Over the past ten days, I’ve slept in Vancouver, Kamloops, Yoho National Park, Calgary, Edmonton and Fredericton. We stayed in a variety of hotels, and I wanted to quickly share two anecdotes–one of expectations disappointed, and another of expectations exceeded.
In Yoho, we booked in at the Cathedral Mountain Lodge. It’s a fairly fancy spot, with a nice main lodge and great room. The setting is gorgeous, wedged between towering peaks and beside the Kicking Horse River. They rent out cabins, which are neatly appointed in, uh, Canadiana. Think Bay blankets and old snowshoes on the wall.
Our cabin was actually half of a duplex, and so the interior space was disappointingly small. To get a sense of how cramped it was, there wasn’t enough open floor space for me to lie down and do some back exercises. Likewise, there was no view of the river.
As a point of comparison, we paid Long Beach Lodge money for this place. The rooms and cabins at Long Beach Lodge are much bigger, finished to a similar level, and a bunch of them have a killer view of the ocean. So, I went away from Cathedral Mountain Lodge feeling like we overpaid by about $75 a night.
Incidentally, isn’t it weird that you can operate a hotel inside a national park? That happens in the States, too, but it always strikes me as a little odd.
A Happy Customer
On the other hand, I stayed at the (awesomely named) Crowne Plaza Lord Beaverbrook in Fredericton. It was a pleasant if ordinary hotel.
On Saturday night, I noticed a lot of noise coming from a room adjacent to me. Throughout the early evening, I discovered that several rooms next to mine (I was at the end of the hall) were full of boisterous young men. Anticipating a loud evening, I called the front desk and requested a room change. I wasn’t complaining–I just figured it would be way simpler for everybody if they moved me instead of trying to police the dudes next door.
The front desk staff quickly obliged, and upgraded me to an executive suite on the ‘Quiet Floor’ (there’s really a sign by the elevator) for my trouble. I slept peacefully, the guys downstairs had their fun, and the Crowne Plaza gained a happy customer.
I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening working in a hotel room. I got into Vancouver yesterday in good time, and had a ton to do. I ensconced myself at the Days Inn (oddly, they don’t use an apostrophe) and went to town.
I find that I’m very productive in hotel rooms. There are no distractions, and the essentials of life–bed, bathroom, food–are close at hand. Douglas Adams, a noted procrastinator, wrote most of So Long and Thanks For All the Fish in a hotel room, under the constant supervision of his editor.
Maybe it was because we ran a corporate writing workshop last week, but I’ve recently been paying more attention to how ordinary things are described and labelled. I noticed a trend in my room. See if you can spot it:
The writing isn’t awful–you can still get the message–but it ain’t good. They have “a variety of sundry items available”? It must be a real mess behind that front desk. And the other pieces are terribly overwritten.
I was otherwise quite happy with my room at the Day’s Inn. It was nothing to write home about, but it was comfortable and they had free wifi. In fact, they may be near that tipping point of hotels where the hotel gets too nice to offer free wifi. Maybe there’s a rule of thumb here: less than three stars, free wifi. More than three stars, they screw you on wifi access.
Maybe I’m just an old cynic, but I recently saw this ad for Sheraton Hotels and immediately thought: “wow, look at all the stock footage”. Check it out:
To me, I can see the description for each clip on a stock video site:
Couple embraces and kisses passionately in European city.
Monks bow to each other in dramatically-lit temple.
Wholesome farmer greets colleague near pickup truck.
And so on. The cover of Pat Benatar ain’t bad, though.
For one thing, business travelers are just too busy for leisurely soaks. Liability issues make the tub-shower combo a magnet for lawsuits because a surprising number of travelers have trouble navigating the walls of an unfamiliar tub. Shower-only layouts are slightly more space-efficient than other bathroom configurations and that appeals to developers struggling with high real estate costs. Then there’s the “ick” factor: Hotel designers say travelers, especially women, are concerned about the cleanliness of hotel tubs. Even if they prefer bathing, they won’t do it in a hotel.
I agree on the ick factor. I wonder how they compare on water usage. The article concludes that families often want rooms with tubs. If you’re booking for a family, it’s increasingly wise to specify a room with a bathtub.
