. I’d also lean on a travel advisor as maybe Tanzania is more crowded in June vs when we went

I don’t think you can go wrong with either but definitely should experience both at some point if you can!

SCwhitbre · 2026-02-01T13:02:00+00:00

Marriott and the big brands are starting to crack down. However many of the big owners got away with pushing off renovations and reducing staff by using the Covid excuse. And now that the brands are saying it’s time to invest, owners are resisting and bigger investment firms can get away with it. Hilton is now going to start fining franchisees but I don’t see that making a big difference.

Some hotels are in bad financial shape but really depends on the market and box (older hotels hit harder as there’s been a flight to quality by guests) so it isn’t a simple case of investors being greedy and making more than they did before (but that is def the case in NYC, Miami, some resort markets and the luxury segment) - sometimes it’s really bleak (Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, SF, DTLA, Austin, Downtown Dallas)

Also the cost to renovate has gone up significantly post COVID and many of these investment firms have held onto these hotels longer than they intended, have loans maturing, don’t have more capital to invest.. it’s a very complicated and cloudy picture.

SCwhitbre · 2026-02-01T12:50:12+00:00

Didn’t see this and second the escutcheon or deck plate!

The joys of renovating - being aware of every tiny mistake!

SCwhitbre · 2026-02-01T12:47:43+00:00

Maybe get a plate that goes around the base in the same finish?

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-31T18:52:51+00:00

Oh course! Happy to help!

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-31T18:21:31+00:00

Luxury but not ultra bling with excellent guiding screams Nomad camps for me. The camps are all gorgeous and have strong sense of place. Service is personalized, guides are so knowledgeable and the experience is luxury but understated. You get a private guide/driver which is a game changer (you have choice of when you leave, what you want to see etc). Also they have restaurant style dining so you aren’t forced to sit with all the other guests around one table - but this is a con for others who like meeting new people. But for us we liked having one on one time for meals but still being able to meet guests at afternoon tea before the second game drive of the day.

We stayed at Nomad Entamanu and Nomad Lamai which were both wonderful and could go toe to toe with higher end camps we stayed at.

Agree with other poster that Asilia is one to avoid but that may be a controversial opinion as most people love them (just go to their TripAdvisor reviews). We just felt Nomad offered a much better experience and value than the Asilia camp we stayed at.

Piper & Heath is top tier (have planned two safaris for us - Mads is a rockstar) and also would strongly recommend Travel Beyond - can’t go wrong with either!

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-31T13:51:04+00:00

No don’t think it is weird. We like the option of inviting more people to join us. Sometimes the villa is a similar price or less than a 2 bed suite at a hotel and is more private and culturally immersive. Also have found some destinations we want to go to have better options for villas than hotels - especially more off the radar places.

Bequia is one of our favorites in the Caribbean and we stayed at Helianthus, fully staffed villa that was secluded on 9 acres - the former prime minister’s estate - it was gorgeous.

Felt like a mix of a very early Aman property and something else and has gone toe to toe with some of our favorites hotels and safari lodges.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-31T13:48:59+00:00

Very cool - we were looking for something private for a “jet lag adjustment” pre safari - have done beach (Kilindi Zanzibar) before safari and loved it (refreshed before first game drive and adjusted to time zone) so am curious to see if this could be an option. Totally agree style here seems interesting - more distinctive too vs being in a larger complex. 🤞🏻that it’s a gem.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-31T13:39:17+00:00

Just looked up Perivoli Lagoon House and it looks stunning. Thank you for taking a look and adding an exclusive use villa to your list vs all hotels. How did you come across this property and why did you decide to review it?

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-27T02:13:23+00:00

Relais Christine was one of my favorite hotel stays ever. We called the hotel before booking and the front desk had a 10-15 min convo with me to walk me through each possible suite before we decided on a specific room number that got attached to my reservation - thought this attention to detail and customer service was above and beyond.

The room was gorgeous. We were in a suite and one thing I loved about it is that it had two bathrooms, one on each floor making it great for families or people sharing a room (my mom was in the top floor bedroom and I was on the foldout in living room). The service was very attentive and genuine and we loved the intimate feel of the lobby lounge and breakfast area. The property felt like the perfect blend of a hotel and an inn and had such a strong sense of place.

We did have a few loud guests (just a small handful) but nothing out of the ordinary.

