Red Room Chronicles

I just got a call from the manager of the Residence Inn Westchase here in Houston. He told me that the hotel is full and cannot accomodate me even though I’ve had this reservation for weeks. It was explained to me that the hotel is filled with New Orleans evacuees and they won’t be going anywhere this week. Somehow I think that they should have known that was the case yesterday or even a few days ago. A phone call then would have been nice instead of a call just three hours before I check in.

The Residence Inn has made other arrangements for me tonight at the Courtyard Houston West University which is about 20 minutes away from here. The Residence Inn will also foot the bill for tonight’s lodging. That’s only for one night though. Tomorrow night they’re going to try to accomodate me at the original hotel where I had a reservation. Stay tuned to see if that actually occurs.

Tags: Marriott

According to this story in Business Week, Marriott is making some moves to try and attract younger travelers.

Full Story

I was in San Antonio last week, coveting a Marriott stay. This week I’m in Houston, booked in a Marriott of course. More on that later this evening. Meanwhile, my friend Shel Holtz finds himself at the Marriott Courtyard Medical Center in San Antonio but he’s having some problems with the high speed internet access there. I agree with Shel. Net access outages are frustrating for business travelers and hotels should do their best to inform us of known issues at the time of check in.