One Man's Blog » Hotels

99 Photos From the Las Vegas Strip

John P. — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:42:40 +0000

I’ve been in Las Vegas for the Parallel’s convention over the last few days. Since I’ve been lugging my huge camera around taking pictures quite a few folks asked me to share them so they could take them home as well! So here you all go!

These photos were captured on a Canon 5D Mark II using either a Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens, a Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens, or a Lensbaby loaned to me by Cali Lewis.

Ok. It’s really only 88 photos. But come on… would you really have noticed?

Review: Courtyard Marriott Springfield, VA

John P. — Tue, 29 May 2007 06:15:06 +0000

After staying at a number of hotels in Springfield, Virginia I can safely state that the Springfield Courtyard Marriott is the nicest hotel I’ve stayed at in the city. As a result, it is the one I’ve chosen to spend at least the next 8 weeks in as my home away from home.

It is unfortunately the most expensive of the Springfield hotels, at $199/night, but the service and room quality made it worth the price. Also, since I’ll be staying here for several weeks I spoke with their sales manager and she made me an attractive offer which is much more palatable.

Pros and Cons

All of the staff I’ve dealt with has been friendly.
The free Internet access is acceptable but erratic. Slow, then fast, then slow.
It’s a 100% non-smoking hotel.
The rooms are pretty average sized.
Comfortable bed, though the numerous pillows are mostly pretty soft.
Nice shower head, tall, arced curtain for more room in the tub.
Very clean.
No fridge or microwave.
Good location about half a mile from a Target and the Springfield mall.
Well lighted parking lot and plenty of space.

Hotel Details

6710 Commerce Street
Springfield, Virginia 22150 USA
Phone: 1-703-924-7200
Fax: 1-703-924-0505

Travel Planning to Kona, Hawaii- A Tutorial

John P. — Sat, 26 May 2007 07:12:04 +0000

My wife and I were planning on accompanying my brother and soon to be sister-in-law to the Big Island of Hawaii in June, and as a result I did quite a bit of planning for the trip. Being cost efficient is important to all of us, but making sure we end up with decent accommodations at a good value is possibly even more important.

I thought I would document my search methodology in case it helped others to find and book their travel online. Please note that I am very meticulous when it comes to travel planning. I’m picky about where I stay, how I get there, and want to know what I’m going to do while I’m there. I even make printouts and carry a small binder with me. Anal, I know… but it works for me.

To start with, I need to arrange air travel, accommodations, and a rental car. To complicate matters my brother intended to use air miles to get there, and I was undecided as to if I was going to do the same thing or not.

The Methodology

I begin all my planning with TripAdvisor.com. Start by looking up your destination and reading the Hotel reviews. Nothing can ruin a trip faster than a crappy place to stay. And you can not trust the marketing from any of the travel sites. Indeed, even many trusted brands can have bad locations, so TripAdvisor is the best place to get opinions (though not always perfect).
When it comes to getting the best deal, I approach this via two methods. First, I check the price for airline tickets and hotels separately. Then I check for air+hotel “packages”. In no instance do I ever include the rental car in a package because I have never found that to be cheapest.
I searched for the air, hotel and car on the following travel sites: Kayak.com, SideStep.com, Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com to gauge the general range of pricing.
I also search for them on each of my preferred travel provider sites, namely American Airlines, Hilton and Hertz.
I have a special Citibank credit card which offers a benefit of free companion tickets, so I gave them a call to get the rate.
Optionally, it is sometimes useful to check Hotwire.com, although I generally wouldn’t book there unless I was reasonably sure I knew what I was buying. Again, you can’t trust the marketing hype.

Here’s What I Found

After researching hotels on TripAdvisor.com I was extremely glad I had done that. Initially I was pre-disposed to stay at the Sheraton because it is a Starwood property (and there are no Hilton properties) and I love their beds. However, the reviews were pretty bad and that quickly disillusioned me. I then checked out the “Other Lodging” tab and found a highly rated condo which looked good.

