Members of the Hyatt Gold Passport Club may soon find themselves gifted with perks ranging from comped meals to free spa services that they didn’t anticipate. But then again, they may not receive anything at all.

If it sounds kinda random, that’s because it is. In fact, the hotel brand’s latest marketing effort relies on “random acts of generosity,” the New York Times reports.

Drummed up by Hyatt as a new way to instill loyalty, the plan gives hotel managers the freedom to choose when and where they dole out the unexpected little extras to Gold Passport members.

And, while these perks will no doubt be welcomed by those who receive them, others have pointed out that members who know of the new initiative and depart Hyatt hotels without any special extras may very well feel shortchanged.

If you’ve received any free services during a recent Hyatt stay, leave a comment. We’d love to know what perks came your way through the new program.

[Photo: Hyatt Harborside]

In the annual showdown among the nation’s best bathrooms put on as part of the America’s Best Restroom challenge, two hotels have made the list. Vying for top honors are Baltimore’s Tremont Plaza Hotel, whose lobby restroom (pictured) impresses with imported marble and stately columns, and The Drake in Chicago. Palm tree murals, makeup tables in the stalls and elegant lighting fixtures are among the notable features hiding out in the Palm Court ladies restroom at The Drake.

Both hotels have a lot more to them than plush powder rooms. TravelPost hotel reviews report that the all-suite Tremont Plaza promises a good location that’s convenient to local attractions, large rooms, comfortable beds and extra touches like televisions on the cardio machines in the fitness room. Critical reviews focused on spotty service, what we’ll gently refer to as negative impressions of cleanliness and expensive parking rates.

At the Drake, many reviewers love the Gold Coast hotel’s historic ambiance, but just as many complain that the hotel’s glowing reputation as one of Chicago’s best lodging options is undeserved, thanks to extra fees for services such as Internet access and use of the gym, outdated interiors and cranky staff members.

Have you stayed at either hotel? Give us your take with a quick hotel review.

With roughly 116 years in the hospitality industry under its belt, The Pfister Hotel has had plenty of occasion to impress its guests. Some, it seems, may have liked the downtown landmark so much that they’ve chosen it for their eternal stomping grounds.

Unidentified noises at night, unexplained lights passing through rooms and ghostly apparitions peering into the lobby are a few of the eerie happenings reported by former guests. Most recently, Major League Baseball players have amped up the haunted hotel rumors with claims that they’ve witnessed strange and uncanny happenings while staying in the downtown hotel.

Whether ghosts roam the historic property’s hallowed halls, we know not. But here’s what we can tell you: TravelPosters praise the hotel for its martini lounge Blu, convenient location near downtown Milwaukee bars and restaurants and for having the kind of grand old ambiance not found in chain properties. We’re betting recent renovations to rooms and public spaces have gone a long way toward improving a not-so-hot smell reported in some hotel reviews, but we can’t be sure. And while the hotel may have its roots in the Victorian era, don’t expect to find buttoned-up sensibilities dominating the place. Female guests who belly up to the Blu bar wearing fishnet stockings on Friday nights are gifted with half-priced martinis.

No word on whether the special applies to all, or just the living.

The Dorchester certainly can’t lay claim to being one of London’s hippest hotels (the decor is decidedly old school and buttoned-up), but it’s unquestionably one of the UK city’s poshest places to stay. Not surprisingly, celebrities flock here when London’s calling. The latest example? Britney Spears.

For her hotly-anticipated return to London as part of The Circus tour, Spears has chosen the hotel as her home base. That much shouldn’t raise an eyebrow. But the list of requests Spears reportedly sent to the hotel in advance of her stay is getting attention all its own this week since it was leaked to the press.

Among Spears’ supposed requirements:

- A room that’s never housed a smoker (good luck on that – it’s been around almost 80 years)

- Multiple humidifiers

- Chick lit

- Marilyn Monroe movies

- Multiple routes to and from the hotel in order to avoid the paps

All in all, fairly reasonable requests, don’t you think? Perhaps the funniest thing we read is that the singer might check in under the assumed name Sugar Kane (after Marilyn in Some Like it Hot). But then, subtlety has never been her strong suit…..

Keep reading the TravelPost Insider for more celebrity travel news….

Want to snag one of the $20 per night rooms the Hippodrome Hotel in Mexico City is offering through its Small Help for Crisis rate inspired by Obama?

You won’t find them available on the hotel’s own web site. To book, you’ll have to go through Expedia. Given what a great deal this is (Hippodrome’s rates typically hover around $150-$200 a night), it’s not surprising that the Expedia rate calendar shows most of the dates have already been scooped up by travelers hungry for a deal in Mexico City’s La Condesa neighborhood.

But a look today revealed a handful of nights still available in May, June and July and a wide-open calendar for October and November 2009. A two-night maximum is part of the deal, reportedly because the owners worried (and rightly so) some savvy travelers would rent the room out by the month.

To see which days are available, visit the hotel via the Expedia link above, then select flexible dates to see the available nights on the rate calendar.

Wait, wait. There are more hotel deals where this one came from….

For travelers who still want to throw down big bucks during their next hotel stay, one Phoenix hotel has a new way to spend extravagantly and discreetly at the same time.

