Hotels

Today's road warrior post is about hotels.

Unlike airlines, hotels generally must compete for our business. As a business traveler, I am very experienced with the various hotels that exist in the market space known as "business class" lodging.

My two favorite families are Hilton and Marriott. Both are fairly consistent and predictable in quality, cleanliness, and service. Others are pretty good as well, but no matter where you're going, you're likely to find a decent option nearby that's part of one of these two families.

Something I find interesting lately is that the old traditional "premium" hotels, including the big Hiltons and Marriotts, are not my first choice.

For example, I was recently in a DoubleTree, which is a relatively high-priced Hilton hotel that's more traditional, sort of upscale. I didn't like it much.

Marble and brass fixtures don't impress me much, especially when there's mildew on the shower curtain. Add in the limited channel selection on the flat screen TV that doesn't have any HD, and I'd prefer to get a room in the La Quinta down the street.

My favorite hotels that I'll take whenever it's even remotely an option are the Homewood Suites from Hilton and the Residence Inn from Marriott. I like the apartment-style hotels with the full kitchen, and wish it was an option more often.

After those, I like the Embassy Suites.

Where I am most likely to be these days is the Hampton Inn. Country Inns are pretty common. And I often have to suffer with Quality and Comfort Inns, which are cheap and favored by my clients but mostly blue-collar places.

This is another of those things that changed over the years. In the 90's I stayed in lots of suite hotels, Holiday Inn's Crown Plaza, JW Marriott, and a variety of resort and luxury hotels. These days I hardly ever get to stay in those places, while the clients save money.

The things I hope for in a hotel and am happiest when I find them include these:

1. Clean room (especially bathroom) and comfortable bed
2. A good breakfast buffet or restaurant with fast service and good food
3. Either a decent restaurant in the hotel or 2-3 good restaurants nearby (preferably in walking distance). Room service available for those nights I'm working late.
4. Decent selection of channels, HD, and flat-panel TV
5. Reliable internet access without extra charges
6. A decent work desk with plenty of power outlets and a comfortable office chair
7. USA Today under the door in the morning (although I'm getting more of my news online and this is becoming less important)
8. Fast, friendly check-in
9. If not a kitchen in the room, at least a fridge and microwave
10. Comfortable chair - I really like rooms with a recliner.

Hilton and Marriott both have pretty good frequent stay programs. Lately I've been mostly using Hilton for vacations, and they're pretty good about availability (unlike the airlines).