An elite-level frequent flier card used to be a passport to a better flying experience, offering access to special waiting areas, preferred seating and priority first-class upgrades.

But lately, frequent flier status has come to represent something else to many business travelers: a de facto insurance policy against more declines in customer service.

Airlines are reserving more choice seats for their best customers, often leaving nonelites wedged in cramped spaces. They are creating separate areas where their best customers can check in, get screened and even board faster. Those passengers without status often must stand in lines that seem to be getting longer and longer.

There are even discussions about whether to begin charging passengers for checking in luggage or advance seat assignments; card-carrying elites would most likely be exempt from those fees.

“Basically, the airlines are saying that if you’re a frequent flier, you’ll be protected against cuts in services and amenities,” said Tim Winship, the co-author of “Mileage Pro: The Insider’s Guide to Frequent Flyer Programs” (OAG Worldwide, 2005) and the editor of the Web site Frequentflier.com. “It’s a subtle but important switch from the early days of loyalty programs, when belonging to a frequent flier program meant that you would be given additional services that went above and beyond the already good service you were getting.”

Passengers have noticed a shift, too. “Becoming an elite flier doesn’t mean you get anything extra,” said Christopher Howes, a product manager from Minneapolis, who is a Northwest Airlines frequent flier. “It just means that you avoid some of the headaches and hassles that are becoming more common.”

Airlines deny that they have changed their approach to loyalty programs. Recent modifications to their frequent flier benefits, they assert, have increased the benefits of membership while maintaining a consistent level of service for the balance of their passengers.

“We’re not saying, ‘We’ll take care of our best customers, and everyone else can go stand in a line,’ ” said Graham Atkinson, an executive vice president and chief customer officer at United Airlines. “What we are saying is that for people who are going to demonstrate their loyalty or pay higher fares, we want to offer a better experience.”

United recently limited its Economy Plus seats at the front of the economy-class section — where seats have five extra inches of legroom — to frequent fliers. Before that, travelers who paid more for their airline ticket, but were not elite fliers, could also get a seat assignment in that part of the plane. Separate security screening lines for its top-tier customers have also been added at many airports that United serves.

More changes are in the works. United is testing a new check-in and boarding procedure at San Francisco International Airport that completely separates elites from other passengers. Frequent fliers are checked in, screened and boarded in their own lines. The new program, tentatively called Airport Premier Services, will be added at United’s hubs in Chicago and Washington in early 2007, and at an undetermined number of other airports later in the year.

United is also considering whether to charge some economy-class passengers a fee for checked luggage and advance seat assignments in exchange for a deeper discount on a ticket. Currently, it does not charge for seat assignments and allows passengers to check two bags, each up to 50 pounds, free. Elites who buy these cheaper fares would probably be exempt from the fees. The airline says that the new tickets represent another choice for passengers rather than the removal of basic amenities.

“We’re trying to identify things that people are willing to pay for,” Mr. Atkinson said.

Other airlines are also making changes to their programs, but like United, they chafe at the suggestion that nonelites are suffering as a result.

Northwest Airlines, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, also added separate elite boarding lines earlier this year at many airports. It reclassified some of its exit row seats and certain desirable seats in the front of the economy class section as Coach Choice seats, for which it charges nonelites $15 a seat assignment. However, elite-level frequent fliers are exempt from the fee. A Northwest Airlines spokesman, Roman Blahoski, said the changes were “a way for Northwest to reward and recognize our most loyal customers.”

But other airlines are reluctant to remove amenities that were once available to all of their passengers and return them to only their frequent fliers. US Airways has added elites-only boarding lines, but stopped short of partitioning its economy-class cabin. It also turned down two ideas, at least for now: charging nonelites to check luggage and making them pay for soft drinks. “Any changes we make need to increase the value of our frequent flier program — not downgrade the flying experience for nonelites,” said Travis Christ, a vice president of marketing at US Airways.

American Airlines has also been reluctant to join other airlines in cutting services to nonelite passengers. Although it offers separate security lines for frequent fliers, it maintains a single economy-class cabin. It recently tested — but then abandoned — a plan to charge passengers for soft drinks on American Eagle, its regional carrier. “You want to take care of your good customers first, but you have to strike a balance,” said Billy Sanez, a spokesman for the airline. “You have to be fair to both.”

Still, experts on loyalty programs believe more changes are inevitable. Not only do the changes generate income for airline, but they also encourage passengers to sign up for a frequent flier program and stay loyal to a carrier, said Hal Brierley, the president and chief executive of Brierley & Partners, a loyalty program design firm based in Dallas.

“The airlines are finding that at least some passengers will pay a bit extra for added comfort, like more leg room or an exit row seat,” he said. “Letting loyal frequent fliers enjoy that comfort for free is one more way carriers like Northwest and United are rewarding their frequent travelers, and creating an opportunity cost for those who do not remain loyal.”

Being a frequent flier may not always be enough, though. Richard Wong, a lawyer in Washington who is a United and American frequent flier, said there was a pecking order among elites to get perks that used to be available to anyone. Often, on fuller flights, even the lower-level elites are shut out of the desirable economy-class seats.

“You don’t just have to be a frequent flier to get a better seat assignment,” he said. “You have to be a high-level elite. Otherwise, you could be stuck in the back of the plane.”Similar Posts:

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Just when travelers thought they had run out of things to complain about at the airport, their fading laptops and cellphones have signaled yet another problem: a shortage of power outlets.

Airport concourses, particularly older ones, were never known for their abundance of electrical sockets. But a convergence of factors — including new wireless Internet access in terminals, stricter airport security measures and the proliferation of power-hungry gadgets — has added to the deficit of outlets. Airports are rushing to add new ones.

