David J.
Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org 
Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
On The Road Again,
Part 2 of 2
Last Week I shared my story
of flying out of EWR and into LAX, and being on the
road again for the first time in fourteen months. This week I’ll fill you in on the rest of the
trip.
Obviously, after picking up the rental car, our next stop was
the hotel to check-in. Over the course
of the past two months I had made five different hotel reservations for two
stays over a six night trip. The first
set of reservations were the ones I’d always make. I generally found that the more upscale the
property the more they charge you for things that would be free at medium to
lower end hotels. Wanting to stay in the
Hilton family, my first reservations were at a Hilton Garden Inn and a Curio branded
hotel. However, a few weeks before any
trip I always check on-line to see if any prices have dropped or for any other
changes, and these properties were showing extensive COVID19 warnings. Limited parking, no breakfast, no restaurants
on property, no exercise room, etc., etc.
Yikes! A bit of further research
revealed a handful of nasty reviews of these places as well – with the big red
flag of “poorly cleaned rooms.” OK, that
meant it was time to change my approach – one of many changes that we travelers
need to understand in this sunsetting COVID19 world.
After one change that turned out to look just as bad as the
original choices I learned my lesson and went right for the high-end Hilton resorts. I figured that the closer they were aligned
with corporate, the more likely that they’d be following the governance around
cleanliness. Over the course of the week
that thinking turned out to be 100% true and the right move.
Our first stay was at the historic Beverly Hilton. The property was far less busy than it should
have been, and had no valet service, but it did have a bellman (that helped us
with luggage) and a great team. After attending
our family party in the area we then drove down to San Diego and stayed at the Hilton
Bayfront, another excellent property that was far quieter than I’d have
expected in normal times. This property
had no bellmen but let guests take the luggage carts as needed. I’ll discuss more specifics about both properties
shortly, but first let me explain some of the general changes we came to
realize we’re living through.
·
Stickers: That is one of the things us travelers are 
going to have to get used to.
Apparently most hotels feel that if they place a sticker across the door
and door frame of every hotel room, guests will think the room has been sealed
after being fully disinfected. Sadly
these are not the kind of stickers that are used on price tags – the ones that
fall-apart once removed. Instead they
are the flimsiest of stickers, able to be removed and replaced so many times
that they are completely meaningless. The
hotels are going for the illusion of safety just like the airlines go for the
illusion of security. In fact, as you
can see in the photo, I’ve started a collection of these stickers on my son’s
bedroom door at home. They are so easily
removed and replaced that I expect I’ll have his door filled with un-broken
stickers by the end of the year. A walk
down any hallway at any hotel will show dozens of these unbroken stickers still
on the doors. Hotels: Please. Just.
Stop.
·
Enhanced Cleaning: Each property we stayed at went out of the way to post 
notes in the rooms about how there was “extra cleaning” done on “high-touch
surfaces.” Personally I believe that
these surfaces were neglected in the room for far too long, and I’m glad that
they now have some focus by the housekeeping staff. However, I honestly trusted none of it. We brought a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol
and misted / wiped every single surface in the room. I suspect that I’ll be doing that in every
hotel room for the foreseeable future. Maybe
we’ve learned that COVID doesn’t transmit well from
surfaces…okay, but we just ended a flu season with 2,038
cases and no deaths, as opposed to the 38 million cases and
22,000 deaths the prior year. Masks
and cleaning accomplished a great deal in the long run.
·
No Daily Housekeeping: Every property we’ve stayed at since the pandemic and just about
every hotel I’ve read about online has eliminated daily housekeeping in
guestrooms. Honestly, this is a welcome change.
One person I know tweeted “Hooray, now I don’t have to clean my room
every day for the cleaners to come in.” The
only complaints I’ve seen about it were that it needs to be better
communicated. If one wants their room
cleaned then it has to be requested. A housekeeper
wearing a mask will come in and do it as long as you’re not present. As for us, we never needed it. We asked for extra towels and other supplies
as we wanted them from the housekeepers we saw with carts in the hallway every
morning, and we brought our garbage bags outside the room to be taken. We felt much safer knowing no one was in our
room while we were out.
