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Where To Stay?

Overwhelmed by choices? Make it simple. Here are my picks for the best hotels in various locations throughout the United States.

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Charlyn's Hotels / Resorts / Inns Blog

Would You Recognize a Bed Bug Bite?

Wednesday July 2, 2008
Bed Bug Bites on Her FaceDid you get bitten by mosquitoes or sand fleas on your last resort vacation? Develop an itchy rash? Are you sure that's what it was? Cheryl thought so too, until she realized she was a victim of bed bugs biting her in her room at the luxury Caribbean villa she and her family enjoyed for a week. She says, "Our vacation was wonderful, the villa spotlessly clean, the resort employees very friendly and helpful, the food was good overall and truly excellent in the specialty restaurants for dinner...Bed bugs would be my only complaint! Now I know what to look for BEFORE getting into bed no matter where I may travel!

It can happen here in the United States, too. Just ask Mariusz, who found the familiar three-bite pattern after a stay in an upper-range hotel in San Francisco.

UW sent in some really clear (and disturbing) pictures of bed bug bites on her face, neck and arm. She says, "Good that people can see what the bites and lesions look like. They throbbed and were very painful for three days afterwards. Ice packs certainly relieved the swelling and throbbing, and also antihistamines and Panafcortelone were prescribed by the doctor for me. Has been a very harrowing and emotional time for me. Now eleven days later they are beginning to disappear."

See all the pictures of bed bug bites so you can learn to recognize when your hotel room is infested, and learn what to do if it is.

Guests Prefer Surfing to Dialing

Tuesday July 1, 2008
A study released today that measures, among other things, customer satisfaction with hotel call centers (the Contact Center Satisfaction Index, or CCSI) found that while hotel guests are, on average, more satisfied with hotel call centers than in any other industry studies, 81 percent of guests try to resolve their issues with the hotel's web site before calling.

I'm one of those "self-service" customers that would rather get my information from a web site than call an overseas call center or a busy front desk. What bugs me is having to sit through fancy, bandwidth-hogging Flash presentations and loud ambiance music when I want to find information quickly and move on. I hate having to dig around through stylish but uninformative menus to find something basic about the hotel (or even to find a phone number to call).

What do you think? Do you rely on hotel web sites for your information, or do you prefer to call? What are hotel web sites doing well (and what could they be doing better)?

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