Here are the finalists for the best travel Facebook site, a new category this year.
Facebook fan sites can add a new level of engagement to a travel blog, and many of these nominees do that — and then some. Appropriately, I’ll announce the winners on my own Facebook page on Friday afternoon.
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The race for favorite hotel chain was a nail-biter right until the end. Marriott edged out InterContinental by just a few votes, with Ritz Carlton coming in a respectable third place.
The “best hotel” category is unusual, because it was open to any hotel chain with a domestic presence, from budget to upscale.
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Readers have selected 10 finalists in our “best hotel” category. Now you can cast your vote for the top hotel chain in the United States.
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Which travel bloggers are worth following in 2013?
After narrowing your nominations down to 26 finalists, I put it to a vote.
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In the competition for the best airline of 2013, the real fight was for third place.
Southwest Airlines pulled into the lead the moment the finalists were announced on Tuesday morning. JetBlue Airways held a comfortable second place. But third place was a real horserace, with American, United and Frontier Airlines fighting fighting for it until the poll closed.
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The votes are in for the best new travel blog of the year. And the results are … inconclusive.
None of the sites received a majority of the votes, and despite my best efforts to keep the voting fair, there were allegations of, ahem, irregularities.
I had hoped to conduct a runoff between the top two sites, but that seems impossible. So there will be no top travel blog of 2011. I’m sorry.
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Mary is an in-house reservation agent for an upscale, full-service hotel in a major American city. I’m not using her last name for reasons that will become obvious in a moment.
Mary has a lot on her mind. People who call her hotel to reserve a room are getting ripped off, and she wants to come clean about it. Here’s our interview, which was conducted by phone this morning.
Tell me about what you do.
I work in the in-house reservations department of [a hotel]. When people call the hotel to book a room, they’re put through to me.
What do they say when they’re connected to your department?
Normally, they ask for the best room rate.
And what do you tell them?
I give them what we call the “bar” rate — it stands for “best available rate.”
Is it?
No.
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