All in all, our best success has been in takingg a notebook computer and booking a room one night ahead, unless the destination and hotel are favorites that we really want to check out. Some cities such as Monterey are just so popular that you can run into the fully booked hotel situation. I did pay $150 for a basic room where I discovered that sheets had not been changed (strong smell of a woman's perfume). It was 2 a.m. when I got back from a wedding at Monterey Bay Aquarium to BW Montery Beach Hotel. I lay in bed and couldn't escape the heavy scent of cologne I've never worn. It was on the pillow and sheets. I felt totally burned but by this time, where would I go?

Recently when visiting Arkansas I decided to sleep on the pullout couch mattress at a Hampton Inn since the bed was too soft. You can imagine my shock when I picked up the cushion and felt something sticky (I swear), as I looked down at two naked ladies on the cover of a magazine. I saw crumpled sheets pushing through the iron bar on the sofa and decided that there'd be no way I would sleep on that mattress.  It was a rough night on a soft bed but I made it.

After thinking about these situations in finding no room or an unchanged bed, I am going to make a note to look at the beds and sheets immediately when I check into a hotel from now on. If you wait too long, it's harder to right a wrong.

It's that time of year when parents, boyfriends, girlfriends and all sorts of people book hotel rooms to attend college graduations.  In California, we've had the (mis)pleasure of trying to book a room in a city where graduation was being held that weekend.  Pulling into Santa Barbara and stopping at four hotels along the oceanfront, each was full, save one modest room. It was an upper floor king bedroom that allowed smoking (ugh!) The room was pretty warm and the aircon didn't seem to work. So after a brief 30 second thought, I decided there was no way I'd pay $150 for something I knew would make me sick all night. 

When you're out on the road and encounter special events that fill a city's offerings, what can you do?  Once I slept in a hospitality suite at Hyatt Regency Sacramento in just such an instance.  Sure, it smelled like smoke. But I had no choice as I'd flown in for a conference and it was part of my job to attend.  The glitch was that I was booked for a room, but somehow they overbooked...kind of like airlines.

When you're on the road and think you'll just wing it, it doesn't hurt to call ahead to a city you think you may land in that day. Sometimes the cities are stretched pretty far apart and your options diminish as it gets dark.  Again, have exit plans for where to stay and how to get out of a situation that doesn't go your way.