Does Age of Hotel Factor in Your Selection?

How long does it take for the average chain hotel to decline? We notice how certain chains come on the scene and then go downhill. The locations either become poorly rated or change brands. A Red Roof Inn becomes a Motel 6. A Travelodge becomes a Thriftlodge. Is this to protect a chain's name? Is it to hide from negative reviews on the internet and in guide books?

An entire brand can change over the years as well. Travelodge began as a budget motel in southern California. I recall when Travelodge seemed to try to be more expensive and catered to business travelers in their ads and locations. I stayed at some nice brand new ones in the 1990s. Now some of the worst rated properties are under the Travelodge brand and it's more of a low budget brand than before.

Holiday Inn is a brand that had a roller coaster ride over the last thirty years are doing much better now. They have many new or renovated buildings and some old Holidays Inn have changed to another name.

Hampton Inn launched in 1984 and have held up well. Many locations are nicer and more expensive than they were when they opened. They recently began a Cloud Nine campaign with better mattresses and their prices tend to be higher than most "budget" hotels. But the reviews we see are also consistently good. Hilton bought the chain in 1999.

Many chains have flagship brands that are considered high end and slowly turn those into their lower end brand names over the years.

We have been adding build dates to our listings for those who pay attention to that. If a building is only a few years old, it has less chance of being in decline than one built in the 1970s. It would be deemed by most people to be safe. On the other hand, some of the finest hotels in the world may be a hundred years old. So travelers need to look at both age and the brand. A thirty year old EconoLodge is far different than a eighty year old Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Do you or would you consider the age of a property when booking a hotel? Will a "brand new" location look better to you than an older chain location, even if it still has good reviews?

Gay-Friendly Cities Prosper

A recent segment of CNN's Inn The Money featured a professor from George Mason University by the name of Richard Florida. He is the author of the book The Rise of the Creative Class and stated that the more "gay-friendly" a city is, the more economically prosperous it can be.

He said that the college educated youth are moving to the most "gay-friendly" cities because those cities tend to have the best job markets. Think of Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Microsoft (and now Google in their expansion) and Seattle. Other cities at the top include Boston, Portland Oregon and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida. These are cities where open-mindedness leads to innovation and new technology. These cities are prospering and tend to be both more expensive and culturally interesting. You almost don't have to look at hotel room rates in the top and bottom of these lists to know which is doing much better. The gay-friendly cities are much more expensive to visit.

The cities at the bottom end of gay-friendly cities? They include Pittsburgh, Birmingham AL, Detroit, Buffalo, Charlotte NC, and Oklahoma City. These are not the most prosperous, open-minded cities these days. The kids are leaving and not many new jobs are coming in. The educated youth then goes to where the money and ideas are growing.

Average Hotel Prices Up

The average hotel price has increased around 15% in the past year. The industry has recovered and expanded from 2001 when hotel rates dropped sharply to get people traveling again. Some cities have gone way up, like Bangkok at a 55% increase, while others have had a little dip like Washington DC being down by 3%.

In general, travel is costing more. If you can plan far enough ahead, booking a room can save you a little money. You can lock in today's rate which may keep going up over the next so many months. Most reservation systems such as ours at AllStays will takes reservations up to about 11-12 months in advance. On the other hand, a major world disaster could drive rates down and you'd have paid a higher rate. It's playing the odds and doing what you are comfortable with to find savings wherever you can.

Rich Blood and Bed Bugs

The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park is one of the most expensive hotels in London. But even high end hotels can have the same family of bed bugs that a run down motel has in the back end of a city. At one of the most prestigious addresses in London, you can pay £464 per night and up to £934 per night for a suite overlooking Knightsbridge.

Sidney Bluming, a New York celebrity lawyer, and his wife, Cynthia, are suing the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. They stayed at the hotel last May and received amenities they didn't want. They left with ugly red marks on their skin left by hundreds of bites.

