The best way to divide and conquer a hotel is to over-tip the bellmen, then pepper them with questions.
In my experience, the bellmen are the eyes and ears of a hotel: they have access to the premium deals and insights that make a hotel run. Furthermore, the average bellman is a male aged 18 to 25; they can suggest the best places in town for partying or point you to their city’s secret dives.
Minnesota Senator Tarryl Clark is sponsoring a bill that will ban state workers from using public money to stay at any hotels that sell violent pornography on their pay per view TV system.
In the bill, provisions are made for the State Department of Administration to keep a directory of approved facilities.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not entirely sure how the state plans to compile this directory. One option would be to have the hotels email or fax a monthly “menu” of their porn offerings, which would require a state worker to determine whether the porn is violent or not. Who decides whether “monster cock 12” is violent or not? That doesn’t sound like a very nice job.
Whatever happened to trusting their own workers not to order violent porn? Or perhaps the best option would be for the state to mind its own business?
Nobody is forcing anyone to watch pay per view porn when they are on the road. But most importantly, who gets to decide what is violent, and what is not? I’m not up to date on the latest trends in porn, but I’m pretty sure that even the porn industry has some limits on what they’ll sell to hotels and I doubt hotels offer anything that is so violent that it could be considered illegal.
Thankfully, the bill does offer an exception for employee’s who can’t find a porn free hotel on their journey.
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If you’re a big fan of Return of the Native or Jude the Obscure, there’s a travel package that’s perfect for you. Built around the chance to hang with Thomas Hardy’s ghost – or, should we say, Thomas Hardy in ghost form? – Summer Lodge Country House Hotel is bringing four writers under its roof for a unique weekend of literary bliss. Guests will be able to learn how to make it as a writer from some heavy hitters, specifically Roger Collins, Marcelle Bernstein, Eric Clark and Jim O’Connor. Of course, there’s always the possibility that Hardy himself will weigh in with a few tips.
Roger Collins is an actor, broadcaster and writer, who counts his weekly International Herald Tribune column “The Frequent Traveler” among his claims to fame. Marcelle Bernstein is a novelist, nonfiction writer and journalist and has written Body & Soul and Sacred & Profane, both best sellers that later became feature films and television dramas. Eric Clark is an investigative journalist, and Jim O’Connor is an advertising copywriter who has pushed everything from forklifts to Australian rum.If you want to get in on the action, Summer Lodge’s Writers’ Weekend package includes two nights in a classic double room, a full English breakfast every day, champagne and canapés upon arrival and a three-course dinner Saturday evening. You’ll also be able to attend three writer workshop sessions over two days, sip tea and coffee during the events and receive a signed book by either Eric Clark or Marcelle Bernstein.
“Summer Lodge has close associations with Thomas Hardy,” says General Manager Charles Lötter. “He lived nearby and the hotel is at the very heart of the Wessex landscape he immortalized. The village pub, the Acorn Inn is featured in his novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles as The Sow & Acorn. What’s more, in his capacity as an architect, Hardy was asked to design the upper floor and the drawing room of Summer Lodge by the 6th Earl of Ilchester in 1893. So you could say the house is haunted by him – although I’ve yet to bump into him myself.”
Non-smokers probably won’t be too excited by the news, but cigar smokers will rejoice. The Washington DC City Council passed a measure last week that eases smoking restrictions on hotels in our nation’s capital. The Special Event Exemption Emergency Act of 2010 carries an amendment that offers a way for hotels to be exempted from the city’s smoking ban. If you prefer your hotels sans puffing, there’s no cause for alarm – the rules are pretty narrow.
Hotels will be allowed to host special cigar-smoking events once a year, as long as at least 500 people are in attendance (which means the venue must be large enough to accommodate this number of guests). Also, the hotel will have to notify the Department of Health and pay a $250 fee. Quite simply, it has to be a pretty hefty occasion.
As with any “emergency” measure, you’d be correct to assume that this law was passed with something specific in mind. In this case, it was the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner, organized by the social organization the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. Historically, the patron saint of Ireland is toasted with brandy and a cigar.
In Washington DC, most emergency legislation lasts for 90 days, but this measure stretches out for 270, as the council also wanted to protect a charity event called Friday Night Fight, which is held on November 11. Last year, it raised more than $2.8 million for Fight for Children.
For spring breakers, the news this year is mixed. According to data from Bing Travel and Travelocity, USA Today reports, airfares are up, but hotel rates are down. The result, of course, is a variation on the adage that there’s no free lunch. You may get a deal on one part of your trip, but you’ll inevitably pay elsewhere.
Airfares, on average, are up 9 percent relative to last year, Travelocity found, with the average domestic ticket costing around $351. Hotel prices, on the other hand, are off 3 percent year-over-year, down to $156 a night. According to Bing Travel, the most expensive travel day this spring break season is March 22 – it’s also the costliest travel day between early winter and the end of April. To pick up a deal, go with Tuesday-to-Tuesday or Wednesday-to-Wednesday plans.
Despite the averages, of course, destination does make a difference. Cancun fares are up 23 percent from last year, from $346 to $427. Hotels are cheaper down there, however, falling from $220 a night to $198. The average cost of a trip for two to Cancun for seven nights ticked up slightly from last year, from $2,231 to $2,243.