Hotel Booking Sites are Not the Final Answer for Deals

Go direct to the hotel if booking sites claim there's no room at the inn

The Society of American Travel Writers upcoming convention is in Germany. My husband and I signed up for a pre-convention hiking trip in the Black Forest. We are flying into Frankfurt, arriving on a Sunday, with the trip starting in Baden-Baden on Tuesday. We decided to come in a day earlier, spend an additional night in Baden-Baden and hop over the Stuttgart for a day. My husband was stationed in nearby Ludwigsburg and hasn't been there for 30-odd years, and I have never visited Stuttgart at all.

I started looking for hotels. The Hotel Neuer Karlshof was the obvious choice, since it is situated at the railway station and we are coming in from Frankfurt by train and will take the train to Stuttgart and back. The process of checking so-called discount booking sites was an odyssey through the Internet that kept looping me around.

First I tried TVTrip, which links to Booking.com, a Priceline company. When I checked two days ago as research, yesterday to reserve a room and today to write this post, upon entering our arrival and departure dates, I got the identical message that the last room was booked "1 day, 23 hours, 38 minutes ago!" The page did not volunteer a nightly rate. Priceline UK itself replied, "No rooms available. Sorry! Sold out [our requested date went here]".

TripAdvisor also uses Booking.com as the booking engine, so same reply. RealTravel, which quotes a $62.41 rate, also kicks back to Booking.com, which this time reports, "1 Hotel found, 0 Available." What? Trivago also uses Booking.com and of course reports, "Currently no offers can be found." Trying Maplandia landed me back on the RealTravel page, which quoted room rates as "from €55 (approx. £46)". Etc., etc., etc. I tried Agoda, saw that the hotel's rates start at US$76 but also had no availability that night. TravBuddy came back with, "Sorry, this hotel had no rooms available for those dates." ActiveHotels reports that the Neuer Karlshof has "rooms from €55," but informed me that "Unfortunately, this hotel does not have enough rooms available."

Hotels.com claims 90,000 hotels around the globe, but the hotel I wanted wasn't of them. It did offer links to four other hotels, two (Neuer Markt and Neuer Weg) actually in Baden-Baden, the Neuerweg in Wört and totally inexplicably, a link to "Atlanta, Georgia, United States." Expedia and Orbitz don't list the Neuer Karlshof at all. Travelocity automatically brought up IgoUgo, which both told me "We're sorry but we cannot identify the location that you entered" and also boomeranged to a Travelocity Black Forest page with more hotels outside of Baden-Baden than in Baden-Baden.

None of the booking sites that actually offered the Hotel Neuer Karlshof included a link to the hotel's own website, but I did eventually find it through the straightforward, multi-lingual Baden-Baden Convention and Visitors information website. It lists the city's hotels in order of standards from five-star luxury properties to simple unrated guesthouses. For each the site shows a picture, gives an address, indicates the price range for single and double rooms, whether breakfast is included and if so what kind of breakfast, gives the distance from the autobahn and airport, shows amenities and has click-to links to each hotel's website, further information and booking request.

For the record, the Neuer Karlshof website is http://www.hotel-neuer-karlshof.de/. It was renovated recently, reopening in January 2008. We have a reservation for the night we want at €69, which is not out of line when rates are quoted "from €55" on these book sites that proved to be dead ends when it came to actually getting a reservation. The website says that each room is equipped with television/DVD, free Internet access, iron/ironing board, safe and more, and the on-site Cafe Fellow means that we will not suffer from caffeine deprivation if we want to use it to readjust time zones. The breakfasts and the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff were praised numerous times on user reviews, and I don't need a user review to tell me the convenience of a hotel at a railroad station.

If you are frustrated by navigating through numerous booking sites that all seem to use the same hotel-supplied images, the same price quotes and in our case, the same unavailability, and whose main differences seem to be page design, go straight to the hotel's own website. Book online or pick up the telephone and call. A lot less hassle and often more satisfying results.

Palestine: Day 6: Wadi Qilt and Jerusalem

Wadi Qilt, a final desert drive and the last checkpoint into Jerusalem

At a Society of American Travel Writers' conference in Israel a quarter of a century ago, Wadi Qlt (or Wadi Qelt) was the first stop out of Jerusalem en route to several days of hiking and camping in the Judean and Negev Deserts. Back then, we drove to spot a spot directly below St. George's Monastery -- it might have been by van or by US Army surplus personnel carriers that made their way through the Israeli Army to an outfitter called Desert Safari that might no longer exist. 

I can't rememver how we reached the inner Wadi Qilt canyon to visit the Monastery of St. George of Koziba, a 5th-century Greek Orthodox structure built against the canyon walls -- much like Jericho's Mt. Temptation Monastery, but it was the first I had ever seen other than in a book or travelogue. Wadi Qilt is also the site of an ancient synagogue dating from the first century B.C. and part of a Maccabean winter palace. I don't recall the synagogue (I'm not even sure whether it had been excavated then), but we visited the monastery and took a short hike along a shaded trail. I was still living back East and was unfamiliar with deserts, deep canyons and oases where there is a source of water, so this was all new climatic territory for me.

Flickr photo

Wadi Qilt

Since then, there has been considerable road damage to the route into the canyon, and it is impassable by bus. The Israeli government, which enthusiastically builds fine highways to its settlements, hasn't repaired the road leading to this landmark monastery on land that is still in Palestinian hands -- and neither has the Palestinian Authority. This time, the bus could reach a pullout with a short trail leading to a Wadi Qlt overlook. A few Bedouins were selling jewelry (lots of camel bone), scarves and miscellaneous souvenirs. Business isn't too good these days. I bought camel-bone earrings and a white scarp, which our guide Wasim (below, bottom image) said that, judging by the label, probably came from Iran.

