The latest
trend for small hotel groups in Italy as well as some other countries are the
advent of apartment suites with hotel services to include half board that
allows for the best of all worlds with a full English breakfast included
available at the hotel—cook in for lunch and eat dinner at the hotel, or cook
your own dinner.
Anyone who
travels to a destination and uses that destination as a base to travel out of
or to stay and explore must enjoy the pleasure of renting a suite apartment
managed by a hotel that offers hotel services.
The apartment
suite should be either in the hotel or just steps away in another building
Renting an apartment in preference to a hotel when traveling to a particular
destination is one that encouraged me to write my first informational travel
book NO MORE HOTELS IN PARIS: How To Rent An Apartment, a copy of
which is in libraries worldwide (WorldCat.org), and my book is also in
permanent collection of The Library of Congress.
Yet in the 21st
century the destination apartment rental business has been taken over by
startups like FlipKey and others, in addition to travel sites like TripAdvisor
or Expedia, not to the best alternative as it once was in the year 2000 when my
first NO MORE HOTELS Paris destination book was published.
A word of
advice, now renting an apartment in a travel destination is fraught with
problems, but if you do go with a company that rents suites apartments, and you
check with the tourism agency at your destination, then ask the company if it is
affiliated with a hotel group, you have a better chance of resolving any
problems when you find what you rented is not what you expected, especially if
you don't pay for the entire stay in advance.
The best
thing to do is to negotiate a partial payment in advance, and pay a little bit
extra if necessary, then do put your advance on a credit card, not a debit
card.
What happens
if you do the due diligence and you get there but find you can't stay?
First hand, I
found that out this year when I visited Trieste Italy for 10 days, but when dealing
with reputable companies it is possible to resolve your dispute amicably.
I did, since my
rental problem was like a business arrangement gone awry—treat the manager with
respect, and he or she will be willing to negotiate a settlement.
In my case, it
was in season in Trieste, but the
manager was Italian and he suggested an Italian 4 star hotel that did
not offer discounts to hotel booking websites.
The hotel was
within blocks away owned by a small Italian hotel group that offered half board
at a great rate.
When I
inquired as to why the hotel didn't use the
usual hotel booking sites, the manager said that they were always full
and known to Italian and European tour operators.
The suites manager called the hotel and they had a room
available a day before the 5-days I had paid for in advance.
I accepted it
and the suites manager agreed not to charge me the tourism tax to make up for
the extra day I would lose.
See a picture
of me at the hotel below, and I am smiling.
All because I
found my perfect solution to my next year's stay in Trieste—the Continental
Hotel has suite apartments just across the street, Palaces Suites, offering me
the best of both worlds, either half board, or the free English breakfast
included in the very reasonable rate.
