Galley Gossip: 10 deep, dark, dirty, hotel secrets

by Heather Poole on

How dirty is your hotel room? Very. Surely you’ve seen those undercover news reports where investigators use a black light to show us things we never wanted to see like body fluids all over the walls and bedding. And what about the video clips of house cleaners unknowingly being filmed using the same rag they used to clean the toilet rim on the bathroom counter. One news team even caught a maid spraying Windex inside a drinking glass – and she didn’t wipe it off!

Now you understand why flight attendants never touch the duvet and wash out the mugs in scalding hot soapy water before drinking coffee! I have a flight attendant friend who covers the television remote with a shower cap and wouldn’t be caught dead walking around her bare feet. But hotels aren’t the only ones to blame. What about hotel guests?

Hotels are a lot like airplanes in that people do things they would never in a million years do at home, like leave wet towels all over the floor. Even I have a deep dark dirty secret that only happens at layover hotels. Two words. Tanning lotion. I’d hate to stain my own white sheets a slight shade of orange. I’ve heard rumors of flight attendants using coffee pots to clean pantyhose. Not so sure I believe that. But one flight attendant told me he uses the pot to heat up soup. I’ve tried using it to make oatmeal but it turned out completely inedible. Better doublecheck the bottom of the iron before pressing it against your nice white shirt since it may have been used to make grilled cheese sandwich. Did you know you can even heat up restaurant leftovers using an iron and a little tin foil? It’s true.

Well all of this got me thinking. Besides the obvious of course, I couldn’t help but wonder what other kinds of disgusting things people were doing in hotels rooms. So I sent out a tweet asking people to confess their deep, dark, dirty, hotel secrets. The responses came pouring in, many of which I’m unable to share here. We’re keeping it clean, people!Hotel patrons share 10 deep, dark, dirty secrets:

1. I let my kids run around without a diaper on. I’m a mother of three. Accidents happen.

2. I “borrow” the towels.

3. Bodily fluids and what not (toe jam) I’ve left on the underside of furniture, bottom of desk, and above top dresser drawer

4. Supergluing the toilet freebies to the counter and the hangers to the rack is fun.

5. Hide all the $5 water bottles in the closet. On the last day put them all back and then deny the charges at the front desk.

6. Towels under the door plus a hot shower equals a free sauna.

7. I don’t want any accidental stains in my home bathroom so I only color my hair in hotels.

8. Those huge mirrors with the bright lights are great for plucking, especially gray hairs. You can get a great back view with some of those door mirrors!

9. Booked a hotel room just so I could use the swimming pool for my daughters fifth birthday party. The hotel found out and was kind enough to let us use the conference room to eat cake and open presents.

10. I leave the bathroom a mess on purpose so the maids have to give it a good scrub for the next guest!


SeatGuru adds search by flight number and route

by Scott Carmichael on

The ever-awesome SeatGuru.com just made life for travelers a whole lot easier. In the past, you’d need to look up your plane type before heading to SeatGuru – but now you can simply enter your flight number or route, and the Guru will instantly present the seat map for your flight.

If you have never used SeatGuru, you’ve probably been stuck in a less-than-desirable seat in the past (or on an airline without pre-assigned seating). The site displays 706 graphical seat maps for 98 different airlines – and each map also provides feedback on the quality of the seat, whether there are downsides (or upsides) to a specific seat and what kind of amenities are available, including the location of power outlets, bassinets and more.

So, next time you are able to pick a seat on your flight, head on over to SeatGuru for their expert advise on the best seat for your trip.

Virgin Atlantic releases innovative mobile Jetlag Fighter app

by Scott Carmichael on

Virgin Atlantic just released their newest mobile application – Jetlag Fighter. Last year, we took a look at the Virgin Atlantic “Fear of Flying” app, and the airline continues the trend of well designed applications with this newest application.

In Jetlag Fighter, you are offered an impressive array of tools to help battle jetlag, and anyone who has suffered through the symptoms knows that you need all the help you can get.

The first portion of the application is educational – and offers spoken articles on Jetlag and sleep in general. The information in this section comes from Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service – an expert in sleep and jetlag.

In the profile section, you provide some basic personal information about your sleep pattern, age, health and sex. This information is then used in the trip section to provide a personalized jetlag battle plan.