Jerusalem
As we approached Jerusalem, traffic built up and finally crawled on the apporach to the city. We stopped at an overlook on the Mount of Olives for a view over the Old City of Jerusalem, which from a distance looks peaceful and harmonious. We then walked down a steep paved route. Partway down, we passed  through a tranquil garden to Dominus Flevit, a small, tear-drop-shaped church that represents Jesus' tears as he looked over the Kidron Valley toward the city and wept for the destroyed Second Temple. In the church, a nun was reading for a small group of worshippers, who than sang a gentle Hallelujah!

The lower slopes of the Mount of Olives is covered with shoulder-to-shoulder graves, because in Christian belief that Jesus will return to Jerusalem, and in Jewish belief when the Messiah comes, it will be to Jerusalem and the Kidron Valley. It seems that everyone wants a prime spot for event. While a sister conducted a service at Dominus Flevis, the only people at the nearby Jewish cemetery where black-clad men, praying at graves. There is also a Moslem cemetery on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives.

We continued down to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed following the Last Supper and where Judas betrayed him. Ancient olive trees and lovely flowers make this a tranquil spot. The Church of All Nations stands beside the garden. One can only wish that the reality of Jerusalem mirrored the implication of that church's name, but it is a city full of religious and political contention.

We entered the old city via the Arab Quarter and walked its narrow lanes, following the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, that today encompass the sites of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. Writing in hindsight, this section of Arab Quarter is less congested than the Christian Quarter, and there appear to be proportionally more residents and fewer souvenir shops.

The original church that dates back to the fourth century was damaged in the seventh century, destroyed in the 11th century and soon reconstructed. The cavernous basilica was seriously damaged by fire in the early 19th century, though considering the amount of stone, it is difficult to understand how. It is a complicated place -- a church within a church built over other, older churches and small churches and chapels annexed to the main. Every one is presided over by a different denominations, and despite the obvious devotion shown by hordes of pilgrims from the world over, it is a contentious place rather than a place of peace.

  

In truth, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the focal point for unholy tussles among a number of Christian denominations. The Greek Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic churches each control large parts of the complex, and one order of Eastern Rite monks has been living on the roof for centuries. Competing denominations have even come to blows. In 2002, a Coptic monk assigned to a spot on roof to maintain some kind of ancient claim on Ethiopian place moved his chair from its official position into the shade, which the Ethiopians took as an affront. A monastic brawl broke out, and 11 were monks hospitalized.

As recently as 2008, there were two clashes that sank into violence. On Palm Sunday, a brawl erupted  when a Greek monk was kicked out of the building by religious rivals and the police called to control the disturbance were attacked by the brawlers. In November, Armenian and Greek monks fought over something during the Feast of the Holy Cross. If Jesus did return, I believe he'd send them all to bed without supper.

The Jews don't behave any better toward one another. On June 17, two days before our group's depature for this trip, literally thousands of Israeli police were deployed in Jerusalem in an ugly dispute about court-ordered "integration" of the Beit Yaakov girls’ school in a West Bank settlement. Ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi (Jews of European origin) parents defied the ruling forcing them to send their daughters to school with ultra-orthodox Sephardic girls (Middle East origin). The day we were traveling to Israel/Palestine, what was reported as hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews battled riot police, again in Jerusalem, to protest against the city's decision to open a municipal parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath, which they view as desecration of the day.

Discord aside, of course, there was food in Jerusalem. We enjoyed another abundant lunch buffet at the Golden Walls Hotel in East Jerusalem and a talk by Father Attala Hannah aarchbishop of the of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, and after checking in to the Ritz Hotel, walked over to the Jerusalem Hotel Garden Restaurant for dinner to the sounds traditional, though over-amplified, Middle Eastern music. It was our last night in the Holy Land, and thoughout the trip, I felt personally safe, even walking through the dimly lit streets of East Jersusalem to and from dinner. centuries of contention, conflict and violence continue to this day.

Riviera Maya Puts Tourist Promotion into Overdrive

Fancy new hotels, upgraded old towns, eco-experiences, new attractions and Tulum lure visitors

A few weeks ago, representatives of tourism industry came to Colorado with updates about the Riviera Maya, the Yucatan Peninsula's sun-kissed coastline Caribbean coastline. South of Cancun and all of its high-rise razzmatazz stretched along a 14-mile-long Tourist Zone, visitors to the Riviera Maya nevertheless benefit from the proximity (11 miles to the north end of the Riviera Maya) to a good-size international airport. It is anticipating building its own airport within a few years, but from my standpoint, why cut down ancient jungle and foul up the place with airplane noise, fumes and traffic when a perfectly good airport is not all that far -- except that Cancun and the Riviera Maya are in different states, and politics is doubtless involved.

The infrastructure of the 81-mile Riviera Maya has been greatly upgraded since I was last there nearly 20 years ago. My husband and I had been scuba diving on Cozumel, just offshore. Since we weren't able to dive within 24 hours before flying home, we boarded a hydrofoil to a dusty town called Playa del Carmen, wandered up the main street and hopped on the first Tulum-bound bus. A rattly old school bus drove the two-lane road with a lot of jungle views and dropped us off along the highway, perhaps a quarter of a mile from the entrance to these magnificent ocean-view ruins. The bus fare was about $1.35. We explored the ruins at our own pace, consulting our guidebook and occasionally eavesdropping on an English-speaking guide. Then, we wandered back to the main road, boarded the next Playa del Carmen-bound bus (another $1.35 fare), just missed one hydrofoil and had a couple of drinks and a some dockside nibbles before returnbing to Cozumel on the next one.

