I've stayed at Honolulu's Halekulani many times over the years, and thought I knew everything about that resort. Except one thing, it turns out: Management offers guests free admission to six of Oahu's most popular attractions. It's on their website but they certainly don't tell you about it when you check in.
Other hotels around the world partner with local attractions and activities, offering free museum admission, walking tours, cultural experiences and other enticements to go out and explore. Any overnight guest can take part no matter what rate they book.
Most never take advantage, usually because they don't know the opportunities exist.
Guests staying at the Halekulani can visit the Bishop Museum, Doris Duke's Shangri-La, the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Iolani Palace as well as concerts by the Honolulu Symphony. A couple sharing a room get over $200 worth of local experiences for free.
At London's One Aldwych, the hotel invites guests on a free 90-minute tour of nearby Covent Garden with a nationally accredited "Blue Badge Guide," exclusively for those staying in the hotel. The tours operate every Saturday from July 7 to Sept. 29.
What's it worth? Were you to hire your own Blue Badge Guides, you'd pay about $235 for tours lasting up to four hours. As with the Halekulani, the hotel doesn't exactly crow about these tours. It was only after my third visit to One Aldwych that I noticed a brochure in the room offering them.
Also in London, the Bloomsbury Hotel offers guests a complimentary 70-minute walking tour of the culturally significant Bloomsbury neighborhood every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. Guests can learn about the 20 leafy squares in the area (the old stamping grounds of the literary Bloomsbury set) and visit the British Museum, led by a licensed Blue Badge guide.
San Francisco City Guides teams up with two hotels (the Omni and the Fairmont) to offer free walking tours. Both hotels are sponsors of the nonprofit City Guides tour company. Michael Cushing, City Guides' executive director, says that thanks to their financial support "we start a handful of our neighborhood tours from their lobby and they internally promote them."