Hotels Need to Fill the Gap

An Open Letter to Red Roof Inn Management

I travel for work a lot. I’m a Gold Medallion on Delta and will come close to Platinum this year.

I wonder if I’ll make it within flight-shot such that I’ll have to do one of those “miles marathons” the final days of December to put me over 75,000. Early this year, I was on a real travel tear, logging miles at a rapid clip. Then somewhere this summer, I just broke down and couldn’t do it anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still travel a lot. But I’ve resolved to try to stay home (my fiancée and I just bought a house) more. We are getting married in February. Don’t want to get divorced before I get married.

These new TSA rules banning liquids and gels are a hassle. Besides being dehydrating, they are giving me bad breath. I think all the hotel chains need to respond immediately and pick up the slack. Here’s how to do it cheaply. Red Roof Inn, my current preferred chain (they’re cheap, omnipresent, usually clean, they’re upgrading all their sites, and they have a frequent sleeper program), offers a little shampoo pack in the rooms. They need to start offering toothpaste and shaving cream packets too. Not full blown canisters, just those single-use plastic sleeves. Fine, raise my rates $.50 or $1.00, just get on this. At least upon request, or at least for Redicard members. I’m a business traveler, and it makes no sense for me to have to go to the store to buy a new thing of toothpaste and shaving cream (they don’t make them in single-use sizes anyway) each trip.

Let’s see if you guys get on it. If not, I’ll have to start an online petition to make you do the right thing!