Tulum photo by Bruno Girin from Creative Commons

That was then and this is now: 362 hotels with a total of 37,300 hotel rooms available in different categories from small and charming hotels along the shore to modern "integrated tourism complexes made up of luxurious five star hotels, marinas and golf courses," in the tourist-speak now practiced in this enchanted, enchanting part of Mexico. I think there's even a four-lane highway. Now, luxury hotels, including all-inclusive properties, have sprung up on the Riviera Maya -- mercifully lower-rise and with less density than other coastal resorts. If you want swimming pools, palapas, fine dining and a family-friendly resort environment, the Riviera Maya has those in abundance.

There are also tourist developments that appear to be enlightened and enlightening. Xel-Ha is described as "open-sea aquarium offer[ing] a myriad of land and water activities, ecological attractions, world-class restaurants and countless more unimaginable experiences." I'm intrigued by the concept of a responsible attraction that protects wildlife, marinelife, birdlife and habitat while offering the kinds of safe experiences that many travelers, especially families, seek today. Another attraction that appears to combine gentle adventure, visitor education and resource protection is Xplor, which provides an opportunity to swim through a stalctatie river, hand-paddle an undrground raft and ride a zipline above the trees and water, all of which seem designed to protect the natural resources. The two-seat amphibious vehicles that "conquer all terrains between jungle, water, rocks and grottos" -- maybe not so much.

If you prefer a vibrant town with a lots of  amenities aimed at visitors, Plaza del Carmen is such a place. No longer a laid-back Mexican town, it has been developed a good culinary presence and an interesting art and music scene. It also has an abundance of tourist shops, tourist-trap bars, gringo-ized restaurants and even a WalMart. I wouldn't go back for those, but I would for the arts, the festivals and the chance for some of the nearby eco-opportunities, including cenote snorkeling or diving  -- and of course, to revisit the ruins at Tulum.

Clearly, presentations, like that given by the Riviera Maya representatives make everything look great, even facilities not normally of interest. What impressed me about this one was the range of accommodations now available, from backpacker-friendly to five-star luxury, presenting something for every type of Mexico-bound traveler. And from what I'm hearing, prices for the rest of 2010 (until Christmas) are rockbottom low, even at top properties. Summer is a season of high heat and low prices, but consider a deal at a complete resort with a great beach, a large pool and air conditioning, where the heat won't bother you.

Head to Playa del Carmen on Thursday evening, when it's cooler, for a weekly cultural and street festival starting at 8:00. 5ta. Avenida in Playa del Carmen, the main street, features painting , sculpture, dance, poetry, theatre, photography, performance art and video. Come fall, festival season kicks up again.

Aspen Area Hotels at the Base of the Slopes and the Peak of Design

Sky in Aspen and the Viceroy in Snowmass display high style

Just 24 hours in the Aspen area gave the the opportunity to stay at the  super-cool Sky Hotel at the base of Aspen Mountain and attend a reception at another, newer Viceroy Hotel at the base of Snowmass. I'd been to events and had drinks at the Sky before but never stayed there, and I had a hardhat tour of the Viceroy last summer and popped in quickly to look at the lobby last December but never spent any time there. Both of these hotels abound with imaginative design and high style.

Sky Hotel

The Sky Hotel at the foot of Aspen Mountain is famous around town 39 Degrees, its swank, sophisticated lounge, great cocktails, light bites and desserts, huge fireplace and comfy couches and chairs, making it a popular après-ski spot. It's quieter in the summer (at least at the beginning of the summer season), and I didn't have time to linger in the lounge or the adjacent patio. Instead, I checked in for one night and headed straight for my third-floor room before I had to zip out again for a meeting.

The mattress was comfortable, the pillows abundant and the bed linens smooth.

Nice work area with well-lit desk, plenty of outlets, a comfortable swivel chair and a retro ski-fashion poster to gaze at.

Nothing unusual about the small bathroom's standard layout -- tub/shower on one wall, sink and vanity on the other and toilet between them opposite from the door. But quality amenities, more good lighting and soft towels are really what count.

Plush animal-print bathrobes and slippers (complete with price tag to underscore that they are available for purchase) are part of the Sky Hotel's cool factor.

Instead of a mini-bar, there's clear drawer to tempt guests with snacks. I wasn't tempted, because I was heading for a that cocktail reception at the Viceroy. And then, I checked out the next morning.

Viceroy Hotel

When I was in the Aspen area last summer, I was given a hardhat tour of the Viceroy Hotel in Snowmass' new Base Village development. The hotel was to be completed in time for the 2009-10 ski season. And it was. Without a camera, I nevertheless took a quick look at the lobby in December.

A group meeting in Aspen last week held a cocktail reception at this new hotel that has set a new standard for Snowmass Village. In winter, its location at the bottom of the Snowmass ski runs makes it a busy place. On a weeknight before Memorial Day weekend, our group had the place virtually to ourselves for a terrific cocktail party with great drinks, bubbly, wine and beer and first-rate hors d'oeuvres. It was crowded and excessively noisy, as these events inevitably are, so I took only few pictures when I could grab a clear shot of something.

Don't let the one person sitting on a banquette near the front entrance give you the impression that it was uncrowded or quiet in the adjacent spaces. The back wall is a line of aspen trunks upon which the initials of the organization partying there were projected.

Well-stocked and well-lit back bar. The front bar starts in the lobby and continues into the lounge, an interesting, seamless design.