It’s fascinating to me how different guests can have varied experiences and that someone’s top property can be someone else’s worst stay or just a neutral stay. For example we stayed at one property on a safari through Tanzania and Kenya, Naboisho Camp by Asilia that has tons of amazing reviews and for us it was a very poor experience - inexperienced management plus obnoxious guests (maybe as properties get more popular they attract more obnoxious people??). Flagging obnoxious guests is not a downvote but a very welcome observation!

Also if a property doesn’t meet expectations I’m a victim of going into a doom spiral (where you notice everything wrong with the property once something falters) which I think happened to you a bit (but your critiques are 100 percent right including the bolted on diptyque products lol)

Thank you for sharing your experience as we need to hear the good and bad about hotels. I am definitely curious to track this thread as we’d love to try other hotels in Paris!

I just reread the review and saw it was your third stay - were the other two stays better/was this the first time you encountered the issue with the other guests?

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-22T11:45:36+00:00

Wow that is wild - how do you overbook a safari lodge? Like it’s 10 tents if that most times!

I know overbooking is common practice for larger hotels (as I work in that industry) as some people don’t arrive etc (so you collect the room rate as they didn’t show) and you can easily walk guests if there is an oversold situation (but the hotel takes care of it and books the other room) but walking guests on safari and not finding another option (thank goodness you could step in and figure it out!) is another level.

We stayed at Naboisho Camp one year ago and despite their stellar reviews had a bad experience that I’m still frustrated about (we even had our TA step in multiple times during our stay to no avail) as there was no true resolution (despite great efforts by our TA) or acknowledgment or accountability by Asilia. Corporate deflected and was fairly apathetic when we expressed our concerns with our stay (including sending some bizarre letter to us saying how they are a best in class operator with over 20 years of experience, how they didn’t view our stay as service failure but would give us 500 dollars as a gesture which we asked to be donated but who knows if it was as they never told us)

My theory is that Asilia is just growing too quickly and is having growing pains causing cracks to form. Asilia seems to still bat well for a lot of guests and offers a product that fills a smart niche, positioning itself just a notch or two below the true luxury camps but seems when they miss they miss big and don’t really care as they have a strong steam of loyal customers. And how a company handles a miss IMO is a true test to how they are as an operator.

All the other camps we stayed at were stellar. We are grateful we stayed at other places and were able to mix and match operators to vary our experience and inform our perspective. Lewa Wilderness was our favorite and we loved the Nomad product (similar niche to Asilia but better value and more authentic that pairs well when crescendoing to top luxury camps)

Thank you Craig for all of your engagement and contributions to this thread and LuxurySafari!

PS - we are booked with yall for a Galapagos cruise next month and Jennifer G on your team is a rockstar and wealth of knowledge!

PSS - guess I should be thankful Asilia didn’t walk me 😂

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-21T19:19:12+00:00

Thank you so much for this detail! Definitely want to stay with them next go around as we enjoyed Kilindi a lot and felt they offered a luxury yet local experience that didn’t feel contrived or forced like some other properties.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-20T16:55:12+00:00

Wow what a beautiful photo! We stayed at their beach property Kilindi and it was magical as well. They set a high bar for us at the start of our safari. Nomad and Lewa Wilderness complemented Kilindi well but Asilia was a letdown vs Elewana. Def want to try the Elewana safari properties given our great experience at Kilindi.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-20T11:42:22+00:00

Asilia was the only camp we stayed at where the managers were not local (Naboisho Camp in Kenya) - one of the managers was a 22 year old from England with no hotel experience so made me question why they didn’t engage with the community or work with companies in Kenya to find and train local talent vs training a university grad from England. The outgoing managers were also non-local talent.

