What’s better than a beachfront all-suite luxury hotel in Maui? That would be a beachfront all-suite luxury hotel in Maui that’s offering a 50 percent discount.

That description currently fits both The Fairmont Kea Lani resort and The Whaler on Kaanapali Beach. Both are undergoing renovations, and both have ‘Pardon our Dust’ offers.

The Fairmont Kea Lani

In fact, The Fairmont Kea Lani has a whole bunch of renovation packages. There’s a basic ‘Renovation with Aloha’ package which includes accommodations in a 1-bedroom luxury suite or a villa, with rates from $219 per night.

The $219 rate is a far cry from their usual $439 per night. Valid for stays until Dec 16, 2011. Then there’s also a ‘Renovation with Aloha Breakfast’ package and a ‘Renovation with Aloha Golf’ package too.

Apart from the spectacular Polo Beach and the beach-front suites and villas, The Fairmont Kea Lani offers complimentary transportation service to the adjacent Wailea Golf Club, tennis courts and shops at the Wailea Shopping Center.

Wailea Golf Course & Island Cabana at The Fairmont Kea Lani

The resort has three pools, two of which are connected by a 140-ft waterslide and have neat places to hang out like an island cabana in the middle of the pool. Then there’s the famous Spa Kea Lani and a 24-hour fitness center, a bakery and a deli and four other restaurants including the famed Ko.

Guests get complimentary self-parking, don’t have to pay a resort fee, and those with kids under 5 can save on meals with the ‘Kids Eat Free’ program.

As for the Whaler on Kaanapali Beach, their construction special includes accommodations in a 640 sq ft studio suite at a nightly rate of $168, which is a big discount on the standard $300 rate for this suite. Two night minimum stay required, and the package is valid from now until Dec 21, 2011.

Oh, and you also get a free pineapple and free access to the resort’s DVD collection. The Whaler on Kaanapali Beach, located minutes from Lahaina and directly across from two championship golf courses, offers private access to the shops and restaurants at Whalers Village.

Their studio and 1 & 2 bedroom suites include fully-equipped kitchens and private lanais. You get free in-room high speed internet, and there’s a children’s program called “Camp Kaanapali” nearby that is open to all guests staying at the hotel.

Photos – Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

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There’s trouble brewing in paradise this weekend. It’s all that Karma, or is it Carmageddon? The Sepulveda pass section of the 405 Freeway is being closed for 53 hours, choking off traffic in Los Angeles.

From 7 pm Friday to 5 am Monday, half a million vehicles that use the gridlocked pass will have to find another way in or out (Jetblue is offering $4 flights…). The city is advising people to stay put, or as Tom Hanks puts it – “Grid-lock-apalooza! STAY HOME. Eat & shop local!”

Fairmont Miramar Hotel, Santa Monica

For those who would rather escape the gridlock, a number of hotels from Santa Monica and Los Angeles to Newport Beach and Las Vegas are offering Carmageddon 405 escape hotel deals.

Fairmont Miramar Hotel, Santa Monica: The $405 ‘Live Like a Local’ package offers a ’405 free weekend’ with deluxe accommodations, overnight parking and poolside relaxation at the hotel’s Beach Club.  Valid for the month of July 2011.

Fairmont Newport Beach: The Fairmont’s ‘Escape the LA Gridlock’ package includes overnight accommodations, 40% off on a 60-minute massage or facial treatments at the hotel spa, 2 cocktails, complimentary valet parking and a late 4 pm checkout. Valid July 15-17, with rates from $139.

Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas: The aptly priced $405 Carmageddon package includes 2 or 3 nights in the hotel’s casino tower, a complimentary cabana and VIP access to Vanity Nighclub. Package valid July 15-17. For more details or booking, call 800-343-4346 and use promo code ‘HCARMA.’

Hotel Palomar Los Angeles: Their Carmageddon weekend package includes complimentary parking, $40.05 dining credit and $4.05 specialty cocktails. Just call (800) 472-8556 and ask for the Carmageddon package.