The glass-walled wine storage unit serves as a room divider.

The catering staff put on a splendid spread, but I arrived too late to shoot most of the food before it got picked over and was no longer pretty. It was very food, however, with small pizzas, salads, Mexican items, sushi, a carving station and more -- something for everyone.Below is a cheese selection, and below that is the dessert table.

With a sampling like this, I hope to get back to the Viceroy and get a feel for what it's really like when there are overnight guests and no big private party occupying the lobby level. From the website's home page, click on "Photo Gallery" for the hotel's fine images of its public spaces and accommodations.

Hotel Accessibility a Requirement, Not a Request

Consolidators must now change the way they handle reservations for disabled guests

It should not have taken a lawsuit to require hotel consolidators to accommodate disabled travelers who ask for accessible rooms. But it did. Candy Harrington, author of several books on handicap travel, calls this settlement agreed to by those third-party reservations services that book discounted hotel rooms and other travel components "a huge victory for disabled travelers."

She posted an informative report on her Barrier Free Travel blog applauding the settlement in the case of Smith v. Hotels.com L.P, in which the consolidator "has agreed to alter their way of doing business." By September of this year, details about accessible rooms are supposed to appear on the searchable websites of Hotels.com and Expedia.com.

Harrington continued that "travelers will actually be able to search for an accessible room with specific access features. So, for example, you'll be able to search for a room at a three-star hotel with a roll-in shower in Cleveland. That's a huge improvement in the whole system, as currently you can't determine a room's accessibility features when you search their database....And, in many cases you will actually be able to reserve that specific accessible room. It won't exactly be a point, click and book option, but a trained customer service representative will work with each disabled customer to make sure an accessible room that meets their needs is reserved. The representative will have to contact the property directly to make these arrangements, as hotels.com buys blocks of rooms, not specific rooms."

Harrington speculated that "this settlement may very well influence the Department of Justice as they revise the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) for hotels (also called transient lodging). Revisions under consideration include making hotels responsible for third party reservation systems that don't adequately reserve accessible rooms; and requiring properties to block accessible rooms upon reservation."

Harrington also noted that the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) such those proposed revisions, though it is mysterious to me why they would not want to do everything possible to encourage hotel and motel occupancy by a large and growing segment of the traveling public. Boomers with wanderlust in their aging bones are beginning to have mobility issues, and I would the hotel trade association have applauded not opposed the settlement.

Hotel Room Rate Roulette

Online booking site's two-week game can pay off with dollar deals


For two weeks from January 26 through February 6, LastMinuteTravel.com will begin selling its worldwide hotel room inventory for just a dollar per night for up to a seven-night’s stay. The catch is that the the transaction must be completed within 10 15-minute windows scattered randomly on weekdays during those two weeks. During each booking period, the first 500 entrants who complete the process will be able to book every room in its inventory of over 15,000 global hotel partners

To participate in this "World for a Dollar" promotion, sign up here, and to increase the odds of success, travelers can capture clues from the posted videos to the exact sale time. I don't know whether there is a final date by which successful entrants must use their room reservations.

A Tip for More Than a Tip for the Hotel Housekeeper

When you want to leave something besides cash for the hotel housekeeper, a simple step will keep her from getting into trouble

I just returned from a Society of American Travel Writers Western Chapter meeting in Mazatlan. In addition to printed material, our kind hosts presented us with gifts. Mine included a plastic briefcase, two T-shirts, three baseball caps, a zip-up rain jacket of a material like a lightweight Tyvek, a Nalgene water bottle, a mouse pad with three USB ports, several pens and probably some other schwag that I can't remember.

I will need the press materials and brochures that I gathered, and I already had filled much of the space in my one piece of luggage with Tarahumara baskets and other handicrafts. Sometimes at such meetings, there is a place in the press room where gifts we are unable to use can be returned to the hosts, but this time, there wasn't even a press room. My inclination would be to leave the stuff I couldn't take home for the housekeeper -- along with a gratuity, of course.

My well-traveled colleague Bob Bone suggested that when we do that, we also leave a signed and dated note with the giveaway material, specifying that perhaps the housekeeper or her children might be able to use it. He said that without such a note, a housekeeper might get into trouble if her supervisor sees her leaving with goods. Good point, and I did that.

Sometimes we take clothing or footwear with us for one last wearing before we plan to discard it. Doing this, especially in a developing country, can benefit someone down the line -- but not at the cost of getting the recipient into trouble.

Thanks, Bob, for the excellent suggestion.

Front Range Hotels: One Very Old, One Brand New

The Boulderado celebrated its 100th as Aloft was set to take off

On January 1, the Hotel Boulderado passed the century mark with a swank party New Year's party and then a Sunday open house commemorating 10 decades of hospitality -- luxurious, minimal and then luxurious again. All were welcome to visit the hotel, listen to live music, enjoy free hors d'oeuvres and punch and birthday cake -- and watch ballroom dancers in period costume performing dances popular throughout its long history.

















Dancers in period costume (above); Boulderado birthday cake (right) by Shamane's Bake Shoppe. By the time I shouldered close to it with my little camera, several of the top tiers had already been taken off, sliced and distributed to celebrants. The Daily Camera published excellent pix.

Meanwhile, as the gracious Boulderado was entering its second century, the cutting-edge aLoft Hotel (or is it the Aloft Hotel? or the aloft? or the ALOFT?) was getting set to open in Aurora, near Denver International Airport. There are 17 other hotels with this name, one of Starwood's brands, already open or about to open, and I'm thinking that images on the photo page of the website are of some other them. It brand's design seems hip, high-tech and super-cool with mid-century modern furniture and Technicolor hues in the public spaces and Euro-toned down (natural wood + white) in the guest rooms.

