If you want to relax- make your home real nice or buy a camper, and don't eat out.....

I have a hard time believing that people travel enough to justify the cost of a camper would be staying in hotels just to "relax" instead of having to go somewhere for a reason (visiting somewhere or someone). I also have a hard time believing that a camper would be objectively more relaxing than a hotel in the grade of Marriot or similar quality. Now of course, human tends to tolerate their own mess better than other people's mess, so the subject is likely going to be: if you want to relax, stay in your own mess instead of going into someone else's mess.

There are some pretty nice RV's available. We much prefer to stay in our RV, over some Hotel. We did just that the last three days in the cornfields of Kansas. Our own king size bed, the kitchen that rivals our brick and mortar home. Nah, we'll skip the Hotel when we can.
 
On a related note, does anyone else on this thread REFUSE to touch their lips to a drinking glass in a motel/hotel bathroom? I have NEVER seen a house cleaner's cart with a supply of clean glasses on them. I'm convinced those glasses are wiped down with damp towels left by the previous guests. Eeeew!

My wife and I just stayed at Hacienda del Sol in Tucson, AZ. Five star, on the Forbes list of Best 100 resorts in the country. The place was magnificent! But I still couldn't touch my lips to the glasses in the bathroom.

Scott

PS The walkway to the restaurant. Our room is center upper, view from me neck deep in one of the three pools. Our ahi tuna tostada appetizer! The place was really, really nice. But I still couldn't touch my lips to those glasses!

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I bring my own coffee cup, bathroom water glass, and bourbon glass with me.

On a side note, 99 percent of the hotels have eliminated glassware, coffee mugs, since the pandemic. Most everything that holds water/ coffee is plastic or paper.
 
I bring my own coffee cup, bathroom water glass, and bourbon glass with me.

On a side note, 99 percent of the hotels have eliminated glassware, coffee mugs, since the pandemic. Most everything that holds water/ coffee is plastic or paper.
You would think. But both the Hacienda del Sol in Tucson and the Omni in Rancho Mirage had glassware in the bathrooms.

Scott
 
On a related note, does anyone else on this thread REFUSE to touch their lips to a drinking glass in a motel/hotel bathroom? I have NEVER seen a house cleaner's cart with a supply of clean glasses on them. I'm convinced those glasses are wiped down with damp towels left by the previous guests. Eeeew!

My wife and I just stayed at Hacienda del Sol in Tucson, AZ. Five star, on the Forbes list of Best 100 resorts in the country. The place was magnificent! But I still couldn't touch my lips to the glasses in the bathroom.

Scott

PS The walkway to the restaurant. Our room is center upper, view from me neck deep in one of the three pools. Our ahi tuna tostada appetizer! The place was really, really nice. But I still couldn't touch my lips to those glasses!

View attachment 67104View attachment 67106View attachment 67107
Never thought about it. I usually drink ice water which is probably double bad. They always look clean. Maybe good for the immune system to get a work out
 
I bring my own coffee cup, bathroom water glass, and bourbon glass with me.

On a side note, 99 percent of the hotels have eliminated glassware, coffee mugs, since the pandemic. Most everything that holds water/ coffee is plastic or paper.
I haven’t seen that in hotels with kitchen/bars. Standard rooms I think you are correct.
 
Where to begin?
1) I assign most weight to the "attraction" which got me to travel in the first place.
2) I don't know how to utilize a $140,000 camper if I have one week to visit the Grand Canyon while living in NY/NJ.
Travel vehicles can be used where there's elbowroom, say, out West where you can't randomly travel and find motels during peak seasons
3) Overpaying in the HOPE of getting good service/food is upsetting to me so I'd ALWAYS rather cook something basic than "pretend to have a good time".
I think the "5 star" grading system for motels is laughable.
4) This employee shortage is a broad topic. I feel that the pandemic has "reassigned" or "redirected" the life trajectory of many people. When you consider the proportion of truly stupid, malnourished, uneducated making up our population, it's not surprising. In fact, it's scary for our country.
5) As far as hotels go, maybe the "employee model" has to be changed. Mom & Pop places are better? Ask yourself why. Maybe you need people somehow attached to a property to deliver good, affordable work. Yes, the superintendent who got to live in an apartment as part of his pay might be the place to start thinking.
Gee, maybe the "management" of these big-deal chains aren't as good at their jobs as they say they are?

