Hotels?

I love staying in hotels. It's one of my very favorite experiences. Not bed and breakfasts, not motels (although the good ones might do in a pinch), not other people's houses, but hotels. Anything from mid-range to very upscale.


I admit that I don't often get to stay in the really upscale hotels (finances, you know), but occasionally I have done so. In France I've stayed in 16th century chateaux, in Italy, 18th century hotels on Lake Como, in Atlanta and New York and Miami and Seattle in expensive hotels when I've been at conferences. In Banff at the Banff Springs Hotel. But it's not really about the price, as long as the room is clean and the room service is good, that's what really counts. Oh, yeah, and location!


What is it about hotels I love so much?


I think it's a bunch of things. First of all, it means that I'm away from home and no one knows where I am. Okay, someone usually does know where I am, but they don't usually call me. And I don't travel with a laptop so they can't even email me. It's time out of a time in a way. Second, I love the tidiness of hotel rooms - the perfect linens, the perfectly clean and usually white bathroom, which is always bigger than mine. I like the way the room gets cleaned every morning, the bed gets made, the new towels get hung on the towel racks. I like the newspaper outside the door and that I can order a half bottle of wine any time of the day or not.


Plus, I'm always away from home - and I don't have much that I absolutely have to do. I can stay in bed until 11:00 reading my book, I can come back in the afternoon for a nap after sightseeing, I can do whatever I want.


I'm spending a whole bunch of time over the next month in hotels - four of them, I think. I'll keep you posted about them.



Kate