Escape the heat at Wentworth by the Sea

On an oppressive day like today (which for me is any day over 80 degrees), New Hampshire starts to sound incredibly attractive. It’s a bit cooler than New York – to the point where you can actually feel it. Throw in an upscale dining experience, and that’s all the reason you need for a weekend getaway!

Head up to the Wentworth by the Sea in New Hampshire to escape the baking heat of the city, and while you’re at it, munch on the creations of Daniel Dumont, the Wentworth Dining Room’s Executive Chef. With the hotel’s “Coastal Dining Package,” you’ll pick up dinner for two in Dumont’s domain, complimentary turndown service and late checkout. If there’s an upgrade available, it’s yours. The rate’s $349 a night, and you’ll need online promo code D18 to book it.

Live free or die? Well, live free or melt, perhaps. Get up to New Hampshire to give those sweat glands a break.

SkyMall Monday: Portable Laptop Desk

Business travel can get lonely. You’re either traveling alone or with colleagues whose company you barely enjoy in the office let alone in a Bennigan’s in whatever podunk town in which your company’s satellite office is located. All too often, business travelers spend their free time in their hotel rooms working, eating overpriced-yet-mediocre hotel hamburgers and watching a movie that they would never have considered viewing had they been at home. In those painfully boring, sleepless hours in far-flung towns, even the most stoic of road warriors has turned to every man’s time-filler of choice: internet porn. By day three of any business trip, you’re ready to disregard the fact that your company’s IT department is disgustingly aware of every keystroke you make on your incredibly heavy and sadly outdated company-issued laptop and steer your browser towards whatever perverse videos will help you while away the excruciating hours that stand between you and your return home. Here at SkyMall Monday, we understand your pain. And the SkyMall catalog stands at the ready to help you alleviate that tension in a comfortable and dignified manner. Rather than troll the internet for your favorite fetish while sitting at a cramped desk in your depressing hotel room, now you can recline in your (hopefully clean) bed and conduct some business of your own using the Portable Laptop Desk.This isn’t the first time we’ve tackled portable desks on SkyMall Monday. However, that previous model strapped onto your neck, which isn’t convenient for when you are watching videos of people using strap-ons. When it’s time to seduce yourself on a business trip, you need to be able to relax. Being able to recline while keeping the ten pounds of hot metal and plastic that is your antiquated work computer away from your genitals is just the relief you need to turn boredom into arousal.

Think that laying down with your work computer violates the teachings of the scripture company handbook? Believe that computers should only be used at immobile desks? Prudes like you need to read the SkyMall product description:

Fully adjustable to maximize comfort while in use, the laptop table helps to relieve neck and back pain, and allows for the correct placement of your arms for easy use of your computer… It also eliminates the heat on legs or lap.

When spending special time alone, correct placement of your arms is key. No longer singeing your inner thighs is simply icing on the cake.

Business trips are tedious and draining. Being away from your friends, family and normal routine can make anyone crazy. Rather than let that frustration boil inside you, release the pressure with the Portable Laptop Desk. Just be sure to clean off the keyboard.


Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts
HERE.

What is a Mattress Run, and how can it get you free hotel nights?

In the world of frequent travel, the mattress run is to hotels as the mileage run is for air travel – a trip with the sole purpose of getting hotel points or taking advantage of a promotion.

With a mattress run, you book a cheap hotel night, and in return you’ll earn something far more valuable. This summer, I’m taking advantage of a promotion by Hyatt, where I’ll earn one free night for every two nights I stay at their properties.

This may not appear to be a very efficient way to use my time, but the rewards are very much worth it – I can stay 2 nights at a local Hyatt hotel for around $60/night, and in return I’ll earn a free night at any property. Take for example the Park Hyatt in Chicago – as one of the most luxurious properties in the Hyatt chain, this hotel usually goes for around $450 a night during the summer months.

So – for an investment of just $120, I get two nights at a nice Hyatt property and one free night at a really nice one. Best of all, most promotions like this don’t have any limits – so I can earn quite a few free nights with a fairly minimal investment. Of course, my daughter thinks the promotion is really nice, because once a week she gets to go to a hotel and play in the pool.Many hotel chains have their own promotions once or more a year – so pay close attention to those emails they send you. You’ll need to sign up for their frequent guest program, but that won’t cost you a penny.

Some of the more popular promotions this summer season:

  • Hyatt – The Big Welcome Back (stay 2, get 1. Promotion lasts till June 30, free nights must be redeemed by August 31)
  • Hilton – Fast Ways to Free Stays (stay 4, get 1. Promotion lasts till June 30, Free nights must be redeemed within 1 year.
  • Marriott – Marriot Rewards Global Promotion (stay 3, get 1 + $50 off Hertz rental. Promotion lasts till August 31, free nights must be redeemed by December 31)
  • Starwood – SPG Free Weekends (stay 3, get 1 free weekend stay. Promotion lasts till July 31, free nights must be redeemed by December 19)

There are some disadvantages to these promotions – the most important one being a lack of availability when you want it. Award stays may not always have blackout dates, but there are only a limited number of award rooms available on each day, so you may need to settle for dates you didn’t originally want.

Also, hotels usually count two nights as one stay, so to get 2 stays, you’ll actually need two different hotels – which means packing and unpacking twice.

