Blog 200812271840
Saturday 27th December 2008, Harborfront Inn at Greenport, Long Island, New York.
How many twitterers are there? Does anyone know – I guess the guys at twitter know but they are not letting on. TwitterTroll has figures for the number of tweets per day and per hour and this seems to be the basis of many estimates. The speculation will be around for a long time I expect, unless twitter goes under or can find a way of monetization.
In any case twitter does seem to have caused a blossoming of associated activity, judging by the numbers of twitter connected websites and applications. If it goes down (like if GM did) there would be a radiating collapse of these associated apps.
Would you care? Is twitter an important part of on-line life or just an addiction? What do you think? Please let me know by comment.
I just realised that I didn't name the hotel we were staying in in Manhattan, no particular reason for this – other than I is generally a bad idea to bad mouth something when you are dependant on it. On a previous visit to Manhattan I stayed a the Algonquin hotel. I liked the old world feel, the cuteness and the friendly staff. Unfortunately we made our reservation on the Saturday before arriving on the 23rd December and the Algonquin only makes reservations Monday to Friday. I therefore make a reservation with the Sofitel New York which is two hotels up along the same street. I didn't want to risk arriving at Christmas time without a reservation.
Because I have stayed at the Sofitel Washington DC, and was happy with my visit, I didn't have any hesitation in staying at another Sofitel. Regrettably the New York version did not have the charm of Washington and was rather impersonal as a result. Of course most businesses are in it to make a profit but sometimes they become mercenary in the process. This was the impression I was left with at this hotel. I understand that to some people money is no object but for me I do have a budget and so I try to get value for money from what ever I spend. At the Sofitel New York I felt fleeced. Some examples: internet connection direct on line is $5.99 via T-Mobile but buy a prepaid card at reception and it will cost you $9.99. When asked to explain this there was no reply from management. When asked if they had any aspirin, for a fever I was suffering from, their reply? … “We can get you some for $15”. When checking in I asked the cost of valet parking ($50) but was charged $100 on checkout and was not guided towards a facility directly opposite offering parking for $35 with a hotel stamp. In the hotel the price of a meal would feed an African child for a year. I refused to eat in the hotel, as did many other guests to be found in the Red Flame Grill nearby. Pleeease, you are already charging top dollar for the room there are some things you should throw in with this price.
Today we decided to explore Long Island prior to retuning to the UK on January 1st. So yesterday I did a lot of internet research to find a hotel which is good value for money. This in itself is a labor of love. There are so many ways to find reviews, Tripadvisor, Frommers, Lonely Planet, hotel.com, expedia.com, lastmiute.com, booking.com, travelocity etc etc etc. I rely a lot on tripadvisor having been using it since 2005 and find it fairly reliable, although reviews can vary wildly for the same hotel, from absolute trash to the best thing since sliced bread.
I made a short-list of 4 hotels on the east of Long Island. Best Western featured, as it usually does, as one likely to be good value for money. It did result in a good price when we visited and it was a very serious contender but lost out on location score. A hotel in Hampton Bays was eliminated on the basis of being too cold and not having internet. Another was too remote and that left this one which is in a town, has internet and a decent location. A bit more expensive but... … … [we think] good value.
Happy Day everybody.
Eric.
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