Observations About Business Hotels

Being on the road for three weeks, each night in a different hotel, I have the following unscientific observations about hotels:

Note: I have stayed at a broad range of hotels, from the Ritz Carlton to a scuzzy hotel I would not stay in again if they paid me to do so.

1. On the lower end, Marriott's Fairmont hotels are tons better than comparably priced Best Western and Holiday Inn Express. Their beds are of higher quality and their internet is more reliable (always wifi). Best Westerns seem more run down and saturated with grime. Also Marriott staff seem more intelligent and well trained. The Best Western I stay in near the Birmingham Airport was the worst room of the trip so far. It stunk, had ants, and made me feel unsafe. The people working there were very nice and let me park Hazel up front so they could keep an eye on her, but the place ought to be de-certified by Best Western - it does not reflect well on their brand. The other objection I have of Best Westerns is that the rooms often don't have enough outlets or they are all used up with the hotel appliances. I need two plugs - one for my laptop and one for my Blackberry charger.

2. When it comes to online booking, I prefer Marriott and Holiday Inn to Best Western. You have to re-enter too much information on Best Wester and you can't see a list of all your reservations. Also, a somewhat slimy tactic - on the Best Western site you have to UNSELECT two boxes to NOT get added to their spam list. It should be the other way around and I should not have to do this with every reservation. I like Marriott's site the best - it is easy to find hotels and see a list of my reservations. Their reward program is better, too. The Holiday Inn website is pretty easy to use, too, and I like that I can see a list of my reservations and they don't make me reenter data.

3. The more I pay for a room, the more I seem to get nickeled and dimed. This seems backwards to me. I stayed in a Ritz Carlton in Atlanta for four nights and I got hit with more charges there than at the hotels where I paid one-third the rate. They charge for internet (not acceptable in these times), newspapers (even though I did not ask for it, I have to tell them to NOT deliver), room service (21% gratuity plus $3.75 delivery charge?), and minibar ($5 for a small diet coke, how it that possible). I loved the room, and the hotel, but I don't understand why these charges are tolerated. And the Ritz is not the only example, I was going to stay at a nicer hotel in Minneapolis, but found that the more expensive hotels charged for internet and often did not have wifi, which I strongly prefer to wired internet. I stuck with Marriott Courtyard.

The number one mistake made at all the hotels? Housekeeping often fails to turn off alarm settings. I never use the in-room alarm clock, I use my Blackberry for an alarm. It is quite annoying to have the alarm go off when you don't want an alarm.

The thing that irks me? Several hotel chains tout that they offer HOT breakfast, which often means that they have one of those waffle making machines (with very fake tasting syrup to go with it) or Pop Tarts and a toaster. To me, this is still just a continental breakfast - sure there are some things that get hot, but it's all carbohydrates. I understand that most hotels don't have the infrastructure to do a full breakfast, but advertising that they have a hot breakfast seems like s stretch.

I am looking forward to a vente soy latte at Starbucks this morning - my first of the trip! I have been surprised that I have not run into more Starbucks on this trip.