Mammoth Mountain: Their $405 package includes a 3 night stay in your choice of lodging from the available options, which are the The Mammoth Mountain Inn, Tamarack Lodge & Resort, Juniper Springs Resort and The Village Lodge. The package is valid July 13 – 17, 2011 and you can add additional nights for $135/night, if you want.

Sheraton LAX: Plan a relaxing weekend with a stay at Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel and enjoy rates starting from $99. Valid July 15-17, 2011. For more details or booking, call (866) 716-8134 and use promo code ‘CARMAGDN.’

Newport Beach alone has six hotels (including the Fairmont and the Island Hotel) offering Carmageddon deals and packages. There are even more Los Angeles hotels, restaurants, bars and shopping centers offering all kinds of deals that are mapped out here.

Photo – Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

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When you tote up the cost of wi-fi and parking and a gazillion other items that guests are forced to pay for in a hotel, the final tab looks very different from the “best available rate.”

But that’s not the way the money goes at six hotels in the Big Easy that are part of the New Orleans Hotel Collection. This bunch is offering guests everything they need at a single price, in a summer travel promo called POP (Pay one Price).

Bourbon Orleans Hotel

The participating hotels include:

1. Bourbon Orleans Hotel

2. Dauphine Orleans Hotel

3. St. Louis Hotel

4. Wyndham Riverfront New Orleans

5. Hotel Le Marais

6. Crowne Plaza New Orleans Airport

The promo includes free valet parking, free continental breakfast, free wireless internet, free shopping coupons (valued at $250), and free in-room bottled water and coffee. And you get a free welcome drink on arrival.

With some very nice and historic hotels located mostly in the French Quarter, rates starting from $99, and no extras or hidden fees, it looks like a pretty good deal.

The Bourbon Orleans Hotel is a historic French Quarter hotel near St. Louis Cathedral, and they have suites that offer balconies overlooking Bourbon Street. The Dauphine, also historic and in the French Quarter, offers a palm-filled courtyard and private saltwater pools.

If anything, the St. Louis Hotel located half a block from the jazz clubs and nightlife of Bourbon Street, has an even more lush and tropical courtyard, and the award-winning Louis XVI Restaurant.

If historic French buildings and decor is not your thing, then Hotel Le Marais is a newish hotel in the French Quarter which has a trendy bar and a thing for purple, like the high-tech airport pod hotels or the Virgin America planes.

Whatever the choice, if you want to POP over to one of these hotels in New Orleans for the summer, then call (855) 798-6642 and mention the promo code POP. Or book online here.

Photo – New Orleans Hotel Collection

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June 30 has been ‘declared’ as Social Media Day by the folks at Mashable, who want everyone to socialize with meet-ups and tweet-ups and any other ups you can think of. Many hotel companies seem to have been afflicted with this social bug.

Social Media Day hotel promo

Fairmont says “Make your June 30th Happy With an Appy.” Appy, in this case, is an appetizer. All you have to do is drop by any participating Fairmont bar or lounge and nosh on a tasty appetizer.

Oh, and you’ll need to say the secret password to your server to get your appy. What’s the password? “Go Social.” Go figure…

Hilton Garden Inn timed the launch of a new ad campaign pretty well. It makes use of the abbreviated texting, email and social media lingo that is creeping into everyday language – things like EOD, ROI, TCB and B&B.

Judy Christa-Cathey, vice president, global brand marketing, Hilton Garden Inn, explains that “Our new 2011 advertising campaign not only understands the language of a traveler, but shows we speak their language.”

And the campaign’s name? “We Speak Success.” Oh, and HGI also launched an eCard Facebook app which allows you to poke people who “speak too much success.”

Radisson Edwardian’s London and Manchester hotels have created a late checkout promo for Social Media Day, available until July 31. When you arrive at their hotel, check-in via Facebook or Foursquare and show the staff at the hotel’s check-in desk that you also checked in on your smartphone. That gives you 2 hours more over the standard checkout time.

The promo name? “Check in, check out later.” Check it out here.

If you’re looking for more social media day hotel deals like these, HotelChatter has seven of them listed here, including the aforementioned Fairmont appy.

Photo – Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

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