Hotel Ups And Downs

I've had a flurry of business travel over the last two weeks. Last week I went to the Bay Area to do some work with Daughter #1 and this week I am in Chicago for our two long-term clients there that I needed to get to before all my personal travel in the first part of next year. In order to squeeze the most our of the least days, for both these trips I took very early flights (6:00 AM and 6:35 AM respectively) which is definitely hard on this old road warrior's constitution.

However, as is usually the case there were interesting things which transpired.

Hotel Downers:

I don't know what it is but trying to find a hotel that has a decent heating/cooling system escapes  me. In both trips, I had rooms where I could not for the life of me get any discernible heat flowing. Both had issues with the fan controls that basically did nothing...the same volume of air came out whether you had low, high or auto. Oops change that information. I just set the temperature for freaking 80 degrees and finally it has popped into high gear. Maybe what there thermostat says and what my body feels is way different than what I have at home.

Hotel Ups:

The hotel I stay at in Chicago has started this year to connect with text messages. Typically after you check in, you will get a cheerful, "Hi my name is Lucretia Borgia. How has your stay been so far? Do you need anyone poisoned while you are here? I am very good at that. I will also have sex with you but then I would have to kill you. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help."

Actually that is nothing like what the messages are...that is just a message I WOULD LOVE to get just for the uniqueness. It is more along the lines of just, "Is there anything that you need."

Getting into the spirit of this my usual reply is:

"Yes, a complimentary bottle of Louis XIII Cognac sent to my room would certainly show the proper level of appreciation."

All Louis XIII de Rémy Martin is a blend of 1,200 eaux de vie between 40 and 100 years old, aged in oak barrels that are several hundred years old; it costs about $2,400 a bottle at BevMo and a lot more at other locations.

The first person I proposed this to said if he could pull this off he would be at my room in person to share it. Today's employee, Stella, assured me that she could do this. When I got back from my meetings low and behold, this was in my room.

In that cone is a bottle of water. I laughed my ass off. What a great sense of humor. I shot her back this picture and said, if we could sell these for the same price as the original, we could make a fortune. We would just need to relocate to a country with no extradition treaty. I will have to see if she is working tomorrow morning and say hi.