hotels

For a week in southeast Pennsylvania I stayed at the Hampton Inn in Indiana, PA.

The hotel packed a large curved desk, a TV stand with three ample drawers, a luggage stand, and a cabinet with a half-height refrigerator and microwave along with two queen beds in my room.  There wasn’t much room for exercising. The walls seemed pretty thin; conversations from the next room could be heard.

The beds were nearly perfect in firmness, and I woke up just before my alarm on most days. Each bed had three pillows that varied in their firmness.

Outlets were in good supply. Four were available at the desk, and another four were in reach of a bed. Internet service was provided by Ethernet and strong wireless, though at times download speed suffered. YouTube buffered way too frequently. The code they gave me didn’t work, but the system also takes one’s HHonors username and password.

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During my 10 days in Calgary I stayed at the Ramada Inn Downtown.

I couldn’t stay an evening in the first room because the steam heating had a nasty water hammer. They assigned me to another room, but I couldn’t keep the king-size bed.

Both beds were too soft for my taste. The pillow-top mattresses had so much give that it was impossible to lay on the front. There were plenty of pillows. Turndown service gave two chocolate mints each evening.

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During my three weeks in Egypt I stayed at the J.W. Marriott in Cairo.

Our first assigned rooms were on the ground floor. The king-size bed was low to the ground with a wooden frame merely keeping it from scooting around, but it was very comfortable. The bathroom had a glass enclosure that contained both a cubical bathtub and a shower next to it. If I knew the next room didn’t have the same, I would have taken a picture of it.

Pool View from the Balcony. Credit: Fernando

Wanting to get a little higher off the ground, we got rooms on the fourth floor. The dual queen-size beds were just long enough, but they were as comfortable as the king and elevated on bed frames. Each bed had five pillows of various sizes and shapes. The room also had a balcony with two chairs that overlooked the pool and water park. The water park had a wave pool, a 2-story water slide for kids, a waterfall and some cool fountains.

Two European-style two-prong plugs were available from the desk. One more plug was available near the bed. The $10 adapter I got from Wal-Mart worked fine with my laptop, which can take 220v input. Internet access was quite expensive, ranging from $6 an hour to over $300 for the month. It’s also restricted by MAC address, so one can’t use a router to share a room connection with two computers. WiFi devices were another $16 for two hours unless one had purchased the room’s ethernet plan. The speed was slower than my company’s access at the office.

Television channels consisted of about 15 Arabic channels, 8 English channels, and a channel of French, Italian, and Dutch. The provider operated out of the United Arab Emirates. I watched a lot of rugby on their sports channel. They also had VH-1, Discovery Science, Animal Planet, and Disney.

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Regrettably, the hotel and restaurant industry has yet to catch up to the demand of this booming oil town. The only two national chains are the Super 8 and the newly completed Candlewood Suites, and both were full. HAL has a contract with the Airport International Inn, and I was fortunate to get one of their rooms. Reservations have to be made by phone, and the hotel has no frequent stay rewards program.

The king-size bed was comfortable enough, but all six pillows were overly firm. The TV carried the basic cable for the area, including ESPN, FX, Food Network, and Disney. The room was sufficiently large enough to work out in.

During my stay the electrical outlet next to the desk stopped working. Wireless internet was free, but the signal was so weak in my room my laptop could pick up the signal but not my iPod. The signal was much better in the hotel’s restaurant and lobby. The room had neither refrigerator nor microwave.

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We stayed one free night at the Hampton Inn in Effingham, IL.  I don’t get to stay in many, as they are usually priced a little higher than comparable Holiday Inns.

We got a room with two double beds, which was tight for four people. The mattresses had pronounced bumps, and they were comfortable. The pillows were not firm enough to make sleeping on one’s side comfortable.

Three outlets were available from the desk, but no outlets were available from the bed. The wife’s laptop had to be connected from across the room, making an easy trip hazard. There was no Ethernet jack, but wireless internet functioned well enough.

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Update, 2011-03-11: the hotel is now a Candlewood Suites.

My family and I stayed five nights on Holiday Inn’s dime at the HIE near MCI.

We got a double-queen room, and the beds were nice and comfortable. To my surprise there wasn’t a refrigerator the first night, but they were able to pull one out of maintenance for the next night.

There were only two outlets available from the table. Wireless internet access worked decently for me, but if you have a proxy set up, the network will lie and say the proxy exists, making for very slow start-ups. My wife’s laptop, an older IBM, didn’t show the wireless as powerful as mine did. The room unfortunately had no Ethernet.

The TV had about 20 channels, including ESPN, Discovery, HBO, and Disney. There didn’t seem to be much on at nights, so we paid $13.95 for “Monsters and Aliens.” I’d never pay that much just for me, but for four people that seemed economical.

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