HotelChatter

(I cannot tell a lie. The truth is, I slept all day. Ever since I left the 9 to 5 corporate world, I stay up all night surfing the internet for pictures of...Well, let’s just say I’m doing “research”. In any event, I took this opportunity to investigate the South Floridian Courtyard Hotel.)

According to their website, the Courtyard is, “The hotel designed by business travelers.” Sounds like a clever concept, but I’m sure I’d get a better night sleep if I knew architects and engineers designed the hotel I was staying in. But that’s just me.

I walked in at 1 AM and instead of being greeted by one of those syrupy smiles, the guy at the front desk shot me an expressionless, Darth Vaderish stare suggesting, “Please don’t waste my time with anything dumb--rebel scum.”

I tried to disarm him with a big smile. I said, “Hi. My name is Gabe and I write about hotels for Hotelchatter.com. I just have quick question for you and then I have to get back in my car.”

“We don’t have any availability,” he coldly replied.

Maybe he didn’t hear me.

I decided to repeat myself. “Hi. My name is Gabe and I write about hotels for Hotelchatter.com. I just have a quick question for you and then I have to get back in my car.”

Before he had a chance to ruin my rhythm again, I slipped in, “What makes this place a hotel for business travelers? How is different than a regular hotel?”

Robotically, he answered, “We have thousands of square feet of meeting space.”

He loosened up a bit and added, “But honestly man, most the people here are just trying to get away from the snow.”

Now that I had him eating out of the palm of my hand, or at least talking to me, I skipped right to my three questions.

Is Wi-Fi available?

It’s provided, free of charge, throughout the complex. [Ed. Note: The Courtyard, like the Residence Inn, is known far and wide for having free available WiFi]

Any famous business people ever stay here? Like maybe Gordon Gekko or Bud Fox?

“No. Well, some rock stars stay here but they use fake names of course.”

“Like who?” I asked.

He proudly said, “George Thorogood”.

“A rock star used ‘George Thorogood’ for a fake name?”

He didn’t see the humor in my Groucho Marx inspired quip so I moved right along to the final question.

How much is a basic room going to run me?

$174 a night, in season.

$174 isn’t exactly cheap, but who cares since you’re expensing it anyway.

We put the remaining photos Gabe shot up at the Flickr/HotelChatter photo pool. Remember to put your hotel photos up there, or tag them HotelChatter--we are sure you can do better than Gabe.

Is there a question you would like Gabe to ask random hotel staffers in South Florida? Let us know.

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·   Gabe Berman's Stories [HotelChatter]