JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort – What Matters to Someone Who Travels 45 Weeks a Year

Thanks to Jane Labonte who recently wrote about her stay at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson.

“My family and I recently had the pleasure of staying at The Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson. I travel approximately 45 weeks out of the year and have stayed at many hotels, and this facility is in the top three! When you drive up to the facility, it appears “institutional” from the outside, but it warms up when you get inside. From the decor to the personnel, it was a 5-star experience.

Our bellman took extra time to make sure we knew everything about the facility and how to get around (not just dropped our bags off). We received our roll-away bed about 5 minutes after checking in, without having to call to ask for it. Any hotel employee that walked by greeted us and was pleasant. We dined at the poolside restaurant Plunge and at The Signature Grill. The food and service at both places was excellent. I was attending a conference and even the conference food was delightful.

Probably our favorite aspect of the hotel is the large patio area overlooking the lights of Tucson and the stars above the city. There are several fire pits scattered around the patio with comfortable couches surrounding them. The smell of the fires and the scenery (ok and the chocolate martinis) created a most perfect evening. I would recommend this hotel without any reservation and we hope to go back again soon!”

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Wiki-Hotel Description Experiment Part 4: Hotel Zoso, Palm Springs

Thanks to the number of people who participated in the first three wiki experiments for the Four Seasons New York, The Clift Hotel San Francisco, and Wynn Hotel and Casino Las Vegas.

I want to try it again and see if we can have more people contribute or feel free to go back to any of the earlier three. I’d also like to see people who have issues with other’s comments offer a re-write or an update. If you want to re-write someone else’s comment, do so in your posted comment and I’ll take that and make the change in the post.

This time, we’re going to try to do it with the swanky in the desert, Hotel Zoso in Palm Springs.

Here is the current description (latest addition is bolded):

Hotel Zoso is located in the heart of downtown Palm Springs. The hotel features beautiful guestrooms in a modern décor, featuring 42-in. plasma tvs, wifi internet access, triple-sheeted premium frette linens and down comforters, in-room safes, robes, and slippers. Some rooms feature a balcony or patio. Also onsite is a full service spa, outdoor swimming pool with pool bar and fire pit. Dining options include casual dining, fine dining, and 24-hour room service.

Now I know we can do better than that.

What I want:

Did you eat at eatz. at the desert Did you like it?
Did you like your bedsheets?
What about the service of the hotel?
Did they know your name when you walked around?
Some feature that only you are obsessed by in hotels?
How was the pool and the pool bar?
Close to downtown Palm Springs? Did you feel like leaving the hotel?

Keep checking back and eventually, maybe we’ll be able to use these kind of postings on the Perfect Escapes site. For now, they will reside here but I’m curious to see how helpful a community can be.

If you have an idea for another hotel to try or any ideas in whether or not you think wiki hotel descriptions would be a useful tool in deciding how to choose a luxury hotel, send me some comments.

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The Web Gives Hotel Guests the Last Word from the New York Times

Yes, yes, user reviews are important and everyone likes them and finds them useful. Funny how the New York Times wrote this article since we at Perfect Escapes wrote one very similar to it a few months ago, although our take was a bit different: The Problem with User Reviews. We also ran an article from Hotel Chatter that exposed a hotel writing its own review on Trip Advisor but not being transparent about the practice.

Sites like Trip Advisor, Igougo, FlyerTalk, Travelpost, Gusto and others do provide a service, such as finding out information from real people who stayed at hotels you are interested in learning about. But these are how reviews have been done for years.

I’m still more interested at how reviews like this can be more integrated, such as in a Wiki (see either Wikitravel or TripAdvisor Inside (their Wiki section), or our very own Great Hotel Description Wiki Experiment, Volumes 1, 2, and 3.)

But it is interesting to see the New York Times cover the topic of hotel user reviews.

Below is a brief of the article by Nana Rausch and the link to the article:

The Web Gives Hotel Guests the Last Word

NEARLY every morning, over his second cup of coffee, Tom Brady, general manager at the Affinia Chicago, logs onto his computer and surfs over to TripAdvisor.com to see if there are any new postings about his hotel.

“It’s an obsession,” he said. If the review is positive he moves on. If it’s unfavorable — like the complaint posted in March from a guest who had received a $90 parking ticket because of a valet’s error — he’s on it immediately. In that case, he marched straight out to the valet to find out what had happened. After identifying the guest, he made sure that the company issued an apology and a reimbursement for the ticket.

“This is all over the world,” he said, describing his concern about any negative comment on TripAdvisor. “Everyone is looking at this. I’ve got to make sure it’s solved quickly, so God forbid someone else doesn’t have the same problem.”

The individual traveler’s word is weightier than ever. Before the advent of travel review sites like TripAdvisor, IgoUgo.com and MyTravelGuide.com, customer complaints about dirty showers or threadbare sheets typically went to hotels directly and discreetly in the form of comment cards, phone calls or e-mail messages. But as review sites have become more popular, customer feedback that was once viewed only by a hotel’s staff is increasingly being posted online for all to see, enabling guests to share their praise or air their gripes publicly.

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The L-List

Calling all luxury bloggers!

My friend Paul at A Luxury Travel Blog has started a list of Luxury Travel blogs, known as the L-List or Luxury List. I like the idea, so I’m joining in. Although he did call out the fact that there are no male luxury bloggers – come on, Paul! You even interviewed me on your site a month back or so. I forgive you though.

The L-List provides luxury bloggers a means of being discovered. You might be doing a blog about anything related to luxury or luxury travel. This is a chance to let all of our hard work be known more by the world. Here are the directions:

If you’re a luxury blogger, here’s what you need to do:

- Write a post.
- Copy/paste the link list (and these instructions!) from the post you’ve discovered the L-List into it.
- Make sure the links are active and correct.
- If your blog is on the list, remove it… it’s not a self-promotion post. As Tim Fehlman (Z-List) said : “Don’t worry, because if your name is on mine, it’s on others and will spread.”
- Add your favourite luxury blogs on to the list.
- Add the URL of the blog where you’ve discovered the L-List as well.
- Publish the post.
- People will notice the L-List and continue it.

OK… here’s the list:

A Luxury Travel Blog
B Glam
blavish
Blog-Tique
Bornrich
Deluxe Blog.it
Everything That’s Vital
Foodaholic
Good Luck Deluxe
GourmetStation
High Chic
Janus Thinking
Living the Luxe Life
Lussorian
Luxist
Luxury Home Digest
Luxury Housing Trends
Luxury Launches
Luxury Portfolio
Luxury Reviewer
Luxus.fr
Married with Dinner
New Yorkology
Restaurant Girl
Social Diva
Sybarites
Tango Diva
The Delicious Life
The Informed Traveler
The Lobby
Vagablond
Vinography
Wine Goddess

Your turn!

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