It’s hard to read travel stories about exotic places like, say, Chicago, if you can’t quite swing the cash for airfare and a swanky hotel.

That’s why, even though I never win, I’m in favor of entering contests that award – someone – free travel.

Because I learned early on that you can’t win if you don’t play.

The upscale Radisson Blu Aqua, Chicago open its doors on November 1 and to celebrate the first Radisson Blu in the U.S., Club Carlson is having an Ultimate Getaway Giveaway.

Each week during the eight week sweepstakes, which runs December 16, Club Carlson members will have an opportunity to win a two-night stay at the new Radisson Blu Aqua, Chicago, airfare for two and $2,500 in spending cash. One grand prize winner will receive a five-night getaway at any Carlson hotel worldwide, airfare for two and $10,000 in spending cash.

You’ll need to be Club Carlson member to enter, but membership in that club is free.

In Victoria, B.C., home to one of my favorite museums – the Royal B.C. Museum –  the Hotel Grand Pacific has rolled out a “pay what you want” promotion.

From October 27 through November 11, the hotel is asking prospective guests to visit the contest site, answer some questions about what they’re looking for in a hotel and make an offer for a night’s stay.

Ten rooms for each night between October 28 and December 23 will be available at a “Pay What You Want” rate, on a first come, first served basis.

Good luck! And if you win, please send a souvenir.

Categories: Contests, Hotels
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Women-only floors at hotels — an amenity discarded by the hotel industry at the dawn of the feminist movement — may be experiencing a comeback.

You won’t find them everywhere. But, as I discovered in a story for msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, women-only floors at hotels aren’t as rare as you’d think.

A "Bella Donna" room at Copenhagen's new Bella Sky Comwell hotel

In a focus group study conducted by the 812-room Hotel Bella Sky Comwell in Copenhagen, Denmark, more than half of the “influential and well-traveled Danish women” surveyed said they’d stay on a women-only floor because “it provides a sense of security; it feels more hygienic to know that the previous guest was also a woman and they prefer rooms tailored to women’s needs.”

Armed with that data, the hotel opened in May 2011 with a secure-access floor for ladies only. “Bella Donna” floors cost an additional DKK 300 (about US$55) and offer extra-large showerheads, extra clothes hangers for skirts and dresses and a minibar stocked with items such as smoothies, champagne and high-quality chocolate.

The Naumi Hotel in Singapore, the Premier Hotel in New York City, and Crowne Plaza properties in Washington, D.C. and Bloomington, Minn., are among the hotels that also feature floors strictly for female guests.

For the past two years, the 180-room Georgian Court Hotel in downtown Vancouver, B.C., has been offering the 18 rooms on its Orchid Floor exclusively to woman at no extra charge.

“The rooms are definitely not pink,” said general manager Lisa Jackson. “But women seem to like the additional amenities we offer, such as a flat iron, a curling iron and an emergency kit with nylons and some other amenities they might forget at home.” The rooms also feature upgraded bathroom amenities, a yoga mat, satin-padded hangers and fashion magazines.

“Rooms on the Orchid Floor are often sold-out,” said Jackson, “and now the hotel is considering adding an additional women-only floor.”

“I thought women-only rooms were a trend that came and went,” said Katie Davin, an associate professor and director of hospitality education for Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. “When it first came back around, in the early 2000s, it was more about what hotels thought women wanted — pretty rooms, good hairdryers, things like that. But it sounds like they’ve been talking to women instead of just guessing.”

At the 318-room Hamilton Crowne Plaza in Washington, D.C., one floor has been set aside for women-only for the past five years. While the hotel’s average occupancy is about 80 percent, rooms on the women’s floor are often sold-out. Available Sunday through Thursday, when most business travelers are on the road, rooms on the secure-access floor offer upgraded amenities, bathrobes and slippers and an invitation to join other women for a networking dinner in the hotel restaurant. This year the hotel added complimentary concierge service to guests on the women-only floor as well.

“The market dynamics have changed. Women business travelers are traveling more than ever,” said hotel sales and marketing manager Regina Willson. “And that’s our target.”

Tonya Harris-Hill of Atlanta is right in that target range. On the road regularly for her job as a nurse manager, she’s been a regular at the Crowne Plaza in Bloomington, Minn., for months. As a frequent guest, she often gets upgraded to a suite, but at the suggestion of a co-worker gave the hotel’s secure-access, women-only floor a try.

Harris-Hill said she initially chose the women-only floor, which has a $30 surcharge, because she was new to the area and felt more secure. But now she likes it for the upgraded bath amenities and the gathering area in the hallway with magazines, fresh fruit and flowers and a fridge stocked with complimentary refreshments and snacks such as yogurt, ice cream and chocolate.

