As a special thank you to members of our armed forces, more than 500 bed and breakfasts in the U.S. and Canada are offering free rooms to veterans on Nov. 10, the night before Veterans Day. [More]
hotels
Solar Death Ray Broils Las Vegas Hotel Guests
By 9.28.10
Guests at the Vdara hotel in Las Vegas are complaining about getting cooked to a crisp. The hotel is a glass skyscraper, and the way it reflects the sun magnifies the rays, raising temps on areas it hits by as much as 20 to 30 degrees. The result can cause plastic cups and plastic newspaper bags to melt, and it’s definitely not comfortable to have it on you sizzling you up. The hotel is aware of the problem and is trying to deal with it, namely by putting out more umbrellas. Definitely a good reason to check out the online reviews before booking a hotel. [More]
Holiday Inn Manager: If You Book Through Priceline, You're A "Bad Customer"
By 9.24.10
Discount travel websites can provide amazing discounts, but can also make you a second-class consumer of sorts–particularly in hotels. Jesse learned this the hard way when he booked a stay at a Holiday Inn in a major American city. He tells Consumerist that he reserved his room through Priceline, and called the hotel to make sure that his reservation would include two double beds for the four people traveling. He checked in to find a single queen bed in the room. His mistake? According to the hotel manager, being a “bad customer” who booked through a third-party site. [More]
Kid Gets Herpes From Condom He Found In Hotel Room
By 9.22.10
Last month we wrote about the 4-year-old boy in Atlanta who mistook a used condom in a hotel room for a balloon and put it in his mouth. An STD test confirmed the family’s suspicions that the boy contracted herpes from the condom. [More]
Couple: Negative TripAdvisor Review Get Us Tossed From Hotel
By 9.21.10
A pair of vacationers in the UK say they recently got the boot from a hotel in the seaside town of Blackpool after the manager accused them of writing a negative review on travel site TripAdvisor.com. [More]
Hotels Testing Lower Price For Lower Quality WiFi Access
By 9.16.10
For those of us that live and die by our laptops, WiFi access at hotels is often a necessary — and occasionally costly — evil. But some hotels are now experimenting with pricing levels that offer guests a discount if they’re willing to accept a lesser internet connection. [More]
Hyatt Charges Asthmatic Woman $250 For Smoking, Says It Has Secret Photos
By 9.8.10
A woman who stayed at a Hyatt in Milwaukee last month was hit with an extra $250 charge for smoking in her room. The problem, she says, is that she has severe asthma–she offered to show Hyatt her prescriptions–and is not a smoker. When she complained to Hyatt, the hotel’s director of operations told her “the Hyatt had photographic evidence of smoking in the room and would absolutely not refund her money.” [More]
Minnesota County Doesn't Want Employees To Even Have Option Of Watching Hotel Porn
By 9.7.10
The notion of business travelers being forbidden from purchasing X-rated pay-per-view isn’t anything new. The erotic offerings are — so we hear — more expensive than other titles and very few employers want to foot the bill for them. But Winona County, MN, doesn’t just want to tell municipal employees not to order hotel porn; they don’t even want them staying at hotels that offer smutty selections. [More]
Should We Confront The Bellman About Stealing Our Camera?
By 8.30.10
One our readers was staying at a hotel and the friendly bellhop brought his luggage, including his camera case, up to his room, while he parked the car. When our reader got to the room, the camera was gone. [More]
That Free Balloon In Your Hotel Room May Be A Used Condom
By 8.27.10
Kids: don’t try to blow up balloons that you find on the floor. Or anywhere that’s not from a sealed package. A 4-year-old boy awaits sexually transmitted disease tests in Atlanta after he did just that. He mistook a previous guest’s used condom for a balloon, tried to blow it up, and became mysteriously ill shortly afterward, with a fever and mysterious white bumps in his mouth. [More]
Holiday Inn Will Pay Your Baggage Fees If You Stay With Them
By 8.24.10
In an attempt to alleviate the annoyance of checked baggage fees, all while drumming up some business, Holiday Inn — along with other IHG-brand hotels — will pay up to $50 of your fees if you book a weekend stay with your Visa card. [More]
Ritz-Carlton: Sorry, We Meant $580, Not $58
By 8.10.10
Over at Christopher Elliott’s blog there’s a story of a guy who booked a great deal at Travelocity. A little too great — it was a typo. Someone forgot to add a zero on the end of the room rate. [More]
Hotels.com Screws Me Out Of Price-Matching Guarantee Because They're Too Busy
By 8.10.10
Last week, Consumerist reader Kenny needed to book a hotel for a few nights and decided to use Hotels.com, in part because of the site’s Price Match Guarantee. But when Kenny found a lower rate and attempted to take advantage of the guarantee, Hotels.com was just too busy to get around to his request. [More]
Starwood American Express Card Hikes Annual Fee To $65
By 8.6.10
The annual fee for the Starwood American Express card is going up from $45 to $65. Is it worth the price to pay for the right to use a credit card? [More]
Are Travel Boycotts Hurting Arizona Hotels? Will They?
By 7.28.10
The controversial immigration law passed by Arizona’s government back in April has lead to over 20 organizations (including cities, towns, school districts, churches and universities) joining a travel boycott of the state. But is it hurting business? Too soon to tell, says USAToday. [More]
Hotel Pools That Make Us Want To Weep With Longing
By 7.17.10
Is it getting hot out there or is it just us? For those trapped in urban jungles with nary a public pool, much less a simple lawn sprinkler, cooling off with water in the summer can seem like an impossibility. So why not torture our overheated senses just a little bit more with a slideshow of amazing hotel pools? [More]
Is "Consideration" The Magic Word For Getting A Refund?
By 7.9.10
Is using the word “consideration” in customer service interactions a magic incantation that opens up doors to a world of refunds, rebates, and discounts? [More]
Hackers Love Stealing Your Credit Card From Hotels
By 7.6.10
Make sure you check your credit card for suspicious charges after you use it at a hotel. A new study finds that 38% of credit card hacking cases involved hotels, way ahead of any other industry. [More]
