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Found 6 results

  1. When I travel alone, I generally opt out of daily housekeeping, using it at most every other day. This fairly recent trend, "Green Housekeeping" and its myriad of other names, is billed as 'helping to save the environment,' and I suppose it contributes to some small degree. But the reason I use it has nothing to do with the environment; it's to give the cleaning staff - probably overworked and underpaid - a break. The important thing with this strategy is to tip on housekeeping days (including check-out day) as if you had gotten housekeeping each day; otherwise, you're just kidding yourself that you're helping. I've never really discussed this with anyone before. I suppose if I was traveling with someone, I'd use housekeeping more liberally, but since I travel alone, I can live with reusing my towel, and pulling up my own linens. That's my rationale - am I giving these people a mini-paid vacation? Or am I accomplishing nothing whatsoever? I am aware that my tips go disproportionately into one person's pocket, with nothing going into another's, and that does bother me some, but I figure if everyone did this, in the long run it would all even out. Plus, the hotel wouldn't be featuring it if it didn't benefit them, so they want you to do it (I'm not assuming the "hotel's best interest" equals the "cleaning staff's best interest" - I'm not *that* naive - my guess is that when enough people begin taking the hotels up on this policy, they can reduce the number of housekeeping staff, thus saving on labor costs). In a related article, "Be Wary when the Travel Industry Says a Policy is 'for Your Own Good'" by Christopher Elliott on washingtonpost.com
  2. Has there been an industry-wide move towards earlier checkout times? I've noticed recently (in the past year or so) that hotels seem to have become more-and-more aggressive in enforcing 11 AM checkouts. Example: I just called the front desk at a Marriott, and asked what time checkout was (11 AM), and when I requested a late checkout, I was advised that anything after 12:30 PM would result in an additional charge (and I'm a Bonvoy member). It also seems that Housekeeping is charged with being the first-line of enforcement, rapping on your door at 11:30 AM regardless of whether or not there's a "Do Not Disturb" sign.
  3. Just so people can have a rough approximation of star ratings, here is our ranking system, along with the percentage of all hotels that would meet the category - note that 50% of all hotels in the world would get 3 stars. Our members tend towards being educated and affluent, so restaurants and hotels are often focal points of vacations. Our younger members, even though they're just starting out, often take some extra time to find hotels of charm or utility, even though they might not be expensive. In other words, many of our readers skew "higher" than the norm in terms of finding nicer hotels and dining at interesting restaurants. Price doesn't factor into the star ratings, although it should be mentioned prominently in your reviews. There are plenty of overpriced, 4-star hotels in this world, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve 4-stars; just make sure and mention that they aren't a good value. "The Truth" is usually complex, and our members are intelligent enough to understand that - make sure to write for an intelligent audience. 1 = Avoid at all costs. Insects, filth. (Think: Motel Hell) 5% 2 = Would not stay again, but not Armageddon bad. (Think: A run-down Motel 6, slight odors of rodenticide, etc.) 20% 3 = Your average, clean business hotel. (Think: A clean Econo-Lodge up to a moderate Hilton or Hyatt with a restaurant, a gym, and other nice amenities - half of every hotel in the world fits into this category) 50% 4 = Lovely, Distinctive, and worth going out of your way for a stay (Think: A *really* nice corporate hotel, or any independent with a high to very high level of charm) 20% 5 = The best of the best, and a destination in-and-of itself (Think: A resort in Bali) 5% This is a 10 x 20 matrix-graphic of how many of each rating should exist for every hotel in the world: 5 4444 4444 4444 4444 3333333333 <------------------------ You can see from this that a 3-star Hotel can be very good! 3333333333 3333333333 3333333333 3333333333 <------------------------- There is a very wide range of leeway and error in 3-star Hotels. 3333333333 3333333333 3333333333 3333333333 3333333333 <------------------------ You can see from this that a 3-star Hotel can be quite mediocre.. 2222 2222 2222 2222 1 4s and 3s will probably account for 90% of our ratings, given the level of income and education of our members. 4s should be considered as "telling people they should really, *really* think about staying here." 3s should be considered as "perfectly fine, perhaps very good, but not memorable - might stay again, but not the focal point of the trip." 2s should be considered as "warnings." Note: An honorable, clean, inexpensive hostel for students would get 3 stars, not 2. 1s should be considered as "notices to the health department." 5s should be considered as "resorts for people who collect yachts." Only people who have actually stayed at the hotel, or who have intimate knowledge of it, should issue star ratings. If you have family or friends who operate a hotel *that you're familiar with*, please feel free to write about it - just disclose your affiliation. People will appreciate your honesty, and welcome your recommendation - as long as you're forthright: I can't stress how important that last clause is. Hotels for individual cities we cover can be found within those cities. All other hotels can be found here in our Hotel Index. Pictures speak a thousand words, and before you unpack your bags, please take pictures of your room. Example.