The hotel confirmed there was an isolated infestation in one guest room. However, bed bugs travel with you. They nest in your clothes and luggage and go home with you. So it may have been one guest room, but it spreads from there. The Blumings had to fumigate their New York apartment and throw away clothes, bedding and other personal items.

On a related note, Alison Trainer, an American opera singer, sued Hilton Hotels with claims that she was bitten by bedbugs at an Arizona location.

Read more official news stories here on Google News

Hype About New Bedding in Hotels

There has been much hype in the last year about hotel chains upgrading their bedding. Whether it's a Sleep Number bed in Radisson hotels or the Cloud Nine in Hampton Inns, the latest rage in hotels is bedding that has a brand name or a setup that you can buy for your home at the front desk.

Years ago, I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. At the time, it was the best bed I every slept in. It was tempting to look at the price at the time. Since that stay, the hotel was acquired by Hilton and it was harder to find information about buying the same bedding.

In the past, I have stayed at a place multiple times over the years when it served me well. Maybe it's price, location or convenience. I had stayed at a Travelodge near Palm Springs in Cathedral City, CA several times as a quick, cheap stopover. The bed went from fine to horrible over that time. They were getting worn out. And how do you know if you are staying at the beginning of a bed's lifetime or the very end when it should be dragged to a dump? You don't.

On the other side, sometimes a new bed has it's downsides too. I recently changed my place of choice around Palm Springs and stayed at the Embassy Suites in Palm Desert, CA. The bed was too soft. I actually preferred the sofa bed over the king bed in the bedroom. Their idea of luxury was a pillow top pad over a pillow top mattress which becomes almost too soft. One cushion would probably be enough to balance it for most people.

Sunset Station in Henderson which is near Las Vegas, NV recently underwent a renovation. The bed was far worse than my previous experience there before the renovation.

In our experiences so far, most of the places that sell beds are pretty comfortable. From Fairmont Hotels to Renaissance Hotels, from the Bellagio to MGM in Las Vegas, the beds have been decent.

Money for Animal Organizations

AllStays.com has always supported traveling with pets. We also have regularly donated money to many animal shelters and protection groups over the last six years. If you or anyone you know is connected with an animal shelter or group, please let us know. We are giving out immediate funds in increments of $100 to these groups. In return, we only ask for a small credit anywhere on their website. For this program, contact us here.

Family Friendly Hotels Harder to Find

Family Friendly are getting harder to find. Adult content is extremely profitable for most hotel chains. Some of the largest big name chains are making more of their profit from porn than from any other aspect of running their hotels. And now one of the largest providers, Lodgenet is even adding HD content. While we agree that High Definition (HD) television is great, the downside is the adult content on that hotel television network. Some chains have made a general committment to being free of adult content but you still have to check with the motel as it is at the manager's discretion.

We have updated our Family Friendly Hotels Guide with more information, tips and recommendations at http:/Special/family-hotels.htm.

We will soon be adding a search by map feature for family friendly hotels as well.

Convention Center Hotels Guide

AllStays.com has set up a guide to convention center hotels at http:/convention-centers/index.htm. We have the hotels listed that are nearest to conventions and convention centers all over. By using the "search by dates now" function, you can enter dates and bring up hotels in order of their location by the convention center. The first hotel is the closest (usually at the center itself) to the convention center and the last hotel in the list is the furthest away.

As always, we provide booking, maps, real phone numbers and real links to official websites of hotels and the convention centers themselves. Sometimes that is the only way to learn how much it costs for parking fees and other transportation options. We also have contact information for places that aren't bookable online (for those that just need any room that is left in town).

Cruise Ship Ports Hotels Guide

When you add up the costs of your cruise, air or car travel and time away from work, it's worth it to arrive early. Too many people fly into town with just enough time to board. What happens if your flight is delayed? Traffic jam? Cruises don't wait and you'll either lose your whole trip or you may have to pay to fly yourself to the next port of call.

