Travel Tidbits: Where to See the Grinch on Ice and the Eco-cup Revolution

Tis the season for snow and ice… sculptures. The holiday season is when many (if not all) major hotels and resorts deck their halls with spectacularly festive creations. One company in particular has a long-standing tradition of displaying the most amazing ice sculptures. This year the three Gaylord hotel and conference centers (in Nashville, near Dallas and in Kissimmee, Florida) are featuring their traditional ice sculpture extravaganzas, and the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville is incorporating a familiar storybook character in its display. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the late Dr. Seuss’ book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, … Continue reading →

Hotel Furnishings Go High-Tech

By now I’m sure you are familiar with Westin’s signature Heavenly Bed. The pillow top-mattress bed, introduced almost a decade ago, became an instant hit and is credited with starting a revolution in hotel bedding. (You can now buy your own Heavenly Bed at Nordstrom stores.) The mega-popular bed set off a hotel furnishing war of sorts and Wyndham Hotels fired back with a “Smart Chair” aimed to do for comfortable multi-tasking what the Heavenly Bed did for sleeping. For those of you who don’t frequent Wyndham Hotels the “Smart Chair” is a high-tech furnishing that has integrated pivoting tables, … Continue reading →

Hotels and Daylight Savings

Tomorrow is my favorite day of the year. No kidding. It’s not my birthday. It’s not my anniversary. It’s not the day I gave birth to my first child. It is the day we set our clocks back an hour, which means I get an extra hour of sleep. And, that (at least to me) is a gift you can’t put a price tag on. Think about it; how many times during the course of a year do we wish out loud for more time? Tomorrow is the day most of us are granted an extra 60 minutes. Free time—literally. … Continue reading →

Hotel Room Sticker Shock

Each year I spend a few days figuring out how much it would cost for our family to attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. I usually look at the cost of flights first, then I try to see if there are any hotel rooms available for the days we would be in the city. I typically do this in August and the results are almost always the same–“no availability.” That is unless I don’t mind shelling out $650 a night at a hotel in Midtown. I do mind, so I don’t book. The fact of the … Continue reading →

Travel Tidbits: “Dear Me” and Deer Me

“DEAR ME” That’s a phrase hotel staff at The Palmer House in Chicago are bound to hear a few more times in the coming months. The legendary property is offering a jaw dropping deal to some of its oldest guests. The promotion really is astounding—–it is applicable to any guest who visited the property more than 50 years ago. Under the program, any guest who can provide an original receipt from his or her stay will be given the same room at the price they paid more than a half-century ago. And if you think that the hotel hasn’t had … Continue reading →

New Hotel With Real World Luxuries

Forget about the hotel suites that feature foyer floors made of amber-striated travertine marble. Never mind the million-dollar chandeliers, the $2 million glass balconies, and the cream-colored lacquered walls inlaid with thousands of pieces of mother-of-pearl. How would you like to stay at a hotel that does your dirty laundry for free, doesn’t charge you for eating from the minibar, and lets you make all the local phone calls you want without making you pay a dime for doing so? Now that’s what I call luxury. That’s exactly what you’ll get when you visit Hyatt’s new luxury boutique hotel. The … Continue reading →

No Smell Hotel

How this for a refreshing change—a hotel void of foul odors. Hampton Hotels (they own Hampton Inns and Hampton Inn & Suites) new chain-wide “Non-Scents” program is guaranteeing guests rooms void of stale cigarette smoke, the smell of headache-causing cleaning products, and the putrid aroma of perfume mixed with body odor. The introduction of the “Non-Scents” program follows a month long survey of 1,000 people who almost unanimously responded negatively to distinctively foul odors in hotel rooms. More than 75% of respondents reported that cigarette smoke is the most dreaded smell in a hotel room. What’s more, the survey found … Continue reading →

Hotel Tips: Preserving Your Health, Back and Wallet

In a previous blog I shared a tip I learned from travel expert Peter Greenberg (the Today show’s travel editor). It had to do with staying healthy at hotels. Greenberg suggests rinsing the bathroom glasses in hot water for at least three minutes in case a housekeeper was short on time and didn’t replace the ones left from the last guest. The tip itself is handy, though it does make you wonder about the types of living conditions travelers expose themselves to during hotel stays. Not that you need to arm yourself with gloves and a face mask to ward … Continue reading →

Rev Up Your Vacation In The Motor City

In just a few days Midwesterners (like me) won’t have to travel to Las Vegas to get a taste of what life is like at a splashy, ultra-luxury resort. Next week, the long awaited, hotly-anticipated $800 million MGM Grand Detroit will open its doors to the public. The resort is the sister property to the famous Las Vegas venue and the first MGM Grand hotel outside of Nevada. The hotel is like nothing we have here in these parts. We’re talking 400 state-of-the-art rooms and suites, celebrity-chef restaurants, a massive casino, and a 20,000-square-foot spa. The new MGM Grand Detroit … Continue reading →

Hotels Making Life Easier on “Little People”

Fans of The Learning Channel’s “Little People, Big World” will appreciate this next travel tidbit. After all, it is the brainchild of Matt Roloff, star of the popular TLC show. Thanks to Roloff’s ingenuity hotels across the country are now offering complimentary kits to help short people cope with rooms designed for their larger counterparts. Just a few weeks ago the Carlson Hotel brand, which runs familiar properties such as Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites began offering short guests items including step stools, reaching tools and bars to lower the closet clothes rack at its … Continue reading →