The ResortQuest Kona By The Sea offered large 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom units with actual ocean front views for around $300 per night. This would add up to $60 a night cheaper than two rooms at the Sheraton, plus the condo offers a full kitchen, living room and washer/dryer. That $60 per night saving would also add up to $360 vs. the Sheraton during our stay!

Next I chose the Check Rates button. I love this button… it brings up a window that allows you to check rates and availability from basically all the reservation sites out there without having to continually enter your information. I selected to search most of the sites and then went through them one at a time. It was a very good thing I did this too because all of the major reservation sites were asking $300 a night, but it turns out that RoyalHawaii.com had it for $250 per night and the ResortQuest.com site had a weekly rate which was only $238 per night! That little gem saved me another $320!

So the advice at TripAdvisor not only saved me from picking a hotel with a lower likelihood of satisfaction, but found me an alternative which will save nearly $700 while we’re there.

Now, before I booked the hotel, I had to go back to the flight situation to make sure we could get reasonable tickets for those days. Sometimes you have to go back and forth a little if your schedule is flexible in order to get the best deal.

Since I had such good luck with finding the hotel through TripAdvisor I decided I’d check out their flight search too. It works the same way as the hotel finder. You put in the dates, which in this case it conveniently remembered from the hotel search, and then you start selecting the search buttons to find rates on all the travel sites.

I restricted my search to on 1 stop and here is a table that demonstrates what I found:

Travel Site	American	US Airways	United	Multiple
Orbitz	$861	$727	$944	$802
Travelocity	$827	-	$745	-
Expedia	$936	$797	-	-
Priceline	$864	$805	-	-
Hotwire	$946	$807	-	-
CheapTickets	$861	$727	$944	$802

Finally, I called up the Citibank travel folks and found out I could book 2 round trip tickets on American Airlines with my travel companion benefit for $1,189 – taxes included. So, obviously $595 per person is far better than any of the rates on the travel sites.

At this point it’s just a matter of deciding whether to pay for the tickets or to redeem miles for them.

American Airlines wants 70,000 miles per ticket, so 140,000 for the pair.
The trip generates 7,480 miles per person, but only if you pay for the tickets.
Normal tickets within the continental US cost 25,000 miles per ticket.

Therefore redeeming awards miles for 2 tickets to Hawaii will cost the equivalent of 6 normal tickets (140,000+[7,480x2]=154,960 miles). If we assume that a normal ticket is going to be around $300, then the redemption to Hawaii would cost roughly $1,800 – considerably more than the $1,189 my Citi card can get me. Plus I get a number of other benefits if I actually pay for the trip on my card including additional reward points, travel accident insurance, medical evacuation coverage, and trip cancellation and delay insurance.

Now, unfortunately after all that work a little glitch came up in our plans that prevented us from actually going to Hawaii, but we’re going to San Fran and Las Vegas instead so I’ll write about them later while we’re there. Still, I thought that the methodology might be useful to people who are interested in saving as much money as possible while still finding excellent accommodations.

Review: Marriott Residence Inn Tyson’s Corner, VA

John P. — Wed, 23 May 2007 03:37:15 +0000

I quite enjoyed the stay at the Marriott Residence Inn in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia on May 14, 2007 even though I was only there for one night, mainly because it was very much like having a home away from home.

This hotel is actually more of an apartment. In fact, if they ever wanted to they could shut it down and sell the property as condos. My room was essentially a one bedroom loft apartment with the bed upstairs and a bonus hide-away bed downstairs.