  4. These "guaranteed lowest prices" are a load of baloney. They're only based on prices that are available to *everyone*, so if you're an AAA or AARP member, these booking services refuse to match those rates. If the hotel is running a "special" for whatever reason, the booking services will often not even match those prices. The "Stay 10 nights, get 1 free" deal is nice (it amounts to almost a 10% discount), but I just kept finding lower prices elsewhere, and after about the third time that they refused to price-match, I said "to hell with it." On one occasion, I literally *double-paid* for a room (once to hotels.com, once to the hotel itself) because I went through such a hassle getting a refund that it was worth the extra $100 (or so) to just forget about it. The hotel, although sympathetic to my plight (they genuinely felt sorry for me), simply couldn't refund my hotels.com reservation (which they couldn't find), since I paid hotels.com and not them (although I ended up paying them too). hotels.com customer service wrote me back and said that since I stayed in the hotel, they wouldn't refund my money. Are you *kidding* me? Of *course* I stayed in the hotel. The discount is also not as great as it sounds, since you get the room cost only (you still have to pay the taxes which are considerable). This isn't unreasonable; I just thought I'd mention it. Joe is right: Book with the hotel, or the airline, or the rental car agency - directly. I've learned my lesson, and after I cash in my free stays, I'm done showing any loyalty to hotels.com (I was a Gold Member up until recently, which requires 30 stays in a 12-month period). Whose loss is that: mine or theirs? I'm making this a separate thread about hotels.com since I've stayed over 60 nights using them in the past three years, and feel like I'm qualified to voice an intelligent viewpoint - I suspect other booking services are similar, but I can only really say all these things for sure about them. (They were purchased in 2001 by expedia.com, by the way.) This is off-topic, but if I may lend my wisdom to others for a moment ... I have *never* gotten suckered into these Staples Discount Cards or CVS Club or Borders, or whatever - I just give them the phone number of a friend who's a member (this person's a member of *everything*, and they get the credit for my purchases), and I get the same discount as if I was participating. Although it might cost me twenty, fifty, a hundred bucks a year, or maybe "20,000 free miles" if I sign up for a United credit card, I have no cards to keep track of, and lead a blissfully hassle-free life when it comes to shopping. Obviously, some of these programs will benefit certain people, so what works for me won't necessarily be the best option for someone else, but I have *no* regrets about "just saying no" when I'm at the cash register of Best Buy, or wherever. That said, I found a credit card that gives me *three percent cash back* on restaurant charges (not everyone would be eligible, so don't get too excited). But can you imagine what that means for me?
  5. I would say this is the latest example of the airline industry's contempt for their customers: <--- Needless to say, I refused to pay it. But there's this which gives me a glimmer of hope: "American Airlines Sues To Exit GoGo's Inflight Wi-Fi" by Mike Snider on usatoday.com And I acknowledge that GoGo is a private company, which may be guilty of unbridled greed. I wonder how many hotels realize they lose my business 100% of the time when they charge for WiFi.
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