I hate hotels.

Just hate them. Over the last two months I have spent at least one night a week in a hotel. A couple of them three nights. I'm getting royally sick of it. Thank God this is the last night for a while. I don't know how you guys/gals that are on the road all the time can stand it.

Staying at the same hotel chain makes it better.

I like the hotels I stay at, the company tends to put me in Hilton or Mariott family hotels.

If you want a change try a Doubletree. GREAT FREE COOKIES!!!

FlightService wrote: I like the hotels I stay at, the company tends to put me in Hilton or Mariott family hotels. If you want a change try a Doubletree. GREAT FREE COOKIES!!!

Wow! That makes my "Wanna a cookie little girl?" game a lot easier to play!

I love hotels. But the gooberment pays for the really nice ones and I get to expense all of my meals so I can have as much steak as I want

You know what I hate more than hotels? The flights to get to hotels at 6:00am in the morning. That sucks.

I'll second the Doubletree deal, but most important is to find one with a free happy hour bar. Make friends with the bartender, and then afterwards with the cleanup guy. I had a great time in Indianapolis a few years ago- the janitor was a retired guy who had spent his entire life in Indy. Lots of local tips.

The bartender was cute too, and while she had to lock up the hard liquor at 8:00, the beer taps were still there.

HiTempguy wrote: The flights to get to hotels at 6:00am in the morning. That sucks.

The last 6:00am flight got me to Chicago Midway airport at 4:25am. I found out SWA doesn't open until 4:30am.

Yeah, this is a barrel of fun. I usually leave my house at 3:40am after I wake up at 2:50am. Of course I usually sleep like a rock the first night.

Although I do get so that I miss my own bed, we usually get put up in some pretty amazing places, often 5 star or boutique hotels.
In a couple of weeks I'm driving to Anchorage, we've been forewarned that the accommodations could be a bit more "rustic" than most programs.

The catch is if you stay in enough Holiday Day (Holiday Inn Express) hotels you pile up points for free gifts or free nights. I have taken my family on week long trips and not paid for any hotel rooms.

The down side is I end up spending more nights with the family in Holiday Inn Express's. Yuck.

I too spend many night in hotels. Most of my trips are by car but even by plane; if I can, I bring my own regular pillow and blanket. These are the tools that I need for a good nights sleep. For me it is quite a nice little luxury.

I'm fine with Hotels. The only time I spend in them is to change, sleep, E36 M3, shower, shave, and free continental breakfast. The thing that gets me are the bed spreads. They don't wash those often, and you don't know who's fat, sweaty, hairy ass has been sitting on them.

I'm too afraid of bed bugs to even go into a hotel room. On my next trip back to Ohio I will sleep in my car. No I'm not joking.

Those Doubletree cookies are pretty good.

When I was younger I did a ton of traveling for work, like I was on the road for a year at a time. Fortunately, for the most part I got to stay in decent hotels but it did get pretty old.

I spent last Sunday and Monday in El Paso at a Marriott. Nice place, spanish style court yard, eggs to order served in the courtyard in the morning. One thing I totally missed was open bar from 5 - 7pm. Seriiously, anything for two hours, beer, mixed drinks etc.

Wed, Thurs and Friday I was in Lawton, Oklahoma; go with the big chain hotels.

I stayed in Ft. Polk, La. and all the bigguns were booked. I ended up in some no tell motel that they rented by the hour. Every night they unplugged the TV and refrigerator, probably tying to save electricity. The bathroom floor was rotted and spongy, the whole thing was just nasty. 70s shag and pleather couch.

What I dislike most about travel is eating every meal out. Right now I'm so damn tired of Mexican food I'm on the spring water/tofu diet.

I spend 2 - 3 nights a week in hotels. The perks are that I never pay for a room for a family vacation and I get little stuff free - breakfast, an upgrade to a suite if its unoccupied and a guaranteed reservation in the room away from the train/construction/highway/night club wherever I go.

The only obvious downside for me... the garage has no tools and even if it did - the people who own all those cars get pissed if I start taking parts off.

Streetwiseguy wrote: ... but most important is to find one with a free happy hour bar.

I'll drink to that!

Embassy Suites used to do this. I don't know if they still do. When my good friend's brother would come to town to visit, he'd invite us all over, and we'd get snookered. Good times!

914Driver wrote: Right now I'm so damn tired of Mexican food I'm on the spring water/tofu diet.

I spent all of last week ina Fairfield a few miles northwest of Houston and I am done with mexican for a good long while.

to the OP: carry your own pillow. put on a fresh pillow case before you leave home. the familiar texture and smell will help you get to sleep, and get back to sleep after you wake up because of the friggin' ridiculous noise level of the in-wall electric hvac.

AngryCorvair wrote: because of the friggin' ridiculous noise level of the in-wall electric hvac.

I cannot even begin to guess how many times I've woke up with a sore throat because of those damn AC units. I'm going to guess 1 in 3 stays I forget to turn it down before I crash.

When I travel, it's on my own dime, so not generally 5 star accommodations. Usually works out well, but my first trip to Trinidad, I stayed at a place referred to me by one of my friends. Dirty, smelly bathroom, restaurant closed, but the kicker was that there was a sports bar directly under my room. The walls were vibrating from the volume of the music. Moved to another hotel the next morning.

mtn wrote: The thing that gets me are the bed spreads. They don't wash those often, and you don't know who's fat, sweaty, hairy ass has been sitting on them.

Mine.

now you know

AngryCorvair wrote: and get back to sleep after you wake up because of the friggin' ridiculous noise level of the in-wall electric hvac.

In the spring, fall, and mild winters I completely leave the HVAC/Air completely off because of this "FUN" situation.

HiTempguy wrote: I love hotels. But the gooberment pays for the really nice ones and I get to expense all of my meals so I can have as much steak as I want You know what I hate more than hotels? The flights to get to hotels at 6:00am in the morning. That sucks.

I will second that.

Any of you road warriors experience the bed bug issue??

As for bed bugs, I do not think I have experienced it but here is what I do know and follow.
As I mentioned above, I bring my own pillow and small blanket. The pillow not only has a pillow case but a allergy proof zip on cover. When I return home the small blanket and the pillow covers go straight into the wash. The wash is good but from what I hear it is the high temps of the dryer that really kills the little buggers.
I also hear that it is very important to wash new clothes and fabrics once you get them home from the store. One therory is that the buggers are being importing in from foriegn third world countries who make textiles.