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Hotels Believe Customers Appreciate Resort Fees? Really?

June 11, 2019By Edward Pizzarello17 Comments

A top voice in the hotel industry thinks hotel guests appreciate resort fees. I have yet to meet a hotel guest that agrees with that sentiment. What’s your opinion?

How Marriott’s Partnership With TripAdvisor May Deliver Them Higher Ratings (And Profit)

June 24, 2015By Edward Pizzarello0 Comments

The Marriott partnership with TripAdvisor is an interesting one. Marriott is the only major top-tier chain to negotiate a direct booking deal with TripAdvisor (Best Western has one as well). What does this mean for the accuracy of TripAdvisor’s rankings? How about the future of companies like Expedia and Orbitz?

Summer Vacation Day 6: Cog Railway To The Peak Of Mount Washington

If you’re just joining us, I’ve been publishing quick daily updates from our camping trip. It appears I’m still alive on day 7, so we’ve got a day 6 update. If you want to read about previous updates, I’ve included the links below: 9 Hours of Driving Gilmore The Merrier One of The Greatest Roller Coasters I’ve Ever Ridden Moving Our “House On Wheels” To New Hampshire Mount Washington Auto Road There are two primary ways to get up to the summit of Mount Washington. Okay, I guess three if […]

Summer Vacation Day 5: Mount Washington Auto Road

With the house on wheels settled in New Hampshire it was time to do a bit of sightseeing. If you want to catch up on previous days of our vacation, you can find them below: 9 Hours of Driving Gilmore The Merrier One of The Greatest Roller Coasters I’ve Ever Ridden Moving Our “House On Wheels” To New Hampshire If you haven’t climbed Mount Washington in a car, I recommend doing it at least once (unless you have a fear of heights). Mount Washington is one of the highest peaks […]

Summer Vacation Day 4: Moving Our “House On Wheels” To New Hampshire

If you’re just checking in, I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing every day. That means brief daily updates on our summer camping trip. If I’m being honest about our camping experience you should be amused by my misery. Here’s the first few days of our trip: 9 Hours of Driving Gilmore The Merrier One of The Greatest Roller Coasters I’ve Ever Ridden Yesterday was mostly a driving day. We were relocating from Connecticut to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. One of the upsides of a […]

Summer Vacation Day 3: One Of The Greatest Roller Coasters I’ve Ever Experienced

I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing every day, so you should see frequent updates on our summer vacation in the RV. If that’s not your jam, I get it. I’ll be posting about the rest of the travel world from time to time as well. If you do want to follow along: Day 1 Day 2 Lake Compounce may be one of the best amusement parks you’ve never heard of. I sure hadn’t heard of it, and we only ended up here by accident. Nestled in […]

Summer Vacation Day 2: Gilmore The Merrier

These posts are meant to be quick updates about our summer vacation with the RV. Day one found us driving…and driving…..and driving. Day two would start out a bit rough and have some annoying stuff in the middle, but turned out mostly okay. After a long day of driving yesterday, I was in a hurry to get the trailer setup. Once it was level and the electric and water were hooked up I went inside to sit down and catch my breath. I didn’t bother with the sewer pipe hookups. […]

I Flew Frontier, Saved $400 And Didn’t Die. My Frontier Airlines Review

Those low-cost carriers always have very appetizing fare sales. Who wouldn’t want to pay $20 to fly somewhere? But, what does $20 really buy you? I found out exactly what Frontier does (and doesn’t) offer customers on my first flight with them recently.

How To Use New Metro Silver Line To Get Between Dulles and Reagan National Airports

People talk about how bad the traffic is in places like Los Angeles with plenty of adjectives. And, it is quite bad. But, the traffic in DC is what I refer to as “stealthy bad”. It doesn’t get the same press that LA traffic does, but a trip that normally takes an hour can easily turn into a 3-hour ordeal. With visiting dignitaries, protests and construction as variables, weather can also wreak havoc on a system that consistently backs up during rush hour. For those of us that live in […]

Update: American Airlines Variable Choice Plus Pricing A Feature, Not A Bug

I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with the original announcement that American Airlines was creating bundled pricing that included change fees at a lower apparent cost. Things got a little better when American also announced they were expanding the timeframe you could request a same day change to your flight. And, then things started to get a bit screwy. It started with just one flight I couldn’t get to price right with Choice Plus as an add-on. But, then I did a bit more digging and found out […]

A Summary Of United Airlines Global Services Benefits

As travel has gotten more stressful the benefits of elite status are even more valuable. In some cases, what used to be free for everyone is now only free for those customers that fly most frequently. I value my American Airlines Executive Platinum status more highly than any status I’ve earned, including 1K service with United Airlines. However, Global Services is another matter. For those not aware, Global Services is an invitation-only status level that United bestows on their best customers. What defines a best customer? Well, United doesn’t list […]

Is Foursquare Dead?

Venture Beat doesn’t think so, and I’m not 100% sure they’re wrong. But, before I discuss the article, a little background on why someone allergic to social media like me became a Foursquare nut. A few years ago, a company called TopGuest came up with this concept where you could earn airline miles and hotel points for checking in at various places on Foursquare. I can’t say I thought it was a terribly good business model, but they convinced a bunch of hotel chains to hand out miles for this. […]