“You can’t help but notice business travelers hovering above the outlets at the airport, waiting for their turn,” said Joanne Paternoster, a former assistant director of customer service for the aviation department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and now a consultant for Maritz Research. “People are arriving earlier at the airport so that they have enough time to make it through security, and there are just not enough outlets to go around.”

Judy Bonghi, a human resources manager in Philadelphia, experienced the plug problem firsthand recently at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. She needed to recharge her DVD player on a stopover, but every outlet in the waiting area was occupied. “I ended up sitting on the floor at a gate — not my gate, since nothing was available there — to plug it in,” she recalled. “And I was sitting next to another person doing the same thing with his laptop.”

Atlanta’s airport, the nation’s busiest, is adding new outlets to accommodate customers like Ms. Bonghi. “With today’s technology, there’s definitely an increase in demand for outlets,” said Ashraf Demian, chief electrical engineer for Hartsfield-Jackson.

How many sockets are enough? Generally speaking, the number of outlets needs to be doubled, from one every 25 feet to one every 12 feet, according to Mr. Demian. But that can be costly. The price for each outlet in a renovated concourse — like Atlanta’s new international terminal, which is expected to open in four years — is $150 to $200. But in an existing structure, tearing out walls to add sockets can cost thousands per outlet, he said.

Atlanta is not the only airport to recognize the energy crisis. Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport recently converted some of its pay phones into free laptop recharging stations. Salt Lake City International Airport has installed new power outlets in its public seating areas and contracted with Smarte Carte of St. Paul to offer a recharging station for mobile phones and hand-held computers, at $3 a charge. And Eppley Airfield, near Omaha, just wired its snack bar in the north boarding area with new sockets.

But as in Atlanta, most of the new airport power outlets are being added gradually, as part of a renovation. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport recently remodeled its busy Terminal 4, creating several new areas where computer users can place their laptops on a shelf and plug into an outlet. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is currently renovating its A and B Concourses, and plans to add new outlets to the gate lounges.

Travelers are usually reluctant to complain about the scarcity of outlets. That is because they are unsure if they are allowed to use the sockets, which sometimes appear to be there for the exclusive use of airlines and cleaning crews. (At most airports, passengers are permitted to use the outlets, although they are rarely invited to do so.)

And while some domestic business and first-class seats have built-in power ports, most economy-class seats are powerless.

But for this year’s holiday travel period, as travelers arrive at the terminal even earlier to get through the security checkpoints, and with record numbers of passengers expected to use the nation’s airports, officials are anticipating a surge in complaints.

“When the terminal is full, and you have a weather delay, and everyone is trying to hook up their cellphones and laptop computers, that’s when you hear about it,” said Fredrick Piccolo, the chief executive of Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Florida.

Airports are at least partly to blame for the outlet shortage. For the last several years, they have been busy adding wireless Internet hot spots to their terminals. In effect, these wireless access points have encouraged business travelers to use their laptops and data-enabled cellphones but have not given them the power needed to do so.

“Airport Wi-Fi has gotten a lot of attention from airports,” said Scott Wintner, a spokesman for Airports Council International-North America, an airport trade group. “But there hasn’t been a lot of discussion about power plugs,” even as Wi-Fi has created new demand for power in terminals.

Business travelers are not helping the situation, either. While it is true that more people are traveling with the latest devices, the real power hogs tend to be yesterday’s gadgets — aging laptops and batteries unable to hold a charge.

“My laptop will barely make it through boot-up before the battery is spent,” said George Armstrong, a sales engineer from Green Cove Springs, Fla., who frequently finds himself with a lifeless laptop at the airport. “I probably should get replacement batteries. Hopefully, road warrior requests will reach the powers that be in the airports, and they’ll accommodate us.”

Savvy air travelers rely on their instincts to sniff out the nearest power. “The easiest way to find a power outlet is to think like the cleaning lady,” said Robert Cowen, a frequent traveler who also publishes a Web site for travelers called InternetTravelTips.com. “Where do they plug in the vacuum cleaner? The answer to that is where you’ll find a power plug. Very often, it’s in a pillar or behind a row of seats on the wall.”

But finders are not necessarily keepers. Christina Zimmel, an education specialist for a hospital in Clawson, Mich., recently witnessed a dispute over a power outlet. “I actually saw one business traveler get in a shouting match with a maintenance worker who needed an outlet for the vacuum cleaner while he needed it for his laptop,” she said.

Edwin Kelley, an engineer from Los Angeles, may have the most sensible interim solution: an extension cord with three outlets and a readiness to ask other travelers to share. “I’ve never been refused,” he said.Similar Posts:

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The Fairmont Washington knows Andrew Breslow’s room preference, his fondness for foam pillows and his favorite cocktail: Jack Daniels with club soda. But that is not why Mr. Breslow, a tax lawyer from Southlake, Tex., likes to check into the hotel on his extended business trips to Washington.

“They make sure I look good,” he said. “If I’m not dressed right — if maybe my socks don’t match or my shirt collar is turned up — they’ll say something to me. Someone will pull me aside and say, ‘You might want to try a different pair of socks.’ It really makes me feel like I’m at home.”

Free fashion advice is just one of the benefits that business hotels like the Fairmont offer. Resorts have been making a special effort to cater to their long-term guests lately, not only by adding perks like grocery shopping, DVD rentals and laundry services at no extra charge, but also by introducing unusual amenities that are not in their brochures.

With good reason. By many measures, business trips are getting longer. The average guest at an extended-stay hotel checked in for 15 nights in 2005, up by one night from 2004, according to the Highland Group, a hotel industry consulting firm that specializes in extended-stay lodging.

A survey of holders of Barclaycard Business cards in Britain found that businesspeople will on average be spending an extra night away from home each month, up from 4.1 nights now, to 5.2 nights by 2015.