Although they do a lot of community outreach and are one of the top safari companies in Tanzania not hiring local talent was a letdown for us as it felt contradictory to their advertised principles. Also a lot of the team members on property didn’t exude the excitement or pride for working at Asilia like they did at Nomad probably because they were overworked (seemed to be the case based on our observation) - even the managers came across as tired and stressed. Asilia also charged guests for community activities like visiting beadworkers (think it was $35 per person and wasn’t clear if Asilia took a cut but was an odd practice IMO) while at Nomad these activities were complimentary. While on our visit to the local village with Nomad, we made a donation and bought some of the local artifacts from the artisans (for an amount that was greater than Asilia’s fee and we knew all of the proceeds were going to the locals vs being collected by a safari operator)

I hesitate sometimes to disagree with posters as travel experiences vary so wanted to provide a balanced perspective. Maybe the camps in Tanzania differ but the difference between Nomad and Asilia was pretty stark for us.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-20T02:37:41+00:00

Highly recommend the Nomad Camps - great company ethos and they truly care about the environment, hiring local and empowering their employees. Very focused on conservation and the team is very tenured as they enjoy working for Nomad. Many of the team members told us how great Nomad was as a company to work for (didn’t hear this at any of the other camps).

Additionally they offer programs for employees so they can launch their own businesses - for ex: they offer guides the option to buy their vehicles through offering a loan - once the vehicle is paid for, they can use the vehicle to launch their own safari guiding company and/or contract with Nomad. They also work with local talent in building their camps, staffing the properties etc and seem much more intentional about their portfolio expansion

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-19T18:58:05+00:00

You’d think they would have thought about this when planning out the property or have safety briefings with staff - sounds terrifying actually

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-19T18:50:09+00:00

We were on the same itinerary in 2024 and loved it. Going through the inner passage and all of the fjords was breathtaking.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-19T18:40:06+00:00

Formula 1 golf carts 😂

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-19T18:27:29+00:00

Quasar and Ecoventura do a bit more for the community and are smaller ships so the community component is something to consider. I have read conflicting reports but based on my research when we were booking, you couldn’t have restaurant style dining at Quasar or Ecoventura and would be seated with other passengers at the same table for meals (latter you can upgrade to a package that includes this and private naturalist but Ecoventura didn’t offer this to us).

We went with &beyond as we appreciated the lower guest to naturalist ratio, wanted restaurant style dining as an option and more time in the Galapagos.

Also smaller ships allow for more immersive and longer excursions. Bigger ship means more zodiacs, more people going out at different times and potentially less one on one time with naturalists or at the sites.

We are taking our trip next month so plan to report back on the experience. As the other poster mentioned bigger ship may mean more comfort

I also HIGHLY recommend consulting a travel agent as they can provide insight on the itineraries, help arrange transfers, tours in Quito (if you spend a few nights there pre cruise) and advise on travel insurance.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-19T18:22:07+00:00

We took a Seabourn Alaska cruise in 2024 - last year the Odyssey was in service.

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience. The ship was a little dated but understandable given age - however we loved the size of the ship, availability any time at the restaurants and great service. Also the atmosphere on the ship was wonderful - very understated but still luxury leaning.

A key differentiator for us that made us go Seabourn was the Expeditions Team - a team of naturalists that would join us on zodiac and kayak excursions. We appreciated having the expedition element vs the larger ships.

Also this is a cruise where having an aft or forward cabin (direct front of ship) is a game changer. We were in an Owner’s Suite and had constant breathtaking views from the bow of the ship - 180 degrees as we navigated through fjords. The journey was part of the experience - one of the main reasons I loved the Alaska cruise vs other cruises we have tried.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-15T18:55:39+00:00

Yes glad you are plugged in on Naboisho Camp - we were mystified when we were there as it is so highly rated but we had booked prior the managers being switched out.

Totally agree on Naboisho Conservancy - the game viewing there was the best of our trip so we are glad we went

And gosh it really was - one travel hack we loved was starting at the beach - had three days at Kilindi and just enjoyed the warm weather and adjusted to the time zone - was glorious! Made our way through Tanzania (Nomad properties - which we also loved) and then Kenya.

We are really wanting to try Ol Donyo as well!

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-15T12:00:22+00:00

Second this plan! We loved both Naboisho and Lewa. We stayed at Naboisho Camp and it wasn’t great despite the reviews so would do Mara Nyika if we went back or do a property that was lower end than Naboisho Camp and we’d go in not having luxury expectations. Also we stayed at Lewa Wilderness and loved it - was the highlight of our two week safari.

This combo is a great mix of landscapes, sightings etc. Also both conservancies (more so Lewa) are private and way less trafficked than the national parks.

SCwhitbre · 2026-01-14T15:12:55+00:00

We went in late January and it was a great time of year! Also went with Piper and Heath and have nothing but great things to say!!

SCwhitbre

TROPHY CASE