OpenWays turns your mobile phone into a hotel room key

The future of the hotel room key is slowly evolving – RFID (radio frequency identification) cards are making their way to some properties, but the real future of the hotel room door may involve your mobile phone. French company OpenWays has developed a technology that unlocks your hotel room door using “crypto acoustics”.

The system can be added to almost any existing electronic hotel lock, and by combining their lock with a software application on your phone, you’ll be able to bypass the front desk, and unlock your door with your phone. According to OpenWays, the application generates a unique sound pattern each time you use it, which also means people can’t record the tones and use them to gain access to your room.

OpenWays has gone beyond “vaporware”, and is actually ready for a real trial at two InterContinental properties (the Holiday Inn Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center). The mobile unlock application will be available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices.

Of course, with new technology comes new ways things can go wrong – and arriving at your hotel with a dead phone battery is one new way you’ll be forced to check-in the old fashioned way. Time will tell whether this system really is the future of hotel access, or whether easier will still be better.

Sleep better in hotels with these 10 tips

Trying to sleep when you travel is a challenge – sure, some people may be born with the ability to sleep anywhere, but others (myself included) need a little more comfort to grab a good night’s sleep. In this list, you’ll find ten tried and tested tips for getting a better nights sleep in a hotel room.

Best of all – most of these tips don’t involve spending (too) much. So, check out these ten tips, and with a bit of luck, your next hotel stay will be a more relaxing experience!
Get rid of distractions

You don’t have to be insane to lose sleep over little things like noises or blinking lights – anything that is out of the ordinary can become a major distraction.

My personal pet peeve is poorly closing drapes – so I travel with a drape clip (a chip clip also works fine). Before I go to bed, I’ll close the drapes, and clip them shut so I don’t get an early wake up call from the sun coming through any gaps. Call me crazy, but I prefer that extra hour of sleep in the morning.

Fan / Air Conditioning for white noise

This is a personal favorite of mine – and one I don’t mind sharing! If you need a little white noise to fall asleep, set the “fan” switch on the thermostat to “on” instead of auto. This way the fan will provide background/white noise all night long – and it won’t sound as loud when the heat/ac turns on in the middle of the night.

Pick a hotel with a better mattress

Hotels know when they have a good mattress – and they’ll market the heck out of it. Everyone knows the Westin has Heavenly Beds, and that Hyatt offers the “Grand Bed”. This kind of marketing isn’t just for show – a good hotel bed is worth a fortune. If a good night’s sleep means a lot to you, find a hotel that has upgraded its beds – the extra couple of bucks will be well worth it.

Your own alarm clock

This one really only benefits you in the morning – but if you’ve ever been woken in the middle of the night by the hotel alarm clock, you’ll appreciate staying in control of your own wake-up time.

Any time I arrive in a hotel room, the first thing I do is check the alarm clock, and turn off any previously set times. With your own alarm clock, you don’t have to worry about learning how to set it, and you won’t have to worry about missing your wake-up call if you set it incorrectly. My personal favorite is the Moshi voice controlled alarm clock – I can set the alarm on this thing using spoken commands. Added bonus – it has soothing alarm sounds instead of the horrible buzzers on most cheap hotel clocks.

Stick to your usual schedule

Just because you are “on the road” does not mean you need to stay up later than usual. If you have a routine at home, use it on the road as well. The closer things feel to your usual routine, the easier it’ll be to fall asleep. Do you watch the Daily Show before sleepy time? Do it in your hotel room. If you can’t sleep without a nice cup of tea, call room service and splurge on that $8 cup of tea – anything that helps you fall asleep is worth a couple of bucks.

Create the perfect climate

A really good bed and comfortable linens won’t help you sleep well if the room is as dry as the Sahara. If you suffer from low humidity in the room, you could invest in a travel humidifier (about $50), or you could be creative and place some damp towels around the room in the hope that they help. Running a hot shower with the door open right before sleeping can also help.

Traveling by road? Bring your own pillow and blankets

If you are traveling by road (or just have plenty of open room in your luggage), you could consider bringing your own pillow and/or blankets. I’ve done this when I’m traveling to a hotel I know suffers from poor pillows. It may add a couple more pounds to my baggage, but I’ll gladly take that if it means a great night’s sleep.

Pick the right room

A quiet room starts when you check in. Ask for a room at the end of a hallway, away from elevators and on a high floor. Front desk staff usually know their own room layout quite well, and a smile along with a polite request will often get the best tips on a quiet room.

Improve the bed through housekeeping

Dislike the pillows? Prefer some more sheets? This is exactly why hotel phones have a housekeeping button. Unless your request is for a second mattress or someone to sing a lullaby, the housekeeping department will usually be able to help with most requests. A call for a synthetic pillow, or a few more down pillows won’t be a problem, and can usually be arranged any time of day.

White noise generator

Do you travel with a smartphone? Check for mobile versions of white noise/sleep noise generators. On my Android powered phone, I use “Sleepy Time”, an app with almost 100 different noises. I can set a sleep timer, turn the noise on, and drift off to a babbling brook, washing machine or even city noises. The apps are usually priced around $3.

Of course, you can still pop into your local Brookstone and pick up one of their popular devices – but why invest more when you can turn your phone into what you need.



Need help getting some sleep on a plane?

Check out these tips from airplane sleep expert Mike Barish!