I haven't seen the Denver area hotel or received any press materials, so all I can do is quote its own prose:

stay & play: public spaces
Meet & mingle with friends at our w
xyz(SM) bar, grab a sweet, savory, or healthy snack from re:fuel by aloft(SM),
our 24/7 pantry, or play in our re:mix(SM) lobby. Plus, you can always stay
connected with complimentary hotel-wide wired and wireless Internet
access!

rest & refresh: aloft rooms
Breeze into one of our aloft rooms,
featuring our ultra-comfortable signature bed, an oversized spa shower, custom
amenities by Bliss® Spa, and more. Our plug & play connectivity station
charges all your electronics and links to the 42” LCD TV to maximize work and
play.

Colorado's first aLoft/ALoft/aloft/ALOFT is at 16470 East 40th Circle, Aurora; 303- 371-9500. Others are planned for the Arista complex in Broomfield (opening in May 2009) and Glendale (near Cherry Creek and opening March 2010).

"Reputation Management" Tarnishes Credibility of Customer Reviews

Some hotels pressure guests to writer favorable online reviews -- sometimes even before they've stayed

"It's not enough to ask guests for a write-up on a popular site such as TripAdvisor or Yelp after they've checked out. Lately, some innkeepers have been pressuring their customers to say positive things online — in extreme cases, even before they've checked in.

"Take what happened to Pam Stucky when she recently made a reservation at a small hotel in Scotland. Before she arrived, the owner sent her an e-mail soliciting a recommendation on TripAdvisor, even though she'd never been to the hotel."

That was the lead consumer advocate Christopher Elliott used in his syndicated "Travel Troubleshooter" column that appeared in today's Denver Post travel section. "called "Some hotels cross the line for a good review" was the title of the column about some properties' practice of "reputation management" of consumer reviews on the Internet. Big Internet sites have policies in place to assure that reviews are legitimate and untainted. TripAdvisor.com's is,  "Property owners are welcome to encourage their guests to submit user reviews upon their return home, but they are not allowed to offer incentives, discounts, upgrades, or special treatment on current or future stays in exchange for reviews."

Neither this site nor my http://www.culinary-colorado.com/ have the rep or the reach of Tripartite.com or Chris Elliott's various online, print and broadcast presence, but fans and foes of specific businesses have tried to sway customers to or from a place. This has happened with my culinary blog more often than this travel blog.

Back in 2008, I posted news of Duy Pham, a classically trained chef who had been with several noteworthy Denver restaurants, who opened Restaurant Fifteen Twentyone in Pueblo, a city known more for its Mexican food and blue-cheese curds than for French bistros. Someone who clearly had it out for him left some nasty, unsubstantiated accusations as comments to my posts, all under the cloak or anonymity. I deleted them, not because I believe any restaurant or other business is immune to criticism, but undocumented, anonymous vituperative comments have no place here. I haven't been in Pueblo in a while, but as far as I can tell, it's still around -- no mean feat in a struggling community and a shaky national economy.

On the flip side, I didn't have much good to write about the food at Boulder's Scotch Corner, a pub with a great location, good booze, abysmal food and questionable service. I try to give any business the benefit of the doubt when I write, because I am mindful of the challenges they all face, but in my post, I took the kitchen to task about such simple-to-rectify issues as toast that was burned on one side and untoasted on the other, square pastry dough placed on a round pot-pie so that it came out with four burned triangles, two salt shakers and no pepper on our table, and no shakers of either sort on others, I suspected that the owners encouraged their loyal customers to leave comments debating my evaluation. If they had trained their kitchen and waitstaff a little better, the pub might still be in business -- although more likely, the high cost of occupying a large space on a visible downtown corner was partly an issue in its demise.

But back to the original topic, we travel writers are always suspected of being unobjective because travel providers court us with generous hospitality. I would like to think that we can be more objective because we have been to more hotels, flown on more airlines, have dined out more, etc. than the overage traveler who could be more susceptible to the offer of an upgrade or some other perk in exchange for a favorable post somewhere.

Elliott cited MeasuredUp.com, a social network site created in 2006 to enable customers to review and rate how how businesses have treated them. It serves as a conduit for complimentary or aggrieved customers to the appropriate individuals or departments in a business and for those businesses to respond. Travel is one of MeasuredUp.com's categories. If you have a comment or complaint, it's another avenue to get the word out, pro or con. And of course, TripAdvisor. Yelp and other social networking sites do welcome legitimate, uninfluenced comments.

Inn at Lost Creek is a Bright Green Hotel

Back-of-the-house tour reveals Telluride hotel's commendable green initiatives

When I checked in after dark to the Inn at Lost Creek in Telluride's Mountain Village a week ago yesterday, I was appalled at the excess illumination in my room. As I wrote then, every single light in my little suite was blazing. I called housekeeping the next morning and asked for some electricity restraint, and as requested, only the foyer lights were turned on during subsequent evenings' turndown service.

But even better was the impact that even a enviro-rant like mine produced. The inn's sales and marketing manager, Karl Chase, told me that because of my alert, the inn would in the future add a question about additional energy conservation efforts in the pre-arrival questions that are asked of incoming guests. Perhaps both Lost Creek management and I got a big hit of good eco-karma from that one.

He also invited me on a back-of-the-house tour to show how green the hotel is -- and it seems to me to be "very green." When the hotel was built 11 years ago, it was tightly constructed with Pella low-E double-paned windows (obvious to any guest who looks), an energy-efficient, thermitic water heating system and other mechanicals that were state of the art for its time and have held up well.