Pros and Cons

The living room area downstairs was quite large and with a nice sitting area that could accommodate visitors very easily.
It was very clean and felt more like a home than an apartment.
Perfect for long stays if you are on an expense account, otherwise it’s a bit pricy ($279/night in my case).
The people at the front desk weren’t the most courteous I’ve met, but they weren’t rude either.
My room was a 2 story, 2 bath unit with a fold away bed downstairs and a bedroom upstairs.
There is a fully furnished kitchen with a large fridge, stove, oven and all the cooking utensils.
The shower heads were nice, thought the water pressure was a bit weak.
Towels were slightly better than average.
Free WiFi connectivity was acceptable. Not the fastest ever, but better than average.
There is no rapid checkout. Since they can’t slip the bill under the door you have to go by the front to get a receipt.

All in all if the price had been closer to, or below, $200, and if the people were a little friendlier I would say this hotel would be just about unbeatable either for a family on vacation or a business traveler.

Photos

Hotel Details

8616 Westwood Center Drive
Vienna, Virginia 22182 USA
Phone: 1-703-893-0120
Fax: 1-703-790-8896

Review: Days Inn & Suites Laurel Maryland

John P. — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:01:21 +0000

I only have one thing to say about Laurel Maryland’s hotel situation. You don’t want to stay here if you have any other options. Go up the road to Columbia or over towards Baltimore, but avoid Laurel.

Why is that? Because the Days Inn & Suites is among the “nicest” places to stay in this little town, and frankly it ain’t that great.

Pros and Cons

Free breakfast 6-9am
Towel was too rough to clean glasses without scratching them.
Toilet paper was of the used sandpaper variety.
Ill-fitting sheets on mattress kept slipping off both corners during the night.
WiFi was so poor it was literally unusable.
Room and hotel appeared reasonably clean.
No rapid checkout. They don’t slip the bill under the door, so you have to go by the front to get a receipt.
The shower in room 110 (handicap accessible) was broken. When I reported it they said they didn’t have another room to move me to, nor did the owner know how to fix it.
Its cheap.
Not the best neighborhood. I wouldn’t want my wife staying here alone.

Hotel Details

9860 Washington Blv
Laurel, MD 20723
Phone: 301-725-0769
Fax: 240-295-4260

Review: Hampton Inn Springfield, VA

John P. — Tue, 22 May 2007 04:38:30 +0000

I stayed at the Springfield, Virginia Hampton Inn on May 7, 2007 and the two best things about the hotel are:

It is relatively inexpensive.
It is located right beside the mall and restaurants.

All in all, I will stay here again, though there were a few details that could use improvement.

Pros and Cons

Very good location from a standpoint of proximity to shopping, etc.
Close enough to the highway that you can hear the cars driving by dully in the background.
Walls thin enough to hear the TV in the adjacent room without the volume being too high.
Extremely cheap chair at the desk.
Excellent free wired Internet connectivity.
Crappy in room under window A/C unit, but at least it’s got an automatic thermostat.
The bed was comfortable, the pillows were pretty soft – too soft for me.
Parking is a bit difficult.
Extremely small room – almost New York city sized.
Microwave and fridge in the room.
Didn’t receive the requested wake-up call.
My room seemed to be handicap accessible and as a result the bathroom was not as nice. (room 602)
The shower experience was generally terrible. The showerhead was one of the hand held kind that hangs on the wall and it was quite poor. The shower curtain would not make a proper seal with the wall.
Housekeeping was knocking on my door at 8:30am.

Here are the hotel details:

6550 Loisdale Ct
Springfield, VA 22150
USA

Review: Marriott TownePlace Suites in Springfield, VA

John P. — Sat, 19 May 2007 06:27:46 +0000

This is the first in a series of several Washington D.C. area hotel reviews. I’m doing a few weeks worth of consulting in the area at the request of a friend, and finding a place to stay has been a challenge, so I’ve had to stay at a different hotel almost every night so far. The good news is that I’ll be able to give lots of feedback on a wide variety of hotels. So, here we go…

I stayed at the Marriott TownPlace Suites in Springfield, Virginia on May 9, 2007. The experience was fine, and I will stay here again, but there is no way this is a 4.5 star rating hotel as TripAdvisor reports. Sure, it’s cheap, and its OK, but it’s just a solid 3 – perhaps 3.5 in the hotel universe.

