The Diary of Anne Ku

24 July 2000 Monday

DIFFERENT TYPES OF HOTELS

When I was a child, I used to love staying in hotels. Now as an adult, I love staying in hotels because they are (usually) cleaner than my own home, more conveniently located, and better serviced. My goal is to upgrade my own home such that I would never want to stay in a hotel again. The other possibility is to stay so long and so often in hotels that I get sick of them.

The longest stay I've ever had was two and a half months in a five star hotel. Back in those days the occupancy rate was only 40%. This gave me the liberty of moving to different rooms to enjoy different views. The equatorial view was my favourite as I could wake up to the sun glistening on the sea. A bell boy (about 9 years old) would bring my letters on a silk pillow. In the end, I became so lonely that I used to wait for the maid to turn my bed so that I could chat to her.

Types	Positive	Negative
Chain: Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, Intercontinental, Holiday Inn, Four Seasons	usually central location familiarity, standard points to be collected toll-free reservation Internet bookings usually a grand piano	familiarity breeds contempt conventions, conferences may block book out
Private, boutique: Wall Street Inn, The Avalon	unique, none the same private & sometimes more personal service interesting history character	more expensive than equivalent Chain hotels not well advertised fewer rooms available no points to collect
Bed and breakfast Zimmer Frei, Pensione, etc.	cheaper good breakfast personal	low availability poorly advertised not so convenient
Motels Days Inn, Howard Johnson's	cheap, just the bare essentials convenient good availability	touristy may be noisy not for long stays

yesterday

tomorrow

20 August 2000

I had jotted down my thoughts of the day during my travels. Now that I've FINALLY unpacked and cleaned up my room, I found these notes. So I will now "back-fill" my on-line diary.