There are many reasons for the apparent increase in the duration of business trips, according to experts. A healthy economy is keeping business travel at record levels. Rising air fares and the delays and frustrations at the security checkpoints are pressing business travelers to extend their stays over a weekend instead of commuting back and forth between a job site, according to experts and business travelers.

“Many hotels are making an effort to get to know the individual preferences of their return guests,” said Debra F. Cannon, director of the school of hospitality at Georgia State University. “I have heard of rearranging furniture and even letting guests bring in personal items, like artwork, for their stays.”

The Fairmont Washington, for example, sometimes issues Mr. Breslow the keys to his favorite room, the spacious Georgetown Suite, when he arrives from Dallas. If it is not available, he gets a room with a balcony. His favorite cocktail is waiting for him.

He is given access to the exclusive gold floor, which serves breakfast in the morning, hors d’oeuvres in the afternoon and chocolate fondue in the evening. And the staff makes sure guests like Mr. Breslow do not miss a meal. On one recent morning, they delivered eggs Benedict to his room when he could not make it to the gold floor lobby in time for breakfast. “I used to come up to Washington for four days and then fly back to Dallas for the weekend,” Mr. Breslow said. “But flying is such a headache now, so why bother? Now I try to plan my meetings so that I can stay for two weeks at a time.”

Jeff Senior, a senior vice president for marketing and sales at Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, said Mr. Breslow’s experience was becoming increasingly common. “We are seeing a definite trend to longer stays,” he said. “In fact, stays today are almost a full day longer, on average, than only three years ago.”

In response, his hotel staffs have found themselves doing things that were once uncommon, like helping one long-term guest quit smoking or taking care of another guest who had fallen ill by delivering soup to his room and nursing him back to health. Business travelers, he added, are looking for “a higher level of personal service.”

Other hotel chains are catering to similar needs of business guests. Extended Stay Hotels, a chain of 680 long-stay properties in North America, offers its long-term business travelers a similar list of services.

“We’ll find out what a guest’s favorite candy is and buy it for them, or notice the type of soda or bottled water that they drink, and then surprise them with a complimentary case,” said Jennifer Kearney, a spokeswoman for the hotel chain. Some extended-stay guests are even given the cellphone numbers of hotel managers, just in case they need something after hours.

At Marriott International, which operates Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites — two brands that cater to long-term guests — efforts to make extended-stay guests feel more at home have focused on the lobby areas. Laura Bates, a senior vice president for brand management at Marriott’s extended-stay and select service brands, said services like grocery shopping are not quite enough to make a hotel feel like home. “There needs to be a meeting area where they can connect with other guests or associates, or just hang out and relax,” she said.

To that end, Residence Inn is planning to overhaul its lobbies next year to build a more inviting public space. The changes will create what Ms. Bates calls a more “warm and inviting” area centered on a fireplace, where guests can unwind, watch TV or work in private seating areas called studies.

Marriott is also building outdoor deck areas where it will play host to weekly barbecues and receptions.

At Staybridge Suites, the extended-stay brand owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group, some hotels will add home theaters to their public areas next year. The rooms will feature a big-screen plasma TV and a surround-sound system.

Peggy Berg, president of the Highland Group, sees a future with even more adaptations to the needs of long-term guests. “Guest rooms and baths will get bigger, which is a good thing, since humans are getting bigger,” she said. “They’ll also offer bigger fitness centers and more by way of lounges and light food service.”

Industry experts and hotel executives predict that personalized services will grow along with the new amenities.

It could even get to the point where the off-the-book offerings make it on to the books, they suggest. Take rearranging the furniture, for instance. At the upscale Langham Hong Kong Hotel, which is part of the Lanham Hotels International chain, guests can ask the hotel to redecorate the room for them and adjust shelves to their preferred height.

At the Four Seasons Hotel Miami, moving desks and chairs around is not an unusual request, either. Recently, the hotel created a complete office in one of its rooms for a guest, a lawyer who was working on a trial.

“For now, furniture moving isn’t something we would advertise,” said Eveliny Bastos-Klein, a hotel spokeswoman. “But you never know what will happen in the future.”Similar Posts:

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It turns out a business travel hotel is a business travel hotel, after all.

Some hotels that only a few years ago rebranded themselves as “family friendly” resorts have been quietly phasing out promotions and programs meant to attract families with children. One reason is that their rooms have been filling up with more of their core business customers.

But some of those business customers have also been filling out complaint cards about unruly guests.

Frequent travelers like Jaime Jurado have noticed a shift. In 2002, Mr. Jurado, a director of brewing operations at the Gambrinus Company in San Antonio, stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square in New York with his family. “They were very indulgent with the kids,” he recalled. “When we checked in, they handed us four aluminum-framed chairs with coolers, and they said, ‘Take these, please.’ They were extremely generous.”

On recent visits to other Doubletree hotels with his family, however, Mr. Jurado found that the enthusiasm toward families had waned. “They’re still welcoming, but not like they were before,” he said. “They aren’t handing us free plush toys or folding chairs anymore.”

Analysts also said they were seeing the start of a cooling trend. After a slide in hotel occupancy at the beginning of the decade, which was made worse by the Sept. 11 attacks, many hotels that traditionally catered to business travelers tried to attract families by adding room specials and activities and amenities for children. Now that the economy has strengthened, and business travelers are filling their rooms again, some hotels appear to be having second thoughts.

“They won’t say they’ve stepped away from their family programs,” said Jan Freitag, a vice president at Smith Travel Research “But in reality, some of them have. There isn’t a push to attract families anymore.”

