Ease of Travel

CNN definitely made this sound a lot worse than it was: Hotels said to change sheets less often makes you think you’re going to have to sleep in the dried sweat of half a dozen previous guests… what it really means is that on extended stays, hotels aren’t going to change your sheets everyday. I would prefer they didn’t change it everyday, think of all the detergent washed down the drain, all the water wasted, and all the fabrics being worn from constant washes. Shareholders and Mother Earth smile at these decisions.

“It’s a growing industry trend,” Steve Samson, an executive with Marriott International (Research), the world’s largest hotel chain, told the paper. Marriott’s more upscale, full-service hotels began switching to every three days earlier this year, the paper reports.

Privately-held Global Hyatt Corp. went from changing each guest’s sheets daily to every four days last year, according to the paper.

Some leading chains, including Holiday Inn, do not have uniform policies on sheet changes across the chain, according to a survey of companies by the paper. Some lodging companies, including Sheraton, Westin and St. Regis, all owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (Research), still make daily sheet changes.

If you’ve ever flown in recent years and had the pleasure of going through security checkpoint lines at different airports, you’ll notice that the logistics at each airport varies greatly. At some you have long tables where folks can unload laptops and other electronics as they wait for people to go through the metal detectors. At other, the tables are short and so there is a mad rush of laptop bags unzipping and coins being removed from pockets before people are shoved through the detectors. Well, USAToday published an article today about just that.

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Jason Womack of In The Life had a very eye-opening post today referencing an article from USA Today about how hotels, either purposefully or by accident, overcharge patrons. Both articles reference a review by Corporate Lodging Consultants, a company that negotiates hotel rates for various companies; of one of their client’s charges within the last twelve months. The results? 11.6% of the bills were incorrectly charged with an average overpayment of $11.35 a night. Extend that to 1.4M rooms a night, the US average, and that means approximately $500M in overcharges.

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As competition increases, so do perks and conveniences and competition in the car rental business is as high as ever. CNNMoney had an article today with a list of all the popular perks that Alamo, Budget, Hertz, and Enterprise offer their rental customers. Hertz even offers a free tank of gas! Recently I rented a mini-van from Thrifty and found that it even has Sirius Satellite radio! Read on for a list of some of the great perks.

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