Reading Situations

I was in my seat as the steady flow people boarded the plane from San Francisco. The overhead bins were filing up on what was surely a packed flight. A guy who looked to be in his mid to late thirties was passing by me in row 15 towards his seat carrying a (seemingly packed and heavy) fold-over suit bag when the flight attendant, a slight, cute, smiling woman about the same age, said to him "if you want to follow me back I can hang that up for you up front". Now this scene was hard to believe for two reasons. First, she offered a guy in coach to hang his bag up front, where not only would it have a home without having to gate check it, but it would be hung nicely.. an added plus! Second, the brain surgeon of a traveler responded by saying "can you just take it for me"?

Either it was his first flight ever, or he was incapable of reading even the post transparent of situations. She responded by saying "why don't you just see if there is an open space over your seat"? She said this in nice, thoughtful, "reaching out to be helpful" way, but in flight attendant speak, she said, "yeah, good luck on that one, pal".

Some people are just naive. Others are plain stupid. Others, like the guy passing me as I write this to gate check his bag, may be both.

Reading a situation in any event is helpful. When you are traveling, I can make all the difference in the world.

Safe travels.

Good Hotels, Bad Hotels

I write mostly about air travel and airlines. I thought it might be good to consider what makes a good hotel room. Let's start with the basics. Clean. This is an absolute. I expect the room to look clean, smell clean, and be clean. No smoke smell. No grunge in the bathroom or otherwise. Sheets on the bed that leave no doubt that you alone will be in those sheets. Leave the bugs outside. I stayed at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York once and was pretty sure all three cleanliness criteria were violated. Gross. So what else is needed?

Good beds. I have been is several hotels lately that had fantastic beds. Big and comfy. One was the Hampton Inn in Germantown, Maryland, proving that you don't have to stay at the Four Seasons to get a good bed.

Good technology, including a decent sized flat screen TV. The cost of these TVs have come down dramatically, especially when you buy 500 at a time. I particularly like the Club Quarters, which caters to business travelers. They have good internet access, monitor connection capabilities, and iPod friendly devices. All good.

Decent fitness center. It does not need to look like the training room for the Vikings, but it should be clean, with at least a working elliptical, treadmill, bike, and a weight machine or free weights. If you travel often, this is really important.

Decent staff. Nothing takes a good property down like a bad staff. Conversely, nothing lifts a bad property quite so easily like a good staff, but that can only go so far. This is where more upscale franchises like a Four Seasons will distinguish why they cost so much. It's called a service business for a reason. A great examples is the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Toronto.

So the opposite of these, for me, generally defines a bad hotel. Dirty rooms, bad beds, old TV's with bad channel line-up and no or slow or costly Internet access, bad or no fitness center, and bad service. These are the hotels I try to avoid. I strongly recommend looking at online reviews before booking a hotel to avoid these. TripAdvisor is a favorite.

I didn't mention food, the restaurants, mini-bars, etc. That is important to some people, but I am not one of them, hence the omission.

Last, location, transportation accessibility, and cost are also key considerations.

My Worst Cities for Business Travel

If you love business travel and do it often, then part of the price you have to pay is going to those cities that are not so good. There is no way to avoid it. I tend to like more than I dislike, but there are some that I either like, but have issues with, or out and out dislike. Examples of the ones I like but have issues with would be Montreal, Charlotte, Orlando, Los Angeles, Boston, Dublin, and Lisbon. Montreal is really cool, but the Francophile thing is over the top. Charlotte is beautiful, although the transportation system is all but non-existent, and there is a palpable insular culture. A quick cab ride with the local radio on makes you feel like people are unaware there is a world outside of Charlotte. That is not universally true, but it's definitely part of the feeling. Orlando is really a big amusement park with hotels. It's like business done on a monopoly board. It can be fun, but really for conventions more than anything. Add in Las Vegas on that one, with the additional observation that it has weird ambiance to it that is surreal, and in the summer it's 120 degrees. Los Angeles has some awesome parts to it, but no transportation system, it is really spread out, and it often seems like one big movie set with everyone acting. I actually like it, but have a hard time giving it high marks for a place for business travel. Boston is awesome. By all rights, it should really make the top list, even if just an honorable mention. But Boston is spread out, and the transportation system is limited, and the city seems like it has been under construction since I started with Prime Computer in 1984. That said, I love Boston, so all disclaimers aside, it's great place. (Note to self.. it belongs on the good list). Dublin is good as well, but it has been really ripped apart from the financial crisis. There is a bit of a beaten up feel to it. Other than that, the people are nice, the transportation system is fair, the business climate was good, and is starting to rebound again. And then there is Lisbon. What incredibly nice people. Many don't speak English (and of course, most people in the US only speak English... or Spanish), but that doesn't seem to matter. Great food, great culture, great scenery. But the business climate is fair, at best. Decisions are slow in coming. The transportation is mainly by taxi. But I love going there, even if only one in a while.

My Five Worst Cities for Business Travel

5. Newark. This barely makes the list, for three reasons. One, it's proximity to New York is good. Two, it's transportation system is getting decent. And three, as a city, it's getting better. Kudos to Corey Booker. Still, the accommodation options are bad. The food is generally bad, except the Portuguese restaurants, which are authentic and great. It's dirty, although less so than it has been. It has a depressing feel to it, although less so than in the past. I had offices there with my last company. We moved. I would expect it to leave the list soon. Good luck on that.

4. Columbia, SC. I find Columbia to be a very strange place, although in fairness I stopped going there years ago. Perhaps it's changed. I thought the business climate was mediocre. No transportation system, although it's small. Not particularly pretty to me, although not ugly. Nothing about Columbia was overly bad or overly good.... except the culture. Perhaps this is just because my interaction was with government, but I have never seen so many people (who actually know each other) trying to impress each other about how important they are. It was like an ongoing Saturday Night Live skit. While I was doing business there, the FBI ran a sting operation into corruption in the state government. It was unbelievable. Like a place caught in time. The level of gaming and mistrust was enough to deter most people from wanting to spend much time there. Perhaps it's changed.

3. San Juan, PR. While it has a reputation as a vacation spot, even that is questionable in my mind. But for business, think again. It's dirty, hot, hard to get around, and people never make a decision. The first time I went there on business I thought it was going to be so cool. I got bitten by fleas in the taxi, met with people who were agonizing, via committee, about a deal too small to warrant the flight down, and meetings never, ever started on time.

2. Houston. I have a hard time not putting this first. My experience with Houston has been universally bad. I have had more exposure to unethical business dealings there than anywhere. (And in fairness to Houston, this happens everywhere, and I am not saying everyone in Houston is an unethical businessman, just that my own exposure has painted a horrible picture). It is also dirty, with heat and humidity that is tortuous. The city planning was non-existent. In my past (1990's) dealings there with employees, it had more sex-related HR violations that everywhere else I managed combined. The food can be good, and the accommodations can be good, but not good enough to make me want to go there. And last, some of the people I met that were originally from there and had moved "home" didn't even want to be there.

1. Mexico City. While I wanted to put Houston first, objectivity prevailed. One of the most populated places in the world, the poverty is everywhere. It is dirty, crime ridden, and extremely difficult to get around. When you do, you want to be sure you are using a trusted car service. I have had to commission audits on businesses that were cooking the books. I have flown four and a half hours to attend meetings that senior executives "forgot". Decisions that should take hours seem to take weeks. Projects that should take months take years. Crime was bad, and seems to be getting worse. All that said, there are some lovely parts of Mexico City. There are some truly wonderful people there. Really. But if you are looking for a place to do business, I would probably leave it off the list.

That's it.

Safe travels