Kendra Walker, a spokeswoman for Hilton Hotels, the parent company of Doubletree, said her company continues to offer family programs at many hotels operated by Hilton. “Our research shows that many frequent business travelers extend their business trips for leisure purposes,” Ms. Walker said. Her company currently offers a free Discovery Kids backpack filled with DVD’s and activity books for young guests at select Hilton properties, but not at the Times Square Doubletree.

Perhaps the best-known example of hotels rethinking their emphasis on families is Las Vegas, which in addition to being a popular tourist destination is also the No. 1 city for trade shows, according to a recent trade publication ranking. In the early 1990’s, several resorts began to add family amenities, which included 24-hour nurseries and theme parks, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

“Las Vegas spent millions of dollars on an effort to reposition itself as family-focused,” said John Fareed, a hotel consultant with Fareed & Zapala. “Then it abandoned that focus for, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’ ”

Hotel chains have not made any such moves yet. For instance, Omni Hotels’ six-year-old children’s program, Omni Kids, still offers families with young children a series of what it calls “kid specific” amenities, like games, books, activity guides and a milk-and-cookies turndown service. But one component of the original program is no longer available: a two-for-one room deal for families with children.

Caryn Kboudi, a spokeswoman for the hotel, said Omni Kids had “evolved” since it started in 2000, and that the company now offered packages tailored to the destination. “When it comes to kids’ programs,” she added, “one size does not fit all.”

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which in 2001 introduced new designer cribs at its Westin and Sheraton brands that were meant to attract business travelers with young children, did not follow up by adding a full children’s program at all of those properties.

Instead, Starwood introduced a redesigned Kids Club last year only at its leisure-focused Westin brand. “We decided to put our emphasis on resorts where there are families,” said a spokeswoman, K. C. Kavanagh. “We want to make sure that if you’re at one of our business travel hotels and you happen to be traveling with a baby, that you have the amenities you need. But it wouldn’t make sense to have more than that at a business travel hotel.”

Hotel executives said that if some family programs at business hotels were not dropped altogether, they would remain in name only.

“There are a lot of brands that try to play the family game,” said Mark Snyder, senior vice president for brand management at Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts. “But they can’t. Not when you continue to have expensive furniture and Ming vases in the lobby. It’s inauthentic for a hotel to try to be something that it’s not.”

The idea that business travelers and families do not mix well resonates with travelers like Steve Hanges. It is not the noisy children that bother him as much as it is permissive parents who “think it’s cute when their children bump into people or knock things down,” said Mr. Hanges, a technology marketing consultant in St. Paul.

A San Francisco-based consultant, Richard Shireman, said he was relieved that some properties are returning to their business travel roots. “Children were running up and down the halls screaming at 6 a.m.,” he remembered. “They were shrieking in the swimming pool at the top of their lungs. They abused the fitness room equipment. ”

Kate Pocock, a family travel expert who is writing a book about traveling with children in Canada, said business travel hotels were often a bad fit from a parents’ perspective, too.

“I think the problem with bringing the kids along on business trips was always, What do you do with them?” she said. “Do the kids stay in the room to watch who-knows-what sort of videos while you conduct business? Not an ideal plan. Unless the hotel had a well-put-together program of activities, the kids were often better off at home.”Similar Posts:

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There is no talking your way out of a mandatory $1-a-night telephone service charge at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas. And when Dennis C. Tucker saw the surcharge on his bill recently, he did not even try.

“I paid it,” said Mr. Tucker, a librarian from Modesto, Calif., who was in Las Vegas for a job interview. “But I don’t think I should have. I never picked up the phone, except to call room service.”

Mandatory extras such as Excalibur’s phone fee, which covers the cost of unlimited local calls made from its rooms, are hardly new. For years, hotels have increasingly saddled their customers with nonnegotiable surcharges for everything from the use of an in-room safe to a general resort fee that pays for amenities that were once part of the room rate.

Industry revenue from these fees has roughly tripled, to an estimated $1.6 billion this year from about $550 million in 2003, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm. But the way in which the add-ons are disclosed to hotel guests is changing.

Wyndham International recently reached a $2.3 million settlement with the attorney general of Florida over stating surcharges that could move the industry closer to disclosing a complete hotel rate upfront.

Florida began investigating Wyndham’s hotel charges in 2001 when fees started appearing on state employee travel vouchers. Under the terms of its settlement, the company agreed to clearly and conspicuously disclose any automatic fees, such as resort service charges and transportation surcharges, when a reservation was made.

The agreement affects the way guests are told about additional charges at a collection of high-end properties managed by LXR Luxury Resorts, most of them in Florida, New York and California, as well as at certain Wyndham-branded hotels.

Hotels that currently add mandatory fees on top of their room rates, like the Excalibur, said their current disclosure was adequate. Yvette Monet, a spokeswoman for MGM Mirage, the parent company of Excalibur, said guests were told about the fee on the hotel’s Web site and when they called its reservations phone line to book a room.

Including the charges in the price of the room could put the hotel at a “competitive disadvantage,” she added, because it would make other hotels’ rates seem less expensive.

“A vast majority of our guests tell us that paying $1 a day for local calls is a good value,” she said.

But many major hotels have already begun to distance themselves from the practice of tacking on to their guests’ bills automatic fees that were not part of the initial rate. “Many brands are trying to standardize the disclosure of fees,” said Bjorn Hanson, a hospitality analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “I don’t think we’re going to see the charges disappear — in fact, this year is going to be a record for hotel fees — but I do think the way in which they’re disclosed is changing.”

For example, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which operates the Sheraton, Westin and W brands, currently quotes an initial daily room rate, minus taxes and fees, by phone or online. Taxes and fees are listed separately, so customers who want to know how much the hotel is going to cost have to do their own math.

