Archive for the 'Travel Insider' Category

As a former hotelier and manager for several chains over the last 25 years, Hilton and Wyndham just to name a couple, I can tell you that most housekeeping staffs do a tremendous job and their feet are held to the fire by management more than any other aspect of the hotel.

A clean or dirty room can mean the difference between a happy repeat guest or an unhappy one, a disgruntled customer who tells 10 of their friends never to stay at a certain property.

Here is a great article about how to find a clean hotel room.

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Pretty dramatic title, but no more dramatic than what happens every single day at hotels all over the world. People live, love and also die in hotels, people steal, people get sick and people lose their tempers, all at hotels. People cheat, people lie and people trash, all at hotels.  How do I know all this?

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I've worked for Hilton, Wyndham and Sheraton national hotel chains plus a couple of privately owned resorts. For more than 20 years I worked behind the scenes and on the front lines within the confines of the hospitality industry in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's been a long ride and I'm glad it's over, I'm retired now, a full-time blogger and finally I can tell my story.

And while I did meet & work with some great people, enjoyed traveling in connection with my job, to international trade shows, travel shows, etc, if I had to do it all over again I would go back in the marines!

Some career highlights:

Partying with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie at the Bowery Ballroom in NY City.

Smuggling a body out of a suite during a mortuary convention.

Sitting next to Lee Trevino on a flight to Dallas.

One on one against Chef Gordon Ramsey at The Phoenician

Giving Arnold Palmer putting tips at The Tradition at Desert Mountain

Meeting Tony Robbins, Conrad Hilton and Bill Marriott

Stay tuned for some dirt!

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Rule of law for US Citizens is 8 U.S.C. sec. 1185(b):

Except as otherwise provided by the President and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President may authorize and prescribe, it shall be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to depart from or enter, or attempt to depart from or enter, the United States unless he bears a valid United States passport.

My friend Elliot found this out the hard way while traveling from Paris to the US. He had lost his passport and had to go to the US Embassy and spend $100. on an emergency passport.  Don't let this happen to you. Read the full story

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Hotels Need to Adjust Their Thinking

They say that timing is everything and for once I guessed right, 2009 was a good year to leave an insane business in a big city and start a new Internet Marketing consulting business, moving the family, lock, stock and  dog to a small town. I can safely say I am glad to be gone from the likes of Wyndham,  Hilton Hotel Corp. in Scottsdale, and working in the hotel business in general. Not that there is anything wrong with those particular brands, they are all equally screwed up!

I don't know about the rest of the country's resort destinations but I do know the Scottsdale market and they are down considerably over 2008.  According to the Arizona Republic's December 25th article Travel slump hurts Scottsdale hotels Scottsdale's hospitality industry continued to struggle in October with a 23 percent decline in revenue per available room from a year ago, according to Smith Travel Research.

Ouch! This means that hoteliers (us poor sales slobs) filled only 61.4 percent of their rooms, not a good number and not good news for hotel management companies who have to answer to investors . On top of that bad news they posted a miserable $136.79. average room rate, down over 21%!

Revenue per available room, which combines occupancy and average room rate, was $83.97. Basically what this all means is that in spite of a horrible travel slump, of the kind never seen before, the bull-whips come out and sales has to come through. I wish them all the luck in the world, I did it for 25 years and I am done!

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Not like the Arthur Frommer's of the world would have you believe.

I support sensible and non-hysterical interpretations of the 2nd amendment as it applies to today's standards by our lawmakers and wish the NRA would stop whining when an automatic weapon is banned, then using it as a blanket accusation against NRA opponents, those "commie-pinko, patriotically challenged gun control liberals."

I do not hunt but I have friends who do and I support that right.

I believe in having some sort of firearm for personal protection – but reject the idea that it should be an automatic weapon, (I became quite familiar with them as a marine in Vietnam and believe me you do not want to go there!).

I also believe only the police should be in possession of weapons in public places, handguns, assault weapons, etc. Didn't I just read about some homeowner getting shot by the police because he was brandishing a gun while protecting his home against an intruder?

My jury is still out on concealed weapons for protection of couriers, precious gem agents, etc, but anyone sporting a gun better be trained and ready to use it – without hesitation. It's a bitch getting shot with your own gun.

Come to Arizona folks, everything is fine here, beautiful scenery, fun activities, golf, fabulous spas and resorts, world-class restaurants, and friendly, genuine, southwestern hospitality. In the 25 years I have lived here no guns of any kind have been visible in bars and I have NEVER seen anyone walking around with an assault weapon. It was all a publicity stunt, orchestrated by someone to discredit the Obama Administration. Nice try but no sale!

Time for the Poll:

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