Other green practices that this behind-the-scenes tour revealed:

• Restaurant 9545 uses eco-friendly compostable/recyclable containers, including sugarcane-based clamshell to-go boxes and utensils instead of plastic (top photo)


• No disposables used in the employee break room
  
• Linens that are no longer usable by a first-rate hotel donated for resale at the Second Chance Humane Society shop in nearby Ridgway


• Cleaning rags are stained or frayed restaurant napkins, dyed so they don't reappear in the restaurant


• As lightbulbs burn out, they are being replaced by CF bulbs; the "always-on" hallway lights are have been the first to be replaced; hotel is stockpiling CF replacement bulbs (center photo) but not discarding those incandescents that still have some life left in them


• Cleaning chemicals are green and also bought concentrated in bulk, mixed at the hotel and refilled into reusable spray bottles to keep excess packaging out of the waste stream (bottom photo)


• The executive boardroom, a small conference space, has outside windows so groups can opt for daylight rather than turning on all the lights all the time


• Low-flow toilets in all bathrooms


• Flex-fuel shuttle vans


• Trash separated and recycled

I appreciate Karl's taking the time to show me these green practices, and I urge environmentally concerned travelers anywhere to go beyond simply reusing linens to help the hotel business be as evironmentally-oriented as possible. Don't be shy about asking what a property's green practices and let hotel management know that these practices are important to you. You probably won't get the kind of tour that I did, but hotel managers will answer your questions and listen to your concerns. IMO, there is no more responsive a business than the hospitality industry -- especially at higher-end hotels. Repeat business and word of mouth are important to them.

With CNN in the background as I write this, reporting on the current crisis in the auto industry, I have to say that if only the Big Three had been as proactive and also paid as much attention to what the public wants as the hotel industry, execs wouldn't be begging Congress for a bailout right now.

Easy Hotel's a la Carte Pricing

Low room rate and all sorts of add-ons: good idea or not?

I am of two minds when it comes to a la carte travel pricing. On the one hand, I appreciate budget-friendly prices, but I hate being charged extra for anything more than the air I breathe. So I'm also of two minds about EasyHotel, a fast-growing European chain from the creators of EasyJet, EasyCar and EasyCruise. The lowest promised rates are for early booking, though there might also be some last-minute price breaks.

The 12th EasyHotel recently opened in Berlin. Others are in  notably expensive places (London with six EasyHotels, Basel, Zurich) and Eastern European or Mediterranean ones (Budapest, Larnaka, Sofia). A very small, very spartan and very orange room with a very small bathroom -- shown above in a very fuzzy image. Prices seem to start at €25 per night (the new Berlin hotel had a rockbottom pre-opening booking rate of just €10. But the add-ons can add up: television access €5; a second towel, €1 per guest; WiFi access, €3. Even housekeeping is additional -- except between check-out and the next check-in. I don't know whether even a continental breakfast is included in the room, though at least that (and often much more) is in the vast majority of European accommodations.

Once upon a very long time ago, budget-conscience Yanks traveling to Europe and staying in modest guest houses, hostels or one-star hotels had to bring their own soap and washcloths. Many chose to bring toilet paper, because in those days, European TP either was total absorbent or had the texture of crepe paper. Some even brought their own towels or pillow cases -- just in case. Will the desire to save money bring travelers back to the future? Or will it appeal to thrifty young travelers who have no recollection of the way things were?

Looking in on Huatulco

Quick trip to resort towns in southern Mexico yields favorable impression

You know those "36 Hours in...." pieces that are published in the New York Times and in Hemispheres. I experienced "36 Hours in Huatulco" -- about the time I spent in this resort development in the State of Oaxaca. Two days and three nights provided a tantalizing taste, and I'd love to return.

Officially called the Bahias de Huatulco, it is actually a string of resort developments and beaches tucked into a series of nine bays along a 35-mile-long stretch of south-facing coastline between the southern end of the Sierra Madre Range and the Pacific Ocean. Rather than one long beach, there are 36 small ones, which means there is no shoulder-to-shoulder, Cancun-style row of high-rise hotels. In fact, there are no high-rise hotels at all, because regulations prohibit anything higher than five stories, and nothing is built on the ridgetops either. (Below, Tangolunda Bay with Camino Real in foreground and Quinta Real, with its twin Moroccan-style domes, in the background.) Recycling, water purification and aggressive sewage treatment also have contributed to Huatulco's certification in 2006 as a Green Globe Community. In fact, it became the organization's first recognized tourist destination in the Americas.

Fonatour, the Mexican government development and tourism promotion agency, also designed Huatulco as the greenest of the country's five new resort areas and also transferred 30,000 acres to another agency for preservation as a national park. There is not yet any infrastructure, but the dense jungle, coral reefs, bays and beaches within park boundaries are protected. Biologists and wildlife experts have document 413 plant species, 130 species and subspecies of mammals, 291 species or birds, 72 species of reptiles and 15 amphibian species, as well as fish and shellfish that live in the sea. It is an astonishing accomplishment for a country that has had, at best, a checkered environmental and ecological record.

Located between the Coyula and Copalita Rivers that cascade down from the Sierra Madre, Huatulco offers river rafting as well as such more expected activities as sea kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, surfing and golf. In the town of La Cruceita are a shady plaza, a church, small shops, restaurants, bars and small, budget hotels. The waterfront center of Santa Cruz is smaller with a second plaza, more shops and a cruise ship pier accommodating two vessels. The Boulevard Santa Cruz/Boulevard Benito Juarez parallels the coastline and connects Santa Cruz with the zone of larger beach hotels with swimming pools, restaurants, bars and other facilities (one of Las Brisas' several pools, below left; beach in front of Camino Real, right).

