The One Cent Weekend in Venice Mistake
Posted August 21, 2009 , add a comment
Crowne Plaza Venice East-Quarto D’Altino - it’s in the ‘burbs
This is why it’s not a waste of time to sit around, surfing the internet and wishing you could book your dream vacation in a near or far away land. Because sometimes you actually do find an amazing deal!
Over 200 lucky Sunday night armchair travelers managed to book a one cent weekend at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Venice East-Quarto D’Altino, which admittedly is located a brisk 20 minute train ride outside of Venice. But still in Italy!
Okay, maybe it isn’t the Hotel Danieli on the Piazza San Marco, but did you catch that part about a weekend stay for just one cent? For that price I think most of us would be delighted to take the commuter rail into Venice!
I would totally pay a penny to stay here
Even though the deal was posted by mistake, the Crowne Plaza is honoring the 1,400 room nights booked while it was up, costing the company about $130k. They will probably make up the difference in the positive publicity!
How To Avoid Hotel Overbooking
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Dealing with Hotel Overbooking. Kind of.
guest post by Sherry Gray
You plan and save for your perfect vacation, pack, get on a plane and arrive at your destination…only to find there’s no room at the inn. The hotel room you booked months in advance is not waiting for you and now you’re in a strange city with your luggage at your feet and nowhere for your family to sleep. Sounds like a nightmare…and it happens more often than you might imagine.
The good news is that the hotel doesn’t want bad press, so the management will do everything it can to help you find a room elsewhere.
The bad news is that elsewhere might not meet your needs or desires. This is especially true if you had not planned to rent a car and no hotels have available rooms within walking distance of your intended destination. If special arrangements have to be made, ask the hotel to pick up the tab. You can also pressure them to upgrade your room for free. Don’t give up, just stand your ground until they cough up a solution. Hey, you never know. Maybe there are no rooms in the entire city, but the presidential suite is available. It could happen.
Hotels overbook because rooms are like a perishable commodity. If the day goes by and the guest doesn’t show, the sale opportunity is lost and they can’t get that revenue back. If they book two guests for the same room and only one shows, they get to keep the no-show reservation fee as a bonus, so they make extra money on that room for the night. If two guests show up for the same room, they still get the room money…and in most cases they just have to make a few phone calls to find a room at another hotel. Most of the time, overbooking is a winning situation for them. Occasionally, problems arise and they wind up paying a little compensation, but most guests who have to be moved are too confused, anxious and angry to press for inconvenience perks, so they break even.
Stuff happens, and in some cases you’ll be bumped from your room no matter what you do. But there are a few things you can do to ensure that you’re not one of the travelers who gets booted.
Tips To Avoid Hotel Overbooking:
- First and most importantly, book your room with a credit card. This does mean putting up a deposit in advance, but it also means that you have legal recourse. They promised you the room in writing and you have proof. Make sure they spell your name right.
- Make your reservations well in advance and confirm a few days before your vacation.
- Print out everything they send you - reservation confirmation, room details, etc. If you call the reservation in, ask for written confirmation by email, fax or letter. Check to make sure they actually spelled your name right. If not, correct it and ask for another written confirmation. Then take it with you. You’ll want to wave it in the manager’s face while you’re yelling. Preferably in the lobby of the hotel, in full view of other guests checking in. Professional embarrassment is powerful incentive.
- Notify the hotel if you want late check-in or if you’re delayed for any reason. They will consider you a no-show and give away your room if you arrive late, and there’s little you can do about it because you broke the contract. They might even keep your reservation fee.
- To better assess your chances of getting booted, ask the hotel if they are hosting a convention or event at the same time, or if there is a huge citywide event going on. Unless you’re visiting to attend the event or convention, you might want to find lodging in another area.
For perspective, consider what happened to the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series against the Phillies. Game three in Philly was washed out by a huge storm and scheduled to be replayed the following night. But the Rays had already given up their rooms…they planned to leave right after the game to gear up for game four on their home turf. With the city stuffed to its limits with baseball fans, ironically there to see the game, there weren’t enough hotel rooms for the team in all of Philadelphia. In fact, they had to leave the state. They wound up at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, 35 minutes away.
