Travel guru Peter Greenberg shares three useful and unexpected questions that can make a huge difference when booking a hotel room. Inside, learn how to avoid digs next to the inevitable construction and instead score the room with a shower strong enough to clean a stinky elephant.
hotels
Hotel Monaco Denver Doesn't Care What Happened, They're Locking You Out Of Your Room, Enjoy Your Business Trip
By 3.6.08
Rebecca is—as this story is being posted—locked out of her room at the Hotel Monaco in Denver, Colorado, where she’s attending a work related conference. She accidentally left her wallet and cell phone in her husband’s car on the way to the airport, so she’s trying to make do with a passport and debit card that she had on her when she realized what had happened. Hotel Monaco told her she had to have the room paid for by 5pm today, but while she was attending the conference this morning they changed their minds and locked her out at 12 noon.
Comfort Suite's Shady "Energy Surcharge" Costs You $144
By 3.2.08
Reader ds143 wrote in with a reminder to ask hotels about added fees before reserving a room. He booked a six-night stay at the Comfort Suites in the Bahamas for his family of four without realizing that the hotel levied a $6 per person, per night “energy surcharge.” The financial sucker punch set ds143 back $144.
Violating A Hotel's No Smoking Policy Could Cost You $250
By 2.23.08
Hotels are starting to to hit smokers with hefty fines for violating their no smoking policies. Take Dan Cole. He didn’t light up in his non-smoking Marriott room, honest. Those butts in his garbage can? Um, he smoked them somewhere else and threw them out in the room?
Watch Out For These 14 Hidden Hotel Fees
By 2.18.08
Fodor’s posted another helpful list of hidden hotel fees to beware of the next time you travel. In most cases, these fees fall under the practice of “negative option billing,” meaning that there’s an assumption you’ve used the related service and therefore agree to the charge. If that’s not the case—or, in the case of gratuities, if you’ve already tipped—you should definitely ask the hotel to remove such fees from your bill.
By 1.31.08
../../../..//2008/01/31/man-manages-to-stay-at/
Man manages to stay at what he describes as the most ghetto Sheraton in the world. How bad was it? Well, it’s called the “Sheraton-Miami-Mart.” Yes, “Mart,” and it has the same high level of quality, cleanliness, and accommodations that you would expect from any place with “Mart” as a suffix. [Shankman]
Sensor Detects If You Move Anything On Minibar, Charges You
By 1.28.08
Upgrade: Travel Better writes that hotels are using motion sensors and scales to charge you if you even move an item from your room’s minibar. Here is what one such device looks like at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas. Say you want to check out the nutritional information on the package. Or look at it. Or you pick one up and change your mind. You could get charged an extra $100 for food you didn’t even eat. The safest bet is to just not touch the hotel minbar. Or even think about it. No doubt they’re working on sensors to detect that and charge you for it as well. [More]
Is Expedia Censoring Negative Reviews?
By 1.24.08
Expedia flatly refused to post my review. I have followed their rules, but they have repeatedly told me they won’t post it because I’m not following the rules. They will not tell me which rule I didn’t follow.
Marriott Fails: Hotel Still Under Construction, Leaves Your Door Wide Open, No Hot Water
By 1.10.08
Reader Allan stays at Marriott hotels a lot. He has platinum status, meaning that he stays at Marriott hotels for more than 75 days a year. One might think this level of loyalty would mean that he’d get a response to his complaint letter.
10 Annoying Hidden Hotel Fees
By 11.20.07
Forbes Traveler has compiled a list of the top 10 most annoying hidden hotel fees. We’re not exactly jetsetters or anything so a few of them were news to us.
Watch Out For Bedbugs When Traveling
By 11.13.07
The next time you’re in a hotel, whether it’s a cheap day-rate one for your sad little affair or a luxurious business suite that the company has unwittingly paid for, check to see whether the mattress has an “allergy free” cover on it—it’s a codeword for “bedbug-proof.” Also, if you see trained beagles roaming the hotel sniffing out mold, there’s a good chance the “mold” is another codeword for “bedbug.” Hotels are quietly doing their best to locate and exterminate the insects to protect themselves from particularly vengeful lawsuits—but since an infestation can occur anywhere (it has nothing to do with “cleanliness” or sanitation), it’s a tough battle to win.
Secret Camera Investigation: Every Single Hotel Failed To Wash Your Cups And Glasses
By 11.7.07
Fox Atlanta set up secret cameras inside 5 different hotel chains from the Holiday Inn to the Ritz Carlton (shown above) and caught every single one of them failing to properly wash the room’s glasses.
When Business Traveling In London, Watch Out For Naked Sleepwalkers
By 10.26.07
Travelodge, which runs more than 300 budget business hotels in the UK, is training its staff on how to respond to the 70% surge in the past year of naked men sleepwalking through their hotels: “One tip in the company’s newly released ‘sleepwalkers guide’ tells staff to keep towels handy at the front desk in case a customer’s dignity needs preserving.” The sleepwalkers have been reported asking questions like, “Where’s the bathroom?,” “Do you have a newspaper?” and “Can I check out, I’m late for work?”
With Imaginary Mold, Sheraton Cancels 30 Wedding Guest Reservations For International Figure Skaters
By 10.12.07
“My sister is getting married in Reading, PA on October the 27th and we booked approximately 30 hotel rooms at the Sheraton Hotel in Wyomissing, PA for out-of-town guests. The groom is from Washington state, so there are a significant number of people traveling across the country. The block of rooms was reserved well over a year in advance and all of the individual reservations were made with months to spare. There is a large figure skating competition in the area (Skate America) that same weekend, and hotel rooms are nearly impossible to come by at this point within a 45 minute drive. Late last week my mom called the Sheraton to check in on the reservations (as she had done multiple times prior given the aforementioned dearth of hotel rooms in the area for that weekend to ensure that nothing like this would occur) and was told they had canceled all of the hotel rooms in the block including the bridal suite.”
New Farecast Service Tells You Whether That Hotel Rate Is Really A Deal
By 9.13.07
Farecast.com is testing a great new feature that evaluates a hotel’s given rate, then tells you how much of a deal it really is when compared to past quotes and fares at similar hotels, says the New York Times:
The $179 rate for a room at the Hyatt Regency was listed as “average” because it was 28 percent more expensive than rates at that hotel on the same date in past months, according to Farecast. It was also 13 percent more than recent Friday-to-Monday stays at the same hotel.
Marriott Ruined My Wedding Night!
By 9.8.07
“I got married over Labor Day weekend in North Chicago, Illinois. We did a lot of advance legwork to set up a hotel for our guests that was close to the venue and convenient. Our wedding venue recommended the Marriott Courtyard in Waukegan/Gurnee. It was more expensive then the other hotels in the area and a bit further away, but they offered something irresistible– a free shuttle to and from the wedding venue for all of our guests staying there. Since we had been contemplating hiring vans to shuttle our guests around so no one would drive drunk, this was a no-brainer. Plus, the Marriott has a good brand name and we felt confident things would go smoothly.
Hotels Resist The Urge To Snooze Though Wake Up Calls
By 8.9.07
A special circle of hell is reserved for hotels that fail to rouse their guests with a promised wake-up call. Technophobic travelers rely on the traditional front desk ping; programming the ubiquitous hotel room alarm clock is a weighty task many find more complicated than filling out taxes or setting a VCR, according to a 2005 survey. Hotels are noticing that missed wake-up calls are their Achilles Heel, and some are taking corrective action.
By 7.17.07
../../../..//2007/07/17/now-this-is-what-you/
Now this is what you call a “higher” level of customer service… [Pizdas]
