The Business Travel Web » Pro Sports

San Diego Budget Hotels Have Made My Weekend GREAT!

Travel Blogger — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:46:20 +0000

Fortunately my choice of San Diego budget hotels offered me the option of choosing a Gas Lamp destination for my week here in Southern California. The All Star game had most of live baseball locked up for the first part of the week. Games resumed all around the league starting Friday. By staying in the downtown section of San Diego, I was easily able to walk over to Padres baseball stadium for games on Friday and Saturday.

My business travel allows me to indulge in some niceties during sports season. Ever the baseball fan, I am very fortunate to be able to combine my love of the sport with my professional responsibilities. As a traveling sales person, I am expected to do my fair share of the “wining and dining” of our customers and potential clients while out on the road.

So, I choose to use professional sports as my sales processing medium. When you’re out on the road as much out of each month as I am you need to find activities which will distract you from the tedium of traveling day in and day out. Summer and early fall allows me to use professional baseball as that diversion.

Given that it is perfectly acceptable to take a client to a ball game, I’m doubly excited when time comes to head out to the ballpark. One aspect of taking customers to games that I truly miss is when it was basically socially acceptable for business folks to take in day games.

I suppose there is still some level of acceptance for this, and every now and again I’m able to actually take in a 1:05pm day game with a client. Not often, but it does happen. Even the schedulers of pro ball realize that it is much harder for today’s working person to take the afternoon off in order to attend day games. The number of scheduled afternoon games has decreased dramatically over the past few decades.

And that’s too bad, as the game has a completely different feel when it is played under the sunshine and billowing clouds versus the bright shiny lights. Of course, I’ll never turn down the chance to see the boys of summer play, day or night!

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Did You See That Amazing All Star Game?

Travel Blogger — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:43:44 +0000

I’ve been in San Diego since early Sunday evening. Having spent nearly a week in Houston I was ready to move on to my next destination, sunny southern California.

Not sure if I’ve mentioned on this site since I started doing this blogging thing that I used to live in San Diego. All over San Diego county, in fact. I was younger then, had just gotten out of the Navy, and really didn’t have much focus or direction for my life.

Even back then in the late 80’s and early 90’s one of the things that I learned quick was there were always awesome San Diego hotel deals but you had to do some research. Today, of course, most of that can be done from your home computer with very little effort.

Since I’m here this trip for nearly a full 7 days, it was important to me that I got a room that while inexpensive, was still going to have the amenities I needed to be comfortable. The Major League Baseball All Star game was this week, so I knew I wasn’t going to miss out on much live ball. Fortunately, however, it looks like some free time just opened up to allow me to attend this Friday night’s game down at Petco Park. The Padres are playing my home town team the Diamondbacks this weekend. The best part of that is I’ll be able to attend both games on the company as I’ve successfully secured great seats and have one existing client and one potential customer that are big baseball fans like myself.

After last night’s exciting game, I’m definitely ready to head back out to the park for some live action. Fortunately the hotel I’m staying at here in San Diego had a lovely and quite comfortable lounge where I was able to enjoy the NL vs. the AL with food, drink, and the camaraderie of fellow business traveling sports fans.

I’ll report back this weekend and let you know how the games were on Friday and Saturday. If you’re watching the game look for me on the TV. I’m pretty good at catching foul balls!

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Closing the Deal at a Baseball Game

Travel Blogger — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:33:28 +0000

This month I’m only stopping in 3 cities. As such, I was able to pack a bit lighter than normal, and have been able to move around the traveling spots much easier than when I have that extra baggage to carry along. I was sure to do some extra research during my scheduling time and knowing I’d be heading to Texas, I found some killer Houston hotel deals. And this of course, as I’ve been harping since mid-April, has allowed me to catch a couple of the Astros home games while I’m in town.

Theoretically, the Houston Astros shouldn’t have much of a problem during the games I may be able to catch. They played Pittsburgh Tuesday, yesterday and have a 1pm game today. As much as I’d love to skip out on everything and take in today’s day game, I just have too much to do, too many people to do it with.