“I can put on a bathrobe and go out there and grab a snack and it is fine because you know you won’t run into a guy. And it is kind of pretty,” said Harris-Hill.

Categories: Hotels, Security
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Each Friday on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin travel blog, I have the pleasure of answering a reader’s travel-related question.

This week I got to answer a question based on my own experience:
What can you do if your hotel is hip – and too loud?

Frequent travelers are no strangers to hotel rooms with rattling heat and air conditioning units or soundproofing so poor it’s easy to listen to, and occasionally chime in on, the conversation next door.

And while noise topped the list of irritants cited by respondents to a 2011 J.D. Power and Associates North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, most travelers soon learn to tune out the most common sources of hotel room noise.

But my tune-out skills failed me during a recent midweek stay at the Aloft Brooklyn, a recently opened property in Starwood’s chain of hotels positioned as a hip, “affordable alternative for the tech-savvy, design forward crowd.”

The décor, the desk staff and the guests hanging out at the pool table and at the bright lobby bar were indeed very hip. And in my room, I enjoyed amenities such as Wired magazine, free Wi-Fi and a 42” LCD flat panel TV. But late at night, with the TV turned off, my room filled with loud music coming from what I assumed was a night club next door.

The soundtrack proved impossible to sleep through, and I called the front desk to find out when the club closed down. “There’s no night club,” the desk clerk informed me. “That music is coming from inside the hotel.” And even though it was already 3:30 a.m., there was no plan — or offer — to turn the volume down. “That’s just how loud we play it here,” he said.

A few days later, Paige Francis, vice president of marketing for the Aloft brand, told me that while “music is definitely part of the DNA of the brand,” the Brooklyn Aloft property was still fairly new (it opened in June 2011) so “it may still be working on getting the music levels right.”

Still, I’m left wondering if a hotel can be too hip — and too loud.

“The answer is yes,” said Bjorn Hanson, dean of New York University’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. “While the role of the hotel lobby has changed dramatically in recent years, with hotels adding elements such as entertainment and hangout areas where guests can snack and listen to live or recorded music … the music should not follow you to the room.”

There are some basic hotel attributes valued by all travelers without regard to age (hipness) or other demographics, Hanson explained, adding that “a quiet hotel room is among the most valued.”

To make sure you get an acceptable room, quiet or otherwise, Hanson offered this advice: “When arriving in a hotel room, open the door and explore. Does the TV work? Can you access the high-speed Internet? Is there an odor? Do an inspection, which should include listening for sounds. If there’s something wrong, speak up so the problem can be taken care of right away.”

Wait too long to say something, said Hanson, and the hotel might not have staff on hand to fix a problem or another room to move you into.

As to the music level in your hotel room, Hanson added that “a guest with time to spend can find out about the noise level at a hotel via TripAdvisor.com or some other social media. But that burden shouldn’t be placed on a guest.

“Because even the hippest travelers do need to sleep sometime,” said Hanson.

Categories: Hotels, Uncategorized
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Sadly for the Red Lion Hotel Anaheim, which is a mouse’s whisker away from Disneyland, Prince William and his bride Kate Middleton will not be visiting the Magic Kingdom during their California stopover.

But if you’re married and your names are William and Kate, you’re in luck: you can get a free three-night stay at the hotel during July or August.

There are, of course, some eligibility rules you’ll have to meet. Among them: you’ll need an ID showing that your first names (not middle, second, third or last) are William and Kate or Catherine. (Exact spellings required) and a valid U.S. marriage certificate.

You can see all the rules here.

Categories: Hotels
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Do you wish you could sleep like a baby, even though you have a sleeping partner that snores?

Photo courtesy National Media Museum, via Flickr Commons

You could wear earplugs, go sleep in another room or go on vacation and check-in to a “snore absorption” hotel room.

This past week nine Crowne Plaza hotels in Europe and the Middle East, including the properties at Schiphol, Brussels and Madrid airports, were invited to test special anti-snoring rooms featuring sound absorbing headboards and egg-box style foam wall padding designed to reduce and muffle the snoring noise reverberating in the room.

Other anti-snoring amenities include a white noise machine, a bed wedge to encourage snorers to sleep on their sides and an anti-snoring pillow that, according to the hotel chain, “uses magnets to create a natural magnetic field, opening the airways and stiffening the upper palate that vibrates during snoring.”

No word on when – or if – these anti-snoring rooms will become permanent fixtures in all Crowne Plaza hotels around the world, but like the British Travelodge chain which installed sleep wardens at their hotels, it’s a silence-inducing step in the right direction.

Categories: Hotels
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