Really, Westin?

If you read my last blog post, you know I have a minor addiction to desserts.  In fact, when bed time nears, if I don’t get my sweets, I can get a bit cranky.  So when I travel on business, things can get rough, especially if I don’t have a rental car to go on the hunt for a bakery, ice cream shop, or even a gas station convenience store stocked with goodies.

It takes great planning to ensure that when the opportunity strikes to procure a snack for later in the night, I strike.  So I’m always on the lookout for a packaged good at lunch time or even a dessert-to-go if dinner leaves me too stuffed to eat it right away.  But the real solution would be to find a hotel chain that cares more about customer service than one that feels compelled to rip off its guests.  One that finds a way to make their guests feel like they are at home rather than feeling like they are in an unfamiliar country where everyone is speaking a different language.

Snacks Available in the Room

I’ve been in Boston this week for a work trip, and last night I went out for dinner with a group of co-workers.  At the end of dinner, no one was overly excited about the dessert offerings, so we decided to head back to the hotel.  About 30 minutes after checking back into my room, the nighttime cravings started to kick in.  But with no rental car and a hotel not located within walking distance of anything open, I weighed my in-room options, only to be left asking myself “Really, Westin?”  A normal canister of M&M’s that would sell for $2 at the grocery store was $4.  The short can of Pringles was also at least twice the price.  But perhaps most ridiculous of all was the ice cream on the room service menu.  A scoop of vanilla ice cream costs $9.  But wait, there’s more.  Let’s add a 15% service charge, a 3% administrative charge, 7% sales tax, and a $3.75 delivery charge.  That makes this scoop of ice cream $15.  What, is it topped with gold flakes?  Most take-out restaurants deliver food miles away for free, or maybe $2 at most.  This scoop of ice cream doesn’t even have to leave the building.

In-Room Menu with Overpriced Ice Cream and Surcharges

Yeah, I know I’m venting and yeah, I know it’s not just the Westin that charges outlandish prices for in-room food and room service, but as a business travel, I demand more.  And perhaps if I traveled lots more and had a fancy club membership I’d get all this for free on the 39^th floor in some fancy bar overlooking the bright city lights.  But I don’t.  That still doesn’t mean I should be taken advantage.  So I say to you Westin and all the other hotels out there like you, find a better way.  You can’t possibly be making enough revenue from these sales to offset the negative customer experience.  Bring down your prices, make travelers feel like they’re at home, and maybe they will write better reviews about their experiences!

Have you had similar experiences?  Or perhaps you’ve found hotels that are already doing this?  Either way, I want to hear about it!  Please feel free to comment below.

Why Is a Big Bowl of Ice Cream So Comforting?

Tonight's dessert

After a long and stressful day, most adults utter the following words: "I need a drink".  Heck, even I utter those words sometimes, and then I remember I don't drink any more.  So instead, I think "I need a ridiculous amount of ice cream covered in crumbled thin mints or Oreos or pretty much any cookie I can find in the house, then smothered in hot fudge sauce right out of the microwave and topped off with a mile-high spray of whipped cream.  Oh, and give me a tall glass of milk along side.  And until recently, it was whole milk, but I finally came to my senses just a little bit.  So "Why Is a Big Bowl of Ice Cream So Comforting?"

I know it's not the near thousand calories I'm ingesting.  And I don't think it's the brain freeze I get if I eat it too fast.  So what is it?  I think each sinful spoonful offers a little break from the daily grind.  With that first bite, you're transported to your younger days, hanging out in front of the ice cream shop licking clockwise around the cone so the melting ice cream doesn't hit the ground.  When life was simple and all you had to worry about was which video game to play next.  With that next taste comes the magical hit of the cold ice cream swirled in with the hot fudge, sending your taste buds into a state of confused euphoria.  Is this a cold dessert or is it a warm desert.  It's both!  In fact, the combination of cold ice cream with warm pie or brownies might just be the best and most comforting food combination ever imagined.

As you dig your spoon into the ice cream for your third mouthful, making sure you get a little of everything, you begin to realize this might not be the healthiest thing for you.  But you know that for just a few brief moments, nothing else matters.  Not the next day's work you should be doing now.  Not the dirty dishes piling up in the sink.  Not the dog whimpering at the water bowl.  That for this small slice of your day, you can just kick back and be as over-indulgent as you like without being judged.  That's a truly comforting feeling.

Dreaming of tomorrow

Spoon by spoon, you slip more and more into an ice cream stupor much as if you had actually indulged in that drink.  But unfortunately, when your spoon clanks against the bottom of the now-empty bowl, you are immediately blasted back into reality, only now with a massive tummy ache.  You wonder aloud why you felt the urge to ingest all of that, but quietly think to yourself, I can't wait for tomorrow night when I can sneak away again with another supersized helping of the good stuff.

What is your "Bowl of Ice Cream"?  Or more importantly to my addiction, what do you put in your bowl of ice cream that I might like to try tomorrow night?  Let me hear from you by commenting below!