But the hotel chain is testing a new system that gives guests calling its phone reservations line a price that includes all fees and charges, and the company expects to begin using the system by the end of the year. This fall, Starwood is also introducing a new “total room cost” feature on its Web sites that displays an all-inclusive rate at the beginning of the reservation process rather than making customers calculate it themselves.

Other hotel chains also offer rate estimates that include all taxes and fees, but their timing on disclosure is slightly different. At Hilton Hotels properties, a per-night base rate is first quoted that does not include taxes or surcharges (only three properties in the system have resort fees). A guest must select a hotel and begin the booking process before the system generates a complete price.

Marriott International, which operates the Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard and Fairfield Inn brands, among others, recently switched to a similar pricing model. Customers are first offered a room rate, and after selecting the hotel, the reservations system generates an estimated total that includes any fees. Before the booking is finished, Marriott also adds estimated taxes.

Whether to show a total estimated price at the beginning of the reservation process or at the end is a tricky issue for the industry. If a hotel displays a total price upfront, it risks losing the booking to a competitor who is showing a rate without taxes and fees. But to wait until the booking is under way — or finished — before disclosing a full price risks irritating the customer.

Perhaps no hotel chain knows better how difficult such a decision can be than the InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands. Last year the company tested a program to disclose the full estimated rate at the beginning of the booking process, according to Del Ross, the company’s vice president for distribution marketing. The results were disappointing.

“When we gave people the estimated total price upfront, we found that abandonment rates were higher,” he said. “The reason, we believe, is that they weren’t getting this kind of information from anyone else.”

In the end, InterContinental pulled back from its full rate disclosure. Now it quotes an estimated total after a hotel is selected, but before the booking is complete. Guests who make phone reservations are not offered an estimated total but are instead given a daily rate, plus any applicable fees and taxes, before finishing the transaction. Experts say they believe InterContinental’s experiment, despite its initial failure, represents the future of how hotels will represent their prices.

“We’re moving in the direction of full disclosure,” said Robert Mandelbaum, a hotel analyst for PKF Consulting. “It’s really in the hotel’s best interest to display all the fees upfront. If guests have all the information from the outset, and they choose to stay there, then there’s less of a chance that you’re going to disappoint them.”Similar Posts:

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Like most other business travelers who publish blogs, Steve Broback discovered their power by accident.

He had reserved a room at the Muse Hotel near Times Square, with the understanding that the rate would include free Internet access. But when he plugged into the high-speed data network, Mr. Broback, a conference organizer from Woodinville, Wash., was asked to pay $9.95 to connect.

“I asked about it at the front desk, and was told that the box to connect to the Internet was included in my stay,” he said. “Getting it to work would cost $9.95 a day.”

Frustrated, Mr. Broback posted an entry on his Web journal about the experience. Less than two weeks later, a hotel manager sent an e-mail to apologize, refunded his Internet connection fee and pledged to change how the hotel discloses its surcharges.

That incident, which happened nearly two years ago (the hotel is under new management), inspired Mr. Broback to start a business-travel blog called InflightHQ (inflighthq.com). Hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of other business travelers who write blogs have also learned that their Web journals are more than online platforms to blow off steam.

“Bloggers have the potential to change business travel,” said Clancy Ratliff, an assistant professor of English at East Carolina University, in Greenville, N.C., who wrote her dissertation on blogging. “Maybe they haven’t reached a critical mass yet, the way bloggers have in other places. But their influence may be growing.”

Take Northwest Airlines’ decision to charge an extra $15 for certain sought-after economy class seats — a fee that also applied to its elite-level travelers. Bloggers like Mark Ashley, who writes Upgrade: Travel Better (upgradetravel.blogspot.com), pounced on the airline, saying that “the ‘premium’ seats Northwest is selling aren’t particularly special,” and that the airline was effectively telling its best customers to “drop dead.”

Northwest responded to critics like Mr. Ashley by dropping the fee for most of its frequent fliers, although it would not specifically credit bloggers for the move. And while Mr. Ashley said that he did not believe his blog entries persuaded Northwest to reverse its policies, he added that business-travel blogs like his played a collective role in shaping the airline’s rules. “I think that more companies are taking bloggers seriously,” he said.

Some are taking them as seriously as the work of journalists. For example, Marriott International began an ambitious program to reach bloggers this spring. Its efforts included asking bloggers to speak to its corporate communications team, inviting them on press trips and offering them news in advance of print media.

“A lot of business travelers are getting their information from blogs,” said John Wolf, a Marriott spokesman. “We wanted to have a better understanding of blogs.”

To do that, Marriott assigned an employee to monitor the blogosphere and generate daily reports on what bloggers were writing about the company. It also began pitching bloggers on Marriott-themed postings, recently offering bloggers an exclusive about a plan to put airline check-in stations in its lobbies. “The news got out there within minutes,” Mr. Wolf said.

One blogger on the receiving end of Marriott’s pitch was Gary Leff, the chief financial officer of a university research center in Washington. He publishes View From the Wing (http://view.flyertalk.com).

“The fact that companies are pitching me, as a blogger, is an acknowledgment that blogs are influencing people,” he said. But until recently, the only evidence that Mr. Leff had any weight to throw around was that some of the special mileage offers he linked to were modified or removed after he posted them on his blog. Marriott’s initiative appears to reflect a change in the balance of power.

Robert Safuto, an energy market consultant from Weehawken, N.J., writes a blog, Red Room Chronicles (redroomchronicles.com), which focuses on Marriott, says the message the hotel chain is sending to bloggers is clear: “They’re saying, ‘We’re paying attention to you.’ ”

But business-travel bloggers are still a long way from wielding the power of political bloggers. Edward Hasbrouck, who writes The Practical Nomad blog (hasbrouck.org/blog), says that policy changes that result from blog posts are rare. “I recently posted a horror story about the Transportation Security Administration,” he said. “The agency basically blew me off.”