Rambling like the disappointed madman I am. I remember how fun it was travelling through Canada staying in Scottish Inns (was it?) where you had a choice between "modernized rooms" or cheaper old ones -which were just fine.

Just returned from a 608 mile round trip to a family reunion in New Hampshire. The amount of paper and plastic garbage I saw generated was depressing. That's a different topic.
 
The de-evolution of mankind is resulting in this type of experience everywhere with everything.

To your specific point though, we visit the same couple of restaurants over and over locally. One is a buffet owned and ran by an older asian couple. Walk in, tell them what you want to drink, fix a plate and you're done. The other is a consistently very good and fairly priced independent restaurant. We are in a metro area with dozens, maybe hundreds of restaurants within 20 minutes and we never, ever go to any of the others. They all suck . "1984" type newspeak cliches like "unfortunately sir" and "I'm sorry the computer says we're out of that" and some guy in the back that learned to cook using an EZ Bake oven. No this isn't pandemic stuff. It's been getting worse for the past 15 years.

We don't stay in hotels very often but rentals are the same. Clueless owners with no business attempting to service people. Fraudulent descriptions, less than clean rooms. It's like somehow the bottom of the barrel of the labor pool is now business owners. :LOL:
 
On a related note, does anyone else on this thread REFUSE to touch their lips to a drinking glass in a motel/hotel bathroom? I have NEVER seen a house cleaner's cart with a supply of clean glasses on them. I'm convinced those glasses are wiped down with damp towels left by the previous guests. Eeeew!

My wife and I just stayed at Hacienda del Sol in Tucson, AZ. Five star, on the Forbes list of Best 100 resorts in the country. The place was magnificent! But I still couldn't touch my lips to the glasses in the bathroom.

Scott

I recall one of those 'investigative journalism' shows doing a story on Hotel cleanliness. Hidden cameras showed maids spraying those glasses with Windex, and wiping with a bathroom towel. I never used them before I saw that, and certainly not since then.
 
Just back from an 8 night vacation. Spent 5 of them in ihg properties. All were fine, with one HIE being a bit ragged on the edges. Part of staying in a family so to speak - you generally get serviceable properties. Ihg and Hilton properties/families are our go tos.
 
In the US there seems to be a common believe that "family owned" or "small businesses" are the good and honest people while the big mega corps are the evil doers. Whereas in Asia they tend to be the other way around.

What I notice is that you cannot just make this kind of assumption. In general you get what you pay for is true otherwise these businesses don't last for long. Small businesses have the advantage that the owners might work below minimum wage when hiring someone to do the job for that price is beyond realistic, the larger chains have the capacity to centralize some of the stuff to save money (hiring one handyman on a truck between multiple facilities) or standardize rooms so they can keep fewer spare and lower remodeling cost.

Employees shortage? This happens before pandemic and in the last 8 years we have been encouraging some labor pool to exit the industry and country they work in, pandemic accelerated that, plus those hotel cleaning ladies are now cleaning offices / workplace that are still open to in person work at 2x to 3x the frequency so 1) reduce health insurance cost by lowering probability of spread likely mandated by HR and insurance policies, 2) work as in house nanny so the better off parents who need to work from home can focus and not having to share a daycare with others and increase the risk, 3) the hotels are not making as much so they are not paying extra to get cleaning ladies and cut corners, 4) that few hundred dollars people are talking about, it may be part of it but I have a feeling tips alone can match that in one week. (I assume you guys all at least tip a few bucks when you checkout a room right)
 
PS The walkway to the restaurant. Our room is center upper, view from me neck deep in one of the three pools. Our ahi tuna tostada appetizer! The place was really, really nice. But I still couldn't touch my lips to those glasses!
I think you're overthinking it. You can always wash the glasses before you use them. Don't you remember your Covid fomite training? 20 seconds with soap and water. Who do you think used the toilet before you got there? And it's the same people who cleaned it that cleaned your glasses. Just be thankful you're not picking up bedbugs for the trip home.
 