·
Meaningless Partnerships: Expect all travel and hospitality firms to
partner-up with cleaning company brands going forward. I don’t know who in their right mind thinks
this means a damn thing, but it is what it is.
United has partnered with Clorox, Hilton with Lysol. (At least the Hilton / Lysol thing had a wipe
dispenser in the lobby.)
Now, specifically onto the properties. Checking-in at both of them was a breeze with
friendly and helpful staff. When asking
if there was a no-charge Diamond VIP upgrade both properties said yes, and then
proceeded to put us in the rooms we 
had already booked. Apparently
that is a new Hilton (and perhaps industry) tactic. Call anything an upgrade – a better view, a
newer carpet, a robe in the closet, whatever.
It’s kind-of sad, but I bet it prevents arguments at the front desk. Both properties gave us water upon
checking-in, the Beverly Hilton in their own branded bottle, and the Bayfront
in a can. They both encouraged us to ask
for as much as we wanted going forward.
That was certainly a welcome change from past experiences. It was also great to see that the idiotic new
trend of refillable shared in-room amenities is dead (at least temporarily) as
the small bottles and individual soaps are back. However, as daily housekeeping is gone I
expect they won’t use as many as they did before.
The Beverly Hilton gave us a newly renovated room with a
great view of the hills and an exceptional mattress. The Hilton Bayfront room had a gorgeous view
of the bay and downtown San Diego, looking due west into the sunsets. For us as Hilton Honors Diamond VIPs both
properties had no executive lounge with breakfast available, so the Beverly
gave us each a daily $20 credit for Breakfast by the pool, and the Bayfront $15
each for their lobby restaurant.
We actually booked the Bayfront by mistake. I had remembered a wonderful, upgraded stay
with my kids a dozen or so years ago at a resort right on the bay with a beach,
and when looking on the Hilton website the Bayfront seemed to be the right
property. It was not. I learned after we arrived that the Hilton
Mission Bay (which was the one I had in mind) is no longer a Hilton. They apparently want
a “different demographic” than Hilton was providing (which Joe Brancatelli
translated for me to mean that they weren’t getting enough money from Hilton for
the large amount of reward stays.) The
Bayfront is actually a tower right next to the San Diego convention center,
across the street from Petco Park and the Gaslamp Quarter. If those are the things you want to do then
it’s in an awesome location. The reasons
we switched to a resort from the Curio property were still valid however, and it
all worked out well.
Touring around California at a time nearing the end of the
pandemic was weird. The hotels and the
restaurants required masks in public spaces, but once you were seated in a
restaurant they came right off. Most
restaurants were not distancing at their tables – just packing people in as
normal. 99% of the people were
respecting the wearing of masks where needed.
We found about 80% of the restaurants open for business, with about 20%
closed (and seemingly permanently closed.)
At the beaches and outdoor scenic areas most people had masks
but weren’t wearing them. I always put
mine back on as a courtesy when I was speaking with a vendor. The hotel elevators were an interesting
experience, as just about everyone was hesitant to get in a car that had other
people on it already, masked or otherwise.
In each instance I held the door open and told people to come-on as we
were masked and vaccinated, and all responded that they were too. It was a conversation starter in most cases,
putting everyone at ease.
While we had a great time, after six nights away we were
happy to get back home. Upon returning
the rental car to National I discovered a mileage charge (those still exist !?!?) which I’m absolutely disputing as they knew it
was a one-way rental when they quoted the price. The United 737-700 home from SAN to EWR was a packed flight.
It had zero food service (snack boxes in first and the water/pretzel/cookie
baggie for everyone else.)
My conclusions from this first trip in fourteen months are
that travel is now likely safe, but the airlines and hotels are going to be
taking a long ramp back to “normal.” For
the airlines that means what it always has for them – keeping capacity artificially
low so that all aircraft are packed-in.
Expect multiple schedule changes over the next few months as traveling
picks-up and they shuffle capacity. Do
check any reservations often for changes and curveballs. For hotels that long ramp likely means
offering limited services until the capacities return to close to normal, and expect
this new version of “housekeeping-light” to stick around for a while.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.
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As always, feel free to write and comment, question or
disagree. Hearing from the traveling
community is always a highlight for me.
Thanks!