Travelocity’s “roaming gnome” hosts Earth Day scavenger hunt in NYC

by McLean Robbins on



Celebrate Earth Day with one of Gadling’s favorite trip booking sites, Travelocity. Their mascot, the Roaming Gnome, is hosting a virtual and real week-long scavenger hunt, where Facebook fans and Twitter followers have a chance to win prizes, while finding the “greenest” hotspots from uptown to downtown Manhattan.

Starting April 18, the mascot (@roaminggnome) will host four scavenger hunts in NYC, hiding out in eco-friendly hotels and attractions. He’ll Tweet clues about where he’s hiding via his Twitter feed using #greengnome.

Prizes will include: two-nights stays at green hotels, show tickets to popular Broadway shows – gift certificates toward a new, eco-friendly clothing line and sustainable treats from Sweetery gourmet food truck.

On the actual Earth Day, April 22, the Gnome will be in Times Square starting at 11 AM EST. Those who stop by his booth and take a picture with him can enter for a chance to win a sustainable vacation package. Those playing along at home via Twitter can also enter to win.

Sounds like a fun and creative way to explore the city’s finest green hotels and win prizes. Why didn’t we think of this first??

Psst- want to stay at a green hotel? Check out Hotels Editor Melanie Nayer’s post.

Tracking devices in hotel linens thwart thievery

by Laurel Miller on

In case you wondered, Big Brother is watching. In your hotel room. A Miami-based company, Linen Tracker, has patented a radio-frequency identification chip that keeps real-time inventory of frequently misplaced or stolen items such as hotel linens. Like, you know, that plushy robe you planned to take as a souvenir, or that Egyptian cotton pillowcase that sent you into such blissful slumber. The chips are also designed to help hotel managers and maids stock rooms and order supplies.

CNN reports that three hotels, in New York, Miami and Honolulu, are using Linen Trackers, and the company’s executive vice president, William Serbin, sees a bright future for the devices. “Any given month, [hotels] can lose five to 20 percent of towels, sheets and robes. That gets expensive with the rising cost of cotton.”

Serbin was inspired by the sensors used on toll roads that he drove on in Florida. “We tweaked the technology, went through trial and error with different types of chips and put them in the correct place,” he explains. “Now, chip life exceeds 300 wash cycles.”

So far, the chips appear to be working: a handful of linen thieves have been apprehended, and asked to return the pilfered items to the hotel. Shame, it seems, is also an effective deterrent.

[Photo credit: Flicrk user C Ray Dancer]

At one year old, the Trump SoHo is still rockin

by Grant Martin on

It pains us to see one of the best properties in the world not profiled in the Gadling database, so taking advantage of a recent assignment with The Trunk Club and a planned team happy hour we stopped in to take a look.

The Trump Soho is just finishing up it’s first year of operation in the posh corner of Manhattan known as SoHo. It’s a great part of town, were 9 out of 10 tourists head like pilgrims during the Hajj and where all of the finest restaurants and boutiques jostle for store space. With such a prestigious quarters, the Trump had to have a presence in some respect.

At it’s current level of operation, the property is just starting to fire on all cylinders. Aspects of each room have been fine tuned (such as the location of the ice buckets — not trivial!) after some of the initial guest feedback, and all of the employees and operations are starting to look and feel comfortable. The staff, though they’re trained to be attentive and pinpoint now have an air of gravity to them, like they’ve experienced every situation and are capable of handling anything else. There’s a light patina on the metalwork, a hum to the automated room curtains and a tint to the bright blue glass on the exterior walls — something makes this place feel like more of a home than the rigid hotel that it used to be.

All of this is juxtaposed against the normal amenities that make a Trump hotel really outstanding. The Bellino sheets are crisp and inviting, like no luxury sheet we’ve ever experienced, and the room technology system flawlessly controls the living environment seamlessly woven with the classic wood finishes and casual luxury appointments. Looking down the backbone of 6th Avenue from our bedroom window, it’s easy to see how one could never want to leave this place.

In celebration of their one year anniversary, the Trump Soho is offering special upgrades for any April booking made on Saturday, April 9th. Using the code APRIL9, guests booking regular rooms will get to experience the one bedroom suites, a real treat for any thrifty budget traveler. Get ye to the booking engine before the code expires.

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Gadling and Nomading Film Fest’s happy hour by the numbers

by Grant Martin on

We’re just starting to emerge from the haze of this weekend’s happy hour thrown in Brooklyn, New York in celebration of the collaboration between Gadling and the Nomading Film Festival. Set against the backdrop of a sunset peering into DUMBO’s fabulous bar Superfine, the happy hour was a strong, six hours of merrymaking, networking, jostling and drinking, an excellent opportunity to pull together every friend and colleague that we had in the city and buy them a drink in gratitude. We’ll do it again soon, and if you didn’t make it this time we hope that you can join us the next. Here’s how it all came together:

(100): Number of confirmed guests
(200): Number of drink tickets distributed
(43): Number of drink tickets inappropriately used by purchasing shots of tequila, fries or drinks for visiting Irish backpackers.
(386): Number of photos taken of the event by Gadling and NoFF staff
(6): Usable pictures due to poor composition, focus or inability to stand still for a shot
(5): Gadling staff members present
(4): NoFF staff members present
(8): Number of pool games (and subsequent bets) postured between Gadling and NoFF staff
(0): Number of games (and subsequent bets) won by Gadling
(2): Favorite Frommer’s editors in attendance
(1): New York Times Travel editors in attendance
(762): Aggregate pitches heard by travel editors in attendance
(72): Days until the Nomading Film Festival
(71): Days until the Gadling team has recovered well enough to be able to drink with the NoFF boys again.

Cheers to everyone who made it out. Click through the gallery below to pick through some of the attendees.

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The product of communicating with subway patrons

by Grant Martin on

Fun fact: almost half of my good friends in my new home town of Chicago were randomly made on the subway. How did I meet them? By randomly striking up a conversation. I’m one of the few people on the planet that doesn’t think that it’s strange to communicate with people on the train, whether this is with a smile, some polite conversation or a shared laugh — as it turns out, there are a lot of interesting people out there. Perhaps that’s why I travel so much.

There’s an interesting youtube video making its way around the interwebs right now that well-illustrates my line of thought. A guy named Luke Rudkowski spent some time meeting and interviewing random passengers on the New York subway, and in the process pulled some pretty interesting stories and opinions out of everyday passengers. With so many commuters stacked so close to one another each day, it’s amazing that these stories don’t more often intersect.