Just imagine the hotel overbooking nightmare in Philly, with a stadium full of fans plus the media, all extending their stay an extra day - extended stays are another reason you might get bumped.
Generally speaking, if you do get bumped, here’s what you’re entitled to:
- The hotel you booked should make new arrangements and provide transportation to the new hotel.
- If you paid in advance, they should pay for the room, and if the room is more expensive, they should pay the difference.
- They should offer free use of a phone to notify others of your change of plan. Personally, I’d use it call my aunt in Hawaii for a chat while I waited, but I may be just a tiny bit vengeful.
- Ask about additional perks if you are enrolled in a hotel loyalty program.
Other reasonable requests that might be offered or honored include room upgrades, complimentary stays at another time, free movies, and if finding a new room takes a long time, ask for a free dinner or drinks while you wait.
If the hotel staff is uncooperative or rude, the hotel they try to park you in is a fleabag in cracktown or so far away it costs you a small fortune to get where you need to go, make noise. Call the hotel management in the morning and if their answers leave you unsatisfied, go corporate with your complaints…and go online. Let them know you’ll spread the tale in the comment section of every hotel review site on the internet. Take that.
Photo Credit: russellsmith on Flickr.
Check-in and Checkout the Hotel Art
Posted , add a commentEver stare at a blank wall in a hotel room and feel the compelling need to become a graffiti artist? That’s why hotels put up at least one tacky portrait on blank walls and hallways.
Iron Horse Hotel, Milwaukee
Iron Horse Hotel, Milwaukee - Sometimes, the wall itself is a canvas which defines the hotel’s decor. Art works by Charles J. Dwyer and Amber Van Galder. Read more…
Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee
Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee - Boasts of a massive Victorian art collection unmatched by any other hotel in the world, with an artist-in-residence program, and even offers guided art and studio tours for art lovers and hotel guests. Read more…
21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, KY
21c Museum Hotel, Louisville - Southern hospitality combined with North America’s first museum dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art of the 21st century. Read more…
Gramercy Park Hotel, New York
Gramercy Park Hotel, New York - Bohemia reinvented for the 21st century by Ian Schrager with great pieces of furniture and art, and interiors by artist Julian Schnabel. Read more…
The Nines Hotel, Portland
The Nine Hotel, Portland - Famed atrium at the Nines pictured above. Magnificent contemporary art collection by local artists graces the guest rooms. Read more…
The Joule, Dallas
The Joule, Dallas - Striking example of Adam D. Tihany’s award-winning design and style, creating a fusion of modern amenities with art, chic design and a landmark structure. Read more…
Photo credits:-
Iron Horse Hotel courtesy Desires Hotels
Pfister Hotel art photo courtesy Pfister Hotel
21c photo by ellenm1
Gramercy Park photo by Kathryn Rotondo
The Nines and Joule photos courtesy Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Review of Hotel Indigo in Sarasota, Florida
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The front desk at Hotel Indigo Sarasota shows off the chain
Guest Post by Leigh Caldwell of ThemeParkMom.
Comfy, casual
Not your daddy’s biz hotel
It’s not stuffy here
So that’s my haiku tribute to the Intercontinental Hotels Group boutique hotel chain, Hotel Indigo.
On a recent stay at the Hotel Indigo Sarasota, I expected to see the color blue (indigo, actually) and the logo’s iconic seashell everywhere, but I was surprised to find a hotel filled with poetry (haiku, actually).
The three-liners are everywhere - on the brochures, in the fitness center and even on the room’s plastic laundry bag. Hotel Indigo says the haiku are designed to surprise, refresh and provide tranquility.
One of the sweetest surprises of my Hotel Indigo stay was a personalized haiku left in my room the evening of my stay, along with a bottle of water and a snack. The front desk staff told me they enjoy writing haiku for the guests, and they often try to base the personalized poems on the industry in which the traveler works.
Location
Hotel Indigo Sarasota sits on Tamiami Trail, across the street from Sarasota
Hotel Indigo Sarasota is just a few minutes’ drive from Sarasota’s downtown and just 10 minutes south of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. It is within walking distance of many of the attractions on Sarasota’s Bayfront and would be the perfect place to stay when visiting the city to attend a performance at Sarasota’ Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The city’s Rosemary District, an area undergoing an urban renewal, is also within walking distance and features locally-owned restaurants and unusual shops for browsing.