The Ritz-Carlton Phoenix (pictured) found a long-forgotten bottle of Courvoisier L’Esprit, a rare cognac and one of only three bottles of the stuff thought to be within the United States, and is offering it up to guests at the hotel bar for $500 per one-ounce pour.

So the story goes, the bottle was discovered in the hotel’s wine cellar by accident and is believed to have been bought approximately 15 years ago.

For cognac connoisseurs coveting the hand-cut crystal bottle and its contents, it reportedly can be had for $9,500. That’s because no one has taken the bar up on the $500 pour offer yet. Go figure.

Move over snow globes, postcards and shot glasses emblazoned with florescent palm trees. There’s a a whole new breed of hotel souvenir setting up shop in Miami. Instead of the tacky take-homes cluttering most hotel gift shop shelves, the Mondrian South Beach has opted for an alternative with as much ooh-la-la appeal as its high-design interiors.

The Mondrian’s Semi-Automatic vending machine offers visitors to the South Beach hotel an array of sleek, sexy items priced from $10 to $1.2 million, the AP reports. Press a button on the machine located in the hotel’s posh lobby, and you could head home with such memorable items as 24 karat gold handcuffs, a dress by Jean Paul Gaultier, a sunset dinner cruise for two or even a Bentley Azure Convertible.

The Morgan Hotel Group apparently has plans to roll out more of the souped-up vending machines at its other hotel properties in the hopes of helping guests feel like “rock stars.” And while the recession may prevent many guests from pulling the trigger on expensive items, the word-of-mouth buzz the machines are creating for the hotel are worth their cost in advertising dollars alone….

Have you visited the Mondrian South Beach? Tell us about your stay.

Keep reading for more unusual travel news….

One of the most prominent trends in hotels these days also happens to be one of the riskiest guest-pleasing gambles to hit the travel industry in the last decade. Open bathrooms are increasingly common in hotels around the world, but, as the New York Times points out, the allure of such a room feature shifts dramatically depending on the circumstances. Traveling solo? Why not bask in the freedom of an open bathroom with transparent glass walls? But when you’re an adult sharing the room with dear old dad…not so much. Even for many couples, see-through walls and exposed toilets offer a little too much information.

While some hotels boast about their bare-it-all bathrooms, just what kind you’ll encounter upon arrival is often a mystery that unravels only after check-in.

Here, a handful of hotels with open bathrooms and their various features:

Hotel le Germain – A shade with automatic blinds (pictured above) allows guests at the Toronto hotel to gaze into the bedroom from the bathroom, while a transparent glass wall separates bathroom and bedroom and leaves the shower visible from the main room.

The Tides – This Miami hotel offers glass showers that are visible from the bedrooms.

Radisson Edwardian Leicester Square – This London hotel offers rooms with glass-walled bathrooms.

Renaissance Beijing Hotel – The bathrooms at this Beijing hotel have glass walls and exposed toilets.

Sanderson Hotel - Bathrooms entirely encased in glass walls let guests see it all at this trendy London hotel.

Mandarin Oriental Miami – Some rooms have glass walls that leave the toilet visible from the bedroom.

Have you stayed at a hotel with an open bathroom? Why not review it for us?

Looking for a free vacation? One new German hotel may charge you to stay overnight, but a getaway there promises to be quite free in other ways.

When it opens later this year, the 32-room Hotel Rosengarten will become Germany’s first nude hotel catering solely to those willing to shed clothing for the duration of their stay in the Black Forest region. The project from entrepreneur Frider Haferkorn is designed to attract the growing European population of naturists, those who believe mingling in the buff is, well, just plain better. Going farther than merely clothing-optional, the hotel plans to require guests to remain naked while they are in the hotel and on the grounds. Let’s hope they have some powerful heaters on the premises come winter.

Just don’t expect any funny business at the hotel. Any acts of a sexual nature are banned from hotel common areas, and cameras are only allowed with the permission of those appearing in the photos. What’s more, the hotel’s house rules even go so far as to ask guests to assert their allegiance to the nudist movement, according to a recent BBC story about the hotel.

The hotel is expected to be a hit with nude hiking enthusiasts who frequent the area. As for that adventurous pasttime, we’ll leave you to research that one on your own….

Keep reading for more unusual travel news…

- We hear that the Rabbit Hill Inn (pictured) in Vermont is offering one getaway each month to guests who have been laid off for six months or more.

- No wonder Hawaiian tourism officials are so peeved at SNL. The island destination is reportedly struggling to attract tourists. The latest bad news? Hawaii hotels are battling the biggest drop in hotel rates in 16 years.

- One man finds out that a lifetime travel pass from American Airlines really only means about 20 years.

- A Yale student hit US Airways with a $1 million lawsuit over a missing Xbox 360 game console. Hey, a kid’s gotta have his games.

- Thanks to a worsening economy, Delta plans to reduce international capacity by an additional 10 percent on top of a 6-8 percent system-wide downsizing taking place this year.

- Heading to South America? Get a lesson in how not to drink psychedelic ayahuasca tea from a Gadling writer.

- Campgrounds are officially open now that spring has sprung in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

- Perhaps realizing that teens just about anywhere will be teens when given the chance, France is thinking about raising its legal drinking age to 18.

- NileGuide gives us the lowdown on the best travel sandals. We’ll second their plea that you not wear them with socks.