West of Huatulco is the small village of Ventanilla with its stunning, undeveloped beach fronting a mangrove-fringed lagoon (below left) and a small, palm-studded island (right) on which a crocodile preserve is situated. A boat ride through the mangroves is a magical experience, with dappled light, sounds of birds and the occasional glimpse of orange of a male iguana.

The beach at Ventanilla is one of several where sea-turtle eggs are removed from the sand to a protected enclosure until they hatch and make their way to the water. Close to the nearby beach community of Port Angel is the Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga, a research and rehabilitation center that studies both sea and land turtles. It is also something of a turtle zoo, where visitors can see many species on land and in tanks (below).

Mexicana Airlines flies Mexico City-Huatulco several times a day year-round. Continental has nonstop service from Houston on a seasonally changing schedule. Hotels range from in-town bargains with rooms for as little as $25 a night to super-luxury resorts with room rates starting at more than $200 nightly. Several properties are all inclusive, meaning that all meals, entertainment (below) and on-site activities are included.

After a 36-hour taste of Huatulco, I look forward to returning for a whole feast.

Results of Tavel Magazine Readers' Poll on Skiing

Results of Condé Nast Traveler's 13th Annual Ski Poll announced

A ski poll is nothing at all like a ski pole. The former is a travel magazine's annual survey that ranks "the best places to ski and stay in North America" An "unprecented" 32,633 Condé Nast Traveler readers who took part in this year's survey. Frankly, I always take these reader polls with a grain of salt. Big Western resorts always "win" because more people visitthem. The big, fancy hotels generally rank high, not necessarily because everyone who selected them has stayed there, but because many people recognize a name-brand luxury chain and vote for it. The results are interesting nonetheless.

The magazine's press release explained: "Readers were asked to evaluate resort towns on the following criteria: Terrain and Conditions; Lifts and Lines; Town Ambience; Dining; and Après-ski/Activities. The ski hotels were rated based on: Location; Rooms; Service; Dining and Food; and Design. The awards appear in the December issue (on newsstands November 25) and are derived from the Condé Nast Traveler Readers Choice Survey." Whistler Blackcomb, BC, was voted Best Ski Resort Town, with an overall score of 90.7 and top scores in Après-Ski/Activities and Local Dining. Other top scorers in specific categories are:

• Top Terrain: Big White, BC (95.3)
• Top Lifts and Lines: Deer Valley, UT (92.1)
• Top Aprés-ski/Activities: Whistler/Blackcomb, BC (93.2)
• Top Local Dining: Whistler/Blackcomb, BC (90.3)
• Top Local Ambience: Jackson Hole, WY (94.0)

The Top 10 Ski Resorts are the usual suspects:

1. Whistler Blackcomb, BC

2. Telluride, CO

3. Deer Valley, UT

4. Aspen, CO

5. Jackson Hole, WY

6. Sun Valley, ID

7. Vail, CO

8. Beaver Creek, CO

9. Park City, UT

10. Sun Peaks, BC

Ranked as the Best Ski Hotel for 2008 is the Post Hotel & Spa in Lake Louise, AB, with an overall score of 93.3 and the top score for Food (94.9). There's something funny about the Pan Pacific Mountainside leading in three categories but not appearing at all on the overall top-10 list. Make of that what you will. Both are in Whistler/Blackcomb. Other category leaders are:

• Top Location: Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside, Whistler/Blackcomb, BC (100)
• Top Rooms: Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside, Whistler/Blackcomb, BC (96.1)
• Top Service: Four Seasons Resort, Jackson Hole, WY (95.1)
• Top Food: Post Hotel & Spa, Lake Louise, AB (94.9)
• Top Design: Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside, Whistler/Blackcomb, BC (96.1)

According to the poll, the Top 10 Ski Hotels overall are as follows:

1. Post Hotel & Spa, Lake Louise, AB

2. Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre, Whistler/Blackcomb, BC

3. Four Seasons Resort, Jackson Hole, WY

4. Stein Eriksen Lodge, Deer Valley, UT

5. Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, Beaver Creek, CO

6. Four Seasons Resort, Whistler/Blackcomb, BC

7. Little Nell Hotel, Aspen, CO

8. Lodge & Spa at Cordillera, Vail Valley (Edwards), CO

9. Sundance Resort, Sundance, UT

10. St. Regis Resort, Aspen, CO

Chris Elliott Takes on Resort Fees

Where airline add-ons have gone, hotel fees have followed

Security surcharges. Fuel surcharges. Checked luggage fees. Inflight food and non-alcholic beverage fees. Surcharges for better seats. GR-R-R-R. About the only charge that has gone away is the fee for using the airplane's headset for inflight entertainment.

Some hotel fees really irk me. My top two are Internet and parking, which are free at most budget and mid-range hotel chains but often carry a hefty that charge in high-priced urban hotels. Of those, the Internet fee really frosts me. In a post called "Hotel Fees That Must Die -- and How to Kill Them," consumer advocate Chris Elliott has taken on the topic of hotel and resort surcharges. He points out that hotel occupancy has limping along through the recession. Too many properties use add-ons (sometimes automatic) to increase revenues. You would think that they would offer freebies as an incentive for guests. Occasionally, a hotel or resort will do so. A resort-style property south of Denver has a great Valentine's package that does just that.

