UPDATE: Several media outlets are reporting that testing on the white powders found at three hotels near MetLife has proved the substances to not be hazardous. So, whew. [More]
hotels
Super Bowl Might Be A Super Bust For Area Hotels
By 1.28.14
Tickets to the Super Bowl might cost you a pretty penny, or 270,000 of them, but you can certainly find a good deal on a hotel room. The game billed as so big it needs two cities might have bitten off more than it can chew – or sell. [More]
FCC Checking With Hotels To See If Reaching Help With 9-1-1 Is As Easy As It Should Be
By 1.16.14
If you were to pick up the phone in a hotel room and dial 9-1-1, what would you get? You probably wouldn’t be in the state of mind to dial 9 first, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting in contact with emergency services as fast as possible, which is why one member of the Federal Communications Commission is looking into how it works at different hotel chains across the country. [More]
Here’s How To Override Your Hotel’s Thermostat To Achieve Optimal Climate Comfort
By 11.12.13
Walking into a hotel room that is not your very own home with the bed how you like it is often made even less welcoming when the place is a sauna or a veritable igloo. But often hotels set limits on how low and high the temperature can go, forcing guests to swelter/shiver it out. Unless you know how to tell the thermostat that you are a VIP. [More]
Innkeeper With Lodge On Federal Land Defying Gov’t Shutdown By Staying Open For Business
By 10.4.13
If a tourist needs a postcard in the forest but there’s no one around to sell it to him, it must mean the federal government is shut down. In order to provide meals, a restroom and any gift store trinkets a visitor to the Blue Ridge Parkway area might need, the innkeeper of a lodge on federal land has decided to reopen. [More]
Hotel Security Director Accused Of Setting Fires At Work So He Could Kick Back & Drink
By 9.24.13
Who hasn’t grumbled to another employee during a work fire drill whilst milling around on the sidewalk outside the office, “Well, at least we aren’t at our desks…”? Cherishing the few moments outside while the fire alarm goes off is one thing, but New York officials say the head of security at a high-end hotel went a bit too far in setting fires just so he could partake in a few drinks on the job. [More]
Why Do Hotels Give You Free Tiny Soaps, But No Tiny Toothpastes?
By 7.9.13
Airline security regulations mean that traveling with a big tube of toothpaste in your carry-on is a distant memory. Yet, in their selection of mini toiletries, hotels give us bottles of lotion and bubble bath, but not one thing that just about everyone uses: toothpaste. Why is that? No one expects them to give us toothpaste because they don’t…because no one expects them to. [More]
We Hope This Handwritten Welcome Note From Ramada Is Authentic
By 6.28.13
Any number of hotels around the world have plaques commemorating the time that a politician or movie star stayed in a particular room, but it’s not often you get a handwritten note about the time a movie star lost his lunch on a politician in that room. [More]
Are You Really Saving Money When You Get A Room From Airbnb?
By 6.18.13
Some people prefer home-sharing services like Airbnb over hotels because they would rather stay in a cozy apartment than in a sealed-up room with of a chain hotel. Others choose these services because they feel they are saving money over the cost of a traditional hotel, but how much you save — or if you’re saving at all — depends on where you stay and how you book your hotels. [More]
At Least You Won’t Get Stranded At Sea If The Cruise Ship Is Land-Bound
By 6.14.13
If you’ve found yourself entirely put off by the idea of climbing aboard a ginormous floating funhouse, for fear of say, becoming stranded at sea and wading around in sewage, but you still have a hankering for that maritime flavor, you’re in luck. A new hotel is touting itself as the world’s first cruise ship-themed accommodations. [More]
To Resolve Some Customer Service Problems, Just Call Back
By 6.13.13
When people submit their complaints to our site after a single interaction with customer service, we often ask, “Did you try calling or e-mailing back to get someone else?” It sounds deceptively simple, so simple that you might not even bother trying it. You should. It happens to work. Sometimes. [More]
Expedia Doesn’t Really Care That The 25-Acre Hawaiian Vacation Rental You Booked Is Now Closed
By 6.11.13
You go online to book a vacation through Expedia.com and there it is — your dream Hawaiian house, located on 25 secluded acres with an ocean view. So you book the 6-day package through the site and jet off with a couple of your friends for fun in the sun. But when you get there, your Pacific island fantasy is shattered. [More]
Airbnb Cancels Reservation Because You Don’t Want To Post A Video Of Yourself
By 5.30.13
One month ago, home-sharing service Airbnb began rolling out a program called Verified ID, which requires some U.S. users (and eventually people in other parts of the world) to go through a verification process that uses social media logins — either Facebook or LinkedIn — and offline proof of ID, like a scanned license or passport. But what if you don’t use Facebook or LinkedIn? [More]
Neighbors Bill Hotel $21,000 For Sleepless Nights From Noisy Parties
By 4.23.13
First we brought you a story about hotel guests unable to sleep because of noises outside the building, now it’s a tale of woe from the opposite side of the looking glass, with residents on one Manhattan street sending a bill for its sleepless nights to a neighboring hotel full of party-goers. [More]
Hotwire Landed Us In A Four-Star Hotel Under Renovation With Innovative Jackhammer Wakeup Calls
By 4.23.13
It’s nice to have your hotel provide a wakeup call, but not when you didn’t ask for it. And not with jackhammering. James had used Hotwire before for short hotel stays of a night or two, and never had any problems. So he used the site to book the hotel for his four-night vacation with his girlfriend in a warm-weather vacation spot in the United States. They were delighted that the site placed them in a nice four-star hotel, but it turned out to be a four-star hotel then under renovations. [More]
Beware, Hoarders Of Hotel Rewards Points: Book Now Before It’s Too Late
By 3.18.13
Hey, you. Yes, you, the guy with the piles and piles of hotel rewards points stacked up nice and neat. Might want to think about booking a vacation and using up those points soon, as most of the major hotel chains have either already devalued their points or will do so pretty darn soon. [More]
Would You Pay A Hotel To Tell You It’s Time For Bed?
By 3.11.13
You’ve had a busy day, you’re tired — why don’t you just shut that phone off, climb into your PJs and get yourself tucked in to bed, mister. Not everyone has a mom around to send them to bed, especially when you’re sleeping away from home, but you can pay to stay at one New York City hotel in order to get the services of a “sleep concierge.” [More]
IKEA Enlists Marriott’s Help In Assembling European Budget Hotels Using Only An Allen Key
By 3.5.13
IKEA announced last year that it wanted to build a bunch of hotels across Europe, right around the time it unveiled plans for its own district in Hamburg, Germany. And now the company is one step closer to its dream but it needs Marriott’s help. Ostensibly even it can’t decipher those wordless instructions sheets. [More]