The Astros are ahead of both the Pirates and the Cardinals in their division. This weekend will see Houston playing St. Louis on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I fly out on Sunday, so that game is out, however, I very well may be able to catch games on Friday and Saturday night. An evening game on the weekend is a bit unusual, but you know me, I’ll take all that I can get!

I suppose the next thing I need to do as I get better with scheduling my trips to synchronize with baseball being available is to try and find clients and potential clients who are baseball fans like myself. There is little more powerful than to take a client to a game, have a few beers and bratwursts and soak in the sun or temperate evenings.

One of the things I’ve found over the years is that when you try and plan for time to discuss business, usually you fail miserably. That’s one of the professional reasons why I enjoy going to a ball game. It is long enough that business conversation is usually quite easy and a natural happening.

Almost inevitably my client or potential customer will slip in a comment or question about our products, my servicing of their account or some other business related topic. When this happens, I know the cost of those tickets just became completely justified. We’ll end up talking about their needs, concerns, and hopes for attaining the best quality from my company.

There have been so many deals I’ve closed or enhanced over the course of a ball game that my associates back at the company often refer to me as Mr. Baseball! And that’s a nickname I certainly don’t mind having!

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Back Home To Phoenix in Time For the Diamondbacks

Travel Blogger — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:59:12 +0000

Wow! I’ve finally made it home to the Phoenix airport and have to say that I am glad to have a few days off. Getting into Corpus Christi was like trying to pry my way into a clam. One that new it was going to get cooked just as soon as it opened up!

I suppose it could have been worse, of course. I remember when I first started to seek out economy hotels for my business travel a few years ago. It seemed I’d get some amazing rates and once I got into the establishment I would just scratch my head and wonder what the heck I’d been thinking about.

Of course, that was before our latest recessionary times and even the cheesy places didn’t feel like they had to work very hard to get your hard earned business budget. But today, if you’re not receiving some decent value for your buck, you simply move on. Those that may be at the lower end of the hospitality chain are just not going to be able to compete with companies that actually put a little love and energy into making your stay with them the best it can be. Even if that means there are few frills and perks.

As I’ve been sharing over this past month or so, because I’ve been able to save money on my lodging I’ve been attempting to grab some Major League Baseball. As fate would have it, now that I’m home for a week or so, I’ll be able to grab several Diamondback games as they are starting a 10 game home stand tomorrow night.

Should be some good fun. I’ll have to call up a few of my local buddies and see who’s going to have the time to go hang out this weekend. It’s always tough to be spontaneous on the 4th of July weekend, but then, that’s one of the things I love about my life! Being single with few family responsibilities means I can pretty much get up and do what I want.

And that means baseball for the next few days. Don’t hate me!

Oh, and have a nice holiday weekend with your friends and family, whatever you decide to do. Be safe as well!

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Cannot Wait To Be At Live Baseball All Weekend!

Travel Blogger — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:41:16 +0000

Okay, you have my permission to call me a gluten. In my quest to see as much Major League Baseball as possible this summer, I have been scouring the Internet for all sorts of budget hotels, rental car discounts (my favorite place to save on car rentals!), and the best values in food and dining out.

photo credit: ohad*

Well, all those savings along with my savvy scheduling abilities has allowed me to easily afford to see 2 Marlins games this weekend. The Padres are in town and looking to hook them some fish. After my recent tour of PetCo park, I feel almost as if I know the team pretty well.

Even though I’m staying at discount places this trip, the one thing I’m noticing pretty regularly is the fact that service and quality seem to be about the last thing the hotels are sacrificing. How smart is that? Someone clearly has their heads on their shoulders correctly.

Times are tough. Whether you’re a business traveler like me, or just taking your family on a much deserved vacation, you still want a deal. In fact, most of us need that deal in order to make sure where going as far on our travel budgets as we possibly can.

One little example of the high quality being demonstrated by even the budget hotels is their shuttle services. The place I’m staying at in Miami just informed me that I didn’t need to worry about taking my rental car and parking at the stadium. If I didn’t mind walking a few blocks they had a sister (higher end) hotel that they would be happy to drive me to.

