McGarvey’s Words
by Robert McGarvey
re: My Hotel
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McGarvey’s Words by Robert McGarvey re: My Hotel |
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Here's What You Are Saying: Letters to McGarvey's Words . Back Pages: o Palms Away: Travels with a Palm. o Email-Country. Of Ricky Skaggs, cruising, Yahoo, and the ubiquity of email. O Google Spying: Much ado
about something good. o Ebay and the triumph of ecommerce. o VirtualOffice: The best travel bag. oChangingTravel: New rules for a new century. o Junkmail: the war on spam.
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I have been brushing you off and I apologize. For as many years as I have been writing about travel I have gotten email asking me to recommend a hotel in town XYZ and, invariably, I have deleted that email without offering a response. Not because I don't value your concerns but because, frankly, I usually think a bed is a bed and what more can be said?. But then it occurred to me that indeed I do have a collection of personal favorites that you'll rarely find written up in the travel press -- and I also have rules for picking hotels that just may guide you as you decide where to rest your head in a strange town. First off, however, let's stipulate McGarvey's Main Hotel Rule: Do not spend over $100 per night, except in very expensive cities (San Francisco, New York, London, etc.) where $150 is permitted. But not a penny more. I cringe when people regale me with stories of great nights in hotels that cost north of $400/night. You were expecting a lumpy mattress, dirty water glasses, and greasy towels in such a temple? Trust me: if your nights at $400 per aren't top notch, somewhere there is a hotel GM who deserves to be fired (and in this economy there are long lines of would-be successors). I don't know about your clients, but mine won't tolerate $400/night hotels. And when I am paying my own freight, I won't tolerate that expense either. Not when I can stay at my favorite hotel in North America, El Pueblo Lodge in Taos, for under $100/night. That includes free wood for the working fireplace and free coffee in the morning. The hotel features big rooms, it's a couple blocks north of the plaza, on the main drag, and there's ample parking (free). There's no bar or restaurant in the El Pueblo, but when thirst strikes I wander down to the Adobe Bar in the Taos Inn and quaff a Cowboy Buddha (around $10, this is the quintessential margarita) and if I'm hungry, the adjacent Doc Martin's (also in the Taos Inn) sells good eats. Which bring us to a key tip: stay in a cheaper hotel but do your socializing in a pricier neighbor. Tip two: When in doubt, go with chains, a distinctly American phenomenon that provides predictable, well-priced accommodations. When friends and family ask me where to stay in Tucson, where I live, I invariably point them to the nearby Holiday Inn Express, a new, clean hotel with great views of the Catalina Mountains, free breakfasts, and prices under $100 much of the year. Want something nearer the University of Arizona? There's the Residence Inn on Speedway, also under $100 per night much of the year and with a great breakfast buffet. I have stayed in multiple Holiday Inn Express hotels; ditto for Residence Inn, and I have not been disappointed. Tip three: Stray off the beaten path. Whenever I have business in the San Francisco Bay Area, my personal favorite hotel is the Dry Creek Inn in Healdsburg, about 70 miles north of San Francisco. OK, that is a long haul into the City -- but I have made that drive many times and it is on pastoral Highway 101 as it snakes through the rolling hills of Marin and into the Sonoma County Wine Country. Give me the choice and I will always opt for the Dry Creek Inn -- and if I have to stay in San Francisco or another pricey metropolis, tip four is, show no loyalty, book with a consolidator. Quikbook offers an outstanding selection of business class hotels in most major cities, with none of the Priceline-style games, but with steep discounts ($150 will indeed buy a nice room in New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles via Quikbook). Tip five: use your brains, never follow fashion. For years I have traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland and for years, everybody recommended I stay at the Europa. I never have. I'm sure it is a fine hotel but it is too pricey for me and, worse, it definitely earned its rep as the most bombed hotel in western Europe. Matters have settled down in Belfast but, still, when next I go I will stay where I always stay, at the Wellington Park Hotel near Queens University. It's a wonderful, leafy setting that has always been safe and the rates also are much keener than at the Europa. How did I find the place? On a trip around 15 years ago I was staying in a guest house near Queens -- guest houses had never been bombed and that seemed good to me -- and, walking around, I saw the Welly Park, popped into the pub, and decided to transfer my base there. I've never had regrets and in comparatively pricey Belfast, the Welly Park is a bargain with rooms usually around $150. Which leads to tip six: if a city will regularly show up on your destination list, check out its lodgings by putting your nose in lobbies, bars, restaurants. Keep inspecting until you find a hotel that delivers what you want. And always keep a tight hand on your wallet. Are local calls free? Is parking? How about breakfast? Those three alone often will top $50 per day -- but smart travelers habitually get them all for free by buying hotel rooms wisely. And the tighter travel budgets get, the more we all have to count every penny we spend and justify each dime. Stop wasting money on rooms, just live McGarvey's Rules. Do you have favorite bargain hotels? Rules for saving money on hotel rooms? Tell us and we'll post the best emails here. Want to keep reading McGarvey's Words? Sign up for Joe Brancatelli's weekly email notification of new travel columns that have posted. McGarvey's Words usually posts every other week, except when it doesn't. How to get this update? Just send Joe a blank E-mail and Joe will sign you up personally. Click here to visit Joe Brancatelli's Travel Site JoeSentMe.com Keep coming back, for more of McGarvey’s Words. Copyright 2003 by Robert McGarvey Taos Land Sale: Click For Details
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Have a cruise complaint? File it with Porthole Magazine's Ombudsman. McGarvey on Publishers Marketplace: Brain Wars About Robert McGarvey Author of How to Dotcom (Entrepreneur Press), McGarvey is writing a book on Brain Wars, the rise of cognitive science and the search for truths about thinking. A onetime columnist for BizTravel.com, he is a frequent contributor to dozens of magazines, ranging from American Legion to Electronic Business, Technology Review, and Rutgers. He has also contributed to Harvard Business Review. For the past five years, he has served as "The Ombudsman" for PORTHOLE Cruise Magazine. Still curious about McGarvey? Read up on him here. |
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