One reason bloggers have relatively little influence is that there are relatively few who specialize in corporate travel, said J. D. Lasica of Ourmedia.org. Frequent travelers usually do not have the time to maintain a blog and, until now, didn’t consider it worth the effort. “But I think business travel blogging will take off in the next few years,” he said.

Another reason to expect growth, said Shel Holtz, a communications consultant and business-travel blogger who publishes the blog RoadWeary (roadweary.holtz.com), is that business travelers aren’t blogging to their potential. “They need to become savvy about the means by which they can spread the word,” he said. That means adding keywords to postings so that the content can be found online, and providing links to like-minded bloggers.

Then again, business-travel blogs may just need a big break. Alex Halavais, a blogging expert and assistant professor at Quinnipiac University, calls it the need for a “Lott-Rathergate” moment — a reference to blogs’ reporting on Senator Trent Lott’s praise of segregationists and the challenging of documents cited by Dan Rather on President Bush’s National Guard service.

“So far it hasn’t happened in business travel,” he said. “At least not yet.”Similar Posts:

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Nothing makes a business traveler’s blood pressure rise faster than the sight of a minivan filled with vacationers in the next lane.

“I’ve seen them back down entrance ramps,” said Ron Dylewski, a videotape editor in Pittsburgh. “I’ve seen them stop in the middle of the road to look at directions. I’ve seen them swerve across several lanes.”

The perpetually strained relationship between corporate travelers and tourists tends to get a lot of attention this time of year, with spring break just wrapping up and Memorial Day, the official start of the summer vacation season, only weeks away.

The conflict is invariably described as a skirmish in the skies. On the one side are the weary corporate travelers who just want to catch up on their reading or work on a laptop computer and on the other, the infrequent fliers with misbehaving offspring in tow.

But that is only a fraction of the story. Actually, the short time spent on a plane or in an airport terminal is insignificant compared with the hours spent on the road. The stakes are far higher, too. More than 42,600 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2004, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Another 2.8 million people were injured. By comparison, the total number of civil aviation fatalities in the United States that year was 635, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Since last fall (with the exception of a few weeks around Thanksgiving and Christmas), business travelers have practically had the roads to themselves. No matter where they ventured, they found they were either among native drivers who knew their way around town or among other frequent travelers who knew how to behave on the road.

But now, these experienced motorists must contend with out-of-town drivers who are often distracted, lost or in a hurry.

Business travelers, determined to gain the upper hand, are turning to a new weapon in the battle for asphalt supremacy: the defensive driving class. Not the kind of course drivers take when they get a speeding ticket, mind you, but an intense, hands-on driving experience that shows them how to stay safe — and to steer clear of the bad drivers.

“When do I pass? How do I brake?” said Kjell Kallman, the vice president and general manager of the Jim Russell Racing Schools in Sonoma, Calif., which offers a defensive driving class that attracts many business travelers. “Those are the kinds of skills we teach. How do you prevent an accident? How do you avoid a collision?”

Interest in the school’s defensive driving seminars has steadily increased, Mr. Kallman said, because business travelers are worried about the motorists around them.

Ronnie Meneses, a pilot for the California Highway Patrol in Sonoma, who completed the school’s defensive driving course, said he regularly saw out-of-town motorists engaging in reckless behavior. Sonoma, in California’s wine country, is a year-round tourist destination, so there is less of a seasonal influx of visitors. “You see them dialing and talking,” he said. “They’re on the phone; they can’t maintain their lane position; they’re driving too slow or too fast. Just being on the same road with these drivers can be dangerous.”

Mr. Dylewski, the videotape editor who also publishes a Web site about road trips called the American Roadside (theamericanroadside.com), said he did not believe that vacationers were entirely to blame. Often, the street signs are unclear, he said. Pittsburgh’s roads, for example, are confusing even to native drivers. “I really feel their pain,” he said. “When I see someone driving erratically, my first thought is, ‘They’re lost.’ Then I look down and I see a Michigan, New York or Massachusetts license plate.”

Not everyone is as understanding. When I lived in the Florida Keys, one of the most popular bumper stickers asked the question, “If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?”

A driving course is unable to protect a business traveler in every situation, of course. Ted J. Johnson, a consultant who lives in Brooklyn, recalled the motorist who made a wrong turn into the Holland Tunnel in rush hour last summer. When the driver realized he was heading in the wrong direction, he stopped and tried to undo the mistake.

“He was backing up out of the tunnel,” recalled Mr. Johnson, who was on foot at the time. “It was a concert of horns.” Then, Mr. Johnson said, “I looked down and saw the Pennsylvania plates.”Similar Posts:

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Room service, get me a room! It hasn’t quite come to that, but with record-high occupancy rates predicted for summer, vacationers need to get busy and book. The luxury hotels below are a good bet, but even they’re filling up.

The James Chicago, opening this month, is a luxury/boutique hybrid. Suite-size rooms (the smallest is a generous 375 square feet) sport oversize couches and giant plasma-screen TVs. Service promises to be over the top, too, with two concierges and twice-daily maid service. It is a rare, pet-friendly luxury property and will, upon request, provide a pet bed, food and water bowls, a litter box, even a “pet in residence” door hanger, lest the maid startle Fido–or vice versa. Rates start at $250 (jameshotels.com; 877-526-3755).

