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By your request, I added a few maps to filter the thousands of green hotels I have on the site. Let me explain how this all works.
The guide became watered down over time because I want to acknowledge and encourage places to do little things that are more responsible and healthy for guests. If you have a choice of only a few places and one does one or two good things while the other places do nothing? Choose the one making some effort.
Travelers regularly want to know what hotels are completely smoke free or use safe cleaning products but don’t care about all the other stuff. So I created a green rating to allow me to give one leaf to places that are non-smoking, for example. The downside is that for some, it “clutters” the guide because there are more chains and places that are not really green or eco hotels.
The easiest and first solution is to create maps that highlight places with the higher green hotel ratings. I figured it was best to create maps to cover all the higher rated places in the US so you can decide what is best for you and how selective you want to be.
Map of 6 Leaf Rated lodging
Map of 5 Leaf Rated lodging
Map of 5 & 6 Leaf Rated lodging
Map of 4 Leaf Rated lodging
Map of 4, 5 & 6 Leaf Rated lodging
›Continue reading Green Hotels Maps, Ratings and Filtering
Two weeks ago we were hiking the path in Bandelier National Monument and heard the telltale rattle. Less than eight inches away, a four-foot-long Western Diamondback Rattlesnake slithered past my first-grader. If that snake chose to strike, my child probably wouldn’t be here today.
 Mojave Green Rattlesnake. A catch-in-garage-and-release in Arizona. New Mexico’s snake population is booming this year. Heavy rainfall and abundant rodent populations mean snakes are fat, happy and multiplying. A recent report by a local new station suggested three times as many rattlers had been caught and transported away from the Los Alamos area this summer. Rattlers have been spotted around Santa Fe as well.
With proper precautions, there’s no reason why you can’t still enjoy a hike. The key is to be extra vigilant. Here are some additional tips to snake safety: ›Continue reading Snake Population Explosion
- Best Utah Ghost Towns
Devil’s Slide
Named after a nearby rock formation, this town mined the limestone for Portland Cement. Tragedy struck the small village when a large explosion killed many of the miners.... - Best Arizona Ghost Towns
Bisbee, Arizona - Photo by Adam Longfellow [/caption]
Bisbee
Once a copper camp queen, Bisbee’s day-to-day life was fr... - Saving Turtles in Sri Lanka!
I love it when a great idea comes together and there are only winners! Whilst staying on the south west coast of Sri Lanka I took a trip down to the non-profit conservation project at the Kosgoda turt... - East Village New York Guide
- The Lower East Side
Looking up from the path in the narrow slot canyon at Tent Rocks National Monument, our eyes followed distinct layers of sediment that blasted from volcanoes eons ago. Those layers of ash, pumice and tuff deposits – in some places more that 1,000 feet thick – morphed into mysterious cone-shaped mounds visible from the trail head. Similar in shape, the tent rock formations vary from about five feet to over 90 feet in height. Because of wind erosion, some of the tents’ caprocks have fallen off or crumbled, but the majority of the spherical toppers remain intact. It’s no wonder ancient civilizations, some of which date back more than 4,000 years, lived in the shadow of Kasha-Katuwe, or “white cliffs.†The Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado noted the area while traveling through the territory in the 1500s and pioneers later settled in the shadow of the strange, mystical peaks.
 Photo by Furious George ›Continue reading Tent Rocks Offers Spectacular Views
I just saw an interesting use of text messages between a hotel and it’s customers. Give them your number and they’ll text you:
- Drink Specials
- Entertainment Discounts
- Spa Offers
- VIP offers and Front of the Line Access
When you are not staying at the hotel, they’ll text you:
- Special Room Rates
- Info on new events, shows, and upcoming concerts
This was a big Las Vegas hotel and it obviously benefits the larger resorts more than a small motel. What would a smaller place do? “Come to the office now, we reduced the prices on the vending machine for one hour!”
Will text messages become the new email spam? Most people are still charged for each text message. Around 0.20 a message on average. Many people have unlimited plans but we are still a long ways from that being the standard.
Like many offers there will be good and bad aspects of this. If they text you to come to a particular bar in the hotel for a special offer that you’ll like, that is cool. If a company can send you a great coupon that you just have to show on your phone to get, that is cool. If they text you about a Britney Spears concert and room rates every week when you won’t be back in that city for another year, that is not cool. ›Continue reading Hotels and Text Messages: New Ways to Benefit
The lowdown
I have partnered with TripAdvisor for a few years and showed their reviews here on AllStays.com. That relationship has now ended so I am removing any remaining reviews from them on this website. I would love to add reviews to this site where I know they are real but I see no point in providing false feel good information. As a disclaimer, I did get paid for pointing to TripAdvisor reviews good and bad, so I am losing that income. They can’t be trusted any longer for the honest information that I would like to present. Others are coming out on this subject as well, such as Beat of Hawaii and Arthur Frommer.
Relying on those reviews has caused a problem in dealing with complaints of fake reviews and the manipulation of those reviews. I tried to have an index on the site and would see an overwhelming majority of the reviews positive or negative over a long period of time. Then I would check the status again a few months and it would change dramatically to the opposite extreme. Positive to bad, negative to positive and the old reviews were gone for whatever reason. Was it a clean up or is the new data tainted? Who knows but it’s no longer reliable.
I have had people copy my own writings (or paid staff writings) on this site and post it on TripAdvisor as their own on several occasions. Nothing is done about it. I get a rude reply saying that I should have written for their site to begin with or asking why I would write it anyplace else? Duh.
Over the years, I have submitted a few personal reviews to TripAdvisor. My personal experience was that for chains and big hotels, my critical ones were ignored as not meeting their criteria. The positives were published. For the cheaper motels and independents, they published the negatives.