Unfortunately my photos make it look nicer than it actually seemed when I was in the room. When I was there the furnishings seemed like Wal-Mart quality and this does not translate well in the photos. There were also a number of other little annoyances.

Pros and cons:

The room was very clean, so that is a big plus.
The walls are so thin I could hear the guy next door snoring. You also hear all the cars going by on the highway. This makes it imperative to sleep with the window A/C unit blowing.
The heater in my room didn’t work so it would only blow cold air even though it was 45 degrees outside.
All of the furniture is pretty low quality.
The shower and bathroom are actually nice. In fact, they were the best part of the room. The shower head was excellent, the water pressure was fine, and there were a plethora of towels.
No quick checkout. The didn’t slip a bill under the door, so you have to go by the front to check out.
The room has a full kitchen.
Free breakfast from 6-9am.
The staff was pretty nice, but nothing spectacular or memorable.

The hotel details:

6245 Brandon Avenue
Springfield, Virginia 22150 USA
Phone: 1-703-569-8060
Fax: 1-703-569-8061

Also see my TripAdvisor review here or select one of the related tags below to find other hotels I stayed at in the area.

Review: Four Points by Sheraton Denver Southeast

John P. — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 23:32:27 +0000

I stayed at the Four Points Sheraton for one night (redeeming my Starwood points) and overall, I would stay here again. The hotel was in a good location for branching out into different parts of the Denver area and it was reasonably priced (without points redemption), clean and quite.

My Hotel Rating Criteria

Property:

Location: Good. Right off the main highway.
Cleanliness: Good.
Staff: Friendly.

Room:

Bed: Better than average.
Internet: Free high speed wired.
TV: Crappy TV, but free HBO.
Size: Average.
Noise: No problems with noise.

Bathroom:

Fully Enclosed: Yes.
Fan: No.
Shower head: Good, but ceiling was so low I kept hitting my hands while washing hair (I’m 6′1″).
Lighting: Good.

You can also compare prices and read what other travelers have to say about this hotel at TripAdvisor.

Hotel Info:
Four Points by Sheraton Denver Southeast
6363 E. Hampden Avenue
Denver, Colorado 80222
Phone: (303) 758-7000

Review: Sheraton Colorado Springs Hotel

John P. — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 05:41:30 +0000

This will be the first in a series of ongoing hotel reviews to accompany the places I Blog about when I travel. The reviews are, same as everything on OneMansBlog.com, purely subjective and as such are not open to contestation. I am the king, dictator, and master of this domain. However, if you have something to add, feel free to leave a comment. Now, on with it!

The Sheraton Colorado Springs is billed as a high class hotel which has recently undergone a $multi-million renovation. That may be the case but, given the fact that this is a large property, the money didn’t go that far.

Property:

Location: Good. Right off main highway.
Cleanliness: Poor. Hallways looked like they hadn’t been vaccuumed in a week.
Staff: Friendly.

Room:

Bed: Very good. Sheratons and Westins have the best beds in the industry.
Internet: High speed wired, but not free.
TV: Crappy TV, but free HBO.
Size: Average size room.
Noise: Poor. The folks talking in the room next door were perceptable well after midnight…

Bathroom:

Fully Enclosed: No, Sink in living area.
Exhaust Fan: Yes.
Shower head: Good. Sheraton also has the “extra wide” shower curtains.
Lighting: Poor near sink. Good in bath room.

Overall, I guess I’d stay here again, if I got a good rate and wanted to accumulate Starwood Hotels points. But if I could find a newer property in the area which offered free wireless internet access for the same money I’d have to say hasta la vista.

I mean seriously, a Sheraton with the sink in the bedroom? What’s that about?

Hotel Info:
Sheraton Colorado Springs Hotel
2886 South Circle Drive
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906
Phone: (719) 576-5900