Acqualina in Sunny Isles, Fla.(a short drive north of Miami), is a 51-story Mediterranean-inspired high-rise also opening this month, and it exudes blingitude at every turn. Beds are decked in Rivolta Carmignani sheets and goose-down duvets, and the marble bathrooms are stocked with Lady Primrose amenities. Though many creature comforts are for grown-ups (they do, after all, pay the bills), younger guests are not out of luck. The “Fun in the Tub” amenity kit has a rubber ducky and bubble bath, and “turn down” service includes chocolate milk and warm chocolate chip cookies. There are toys for older guests as well: free hand-held GPS navigation devices with directions to local attractions. Rooms start at $425 (acqualinaresort.com; 888-767-3966).

The 260-room St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco has all the touches you’d expect from an upscale hotel: custom-designed room furniture, including a 5-foot-long chaise longue, and laser-cut art made from Australian lacewood, plus deep soaking tubs and stunning city views. But how many hotel rooms also come with their own butler, who can help with everything from unpacking to dry cleaning? One butler even helped arrange a private tour of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Not that you need to go far to see expensive paintings: With $3.5 million worth of artwork on the walls, the St. Regis, which opened in November, offers a docent-led tour of the property. Rooms start at $399 (starwoodhotels.com/stregis; 800-598-1863).

At the Regent Shanghai, which opened in November, guests are offered spa treatments as a welcome gift, including a back and shoulder massage. Little about this distinctive, 53-floor hotel is understated, particularly the centerpiece of its Shanghai V restaurant, Bohemian crystal lighting from the Czech Republic that looks like a dancing dragon. Rooms start at $150 a night (regenthotels.com; 800-545-4000).

It isn’t unusual to see a yacht pull up to the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort’s private jetty–or for a chopper with a VIP guest to land on its private helipad. Monaco’s first new resort in 75 years combines high-class with high-tech. Regional ceramicists decorated the rooms, using colors inspired by the villages of the south of France–shades of white, beige, and ocean blue. But the guest rooms, loaded with tech toys, including in-room video-conferencing facilities, are equally part of the global village. Along the edges of the sand-bottom pool, guests sip the signature blue gin martinis, a mix of vodka, cognac, and passion fruit (montecarloresort.com; 800-595-0898).Similar Posts:

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A flight from St. Louis to Houston. A short van ride to her hotel. And then, just before the van pulls up to the curb, Carolyn Walsh realizes that she forgot to pack the keys to her luggage.

Ms. Walsh remembers her first business trip in 1982 as if it happened yesterday. “I asked the driver to stop at a locksmith on the way,” said Ms. Walsh, an interior designer in St. Louis. “I begged him.”

Most first business trips go off without a hitch. But a minority hit snags that are destined to become part of business travel lore.

There are tales of accidents, crossed wires, fashion mistakes and simple misunderstandings told years, sometimes decades, later with a combination of embarrassment and amusement. And a new round is about to begin. With commencement season near, newly hired employees will be taking their first business trips in the coming months.

A first-time business trip is far likelier to go wrong because new employees are inexperienced and uncertain of what to expect when traveling, experts say. And the resulting stress makes them do curious things, like forgetting their luggage, airline tickets — and sometimes, their common sense.

“Typically, a first business trip is intended to test the mettle of an employee,” said Lyssa Menard, a clinical health psychologist at the Wellness Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. “Their presentation skills and people skills are on display the entire time.”

Some new travelers are insecure; others are overconfident. Ms. Walsh says that was to blame for her mishap. “I was very excited and thought I was just the best businesswoman on the planet,” she said. But after her shuttle driver made a reluctant detour to the locksmith, her attitude changed. With her morale deflated, she said she was grateful to the other shuttle van passengers who agreed to wait while she bought a new key.

In fact, baggage and clothing are perhaps the two biggest reasons that fledgling business trips go awry.

On Karin Amour’s first time out, she made the mistake of packing only two changes of clothes for a three-day trip. “I had been given exactly 90-minutes warning before I had to leave work to fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco,” said Ms. Amour, who was at the time a manager of marketing communications for a managed care company.

The flight encountered some rough air. Seconds later, her drink spilled in her lap, leaving her with only one change of clothes. The résumés she had been poring over went flying in every direction.

“The other passengers had free reading material,” she said. “And every single one of them had a comment. ‘Hire this guy,’ or ‘Hey, can I borrow this one?’ ”

Gary Zeune learned to pack an extra suit after his first business trip for an international accounting firm in 1973, a flight from Los Angeles to New York. “The stewardesses — that’s what we called them back then — had just served dinner of beef Wellington, wine and a great dessert,” he said. “Then we hit an air pocket, and the food ended up on the cabin ceiling, in our laps, and there was sauce dripping from our heads.”

At least Mr. Zeune had something to wear the next day. Other first-timers are not so lucky. John Hartman remembers his first business trip to Columbus after being hired at the Health Department for the State of Ohio. The night he arrived, he had visited a few of the city’s country and western bars.

“When I got up the next morning and looked for my blue government-issue business suit, I was shocked to realize that the clothing bag was still hanging on the back of my bedroom door 150 miles away,” he said.

Mr. Harman pressed on, attending his first meeting in worn jeans, cowboy boots, and, “God help me, a sweaty Western shirt,” he said. “I left the cowboy hat in the room.”

He made a lasting impression on his new supervisor — fortunately, a more positive one than he expected — and continued working for the department for the next 30 years until his retirement.

But not all inaugural business trips have such happy endings. Bill Armstrong, now an information technology consultant in Calgary, Alberta, recalled his first business trip as a laborer for an oil company.

“When they told me I had a job with them, they asked me to fly to their office in order to fill out paperwork before going to the field,” he said. It was his first flight, and a snowstorm delayed his arrival by three hours. “At some point, they felt I wouldn’t show up and gave the job to someone else.” (Ultimately, he was offered another job.)

