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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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My Downtown Denver Hotel Rocks!

Travel Blogger — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:50:01 +0000

From time to time I tend to get on a soap box and share general discourse about things that really have a positive impact on me and my travels. This week I’m in Colorado, staying at a downtown Denver hotel. So, in this vane, I’ll share why I’m so enamored and hopefully you’ll find something you can take and apply to your business travel.

First, I just shared my general distaste for so-called business hotels that charge for their WiFi. I still don’t understand this thought process. Well, maybe I do.

That show “Undercover Boss” where the CEO or head of the company goes undercover to work as one of the minions, is all the rage. Clearly, whoever is running the chains that continue to charge for Internet connectivity never travel for business reasons. Meaning they aren’t on the road with their laptops needing to get work done. Work that requires them to be connected to the Internet.

If these CEO’s were actually required to do the this as a part of their jobs, I believe they would be much better at realizing what a great benefit it would be to offer free WiFi (just like my downtown Denver hotel!)

It’s been many years since I’ve eaten breakfast on a regular basis. When I am able to pick up free coffee (and not just muddy water, but Java that’s worth paying for) I’m always appreciative. Combine that with something healthy like fruit or other nutritious snacks for later in the morning, and the true value of the “Free Continental Breakfast” makes me a very happy business traveler.

Out modern communications systems including our cell phones tend to make the concept of free local calls somewhat a moot point. But you know when making a local call is a good thing for the out of towner? When you are trying to order some food to be delivered to your hotel room.

More than once I’ve been told that delivery was not possible unless I called from a local number (I guess to prove that I was actually in the locale and not crank calling.) When I checked into my room this week and saw the massive freebies I’d receive with my room, I knew that I’d have to chat about it.

If you’re not looking for these types of amenities when you travel, you’re simply going to be spending much more money than you really need to. Hopefully, this little reminder will help you save some dough and get you some pizza delivered after room service is done for the night!

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The Month Starts Fresh and New

Travel Blogger — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:46:39 +0000

After having traveled as much as I’ve done the past many years, things begin to get into a nice, familiar routine. As stated a time or two in these posts, I tend to spend the first week to 10 days at my home office planning, scheduling and generally preparing to go out on the road for the remainder of the month.

Here are some of the activities I do to get ready for life on the road at the beginning of each month. Would love to hear you weigh in on things you might do as well.

Receive an email with my assignments from the home office. Basically this is a list of buyers, prospective buyers, and others that we need to have some sort of face time with.
I sort the list based upon geographical region contact is located in. Then I sort based upon priority. Does a particular client need me sooner rather than later? Does a prospect have demands that cause them to move up my list on when to visit? That sort of thing.
Once my list is set, I then go about creating a travel plan. I have learned that some of the online travel/social sites can be a true benefit in this process. I started using Dopplr a couple of months ago (as you might be able to see with that widget-thing on the right side of the page).
With a general itinerary set, I go about booking my actual flight travel, the business hotels I’ll stay at during the journey, and if I need a rental car I book those in advance as well.
With travel needs taken care of, I then make sure I’ve got my toiletries in order. It is much easier and about 80% less expensive to make sure I don’t have to buy that stuff while on the road. I get that the businesses selling supplies to travelers are making a profit, but at the same time there is a lot of gouging going on for that bit of convenience. Don’t like that!
Finally, I start to pack clothing, books, etc. If you’ve ever traveled extensively, you know that it can be hard to carry a lot more than a weeks worth of clean clothes. One of my little tricks is to make sure I have plenty of white under t-shirts as that can often allow me to wear a dress shirt 2 or 3 times prior to needing it laundered. This allows me to usually not have to have laundry done. The great things about most hotels, however, is they are right there should I need a shirt cleaned and pressed. This usually comes after a spill of some sort

I’ll leisurely move through the above list during the first week of the month. Once all is in order, I head out on the road and start providing my clients the best services I can. At this point, it’s all old hat to me. Would love to hear how you plan and prepare for your extended journeys. Have a great month!

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All New ChoiceHotels.com is Stellar!

Travel Blogger — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:42:25 +0000

As you know, travel is a big part of my job. Huge part. It’s not that my gig is all about travel, but when in sales, and working for an old company that still believes in the value of face to face contact, well, you travel. And I’m happy with my job, the travel, new places to see and stay. Great food to eat. All the above.