To make it easier for you to relax and enjoy your cruise, AllStays.com has set up a guide to cruise ship port hotels at http:/cruise-ports/index.htm. We have the hotels listed that are nearest to cruise ship ports all over. By using the "search by dates now" function, you can enter dates and bring up hotels in order of their location by the cruise ship port. The first hotel is the closest (usually just about at the port itself) to the cruise port and the last hotel in the list is the furthest away.

As always, we provide booking, maps, real phone numbers and real links to official websites of hotels and the cruise port centers themselves. Sometimes that is the only way to learn how much it costs for parking fees and other transportation options. We also have contact information for places that aren't bookable online (for those that just need any room that is left in town).

College Bowl Game Hotel Guide

AllStays.com has set up a guide to this years college football bowl games at http:/stadiums-venues/bowl-game-hotels.htm. We have the bowl games, the cities, the hotels and their distances from the game. As always, we provide booking, maps, real phone numbers and real links to official websites. We also have contact information for places that aren't bookable online (for those that just need any room that is left in town).

Where do the hotel chains stand on evacuees?

When you take in evacuees as paying guests, how do you make the decision to make a guest leave for a previously made reservation? I recall one time when I went to Disney World and stayed at a Disney Resort. I stayed on the border line date of a slow period going into a busy one. I had a good room rate, was having fun and so I decided to stay another day. I called the front desk to notify them and was told, not so fast, we are full for the that night. They told me how they have incoming guests who made their plans and are coming in from all over the world. I realized it is not fair for me to suddenly expect my room to stay available while another person would be out in the humid Florida night air. So we moved to another resort that had availability and at a much much higher price. In the end, we should have just left as scheduled because the whole move and added night took the fun out of the whole trip.

So does that apply to hurricane evacuees who may have lost everything and are struggling to pay their hotel bill? What about the business customer who has an important meeting, always stays at a particular hotel and nothing else is available at this late date? He or she may also spend money on those expensive hotel phone calls, food, room service and incidentals while the evacuees save every dime and use more of the hotels utilities 24 hours a day.

It's a tough call and one that Hilton is making now by asking many evacuees to leave so it can honor the reservations of incoming guests.

So here is the bad publicity for kicking out hurricane evacuees. And if they let them stay? They get bad publicity in business circles and anger big-spending repeat customers who travel for business. If a hotel does not honor your reservation and leaves you out in the cold, would you go back to them later on? Probably not. If a hotel lets you stay as an evacuee in what may be the hardest time of your life, would you go back later on, perhaps to relive those memorable days? Probably not.

The governor of Louisiana issued an executive order for hotels not to displace a evacuee who is guaranteeing payment. This is also an executive order for hotels not to honor reservations, something which they would probably be penalized for under other circumstances.

Holiday Inn and Choice Hotels International, which markets the brands Clarion, Comfort Suites, Quality and Sleep Inns, are encouraging their franchises to give guest priority to evacuees and other emergency workers.

It's a tough call and a hotel may lose either way. As long as they don't price gouge, AllStays sympathizes with both sides. Hotels that closed for a couple weeks with minor damage just may be the luckiest ones.

Two Ways to Check Gas Prices Before Your Trip

If you are concerned about gas prices this summer, or any time of the year, you can check online for the best deals in a couple of ways. Both have their positives and negatives in their coverage. First, starting for Memorial Day weekend, AAA will allow it's online members to check U.S. prices through their various regional websites. The AAA Fuel Price Finder monitors the gasoline price charged through credit card transactions at the individual stations. Data on price and location will be received from about 85,000 stations throughout the United States. You need to be a member of AAA (fee) and this won't record all transactions.

The free alternative that covers even more areas and Canada is gasbuddy.com. It relies on individual spotter reports across North America but it doesn't require any special computer connections either. So it's not automatically updated by every transaction but it encompasses more places and possibilities. In our checks, it had a pretty thorough report on even some small town gas stations. If a station was much lower than competition two days ago, it will probably have a lower price today.