Disastrous conclusions to first business trips are not uncommon. Deborah K. Jensen, a librarian in Boston, wrecked a rental car as a subscription representative for an international agency. The vehicle was towed away, and when she returned to the airport, “all I had were the rental paperwork, the police report, and the car keys,” she said. “I was still picking dirt and gravel out of my hair.”

Although so much could go wrong on a first trip, corporate America does little to prepare new employees for life on the road. “Companies are more than willing to pay for courses on dressing for success or networking, but they are reluctant to train new employees to become better business travelers,” said Christopher McGinnis, director of the Travel Skills Group, a San Francisco-based company that used to offer classes on business travel. “They don’t see the payoff.”

And if recent hires are not instructed on the basics of business travel — how to fill out an expense form, check into a hotel, book a flight — then at least they ought to be trained in relaxation techniques, said Dr. Menard of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

“But I have seen very little anecdotal evidence that strides are being made in this area,” she added. “Often, employees are left to devise strategies themselves or seek assistance from stress management psychologists.”

Eventually, travelers do learn from their missteps and mistakes. Hope McGhee’s employer, the financial services division of a Japanese car maker, asked her to fly to Los Angeles for systems training on her first business trip. “I soon discovered that I was too young to rent a car, and I had to bum a ride with one of my co-workers,” she said.

Ms. McGhee says she now tries to prepare the employees she sends on the road. “When I ask people to travel, I am careful to include packing lists, weather reports and cost information,” she said. “I wouldn’t want them to make the same mistakes that I did.”Similar Posts:

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A business trip is a great excuse to eat. Just ask George Pattee, the chief executive of the Parksite Group, a marketing company for specialty building products in Batavia, Ill.

“The temptation to eat fast food is constant,” he said. “The real challenge has always been the evening meal. Going out with clients and ordering a steak, that’s part of the routine.”

But for Mr. Pattee and his 370 employees, hitting the road is no longer a good enough reason to indulge — not since the company contracted with a corporate wellness program that offers educational classes (in person, with an instructor) as well as newsletters and online resources to help employees lose weight and stay in shape.

As health care costs rise, companies are increasingly looking at ways to make their employees healthier, and business travelers are particularly at risk for medical problems. They are frequently stressed out and overworked, and often subsist on vending machine snacks and takeout food.

“Travel plays havoc with a person’s body,” said Thomas B. Gilliam, an author of “Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.” (T. Gilliam & Associates, 2005). “As corporate wellness programs expand, specific material is being developed for certain populations, such as business travelers.”

The new programs do more than educate frequent travelers about the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle punctuated by deep-fried meals. They use online journals, Web-based support groups and other technologies to keep employees healthy while they are on the road.

It is too early to gauge the effectiveness of these programs, but there are some notable early successes. In 2004, for example, Parksite’s health care premiums soared by 23 percent. But last year, after its wellness program began to take hold, its costs did not change even as other employee expenses were rising. The wellness program is run by the ComPsyche Corporation of Chicago.

Kathy Kurinsky, who works in human resources for Parksite, said that the program had helped workers lose weight and lead healthier lives, and, that in turn, had led to lower premiums.

The changes at Parksite can be seen at the top of the corporate ladder. Mr. Pattee shed 10 pounds after adding fruits and vegetables to his diet, drinking more water and ordering fish instead of red meat when he entertained clients. He now also spends 30 minutes a day on a treadmill when he is traveling and follows a different exercise regimen at home.

Higher health care premiums are not the only cost to companies with unhealthy employees. People who do not take good care of themselves also tend to be less productive.

“There is strong evidence that eating outside the home, particularly at fast-food restaurants, is associated with obesity and insulin resistance,” said Will Clower, author of “The Fat Fallacy” (Perusal Press, 2001). “These, in turn, increase employee doctor visits, degrade productivity and increase employer costs.”

But persuading workers who spend a lot of time on the road to change their ways is not easy. Such people tend to have deeply ingrained habits and to resist changes — particularly ones relating to exercise and diet.

“It takes more effort to maintain good health habits while traveling,” said Steven N. Blair, chief executive of the Cooper Institute, a nonprofit research center that focuses on preventive medicine. The institute offers a program that teaches people how to build physical activity into their lives and to “make healthful choices at home or on the road.”

Even when there is a will, there is not necessarily a way. “One of the most frequently mentioned barriers to regular physical activity, or practicing other good health habits, is lack of time,” Dr. Blair said. The other obstacle is not having the resources to prepare a healthy meal.

Some wellness programs are so adapted to frequent travelers that they do not even require their presence. SparkPeople.com, for example, offers 24-hour Internet access to personal trainers and nutritional guidance.

Debbie Enns, a forensic scientist for the California Department of Justice North Coast Lab in Eureka, Calif., says she logs on to the site when she is traveling to get the support she needs. She confesses that her weakness for “pizza, pasta and anything chocolate” is at its worst when she is away.

“I can log on to the forums, to my support group, and tell people how my day went,” she said. “I can get encouragement and suggestions. I can track what I’m eating and make sure that it’s balanced.”

Since starting the program late last year, Ms. Enns says she has lost about 10 pounds and dropped a dress size. “My energy level is dramatically improved,” she said. “I’m not tired all the time. I don’t need to take naps all the time. I don’t get sick as frequently as I used to.”

Ms. Enns says that she wants to lose more weight and that she knows it will take a while. But like the companies that are trying to teach their workers better habits, she is in it for the long haul.

“In order to change your behavior, you need more than just one workshop,” said Mindy Paulet, director of the work-life programs at Purdue University, who administers a wellness course developed by Human Kinetics, which is based in Champaign, Ill. “A workshop can’t change your behavior. It can’t change a sedentary or inactive employee. That takes time.”Similar Posts:

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