What’s less than satisfying, sometimes, however is the tools that travelers like myself are sometimes forced to use to allow us to do our jobs. Currently I have at least a dozen different rewards programs for airlines, hotel chains, car rental places and various others. When I started oh so long ago, I was told this would be one of those “off the books” perks. At first I didn’t put much effort into it, but then I got wise.

One of the programs I tend to use a lot, and get rewarded for a lot is my Choice Privileges account. Not sure how long I’ve been using it, but seems like forever. As such, when I’m booking my travel for the month, they are one of the first links that I go to in order to see if they have the best deals for when and where I’m staying.

Just this morning I thought I’d get a jump on some of my scheduling for next month and headed over to the Choice Hotels website.

Wow! Apparently they did a complete site redesign and boy does it pop. I guess the best way to describe it is that things are much more refined, and cleaner. Not sure if “de-cluttered” is an actual word, but that’s sort of the feel I get now when I hit their home page.

The only thing I’m not wild about is the large banner just under the top navigation and search bar at the top of the page. I’m guessing, though, that this will either get smaller or go away after the “new site is here” time has passed.

I think my favorite feature on the home page is that they have placed the find hotels search right up near the top of the page. It feels clean, orderly and has less distracting links. Now, as I’m doing my searching for the various legs of my trips, I’m able to get right to the results.

Like I mentioned earlier, often times the tools make or break the sense that this type of work is great or just blah. I feel confident that the new Choice Hotels redesign will push me towards feeling great about my work. Give it a try for your next trip and then let me know in the comments how you feel about it.

Can’t wait to hear from you soon!

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How to be Treated Humanely by Airport Security

Travel Blogger — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:29:38 +0000

photo credit: GodzillaRockit

So, my flight from Seattle’s SeaTAC airport was delayed. Still no Kindle but I did have a half finished paperback in my carry on that I was able to pass the time with. In fact, I took a break from reading to check email and thought I’d mess around typing a post for the blog.

When I know that I have at least an hour before I need to gather my belongings and move, I tend to be more amenable to whipping out the laptop and cranking it up. Anything shorter, however and it is almost always easier to just use the Storm to check emails, or jot down quick notes to be dealt with later.

I’m off to the Dallas Fort Worth area this afternoon. Oh, I should probably call the Comfort Suites DFW airport hotel where I’m staying and let them know the airline is going to cause me to check in much later than I thought. Ugh, what a hassle.

Actually, turns out that was no hassle at all. The very nice person I talked with on the phone indicated they would hold my room without a worry on my part. They were even nice enough to let me know I didn’t need to call. I could tell they appreciated hearing from me, though.

Finding good customer service is such a rare thing nowadays. It seems more and more, companies only care about taking your money, and sending you on your way. Well, obviously not all companies. There are some that still value you as a customer and treat you well.

Now if I could just figure out how to get by airport security and still feel like a human being when it is all done. That would be a great feat, indeed!

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Good Business Hotels Have Monday Night Football

Travel Blogger — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:31:53 +0000

I’m not a huge professional football fan, however, I do like the sport. While I may spend more of my sports television viewing time watching the college game, I still like Monday Night Football. Some of my earliest childhood memories was watching MNF with my dad. It was some of the best one on one time I ever got to spend with him.

Eventually we had developed such a ritual around watching the games that I’ve been unable to break from that tradition in my adult years.

Now, as I travel with the regularity that I do, I find myself drawn to the television come Monday nights. Whether I’m booking my airline tickets or figuring out which business hotels are a best fit, one thing I always make sure to check out: lounges with big screen TVs.

I can hear you saying that I could just watch it in my hotel room, but that completely gets away from all those years of watching the games with my Pop. There exists a kind of camaraderie amongst MNF fans. You may never have met other fans before, and you may have absolutely no prospect of seeing them ever again. When you are watching the game however, high fives, cheers, boos and the next round of beers are just a part and parcel of the event.

So during the NFL season, I make sure that traveling on Monday’s ALWAYS gets me to my destination and into the sports bar lounge in plenty of time to relax and enjoy the game.

I’ll bet you have some quirky little rituals you perform related to watching football too! If so, would love to hear from you in the comments below!

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