I like when I travel to have a hotel room the gives me a true sense of the area or city! It's so exciting to share travel experiences with our agents and clients. Being a travel professional as well as a traveler I experience the actual trails or travel. I fully understand the feeling of long check in lines, long waits for any services at a hotel or resort. This gives me the tools to guide you, knowing it isn't always going to go perfect. There's always a cocktail in a wonderful relaxing lounge somewhere close by if needed to bring back the vacation. Hotels are much like airlines, it's all about timing in some cases in other cases it's about a relationship a travel professional will have with the hotel management or even a special concierge who we've made a great connection with. They can drive your experience to meet your expectations without the frustrations of asking for services from a front line clerk. I do often find myself experiencing each of the venues at a hotel or resort, I watch the servers, taste the foods and most of all feel the vibe. If the service & food are top notch but the vibe isn't there where is the experience? Will the visit be a lifetime memory or just another restaurant or bar? It's expensive to eat out at hotels, resorts so why not take advantage of the locals. Eat and drink local, you'll regret not doing this if you want a true moment or a lifetime memory explore. I can create my own memory at a lodge in the mountains, on a cruise ship, big city hotel or small town classic. It's all about the reason you are at the venue, business or pleasure we feel sometimes the more touristy the activity the less fulfilling your visit might be.
I constantly ask folks how they found a hotel, resort or cruise when I'm in a bar. Today's traveler spends an average of 30 hours planning or researching a vacation, and 3 hours researching a hotel or airline ticket. At times they arrive to great surprise other times it's total disappointment, imagine you saved up for a year to take a week vacation. You see an amazing deal off beach in Waikiki with air, car and hotel!!! The hotels boasts welcome drink, walking distance to beach or shopping. Tour desk on site, close by restaurants. Sounds good right? Read between the lines or wait till you arrive to find out the welcome drink is in a room with a preset drink in a plastic cup, a friendly person to take your token the front desk gave you and welcome you to your little piece of paradise. You go to your room only to find out the photo depicted a spacious angle picture, you have to close the door to get around the bed, you open the bathroom door on the other side of the room only for the door to also hit the bed. The views, well they're good from a small window. Not a floor to ceiling. Now you want to grab a bite before you go out to explore the local action, no restaurant on site, not even for breakfast? See they never said they had a restaurant on site, implied a lounge and no lounge. Okay, I'll get off the soap box, and yes this did happen to me before I became a travel professional. I wanted a deal went to a travel agency down the street and he said the hotel was great for night life in the area. I asked for that type of area and I got it, the experience just a faded sad memory. Lessons learned, this happens more often now with the internet, be wise hire a travel professional let us work for your money. Happy travels, Michael
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