If you plan on sticking your toes in the sand on your Sarasota trip, Lido Beach is 10 minutes away. And Dr. Beach’s second best beach in the world, Siesta Beach, is just a 15-20 minute drive.
My travel companions and I had a delightful dinner at the Broadway Bar, three blocks north of the hotel. Though not revealed in the restaurant’s name, this is a true red-sauce Italian mom-and-pop joint, complete with the red-and-white checked tablecloths.
Guest rooms
Guest rooms have laminate wood floors and a comfy casual decor.
The guest rooms at Hotel Indigo Sarasota are not the typical cookie-cutter business hotel. They are spacious, with hardwood floors, comfy beds with a sea of white linens and bold, graphic wall murals.
I stayed in a king suite, which was a large, single room that included a sitting area in addition to the bed. The couch in the sitting area has a pull-out bed for extra guests or children.
an efficient workspace and another graphic wall mural
The workspace was furnished with a comfortable desk, lamp and desk chair with wheels. Free wireless Internet also makes it possible to work in the sitting area or on the bed.
The tranquil feeling continued in the bathroom, which had a huge, tiled walk-in shower with glass walls.
The only thing I found missing in my Hotel Indigo Sarasota room was a closet. There is a wardrobe with hanging space, but on short stays such as this one, I prefer not to unpack much of my clothing, opting to set up my suitcase on a luggage rack in the closet. There was a luggage rack in the room, where I was able to put my suitcase in an unused corner, but I generally prefer to conceal it from view.
Public spaces
The lobby stretches into a casual wine bar/lounge/eatery that I found refreshing after eating in many stuffy hotel dining rooms. The hotel’s kitchen serves a small menu, but it provided plenty of variety in my opinion, with a few appetizer choices, sandwiches and entree salads. There is also a counter to buy potato chips, bakery goods and other snack items to consume in the lounge, your room or the pool area. Room service is also available for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
A hot tub and cold tub replace the traditional hotel pool at Hotel Indigo Sarasota.
There is not a large pool area at the Hotel Indigo Sarasota. A pleasant space outdoors offers a rectangular hot tub and a cold pool. But the pool is the same size at the hot tub and not made for swimming, only for a dip. I did spend some time in the pool area and found comfortable chairs and shaded tables, as well as a great signal for the hotel’s free wireless Internet. I do not swim frequently on my business travels, and I don’t know any other business traveler who does, but you should know this in advance if you are planning a vacation stay.
The hotel also offers a fitness center just off the pool, equipped with treadmills, ellipticals and weight-lifting equipment.
I am definitely adding Hotel Indigo to my list of preferred brands when traveling. The more casual vibe of this hotel really fits my lifestyle and personality, and I encourage weary road warriors to give it a try.
All photos by the author.
Budget Labor Day Hotels in San Diego, California
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San Diego Skyline
Labor Day is fast approaching, and if you plan to be in gorgeous San Diego for the weekend, there are still some affordable hotel rooms you can scoop up if you move quickly! Check out these hotels - they’re cheap(er), close to San Diego’s best sites and an overall good value. I wouldn’t recommend these hotels for super romantic getaways for couples, but they’re good choices for families and for couples on a budget.
This hotel is on Hotel Circle, an area that has tons of hotels near San Diego’s Mission Valley area. You’ll be less than 10 minutes from the beach with a car, and very close to some of San Diego’s best shopping, too. Rooms are clean and basic.
Cheesy name, but this is a nice, basic hotel with a staff that has a reputation for being friendly and helpful. Don’t judge this motel by its website, which needs some work. The rooms don’t have comforters, really, just white sheets - but this is San Diego people, rarely does it get below 65 degrees, and over Labor Day it’s likely to be in the 80s! The motel is located right on the Harbor.
Totally renovated in 2003, La Pensione is listed as San Diego’s best budget hotel by a number of sites. All the rooms have a Queen bed, and rates for Labor Day are $90/night. I got a total of $300 for 3 nights, which is fantastic for the holiday weekend! There are two restaurants and underground parking spaces, too. It’s very close to the San Diego airport.
Hope these hotels are a good starting point for you! Happy travels.
Photo Credit: WouteR