If a glassware is dry, typically it has been cleaned and germs won't live on it for long. For the concerned like my wife she would typically travel with an alcohol spray bottle and she would refill them daily with the family sized bottle from the store, and spray everything she touches when travel.

Bed bug would be the real serious concern however, you can only reduce the probability of catching it by not going somewhere of "good value" and "affordable" among certain crowd and in certain neighborhood.
 
If a glassware is dry, typically it has been cleaned and germs won't live on it for long. For the concerned like my wife she would typically travel with an alcohol spray bottle and she would refill them daily with the family sized bottle from the store, and spray everything she touches when travel.

Bed bug would be the real serious concern however, you can only reduce the probability of catching it by not going somewhere of "good value" and "affordable" among certain crowd and in certain neighborhood.

Bed bugs have been found in the fanciest of hotels.
 
I pity the poor fool in the USA who randomly walks into any given restaurant expecting even halfway decent food. You feeling lucky?

Not saying there aren't better places to eat, but you have to know locally and NO - Yelp and that lot are not a great resource.
We eat out a fair amount whatever that may mean. Anytime we are off work, personal days, vacations, otherwise we cook home, which god bless her is my wife and she doesn’t mind.
We eat healthy at home, mostly fish, cod, haddock, Mahi Mahi, flounder, trout, salmon at LEAST 3 times a week, plus broccoli and other healthy stuff.
Eating healthy is a challenge at just about any National restaurant, I say challenge but doable. My favorite is Bonefish grill.
Carrabbas is pretty good too as you have healthy choices.
Anyway I agree, it’s pathetic the crap that is served and I just can’t eat that garbage anymore, it’s gross all the fat and salt.
Once you change your way of eating from a Western Fat laden style to a healthy style you wonder how you ate that stuff at one time.
In fact after going through close to $30,000 in cardiac tests this year the changes I made years ago more then most likely saved me from medical intervention that other family members needed.
If I eat a fatty meal now I feel like I have lead in my gut and feel gross.
I have come a long way over decades to this point and loving it. The state of food in this country sucks trying to eat healthy and we are polluting the rest of the world with this garbage but it’s what the public wants.
(Sorry for long post, passionate about this subject watching family members needlessly suffer because of food choices)
 
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On a related note, does anyone else on this thread REFUSE to touch their lips to a drinking glass in a motel/hotel bathroom? I have NEVER seen a house cleaner's cart with a supply of clean glasses on them. I'm convinced those glasses are wiped down with damp towels left by the previous guests. Eeeew!

My wife and I just stayed at Hacienda del Sol in Tucson, AZ. Five star, on the Forbes list of Best 100 resorts in the country. The place was magnificent! But I still couldn't touch my lips to the glasses in the bathroom.

Scott

PS The walkway to the restaurant. Our room is center upper, view from me neck deep in one of the three pools. Our ahi tuna tostada appetizer! The place was really, really nice. But I still couldn't touch my lips to those glasses!

View attachment 67104View attachment 67106View attachment 67107
I've washed them and used them, but most places seem to have switched to disposable cups.

I've done the same for coffee mugs, though I admit the coffee I drink could sterilize an OR.
 
My truck has a camper top and i just throw a inflatable mattress in the back if i need to sleep. I prefer saving my money and roughing it out.
Try that in Tampa in August. 95 degrees, steambath humidity, blazing sun interspersed with lightning-filled deluges...every day. 80 and humid at night, not a breath of wind.

Even my wife, who considers 90 degrees no big deal, found it brutal.
 
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