Right now, I'm at the excellent Pines Lodge at Beaver Creek on a last-minute media rate. They had a cancelation on Friday afternoon, so my husband and I decided to stay overnight rather than fight the Saturday traffic on Interstate 70. The WiFi is free, which is the reason I'm posting this now rather than waiting until I return home later today. I don't yet know what the charge will be for mandatory valet parking.

So take Chris Elliott's advice, and question add-on fees, check your bill and complain to the manager if you need too. Hopefully, the lodging industry will get the message.

Sleep in a Grounded 747 in Stockholm

Jumbo jet conversion to airport accommodation

Last January, I learned of a project to convert a 747 into an airport hostel at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport and wrote a post about it. I just read a piece on a neat blog called Airport Hotels, not surprisingly about airport hotels but also related subjects, that it has been completed and is operating. Look at the image on the right and click back to the ratty aircraft the developer started with.

Airport Hotels blogger Susan R. has a fascinating post not just about the Jumbo Hostel* at Arlanda but also other interesting aircraft, grounded and otherwise. She found a 727 that has been turned into a treehouse-height executive suite in Costa Rica and a plane once used by East Germany's iron-fisted Erich Honecker and now a luxury suite at Holland's Teuge Airport. Susan R. also found some futuristic flying machines and has images of all the once and future airborne wonders on her post.

*The URLs to Jumbo Hostel's English and Swedish websites (www.jumbohostel.com and www.jumbohostel.com) are not functioning right now, but you can also read about it in a profile on the Hostel.com website and see photos in article in De Zeen, a design magazine.  

Hotel Room Cleanliness: A Concern?

Travelers weigh in on hotel room cleanliness

The Independent Traveler has tackled the topic of hotel room cleanliness, how much it matters to travelers and to what lengths they are willing to go to stay in a spic-and-span room in "How to Find a Clean Hotel Room." Some of the revelations are enough to make a body just want to stay home -- for example, "A recent study conducted by the University of Virginia found that people infected with a cold who spent a night in a hotel room left contagious germs on nearly 35 percent of objects they touched. The study showed that a virus can live on objects like faucet handles and ice buckets for at least a day -- disturbing evidence of what might be waiting when you wheel your suitcase into a suite."

The Independent Traveler's current poll of the week, "How Clean Is Your Hotel Room?", reveals that most travelers do something to avoid the worst of the germs and cooties that might be present in hotel rooms. The question was, "How do you ensure that your hotel room is clean?" Participants have 10 answers to choose from and may click on more than one. Of the 68 people who responded so far, 29 percent clicked on "I avoid the bedspread at all costs"; 27 percent plan ahead and clicked on "I read hotel reviews before booking to avoid 'dirty' hotels; another 27 percent selected "I wash my hands frequently," and just 2 percent of the most cautious (or biggest jokers) clicked on "I travel with a gas mask and plastic gloves."

What People Don't Like About Hotels

Advice for avoiding hotel billing hassles

In yesterday's post, "What People Like About Hotels," I speculated that "travelers seem overwhelmingly disappointed with air travel, but hotels seemingly are still viewed favorably," and gave the results of a survey about hotel positives. Today, travel consumer advocate Christopher Elliott wrote about an increasingly common problem with hotel stays. He called it "folio failure." Most, he noted, are "erroneous charges that . . . are innocent mistakes — a wrong room number, sloppy handwriting or a computer glitch." His advice is to check your bill before you leave so that the error can be corrected on the spot. Here's his advice (with my added comments in italics):

1. Have an alibi - Elliott gave an example of a restaurant/bar bill that had mistakenly been charged to his room. He wasn't in the hotel at the time of the charge and could prove it, so the charge was removed.

2. Say ‘no’ to the minibar key - "Accepting a minibar key, even if you don’t intend to use it, can lead to billing problems later on," he wrote. Further advice, when doing so, ask the front desk agent to note in the record that the key has been declined. He pointed out that "some minibars register a 'sale' any time an item is moved, meaning that if you touch it, you buy it." Many of us touch the mini-bar contents when storing a doggie bag in the little refrigerator. When I remember, I do refuse the minibar key. Now that I've written this, I'll bet I remember more often.

3. Keep your receipts - Retain receipts from meals, taxis and other services outside of the hotel. If you get charged for a room service or hotel restaurant dinner but can prove that you weren't in the hotel at the time, such erroneous charges can be removed more easily (see tip #1). Of course, is you are someone's guest, say, at dinner, you won't have a receipt for that meal, but make a habit to keep receipts when you can to increase your odds of avoiding wrongful charges.

4. Ask first - He pointed out that "so-called 'full service' hotels like to charge you for every little thing." In addition to hotels that charge guests for receiving guests' packages, not uncommon for travelers attending trade shows or conferences, annoying add-ons include telephone fees, Internet connections (WiFi or Ethernet), one bottle of water free upon checkin that is replaced by others that cost, access to on-site gym or swimming pool and parking. In many respects, mid-range motor inns provide the best value. Parking, recreational facilities and Internet access are generally free. I also like hotels like the Kimpton properties and some suite hotels that put on a complimentary wine and cheese in the afternoon. Others offer complimentary quality coffee and tea in the morning. "The solution," Elliott counseled, "is to never assume any service, no matter how small, will be free, and to always ask if there will be a charge."

5. Don’t wait to dispute a charge - "If you see an incorrect charge on your bill, notify a hotel employee immediately," Elliott wrote. With the popularity of so-called "convenient" online checkout, many travelers are in a hurry and push buttons to accept charges without really looking to see what they are. Conversely, when checking out in person and there's a line piling up, many people are reluctant to take the time to look over their bill. Moral of the "folio failure" story is to take an extra moment -- regardless.