The Hotel Paradox
  photo credit: the_toe_stubber |
Over the past year I have had the opportunity to do a great deal of traveling and I am eternally grateful for it. Nearly a dozen conferences have invited me to speak and most have been generous enough to provide me a hotel room to stay at.
Though I have no complaints about my accommodations anywhere that I have been, it has given me a strange and unique opportunity to stay at a wide variety of hotels all over the world. From inexpensive chain hotels to b&bs to several very high-end establishments, I’ve probably stayed in them all within the past 12 months.
In this time, I’ve noticed something very unusual. There seems to be something of a paradox in the world of hotels. The nicer a hotel is, the less you actually get for your stay. Where there are some products where price paid has no effect on the quality of service, hotels seem to have taken the whole “You get what you pay for” cliche and turned it around, ensuring that you always pay for what you don’t get.
It’s a frustrating kludge that has me wondering if, as customers, if we have gotten the whole idea of what makes a good hotel completely wrong and, rather than an abstract star system, its time we actually rate hotels based upon whether they actually provide what we need.
I know it’s a radical idea, but I think it may be one whose time has come. Read more
Why I hate Flying
In less than 24 hours I am going to be engaging in one of my least favorite activities. Putting my body into a hollow tube and letting people I barely know navigate it at hundreds of miles per hour through the air.
Now, I joke, I’m not actually one of those white-knuckle fliers that have seen William Shatner’s episode of The Twilight Zone too many times, but I do genuinely hate flying.
It is one of the great paradoxes of my life. I love traveling, I hate flying. If I could teleport myself and my luggage where I needed to go, I would be a world traveler in no time, no matter what the expense.
But as it is, I am stuck with flying and the headaches that comes with it. Though I know no one is particularly fond of air travel, I seem to have an especially strong aversion to it.
Why do I hate flying? Well, the reason starts even before you get to the airport.
