Thursday, July 16, 2009

Too Expensive to Give Anything Away

I'm on business travel and currently staying in a super-swanky hotel, where the regular rate is $300+/night. At these rates, they evidently can't afford to provide you with complimentary internet (it's $9.95/day) or a complimentary breakfast.

Hotels like this are too expensive to provide you with any amenities. On the other hand, if I were staying at a more affordable hotel, such as one of the chain that rhymes with "Solid Gray Fin Text Press," all those amenities would be provided. And honestly, I don't think the bed would be any less comfortable or the rooms any louder.

Actually, this fancy schmancy hotel has paper-thin walls, through which I could hear my neighbor shouting obscenities and punching or hitting something, and then making a very loud grunting or groaning sound several times a minute for hours on end when I was trying to sleep. I called the front desk to report it, with the angle of being worried for his health, but of course they did nothing. I searched my bags and found some earplugs, which damped his noisy expressions enough that I was able to sleep. And I can currently hear somebody's alarm from down the hall -- it's been going for at least an hour (although luckily it's not close enough to really bother me).

1 comment:

Ginger said...

Wow, that is really lousy service. Fancy schmancy isn't all it's cracked up to be. We've stayed in some really nice rooms in lower priced chains. And I always take advantage of a free bagel in the morning.