Pet Peeve: $3.00 charge for 15 minutes

It's another road trip and I'm totally excited that I got to check out
the new Sandman in Calgary, Alberta.

Right off it was easy to find so no stress; easy and free parking. Check in was friendly and personable. They offered out a couple of coupons for Moxies and Dennys. And gave precise directions to my room. If the line up was long I would hope they would be less chatty but right now it was pleasant since I wasn't in a hurry.

The room is of generous size, the bathroom has a good shower and all the essentials are there (love that they don't have plastic glasses). The rooms are nice - flat screen TV (I must be the first person to use as I had to auto tune it for the stations); the room is stylish and decorated with a working desk and free wireless (so essential when I am travelling). Complimentary coffee in the room (but I will get my own coffee somewhere else - I just can't do CoffeeMate - they do a good job pushing that this is lactose free but if you really check out the ingredients - yuck - but I don't think that Sandman has an option to offer something else - dried milk maybe?)

And if you are into shopping plenty enough of stores from Ikea to Future Shop. For food you are limited to just the chains - FatBurger, Opa, Ricky's, Moxies (part of the hotel) and a Dennys. I ended up walking over to IKEA - if I had kids I would be coming here - good quick food at totally decent prices. And they even toss in some suggestions as to why you should clean up after yourself - gee, I won't even need to parent!

The cost was reasonable (at least my client will be happy as it was less than $135 ($12 in various fees - do I really have to pay the Destination Marketing Fee of $3.57 and the Provincial Tourism Levy of $4.90 - aren't I the tourist here?) I will ask at the front desk if I have to pay this charge. Oil rich Alberta doesn't really need my money. Come to think about it I got hit with these charges last autumn in Jasper.

My only peeve during this short visit: I wanted to print off my boarding pass but while I have wireless in the room I would have to pay $3.00 to access the business centre downstairs for 15 minutes. They need to take a peek as to what the Westin Montreal is doing - they also have wireless in the rooms. And you have to pay to access the internet in the lobby area but they do allow you to print off your boarding pass for free.

I'll wait till I get to the airport.

Sandman Hotel Calgary South, 8001 - 11 Street SE, 403-252-7263 www.sandmanhotel.com

Check your windows

Casually I enter room 330 at the aloft Montreal airport. Sprawl out on the bed for a bit. Work on some files. Then head downstairs for a late night nibble. As I stand by the elevator I glance out the window and think, wow you sure can see everything in that room. Then I realize that room is my room. Hmm, that made me think twice. Did I not notice that the room was so exposed? Should there be an alert sticker on the window?

Bigger than life headboards

Sometimes it is wonderful to check into a NYC hotel and be a little surprised.

When a room is REALLY small this is a good thing to do.

Rosen Centre Hotel - they don't make it easy on the web

In the next few days I am going to be checking into an award winning hotel in Orlando Florida for 4 nights. The room, at $213/night, was booked for me. I decided to jump on their website at http://rosencentre.com/

There are few things I wanted to confirm:

- fitness room (They want an extra $10 per day on top of the $213 I'm already paying)

- high speed internet (crazy - it doesn't say it is included but it also doesn't tell you if it is - why aren't they just upfront) - after much searching I did find it but had to open a PDF file to get the answer.

- shuttle from the airport - it does say it is 12 minutes but it doesn't tell you if you need to take an airport shuttle or if there is a dedicated shuttle. Found that to eventually. Would you believe $17 one way on a shuttle or $38 by taxi. Yikes. I know that all my expenses are being picked up however I am still aware of how much it costs to travel.

- contact them - nope, that isn't easy either, for the "Ask a Concierge" page you must submit a form 8 pieces of information - I just want answers to easy questions - why can't I just ask the question and give them either my name or my confirmation number at the hotel.

New Orleans - travel tips

Just a couple of words of advice:

- book your return shuttle on the day you arrive in town or at least 48 hours beforehand. I was a little surprised to find out that they actually don't have enough shuttle services www.airportshuttleneworleans.com
- take advantage of the street cars - a great way to explore the city
- I booked my hotel after visiting www.tripadvisor.com/ - great comments about hotels and other accommodations on the site; you sometimes have to read between the lines and right now it has worked for me in Chicago, New Orleans and Palm Springs.

Calgary Hotel Prices a tad crazy

Oh yes you can tell that Calgary is a hot market - trying to find a hotel near the airport and I'm facing price tags hitting the $180 plus tax mark!

Took a gamble and booked into an unknown property for me - Sandman - the web rate was $129 - nice place, good wall paper, nice hallways, effective rooms, free wireless, free parking, friendly staff, luggage carts. Amenities weren't much and they don't seem to have an environmental program. Nice touches in the front lobby - baskets of fruits and a small selection of newspapers. And nice firm beds. I'd stay here again.

Sandman 1.800.726.3626 or 1.800.Sandman

My Beef with Holiday Inn and Kleenex

The Holiday Inn has a "One Person can all the difference in the world" cards in the rooms. They have small laminated cards outlining their earth-friendly practices that is translated into 3 other languages which is a nice touch. Kudos to them for trying.

They are following guidelines from www.projectplanetcorp.com 1/recycling paper, aluminum, cardboard; 2/ look for opportunities to buy more environmentally friendly products; 3/ provide smoke-free rooms; 4/ use less toxic cleaning products; 5/ change linens less frequently; 6/ encourage use of water saving devices.

So let's pick on number two - a very important one. I hope they fix the following.

My main beef: The toilet paper and the tissue paper in the Holiday Inn. Would you use a 1,000 or 100 year-old tree to blow your nose? Well, you may have if you've been using Kleenex, or any of the other brands distributed by parent company Kimberly Clark. And that includes Scott bathroom tissue and Kleenex. Think about how long 100 years really is - longer than most of us will live! And you want to know why the fuss - check out the following.

www.kleercut.net

Now if you have seen the headlines you know the general gist: Kleenex - stop
using materials from trees cut from North America's largest ancient forest — the
Boreal forest that stretches from Alaska through Canada. (There are plenty of
alternatives).

Feb. 12, 2007 - This morning, four activists locked themselves together with chaings inside Kimberly-Clark’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto. They announced that they would stay put until K-C’s Vice President of Environment, Ken Strassner, agreed to meet with Greenpeace.

Associated Press - HOUSTON, Texas — It might be more difficult to find a Kleenex on the Rice University campus in the near future. Students have persuaded campus officials to quit buying Kleenex products.... in favour of those that include recycled material.....

I'm happy to use my towels and bed lines a few days in a row. And frankly the number of pillows on my beds can be reduced but I know the visual appeal is important - especially to so many people who travel on their own. But please don't let me blow my noses on ancient forests! (And I know this is rather disgusting to many but I travel with my own hanky so you might want to consider this).

Holiday Inn The Palace Alberta - I would stay again

Edmonton is a busy city for Valentines. Several of the properties we tried to book were sold out but the Holiday Inn - The Palace had rooms available. No charge for parking, luggage carts waiting at the door, free wireless (with a code from the front desk), decent rooms, deep bathtub (not something I normally do as I prefer to shower - showering is also better from an environmental viewpoint), clean and decent restaurant. Plus the rates were reasonable ranging from $123- $130 with the CAA card.

The front desk check in was speedy and friendly. Nice people.

The Palace, 4235 Gateway Boulevard, Edmonton, Alberta, T6J 5H2, 780-438-1222