Can you believe that? The cab fare alone would have cost me in the neighborhood of about $30 (without tip). And while I’m sure parking is not that high at the stadium there is the hassle of dealing with traffic into and out of the parking lot. Nothing is worse after a game than taking 45 minutes just to get to an outside road!

My theory is that good things happen to good people. Good thing I think of me as good people! See you after the game!

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Only Minor League Baseball in Charlotte

Travel Blogger — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:39:23 +0000

The hotel deals here in Charlotte are better than I realized they would be. If you’ve followed any of my posts this month about my scrimping and saving on travel expenses, you know I’m actively on the look out for getting the best deals on hotels, rental cars, and what not.

Unfortunately, Major League Baseball has yet to make it to Charlotte, so I won’t be able to use any of my travel budget savings to catch any games here. Kind of a bummer! But to show you what a fan I really am, there is minor league baseball here!

Alas, the Charlotte Knights are not in town however, so I’m right back where I started. Double bummer!!

It’s all good. I can use the time in the evenings to get myself back up to date on my sales reports as well as my expenses. I understand the need for all this reporting, but it sure can become a hassle. Thank goodness technology has advanced to the point that we no longer have to deal with actual paper.

When I started out with the business travel over 15 years ago, we did use paper. Tons and reams of the stuff. Triple copies of the stuff. Carbonless paper of the stuff. Now, we have intranet. Now we have WiFi connections to the Internet. Soon we’ll just have to think about things and the computer will capture and send all that info.

Well, at least I hope one day we’ll be able to speak or think and have all the typing done for us. From what I understand, there are products like Dragon Speaking that will convert spoken language to typed text on the computer. In fact, if I’m not mistaken one of my friends uses it regularly and swears by it.

Of course, his carpal tunnel syndrome makes it absolutely necessary for him to use this sort of technology in order to computerate. I’m not quite at that point, but always thinking ahead.

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NYC: Another 2 Baseball Team Town!

Travel Blogger — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:10:13 +0000

So thanks to the fact that my diligent searching for a cheap Times Square hotel not only am I saving money on my lodging this trip, but I was able to score some decent tickets to tonights Yankee game.

This should be fun. The Yanks are playing cross town rivals, the NY Mets. I just missed out on getting to see the Cubs vs. the Sox during my time in Chicago. This will likely make up for it and then some.

photo credit: hotdogger13

I was in the old stadium many years ago as a teen ager when my father and uncle took me to a game back in the early 80’s. The family had traveled to NYC to visit folks we’d not seen in decades (in fact, I didn’t really remember anyone that we saw during that summer!)

The cool thing about the new stadium is that it’s right across the street (literally) from the old one. I should find out if they are going to do some sort of fancy, implosion of the old one. That would be worth a visit to NYC for that event alone.

Thus far, my only experience with the new Yankee stadium is a boxing match I watched a few weeks ago. It was the first time any fight had been held in a Yankee facility in over 34 years. The last bout was Muhammad Ali v. Ken Norton. Their third fight, in 1976, was seemingly the end of boxing in the house that Ruth built.

Well, tonight I’m about to get to experience a real life slice of Americana. Okay, it’s going to be in a new, billion dollar, state of the art sports complex, but I’m excited just the same. Baseball is still America’s past time, and I can think of few other ways to pass 2.5 to 3 hours of time.

My only concern is getting from Times Square to the Bronx and into the stadium. I’m guessing that it’ll just be as easy as following the general crowd and not looking too much like a tourist. Guess I’ll have to leave my big camera at the hotel

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Gourmet Mexican Food and The Cubs in Chicago

Travel Blogger — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:13:46 +0000

While I’m definitely no gourmet cook, I do find that I enjoy spending time in the kitchen. Almost as much as I enjoy watching all the amazing programming on the Food Network. And I just noticed that a sister network has been launched called the Cooking Channel.