TripAdvisor is part of a big huge corporation now so little things don’t matter any more. Because they are owned by Expedia, a travel website, there is a conflict of interest in being non-biased as well. Are you going to take money from an advertiser and then let them get slammed? Are you going to treat the chains that pay you more money better than someone who pays you less or nothing at all? I have seen many times now where a long running poorly reviewed hotel takes a new brand name. I’ve only seen this with chains by the way. The bad reviews disappear! Did everything thing change with just a new name? Maybe it did improve but that should show up over time, not overnight.
I have had hotels threaten me because I am pointing to bad reviews. As a third party, I try to stay out of it but then the bad reviews are usually removed if the stink gets bad enough. Were they false bad reviews? Or were they just removed which then taints the point of having reviews of that property listed at all.
Hotels are blackmailed all the time by guests who threaten to write bad reviews on TripAdvisor.
The admission
TripAdvisor added their own alerts about reviews. To their credit, at least they are doing this to let you know of the problem. But it also basically says the site is worthless compared to when it first started.
“TripAdvisor has reasonable cause to believe that either this property or individuals associated with the property may have attempted to manipulate our popularity index by interfering with the unbiased nature of our reviews. Please take this into consideration when researching your travel plans.”
Well what is the point in the end? We want to be able to read and trust reviews but it is not easy. They are skewed by employees writing negatives on the competition. Disgruntled employees write about their own place. Owner try to bump up their own ratings. It is the most common industry question, “How can I bump up my hotels rating on TripAdvisor?”
Because reviews are anonymous, they can never be truly accurate. You or I can write about any hotel and get it on there, good or bad.
No one is perfect. There are good and bad aspects about just about all the guide books and ratings. Most of us have probably heard about the person writing Lonely Planet books without visiting the places. Some guide books are written like you think the pleasant chap on the cover was actually there when it was actually a hired local guide doing the evaluation. This means the recommendations become more inconsistent as the brand owner becomes more rich. You may ask what I have “how can the same person that raved about this place like this one?”
The solution?
TripAdvisor needs to drop their slogan. “Get the truth. Then Go.” It’s not truth, it’s more like an innuendo or a rumor. Maybe it could be “Get the rumours and decide for yourself.” ›Continue reading TripAdvisor and Fake Reviews
Another Hurricane Katrina anniversary is upon us. To this day many people are still living in camper trailers that were provided by FEMA or Federal Emergency Management. They are known as FEMA trailers, Katrina campers, killer campers, death mobiles, and toxic trailers among other unflattering names.
I want to remind people that there are thousands of these out there. They were manufactured in such a rush and so cheaply that they had dangerous levels of formaldehyde in them. The usual supply chains were stressed by the volume so the factories started buying products from other countries and regulated sources. Many people, including children, became very sick while living in them. Some people even died in them after surviving the original disaster.
Many of these trailers have never even been lived in. Some have had flood damage increasing the health hazards that already existed in these sick campers from the beginning.
In the nature of good old American capitalism, there are people out there that would love to sell you one of these campers, possibly disguised as something else. It is up to you to know what you are buying. ›Continue reading Toxic FEMA Katrina Trailers Alert
Every city has a zoo, but a night zoo is something completely different. In fact a night zoo makes more sense then a daytime zoo because most tropical animal sleep in the heat of the day and hunt and eat at night.
After a hard day’s shopping along Singapore’s Orchard Road, I was ready to sit down in the evening, and the Night Zoo was just the ticket. Arriving at dusk, that’s just after 7pm here, I boarded the open-sided tram/train and it silently glided off down the track. We drove slowly beneath the jungle foliage and came to the first opening. The animals were bathed in ‘moonlight’ so we could see them, but we were in the dark so were less visible to them. It was wonderful to see the big cats eating and then playing around so close to us and I was thoroughly entranced. ›Continue reading Singapore Night Zoo
I love it when a great idea comes together and there are only winners! Whilst staying on the south west coast of Sri Lanka I took a trip down to the non-profit conservation project at the Kosgoda turtle hatchery. The experience still puts a smile on my face as I recall the visit.
The problem in the area was that the turtles were becoming endangered. As fast as they trundled ashore and laid their 50 or so eggs in the sand, the locals would dig them up and use them as a nutritious meal to feed their families, and who could blame them? The founders of the hatchery, back in 1981 got around the problem by buying the eggs from the local Sri Lankans, who in turn used the money to buy a more varied choice of protein. So far so good; they still sourced the turtle eggs but now turned them in to the turtle hatchery in exchange for a few cents. ›Continue reading Saving Turtles in Sri Lanka!
The Kruger area is a popular safari destination, however some people have concerns as it is rated as a Malaria area. The good news is that there are several other excellent game viewing regions within South Africa where you can see the Big Five that are certified malaria free.
The first area is located approximately three hours north of Johannesburg and is known as the Marakele National Park. Characterized by the scenic Waterberg Mountains, there are several private game lodges that offer a superb game viewing experience. Mist often shrouds the mountains in the early mornings and it is quite a surreal experience to be out on a game drive and watch the early morning activities of the wildlife. ›Continue reading Malaria Free Safari Options in South Africa
 Taking affect on August 17th, 2009, California State Park fees will increase from $10 to $21 to as much as $35, doubling in many cases. The fee increase for the parks will help keep some of the parks open but it’s said to still not be enough to keep many of them open. For non-campers, just the parking fees are going from $2 to $5. Group camps see the largest increase.
Although nothing is completely official yet, it is said that about 100 parks will close in California, even with the current usage fee increase. Look for these closures and changes to start happening after Labor Day.
So get to your favorite park soon or you may not get back to it for a long long time.
California State Parks with Campgrounds
California State Parks Department
California State Parks Reservations and Fees
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