I owe a lot to Joe Brancatelli.
“The Brancatelli File” practically defined the online consumer travel advocacy column. Joe never stops pushing the envelope of travel commentary, challenging us to think critically about this industry and inspiring me to create features like “The Crabby Traveler.” He’s also responsible for my return to biztravel.com five long years after I helped start this site.
But most of all, I’m grateful for Joe’s perspective. Although he may not say it, I think Joe knows that his greatest assets aren’t his years of experience in the travel business, or even his finely tuned writing skills.
They are his readers.
Every now and then, just when Joe’s on a roll, he’ll turn his column over to his constituents. I can think of no better time to do that myself than now. (And thanks, Joe, for reminding me that it’s the readers that make The Travel Technologist what it is.)
CELL PHONE REDUX From Jim Carswell of Columbus, Ohio: “While there is no question that distractions such as using cell phones while driving are potentially dangerous, one must consider the realistic remedies or alternative courses of action. For years I have commuted to work watching people apply makeup, shave and floss [while they drive]. On the stretch of Interstate 71 between Columbus and Cincinnati, it is not uncommon to pass regular commuters reading the paper or a good book. These differ from cell phone use in that the temptation will be to ban cell phones from use in cars, an effort that will probably involve various broadcast detectors, much as has been used in some states for radar detectors.”
Jim, I agree that legislating cell phone use is difficult, if not impossible. Then again, it’s just as hard to legislate common sense – which is really what an issue like this calls for.
I CAN’T HELP YOU From Cynthia Elm is Pittsburgh, PA: “Understaffing in IT is a well-known and documented problem. Many times, in all kinds of jobs, it’s the lack of company commitment that’s behind the problems. End-user frustration is very real, and I’m not trying to trivialize the impact on a traveler who loses access to his or her computing. However, while it was understandably important to you, a single point of failure often isn’t seen as big enough an issue by upper management to warrant the extra bodies, or 24×7 service that travelers need for a quick-response model … Sure, there are a lot of bad help desks out there. There are also a lot of business travelers who don’t do their jobs well. Sad but true that there are inadequate, indifferent, and sometimes just burned out people in all walks of life. Including column writers.”
If this commentator were burned out, he’d be rewriting press releases into columns like most of his other colleagues. You may disagree with my conclusions, but at least credit me for calling attention to the constant friction between the IT department and business travelers. What you do with the information is up to you.
LAPTOP BURDENS From Shlomo Caine in Israel: “Has anyone come out with a laptop, that is really portable? One that you can actually take on a road trip, through airports, without feeling like your spine is permanently deformed by the end of the day? It’s got to be light — 2.5 pound is the absolute maximum — with a built-in charger. I can live without the floppies and the CD-ROM/DVD when I’m on the road, so those have got to be able to come out, but it must have slots for modem and network cards. Plus, a reasonably sized keyboard. Finally, this is working person’s machine, so it must be rugged and strong — most of the small machines seem to be very delicate and all the demo models in the stores seem to have a few keys missing off the keyboard. 500MHz is more than enough, and a healthy hard disk of around 12GB and 128K RAM would do nicely.”
True portability remains a pipe dream. Just when a laptop manufacturer seems to have gotten it, it weighs its machines down with heavy disk drives or strips so much memory and processing power away that the device becomes a toy. Evidently, the engineers who come up with these products don’t travel.
UNSAFE AT ANY RATE From Gary Goss, Charleston, SC: “I once pulled up in front of my motel room to find the door wide open, a maid’s cart sitting off to the side, and no one around. I walked into the room thinking the maid was in the room, but was nowhere to be found. There was my laptop sitting on the desk in plain view. I walked to the office and left the door wide open as I could see it while I walked. I got the manager who immediately came down to find the housekeeper. The maid had walked around the corner to get something from another maid and did not think about it. It is so hard to find help, that they are desperate. This is a chain that I used to stay in four nights a week. I did not leave the chain because of this incident. I left because I wrote the chairman twice about outstanding service by one of his managers and he failed to recognize them, much less to reply to my letter.”
Some hotels still don’t get it. Whether it means hiring the worst employees or failing to recognize the best. Personally, I think you should have considered ditching the hotel because of the lapse in security. Loose safety standards are often symptomatic of other problems.
Now it’s your turn to sound off. What’s on your mind? What do you like – and not like – about the technology you use on the road? Are there questions you want the Travel Technologist to answer? Are there topics you want to read more about?
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