Little Touches Make The Hotel Experience

So has Ben become the official new 'the points guy'. There are far to many guest reviews on this site. Shame on you lucky

@Bill, learn to spell properly you douchebag. If you have a problem with Lucky then stop reading this blog and take your hating elsewhere.

@Bill

Heh, if Lucky wanted this blog to be exclusively his he would've called it something like "The Blog of Lucky" or something. The fact that there are an increasing number of contributors means that there are more perspectives, more things that can be reviewed (such as Travis flying domestic first on the Q400, something Lucky never would've done), and more general knowledge to be brought to the blog.

Oh, and nobody's making you click on the links to posts written by others. You put your own "suffering" on yourself.

I'm totally ok with having guest writers on the blog but I wish this blog post had "BY MIKE" instead of "BY LUCKY" underneath the title.

Stupid question, but how much do you tip for the "complimentary" services that a hotel provides like the milk and cookies?

Between the help with the bags, breakfast delivery, hailing a cab, etc etc, I feel like I'm constantly dispensing bills when I stay at nicer hotels which to some degree defeats the purpose of having complimentary/included services.

Award shenanigans aside, this property really is a class act. Really enjoyed each stay we have had there. On our last stay, they went above and beyond in the following ways:

- We arrived early for check in and had to wait 15 mins for a room; comped drinks @ Urbane

- Our breakfast took a bit longer than usual one morning (not noticeably so to us); comped a free dinner @ Urbane for that evening

- We were running late to the theater and had to leave directly after our meal; they proactively boxed up our meal and sent it up to the room, along with a mini fridge and microwave

- We ordered room service a couple times and one time an item wasn't exactly what we had ordered (ice cream instead of the ice cream sundae); they sent the right item up, and wiped *all* room service charges for our whole stay off the bill

- Generally, everyone was friendly, remembered our family, and made us feel like valued guests (which should be the norm, but often isn't)

@heraclitus - It's a fair question and I wasn't sure what was customary for a free treat since it's usually just a percentage of the room service bill. I think I grabbed $2-3 for the guy. You're right about feeling like a cash machine. Because I typically don't have any cash on me, I always make a run to the bank to get small bills before a trip. Even after making a point to get cash, I was running low toward the end of our stay. But, I was happy to tip at Olive 8 because the staff actually deserved it as recognition for good service.

@Baqa - I'm not the least bit surprised to hear of your great experience. The help and service they provided didn't come across as special treatment. It definitely seemed as if it came natural to them to be thoughtful and treat people like valued guests.

@Joey They'd have to set up and maintain wordpress accounts for each one off/very infrequent contributor to for their name to show up the byline.

@Bill
If Lucky were the new TPG, he would have given Mike a ridiculous title, say “Executive Vice President for Pacific Northwest/Alaska Region Travel” and then allow him to write a trip report for his first ever trip in business class. “Can you believe they gave us an amenity kit! The seat also turns into a bed!!!”

The different between TPG and OMAAT is that the TPG writers are seemingly just pulled off the street and have little knowledge of the points and miles game. OMAAT writers know their s*** on these topics (even if they sometimes get their Canadian geography wrong 😉 ). Their posts are generally insightful and unique and are not just fluff.

Uh hello I like the fact that we have different reviewers as it gives a different perspective. I second the comment that if you don't like Ben's site don't come here Duh. I really enjoy it nuff said