After record high gas prices hit in early April, the prices have been steadily falling, but are still at higher levels than where the price climb began.

Defining Exchange Rates

Have you traveled between countries? Have you ever had to change money at an airport, bank or train station? If you have, you've already dealt with exchange rates.

You've seen the electronic charts in the airports and in bank windows. You've heard the news anchor talk about the dollar being up or down against the yen or euro. But what does that mean?

AllStays Travel Money is here to help. See our series on defining exchange rates in plain words.

Bed Bugs in Hotels

They're back.

Bed bugs in hotels have never really gone away but the old phrase "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" has come back strong and with a bite to hotels. Even some of the finest hotels in the world are being bitten by the resurgence of these bloody biters.

They are not targeting cheap hotels or old hotels. They can be found in the newest, the best and the most expensive of hotels. They do not discriminate. They just want human blood and do not pose a health threat at this time.

More and more hotel pest calls are being quietly serviced by the pest control industry. The complaints are rising but are mostly buried by the hotel chains. As a travel website, we don't want consumer afraid of hotels but we do want you to be aware of the problem and what you can do about it.

Bed Bug Lawsuits

Bed bugs have triggered lawsuits but that seems a bit too extreme. Bed bugs are in our homes, not just hotels. Hotels are more susceptible however, because of the transient nature of the guests. People and their luggage come and go and the bed bugs can hitch a ride from place to place, multiplying as they go. If you complain to the front desk, the hotel should try and accommodate you with compensation. Perhaps a free stay or other perks that they can pass on to you right away.

Bed bugs are oval-shaped and tiny, less than a quarter of an inch, and brown in color. They hide under mattresses and in the bed frames, crevices and other furniture pieces.

Once they find an attractive human source, they bore the skin and suck blood. Can an empty room kill them off? Not so, as they can go months without a food source. They wait patiently for the next guest to check in. They may even hitch a ride home with you in your luggage.

Scientists believe that the resurgence is caused by the cut backs in some pesticides. Many of the most powerful pesticides have been taken off the market due to other health problems that they caused. In the U.S., the insecticide DDT which was banned in the 1960s, was used heavily in hotels and bed bugs were nearly eliminated in the 1940s and 50s.

There is no evidence that bed bugs transmit West Nile Virus or any others at this time. So far, they only leave a itchy mark on the skin....and perhaps an uneasy creepy feeling the next time you pull back the sheets in your hotel room.

Electronic Passports Are Worriesome

Get your passport now if you don't have one. Already have one expring in the next year or two? Get it renewed now.

In case you hadn't heard, all new U.S. passports are going to be equipped with microchips. The will contain and broadcast information about you to anyone who can read it. Whether that the government, identity thieves or terrorists remains to be seen. The information with include the cardholder's name, birth date, issuing office and a digital photo of the face. Other biometrics such as fingerprints may be added as well. Anyone with a machine reader will know who you are, what you look like and where you are from. They won't even need to pick your pocket.

On the latest passports, they are really disregarding a basic privacy approach and leaving out basic security methods that you would expect for such an important document. The American Civil Liberties Union has already raised alarms. An executive at a company developing a prototype for the U.S. State Department calls the international standards woefully inadequate.

City considers law against RV parking at Wal-Marts

Campground owners in Jamestown, North Dakota want the city to pass a law against free overnight camping for rv vehicles at the Wal-Mart parking lot and city parks. The Police Committee voted unanimously for the City Council draft an ordinance to regulate RV parking. Full local story from the Jamestown Sun

Park Hyatt Named ``Best International Hotel Chain''

Business and luxury leisure travelers give Park Hyatt top honor in the annual Global Traveler Magazine's GT Tested Awards, naming the worldwide luxury brand "Best International Hotel Chain."

More than 3200 Global Traveler readers participated in the open-ended nomination survey, citing Park Hyatt hotels for being "upscale but not snooty" and "the brand that provides a secluded haven for travelers abroad."

