Search Results for: blog protecting yourself from dirty hotel rooms

Getting More Bang for Your Hotel Buck

Is there anything more irritating to a frugal traveler than having to pay hundreds of dollars for a single hotel room that you only have access to for less than 24 hours? In many cases, hotels are cutting corners even more by pushing back check-in time to 4 p.m. and moving up check-out time to 11 a.m. What a rip-off. Fortunately, some hotels are offering budget-conscious guests a reprieve by allowing for later check-out times on Sunday morning.  For example, Westin Hotels & Resorts recently debuted a “Make Monday Better” deal for travelers looking to extend their weekend stay.  The program … Continue reading →

Hotels Stealing a Priceless Commodity

Not your Louis Vuitton luggage, your precious tech toys or the treasured stuffed souvenirs you spent three hours trying to win during your trip to the amusement park.  Some hotels are taking something far more valuable from unsuspecting guests–their health. According to a new study, if you are spending the night in a nonsmoking room at a hotel with a partial smoking ban, you are not fully protected from harmful exposure to so-called “third-hand” smoke.  Researchers at San Diego State University discovered that tobacco pollution can easily congregate on surfaces in both smoking and nonsmoking hotel rooms. “Our findings demonstrate … Continue reading →

Hotels: Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck

Hotel rooms aren’t cheap.  Adding insult to injury is the fact that many properties are now moving back check-in times, so by the time you are forced to check-out you’ve barely been in the place for 18 hours. How do you justify forking over $200 for a room you aren’t given the opportunity to be in for 24 hours?  Or worse, consider having to park yourself in the hotel’s lobby after a long flight simply because you arrived prior to the set check-in time. What a waste of time; precious time that you can’t put a price tag on. To … Continue reading →

Hotels Helping You Stretch Your Dollar

With many hotels pushing back check-in time until 4 p.m. and moving up check-out time to 11 a.m., many travelers wonder if they are really getting their money’s worth. After all, if you are spending $250 per night on a room, you’d like to be able to use it for at least 20 hours. Some hotels are cognizant of this complaint, so while they cut back in one area, they try to compensate in others. Competition to snag travelers is heating up, especially with the busy holiday season approaching. Consequently, select properties around the world are offering free amenities to … Continue reading →

Hotel Sticker Shock

Earlier this year, my family took a pre-spring break trip to a popular water park hotel just north of Chicago. We chose a standard room that slept four and included passes to the massive indoor water park. For $119 per night, I thought it was a steal. Unfortunately, by the time taxes and resort fees were added on, the bill for our two-night stay ballooned to more than $300, not including meals or parking. Resort fees can really take a bite out of your vacation budget, regardless of whether you book a summer stay or one in the dead of … Continue reading →

Post-Holiday Hotel Deals

Forget about finding a decent hotel room in New York City on New Year’s Eve. Unless you hit the jackpot between now and Friday night, or you are fine sharing a bed with cockroaches the size of rats, then you might consider waiting until after the ball drops in Times Square before visiting the Big Apple. By exercising patience and waiting until the week after New Year’s to travel to “The City that Never Sleeps,” you’ll be able to preserve your budget well into 2012. According to travel experts, tourists who can hold off until January 6-15, 2012, to check … Continue reading →

Do You Steal From Hotels?

Do you prefer the towels, magazines or shower caps? What do you really pilfer from hotels? Town and Country magazine, recently asked its rich subscribers what, if anything, they swipe from luxury hotel rooms. The answer: The soap. Affluent hotel guest prefer to lift expensive soap to extra-fluffy towels and bathrobes. And by expensive I mean brands like Acqua di Parma, Bulgari, Hermes and L’Occitane. No paper-thin bars of discount soap that don’t lather up or smell like a fresh morning dew. Rather, high-end guests are filling their Louis Vuitton bags with luxury lathers. According to the magazine, most guests … Continue reading →

Are You a Hotel Slob?

What does your hotel room look like when you check-out? Is the bedding crumpled on the floor? Are wet towels thrown on chairs or do you dump them in the tub? Do you leave the place looking like a pigsty and figure you’re just helping the housekeeping staff earn their pay for the day? According to a recent poll, more than 60 percent of American hotel guests pile their used towels on the bathroom floor, leave puddles near sinks and bathtubs and throw bedding and pillows around the room. Bottom line: Most guests don’t treat hotel rooms the same way … Continue reading →

Make the Most of Hotel Rewards

In a previous blog I may have suggested that being a Starwood Preferred Guest member pales in comparison to being a Hilton Hhonors member. That’s simply not the case. I merely mentioned that unlike my Hilton HHonors friend, I have not made the most of being a member of a hotel rewards program. Being a Starwood Preferred Guest member certainly has its privileges; however, you can’t take advantage of the perks unless you know what they are and how many points you need to accrue in order to score them. You earn points by staying at any of the 1,000 … Continue reading →

Does it Pay to Join Hotel Rewards Programs?

I am a member of the Starwood Preferred Guest program, yet I have never redeemed my points for a single reward. Conversely, my BFF, who is a member of Hilton HHonors scores free stuff all the time. She would undoubtedly tell you that it is well worth it to join a hotel rewards program. Me; not so much. So why is my pal such a fan of Hilton HHonors? For starters, the rewards are amazing. In addition to free hotel stays, you can redeem points for: *Tickets to Disneyland *Car rentals *Cruise certificates *Gift cards to Starbucks *Jewelry from Tiffany … Continue reading →