I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening working in a hotel room. I got into Vancouver yesterday in good time, and had a ton to do. I ensconced myself at the Days Inn (oddly, they don’t use an apostrophe) and went to town.
I find that I’m very productive in hotel rooms. There are no distractions, and the essentials of life–bed, bathroom, food–are close at hand. Douglas Adams, a noted procrastinator, wrote most of So Long and Thanks For All the Fish in a hotel room, under the constant supervision of his editor.
Maybe it was because we ran a corporate writing workshop last week, but I’ve recently been paying more attention to how ordinary things are described and labelled. I noticed a trend in my room. See if you can spot it:
The writing isn’t awful–you can still get the message–but it ain’t good. They have “a variety of sundry items available”? It must be a real mess behind that front desk. And the other pieces are terribly overwritten.
I was otherwise quite happy with my room at the Day’s Inn. It was nothing to write home about, but it was comfortable and they had free wifi. In fact, they may be near that tipping point of hotels where the hotel gets too nice to offer free wifi. Maybe there’s a rule of thumb here: less than three stars, free wifi. More than three stars, they screw you on wifi access.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Frankly their lack of apostrophe is less annoying to me than the one missing from Tim Hortons. Unless the company is manufacturing a gigantic army of Tim Horton clones…
Is that the one on Pender? If so, check out the pub downstairs – Smiley O’Neils. One of my favourite spots to get nachos in the city.
Oh, I am *so* with you on this one. I *hate* having to pay $10 – $15 for one day of wifi. But in cheaper hotels, free wifi all the way. Seriously, WTH?
Darren’s right — the more expensive the hotel, the more they gouge you. I stayed at the Banff Springs hotel one time, and was asked to pay $20 just to use the weight room and pool. Parking was $25 a day as well I believe. It’s fairly insane.
Canadian companies drop logos so that they don’t have to deal with trademark issues in Quebec.
As for the writing, now I know another client for the guy I just hired on eLance. OMG — his writing was awful in a variety of sundry ways.
Ha ha.. I’m at a Days Inn in Swift Current as I type, and all three of those are within 10 feet of me. I, too, wondered about the sundries.
Which Days Inn were you at? I’m always on the lookout for decent, cheaper hotels in Vancouver…especially with good, free wifi.
Dave: It was the Days Inn on Pender. I didn’t pay for the room, so I can’t tell you how much it was.
Having just gotten back from a 3 star hotel in Hawaii, I can speak to a couple of points:
While looking at possible hotels before we went (we booked just under 7 days before we went), it seemed that all the 3+ star hotels only offered Wifi in the lobby area. My room had a ‘dataport’ on the phone (do people still use dialup?) and a completely undocumented cat-5 cable laying behind the tv which once plugged into my Airport Express gave me wifi in my room which was great.
Where they gouged me was on the daily parking rate at the hotel ($18) which was actually more than the cost of my rented car per day. I don’t think this is unique to Hawaii either as I’ve seen this in many places I’ve stayed in the US and Canada.