Once you enter your flight information, the app calculates the best way to get rid of your jetlag, including when to go to sleep, when to wake up and when to exercise.

The app takes some work to master – and you’ll need to go through the one-time step of creating an account, but if you already have an account created in the Virgin Atlantic Fear of Flying app, you’ll be able to use it in this app.

The Virgin Atlantic Jetlag Fighter costs $1.99 and is available in the App store through this link.

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The top ten rudest flight attendants (among the top 50 major carriers)

by Grant Martin on

Our old friend Doug Lansky has been a traveling whirlwind this year, collecting data and taking notes for his newly released book, The Titanic Awards, a compendium of the world’s worst travel mishaps. Below, he reflects on his experiences with flight attendants.

Even if you don’t have permanent scarring where the drink cart meets you elbow, you’ve probably flown enough to know that some flight attendants seem to handle the tired, agitated and even content passengers better than others. Perhaps it’s just a few bad apples, but it seems American and United have attracted (or trained) enough of them to share the title according to a survey of over 2000 people from 80 different countries, Disagree with these results? Take the new 2010 survey at TitanicAwards.com. For more fun survey results and other “Worsts of Travel” tales, check out the book, The Titanic Awards (Perigee, May 4, 2010).

Check out the results of the survey in the slideshow below.

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Travel Trends: The rise of the ‘Free Independent Traveler’ (FIT)

by Gadling Staff on

Over the last few years, the world travel landscape has undergone significant changes brought by security concerns, the economic crisis and green considerations. These new conditions have given rise to a new type of tourist: the “Free Independent Traveler,” or FIT. The term refers generally to people over 35, of above average income, and who like to travel in small groups or as couples. They avoid mass tourism and the holiday package of traditional travel operators, and favor a more individualistic approach to travel. They may or may not be “Four Percenters.”

Free Independent Travelers as an alternative movement?
FITs tend to be environmentally aware, with the desire to experience new ways of life and usually are enthusiastic, off-the-beaten-track explorers with a thirst for experiencing the “real thing.” They enjoy good food, architecture, and the heritage of local cultures.

Also, they are an important and growing sector in the travel market. Governments, regional tourist boards and other public sectors responsible for tourism development try to attract them. Why? The basic principle is economics. FITs spread their money around in a more efficient fashion, buying from multiple locations driven by their own particular itinerary and tastes and by the intention of enjoying the local way of life. In contrast, tour groups concentrate in a few providers, which tend to spread money in a less than optimal manner.


The Power of Information
How FITs garner information for their trips is of vital importance. Not surprisingly, a wide variety of sources and/or tips from social websites are key.Sites such as Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forum or GoNOMAD.com are both examples and represent the fundamental difference between the FIT and other types of traveler. Many FITs are even leraging Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social networking sites to get information about trips. After all, independent travel is about the sharing and passing on of ideas and knowledge. The FIT vacation is a custom-built menu fed by suggestions from friends, forums, specialty providers or others. The rise of low-cost airlines in the US and Europe has also increased the supply of alternative and lower cost short haul destinations fueling demand for these newly available markets.

The internet is fundamental to the rise of the FIT, and as such, many traditional Travel Operators interested in tapping into this new, growing market are starting to offer fully customized travel options through their websites to create almost an oxymoron: Independent Travel Operators.

Take a look at the trends in information gathering and travel booking below. (Please note that all data points for 2010 and 2011 have been forecasted to show future trends. We can’t see into the future.)

Information Sourcing for Travel
As you can clearly see below, FITs have turned almost exclusively to the Internet for information gathering and trip-planning.

Where do people go to price airline tickets?
As you can see from this chart, FITs have largely abandoned advice from tour guides, tour books, friends, and relatives to price airline tickets. [Ed’s note — who ever asked their friends for details about airline ticket prices?!] With the rise of the Internet, FITs are instead going directly to the source to learn about and compare airline ticket prices. For anyone who has ever visited a booking aggregator or an airline website, of course, this makes perfect sense.

Where do people go to book tours?
As with the chart above, FITs have almost entirely abandoned tour operators for actually booking their trips and/or extended tours.

So are you a FIT traveler?

Data Sources:

See more Travel Trends.