Tuesday, May 02, 2006

CBS News: Would Dan Rather Be Blogging? 

Movie: Don Park, Jeremie Miller, Doc Searls, Mary Hodder. 

Om Malik: File sharing is the new email. 

Today's song: "Will you carry the words of love with you, will you ride the great white bird into heaven? And though you want to last forever, you know you never will, you know you never will. And the goodbye makes the journey harder still." 

I'm leading a lunch discussion today about Identity in RSS and OPML, particularly OPML 2.0, which has a element for the author's identity. It's specified in 2.0 as a URL, and should plug into the work being done in this community. 

Anyone know where I can get a copy of the Hollywood Revue of 1929? 

There ought to be a law 

I thought I'd save some money and stay in a nice hotel at the same time, so when I booked my stay for the Identity Conference, I used Hotwire. I've booked through them about a dozen times, and once before had a bad experience, but thought I had finally figured out how to get a good room from them, until tonight.

Here's what happened. I booked a room through Hotwire at the Sheraton Sunnyvale. I arrived a little before 10PM, they confirmed that I had reserved a smoking room. I said "non-smoking." They said that Hotwire had requested a smoking room for me, and that's all they had left. I won't stay in a smoking room, as a former smoker, they smell horrible, I've tried once before sleeping in a smoking room, I couldn't do it. I had to get up in the middle of the night, switch to a different hotel. Since I quit smoking in June 2002, I've never slept a full night in a smoking room. They make me ill.

The Sheraton people said that since Hotwire had requested a smoking room, there was nothing they could do, and the hotel was oversold. I think this is a key point. Hotels that sell rooms through Hotwire are getting rid of what they call excess inventory. Seems to me what they are actually doing is hedging their bet, they take the reservations through Hotwire, but when they can get enough full-price customers they throw out the Hotwire customers by giving them the smoking rooms. (Hotwire denied that they had requested a smoking room.)

I called Hotwire. They couldn't get me a non-smoking room at the Sheraton, and they wouldn't try to get me a non-smoking room at another local hotel. They said they'll let me know tomorrow whether or not they'll refund my money. I was lucky that I was able to find a non-smoking room at another local hotel (much more expensive) by driving around. It was too late to book a room online through another service.

Needless to say I won't be booking any more trips with Hotwire or Sheraton. What an awful customer experience!

Good night and good luck.

How old I am today 

Thanks everyone for all the very kind birthday wishes!