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Hotels That Serve Glorified Prison Food For Breakfast {Gadling}
Aug 19th 2012 10:31AM Lori...thanks for that note. There is at least one other. The Bloomington, MN Courtyard (by Mall of America and MSP Airport) has a full service breakfast buffet as well as menu service for all three meals. Stay there often. Better than decent food. I like their walleye and the wild rice soup.
Hotels That Serve Glorified Prison Food For Breakfast {Gadling}
Aug 18th 2012 11:34AM Warren, this comment was meant for your post, not Dan (nearby on these posts).
Anyway, enjoy the room rate in New Orleans and keep in mind that parking in NOLA (as in NYC) is at a premium. In both cases you're visiting an island.
Once I got a $70 a night rate at the Marie Antoinette right between Bourbon and Royal. Could not have been more convenient for tourist stuff (and I'm a local, or sorts). The parking was $15.00 / night or something like that. Still a bargain all things considered.
Hotels That Serve Glorified Prison Food For Breakfast {Gadling}
Aug 18th 2012 11:27AM Sorry Dan, that comment about NOLA and parking charges was for Warren. Pardon me.
Hotels That Serve Glorified Prison Food For Breakfast {Gadling}
Aug 18th 2012 11:22AM Dan, enjoy the room rate in New Orleans and keep in mind that parking in NOLA (as in NYC) is at a premium. In both cases you're visiting an island.
Hotels That Serve Glorified Prison Food For Breakfast {Gadling}
Aug 18th 2012 10:04AM The free breakfasts are what they are....you get what you pay for in most cases and they range in quality and array depending on the price of the hotel chain. No rocket science here. The low end is the juice, dry cereal and a half-stale donut from Econo Lodge up to a 'made to order' at Embassy Suites. But there also is a big difference in the cost of those two chains. One could expect Embassy Suites to have a fine breakfast with typical room rates approaching $150.00, compared to $59.99 at Econo.
I can't see, based on the room rates I'm charged, that the cost of the breakfast makes that much difference in what you ultimately pay. So if you don't like the breakfast, then head to Panera, Denny's, IHOP, LePeeps, or whatever good and local diner you may know about and be served instead of hustling for your own food in a crowded breakfast room at a mid-priced hotel.
The Marriott Courtyards don't have free breakfasts and they are made to order. Reasonably good, not free, but their new 'bistro' format is more like getting in line to order at the airport or at Panera instead of a real restaurant. You are 'half-served', meaning you place the order at the counter, but someone brings it to you when ready. If you want a real sit-down breakfast IN a hotel, you're going to have to step up to a full service Hilton, Holiday Inn or Marriott to get it.
A reality check here. It wasn't all that many years ago that these mid-price chains like Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn or Fairfield (or Best Western for that matter) did NOT offer free breakfasts. It started out with one chain offering it, and like airlines miles from American in a temporary promotion decades ago, the freebies are now expected and a permanent part of the travel landscape.
If you don't like lining up at the food trough, then don't. Sleep or eat elsewhere.
Oh,and by the way, one comment here said you could avoid the 'tourist' hotels with the kids crowding the breakfast room. Well, that may be the case on weekends, in summertime, and around Orlando, but for the most part it is business travelers who are there crowding the breakfast room and taking that last whole grain muffin from the bin and standing in front of the coffee dispenser taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r to open the packets of Equal and little cups of creamer....not kids. I spend 70 to 80 nights/year in hotels and rarely have issues with kids. It's my fellow adults who sometimes are the rude ones.
Couple Tears Down $4.2 Million Manse for a Better View {AOL Real Estate}
Jun 27th 2012 10:30AM Oh, and one more thought for the posters who stir up the class warfare stuff regarding this story. I think it is a very sure bet that when all is said and done the total property tax bill for the people who bought the house and tore it down will actually increase as compared to their previous tax bill plus the tax bill the bank was paying on a distressed piece of property. In other words, the sum of the new tax bill will be greater than its previous parts. So why the bitchin'? Local and regional nanny state will have that much more to distribute to those in need or to maintain the community in general.
Couple Tears Down $4.2 Million Manse for a Better View {AOL Real Estate}
Jun 27th 2012 10:15AM First pass on this story seemed rather ridiculous. The 'idle' rich, yada yada.
But given the value of OCCUPIED and maintained houses in the neighborhood (especially the value of the home next door of those people doing the teardown) this comes down to nothing more than buying the 'lot' next door. Except the lot has a run down house that's been abandoned for 2 years. What would the alternative be? Let it stay empty and home to vermin?
Doesn't seem all that bad to me relatively speaking when you consider the people bought the lot next door for about 20 percent of their existing home value. A common land to house value ratio in any middle-class subdivision.
'White Only' Pool Sign 'Decorative,' Landlord Claims {AOL Real Estate}
Dec 19th 2011 2:24PM Proof for those that think this stuff is only from Southern KuKluxers that racism is alive and well north of the Mason-Dixon line.
What an idiot this woman is. First of all, if you must have this stuff, then display such 'history' in your own den, not in an area that a guest in a duplex might visit or use. Or donate the damned thing to a civil rights museum. And the hair treatment to cause cloudy water? No. I used to sell pool supplies. No way, unless you poured half a bottle of hair straightener or conditioner directly into the water. This person is not only racist, but clueless. I hope she had no offspring.
Emily Maynard and Brad Womack Are Officially Over {PopEater}
Jun 29th 2011 10:38AM Hey, like my handle says..I'm an old guy-- a whole lot older than Brad 38...but hell, why would that pretty 25 year old want an 'old' 38 like him to begin with???? I think it's more than a tiny bit strange that a reasonably good lookin fella with a job (successful bar or bars in Austin?) is that old and still a bachelor???? Makes one wonder about the true story down under.
Barbara Walters Says Paula Deen Makes Kids Fat {ParentDish}
Sep 28th 2009 12:38PM Ms Walter's comments were just plain stupid. She appears not to have an inkling as to Paula Dean's following and her place in the marketplace. Stories I have read show that a preponderance of overweight folk, kids included, are from lower income groups. Those aren't the people who buy Dean's books. That's just the way it is. Paula Dean is in that Southern Living/Food Network/Martha Stewart sort of circle that is more middle and upper middle class, educated suburban. People who follow her recipes and buy her cookbooks know that you can't eat her butter all day long, but you can enjoy it in occassional really good and special dishes. People who buy her books are not typically those who encourage poor eating habits, Ms. Walters. Study up a little on your guests' background before they come on your show, please, so you won't appear to be so clueless and out of touch.