Park Hyatt also earned kudos for its United States product, placing second in the "Best Domestic Hotel Chain" category, ahead of Four Seasons, Marriott and Hilton.

The January issue of Global Traveler features Park Hyatt's "Best International Hotel" recognition along with more than 30 other travel related awards. Awards will be formally presented on January 24, 2005 at the Global Traveler Tested Awards in New York City.

Tsunami Travel Challenges

The recent tragic tsunami is providing some travel challenges. We are trying to find out which resorts are closed and which are opened. If you have reservations in affected areas, call first to find out status on refunds, upcoming trips or what the situation may be today.

Yoga Retreats May Be A Passionate Vacation Choice

Whether you've been doing yoga for years or just began recently, the time to go deeper may be here. Whether you teach others in a local class or practice alone in your own living space, you can take it higher. You can make it a vacation that you can take home with you. A yoga retreat vacation works from the inside out. And the wonderful feeling lasts longer. The return airporttrek and the first visit with your boss can't take it away from you. Full story

Remote Getaways

Need to getaway? Far far away?

Here are a few places that will get you away from it all. Far far away from it all....From forest fire look out towers to rusti cabins. These are cheap on the wallet but not easy to access. Full story

Taking the Aches Out of Travel

Everyone travels -- whether it is around the world, cross-country or to a neighboring town -- and loading the suitcase with everything one might need seems to be the norm. But these days, traveling can be a pain in the neck, literally.... Full story

Best Rates for Holiday Inns

AllStays.com Has the Best Rates for Holiday Inns, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge & Candlewood Suites.

We are now partners with the certified program as an online third party distributor for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) hotels worldwide. We now can offer the best room rates publicly available from all IHG hotels. Our Last Minute Deals and Custom Trip options also now include these 3,300 plus hotels.

Scalding Water Found in Nearly 90% of Hotel Rooms

A recent survey conducted at major hotel chains across the U.S. reveals that most hotel bath, shower and sink fixtures deliver water at scalding temperatures. For 16 months,...Full story

Extended Stay Hotels Provide More Comfort

You may not need to throw the leftovers away or sit in the lobby to find a comfortable couch and internet service. Extended stay hotels are more common and more affordable for everyone these days.

Are you a modern day road warrior or just the occasional traveler who wants a few comforts of home? Perhaps you want to save some money and stock your own food and drinks while attending that conference. Maybe you are part of a family who needs to stretch the vacation budget without signing charge receipts or leaving tips for every hunger pain. Full story

California Tops the List of Worst Roads in the Nation

Press Source: Transportation California

California's rutted, cracked and neglected roads now rank at the bottom of all 50 states.....Full story

Endangered World Monuments Need Help

The World Monuments Watch was created to direct the spotlight of world attention to our historic and cultural treasures that are most in peril. Every two years they release a List O 100 Most Endangered Sites. Check it out and see what we can do to save our past. www.worldmonuments.org .

Official Contact Information

We want you to have the best contact information so here is a brief list with a link to more.

Airline contact websites & phone numbers:
American Airlines: 1-800-433-7300
Continental Airlines: 1-800-525-0280
Delta Airlines: 1-800-221-1212
Northwest Airlines: 1-800-225-2525
Southwest Airlines: 1-800-435-9792
United Airlines: 1-800-241-6522
Air Canada: 1-888-247-2262
Air France: 1-800-237-2747
British Airways: 1-800-247-9297
Lufthansa: 1-800-645-3880
Virgin Atlantic: 1-800-862-8621

Car Rental websites & phone numbers:
Alamo: 1-800-462-5266
Auto Europe: 1-800-223-5555
Avis: 1-800-331-1212
Budget: 1-800-527-0700
Dollar: 1-800-800-4000
Enterprise: 1-800-325-8007
Hertz: 1-800-654-3131
National: 1-800-328-4567

Click here for more thorough contact information.