I didn’t get much time to watch the offerings on Cooking, and since it’s yet to be offered in HD on Dish Network, I’m not likely to spend that much time on that channel till they do. Yeah, I guess I’ve become an HD snob!

photo credit: maura

Anyway, I’ve been here in Chicago a day and a half or so, and this trip I’m determined to to get over to Chef Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill. I watched him on Top Chef Masters last year and just really took to him personally and professionally. I even recently purchased his seminal Mexican cook book. If you’re interested in cooking food truly from South of the Border, this is a must have book for your collection.

The great thing about coming to a place like Chicago, in addition to the food and other entertainment opportunities, is the fact that there are 2 Major League Baseball teams! Someone is guaranteed to be in town! I got busy on Sunday and couldn’t get to see the Cubs play the Sox, but that must have been a super crazy time for the local fans. Both Chicago teams playing each other! Cool.

If I can do it, I’m going to try and catch the Cubs vs. Oakland A’s tonight. I really want to eat at Frontera and do the game, so I may have to do an early dinner.

Thank goodness I found a really nice, but cheap hotel in downtown Chicago. Otherwise I’d never be able to do something like enjoy a gourmet Mexican dinner and catch a ball game. We’re not living in the 1940’s you know!

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San Diego Hotel Deals and Touring PetCo Park

Travel Blogger — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:14:35 +0000

Boy, oh boy. This is going to be one heck of a hot summer! Already the greater Phoenix area is hitting the 100 degree mark. From what I’ve been able to determine from watching sporadic weather forecasts on the television, however, we’re actually a bit behind in hitting that century mark on the thermometer.

Whatever the case, I’m off to enjoy the lovely weather and also get to reap the rewards of having done some good research on San Diego hotel deals.

In case you’re wondering, the only reason I spend any time at all trying to find good hotel deals is because I am allotted a daily stipend that includes the amount I spend for food, hotel, local travel (taxis, shuttles, etc.) and incidentals. For the most part, I’m under the impression this is how a majority of corporations deal with their traveling sales folks, like my company does with me.

photo credit: a4gpa

So, when it comes to booking my own travel, I know that the better deal I’m able to get on my lodging, the more budget I’ll have for the rest of the trip when I get to my location.

Perhaps I could really scrimp and save in an attempt to try and make money on my travel, however, I’m pretty sure the powers that be would eventually reduce our budgets if we were consistently traveling for less than they think we should.

This then just allows me to spend a bit more money on my meals, and if I’m able to take clients out, my expense reports are somewhat less scrutinized when we have a bottle or two of wine with dinner.

In fact, I’m heading out to the Gaslamp District tomorrow to take a tour of PetCo Park Stadium with some prospective clients. Unfortunately, the Padres are out of town, so I’ll not be able to grab a game. Hopefully next time I’m in town!

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Business Hotels in St. Cloud, MN

Travel Blogger — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:25:22 +0000

photo credit: Robert Scott Photography.ca

After my time in Fargo, ND I pretty much resigned myself to thinking it might be a while before I was able to observe as much beauty and peacefulness. But I’ve just checked into one of several business hotels in the St. Cloud, MN area, and think I may be wrong about that assessment.

Many people fail to realize that even this far north in the United States, the Mississippi flows along its serene pathways till eventually emptying out at the Gulf of Mexico in the New Orleans area.

As I’ve had to drive around for various business and sales meetings, I’m mostly struck by the beautiful homes which line the river. Stately, large and well maintained only begins to describe their beauty and stature. I’ve never considered living this far north in this country. I have to admit, however, that I am seriously considering making a change of venues.

Another great aspect of possibly living in this area is the fact it is totally hockey town. The National Hockey Center is home for professional, collegiate mens and womens teams, and some semi-pro clubs as well.

Many people don’t realize that hockey exists in the dessert of Phoenix, with the Coyotes professional team. There has been rumors of the team’s owner wanting to sell or move the team to a larger market. If that were to happen, I’d be saddened as I’ve truly become a fan of both the game itself, and the Coyotes specifically.

Of course, I’m not going to make a major life move based solely on a slap shot decision. But more than most folks realize these are the elements that factor heavily into a persons decision making process. and when it comes to relocation, there are obviously a number of factors one has to take into consideration.

So, who knows? You may be reading me ranting and raving about becoming a Huskies fan. Hey, stranger things have happened!

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