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Vacation? Maybe not, but it'll do!
Jul. 30th, 2000 09:27 pmI was supposed to go on vacation last Friday. Galina and I were supposed to go to San Antonio for a real estate "boot camp" (what I won't do for my ever-lovin' wife), but the fellow sponsoring the event had to cancel at the last minute.
Then I realized that the hotel reservations we made were subject to a 48-hour cancellation rule (you pay for one night unless you cancel 48 hours in advance), which didn't sound so bad when I knew I was going to be there, but started to stink as soon as I realized what was what.
The idea of a "guaranteed" room is a nice one for business travelers. The basic variation is that you secure a room with a credit card number, and don't have to worry about `no vacancy' staring you in the face once you arrive. On the other hand, if you don't show up, you still pay for the night.
As is the case with any good thing, it is subject to abuse; people reserve multiple rooms (just as they reserve multiple plane seats), and as long as they canceled before check-in time, there was no penalty. A businessperson could reserve rooms in New York, Chicago, and Miami for the same night and cancel the two rooms not needed at the last minute (or all three, if it came to that).
This, of course, leaves hotels holding the bag for unoccupied rooms (theoretically, they've turned away requests for rooms because they expected occupancy in the reserved rooms). So I can see the hotel's side of the story...maybe 24 hours before check-in might make sense...I don't know. But I do know enough to say that way too many plans go south within 48 hours of arrival to make reserving rooms at hotels owned by the Howard Johnson's chain a mind-quieting prospect.
I should note that, after sufficient complaining to the manager of the hotel in San Antionio, he seems to have relented and allowed me to cancel without penalty. But it cost me, psychically.
There is one more variation in this approach, and that's when you show up and the hotel doesn't have a room. Thinking back, I remember one time I was in Coral Springs, Florida and had worked on a water system startup until nearly 10:30 pm, at which time I hied myself to my hotel for my night's rest. When I got to the hotel at nearly midnight, they did not have a room for me. So, they paid me the cost of the room, and paid for a room at another, comparable hotel. I remember having to drive around 40 minutes to the other hotel, which was on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. It was about 1 am before I got to my room, so I hardly had any opportunity to enjoy the place. I did get to catch a nice sunrise, though (I did have to return to work the next morning) and came out about a hundred bucks ahead.
Anyway, this has been one hell of a `vacation' so far. I haven't strayed more than about 10 miles from home, and I think that was to take a look at the property over in Friendswood (sigh). There is a hell of a lot of work that has to be put in there, and I have no idea when I'll be able to get to it. Right now, the plan is to have Natalie move in, but there isn't even a stove or refrigerator installed, and the wall in back of the stove is, um, missing.
On other fronts, I've spent some time today trying to get MySQL, PHP, and the Apache web server to play well together. It's not working yet. Thus far, I've isolated the problem to the fact that MySQL wants to install the socket file in a place different from where PHP expects to find it. (If that makes no sense...don't shoot the messenger, who probably doesn't understand all of it hisself. :^) So, I'm currently re-compiling MySQL on `kerouac' with a configure option that tells it to place the socket file where I want it, which I figured out how to do by reading the (gasp!) documentation (especially the part about the --with-low-memory argument to the configure script).
Vacation ends Tuesday, so there's no early wakeup for me tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be on the computer, though.
Cheers...
Then I realized that the hotel reservations we made were subject to a 48-hour cancellation rule (you pay for one night unless you cancel 48 hours in advance), which didn't sound so bad when I knew I was going to be there, but started to stink as soon as I realized what was what.
The idea of a "guaranteed" room is a nice one for business travelers. The basic variation is that you secure a room with a credit card number, and don't have to worry about `no vacancy' staring you in the face once you arrive. On the other hand, if you don't show up, you still pay for the night.
As is the case with any good thing, it is subject to abuse; people reserve multiple rooms (just as they reserve multiple plane seats), and as long as they canceled before check-in time, there was no penalty. A businessperson could reserve rooms in New York, Chicago, and Miami for the same night and cancel the two rooms not needed at the last minute (or all three, if it came to that).
This, of course, leaves hotels holding the bag for unoccupied rooms (theoretically, they've turned away requests for rooms because they expected occupancy in the reserved rooms). So I can see the hotel's side of the story...maybe 24 hours before check-in might make sense...I don't know. But I do know enough to say that way too many plans go south within 48 hours of arrival to make reserving rooms at hotels owned by the Howard Johnson's chain a mind-quieting prospect.
I should note that, after sufficient complaining to the manager of the hotel in San Antionio, he seems to have relented and allowed me to cancel without penalty. But it cost me, psychically.
There is one more variation in this approach, and that's when you show up and the hotel doesn't have a room. Thinking back, I remember one time I was in Coral Springs, Florida and had worked on a water system startup until nearly 10:30 pm, at which time I hied myself to my hotel for my night's rest. When I got to the hotel at nearly midnight, they did not have a room for me. So, they paid me the cost of the room, and paid for a room at another, comparable hotel. I remember having to drive around 40 minutes to the other hotel, which was on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. It was about 1 am before I got to my room, so I hardly had any opportunity to enjoy the place. I did get to catch a nice sunrise, though (I did have to return to work the next morning) and came out about a hundred bucks ahead.
Anyway, this has been one hell of a `vacation' so far. I haven't strayed more than about 10 miles from home, and I think that was to take a look at the property over in Friendswood (sigh). There is a hell of a lot of work that has to be put in there, and I have no idea when I'll be able to get to it. Right now, the plan is to have Natalie move in, but there isn't even a stove or refrigerator installed, and the wall in back of the stove is, um, missing.
On other fronts, I've spent some time today trying to get MySQL, PHP, and the Apache web server to play well together. It's not working yet. Thus far, I've isolated the problem to the fact that MySQL wants to install the socket file in a place different from where PHP expects to find it. (If that makes no sense...don't shoot the messenger, who probably doesn't understand all of it hisself. :^) So, I'm currently re-compiling MySQL on `kerouac' with a configure option that tells it to place the socket file where I want it, which I figured out how to do by reading the (gasp!) documentation (especially the part about the --with-low-memory argument to the configure script).
Vacation ends Tuesday, so there's no early wakeup for me tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be on the computer, though.
Cheers...
