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Airline's food costs more than the flight
The secret confessions of hotel employees
7 sci-fi innovations that will change travel
How to travel with your dog
7 hotels that changed China

Airline's food costs more than the flight

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 11:22 PM PDT

Frugal passengers determined to save money may want to pack their own lunchboxes, especially if they've booked with Ryanair.

A meal onboard the no-frills Irish airline can cost more than the airfare, a new study by travelsupermarket.com shows.

The survey found that some budget airlines marked up their food and drink as much as 10 times the price at supermarkets. Still water on Aer Lingus was marked up 1,083 percent.

But Ryanair was the worst overall offender. The Dublin-based airline is famed for its innovative approach to making a profit -- see their 5 money-saving schemes that would impress Scrooge.

When passengers are held hostage 37,000 feet aloft aboard Ryanair, they are charged £2.76 (US$4.36) for a half-liter bottle of still water.

The secret confessions of hotel employees

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 03:10 PM PDT

What happens when someone asks hotel staff to share "things that are disturbing/interesting/unsanitary about hotel rooms" on user-generated news site Reddit?

An explosion of 5,575 comments ranging from secrets and tips to expletives and anecdotes by hotel staff and guests.

Sometimes the IDs are even more disturbing than the comments (see: BayHarbourButcher or cold_white_silence) and yes, many of the comments are pretty damn disturbing.

Here's the Reddit link. Read at your peril (be warned, you will not be able to stop) and especially not before a meal. Or a hotel stay. But first, some highlights.

Note: We cannot verify any of these reports. Some have been edited for clarity/spelling.

1. Simple verification

"Just to clear this up, duvets are NOT meant to be slept on. I know many people are grossed out that they aren't always changed but again they are not meant to be used as a blanket. There is a large warm blanket underneath with the sheets that are supposed to be used. Every single person who travels knows the horror stories accompanied with bed covers, so the right thing to do is to fold it and place it on the floor or chair."

2. Surprise, surprise

"I worked in a youth hostel for a while; time limits were never even brought up there and that was by far the cleanest place I've chambermaided in."

3. Washing up

"Always use the disposable cups in the rooms. The glasses/mugs are usually just rinsed in hot water in your bathroom sink."

4. Bookings

hotel staff "Can't wait to write about what just happened on Reddit tonight ..."
"Don't book your hotel room online! The reservations are a pain in the ass to deal with. They were almost always impossible to cancel/refund. They also charge more than the actual rate and pay us less."

5. Safety

"Hotels, even nice ones, attract the worst kind of people. Don't let your kids run around at night, make sure your door is closed properly … Don't be an idiot!"

"Yes, always use the deadbolt and/or door chain when in your room."

6. Free stuff

"I'm a bellman and valet at a resort. I can give you free water bottles, tampons, valet parking, tours, shuttle rides, reservations, dry cleaning, hell even an upgrade to a better room if you just ASK ME. But no one ever does because they think I'm just a doorman. Oh and room service isn't open all night so the kitchen cooks meals (like sandwiches and dessert and what not) and leaves them in a fridge near the front desk in case a guest checks in at like three in the morning and wants food. Anyways in the morning there's just free food sitting there, every morning I get a free cheesecake if I want, but the guest could have it if he or she asked."

7. Who's afraid?

"The guests shouldn't be the ones scared in a hotel room (at least not in the hotel where I work). We have to hold our breath every time we enter a room that needs thorough cleaning. You can't believe the [stuff] we have to deal with sometimes. Most guests are friendly and thankful, but some people truly are animals."

8. Disturbia

"For the slower hotel goers. Do Not Disturb signs on a door most certainly means you will not get housekeeping service at any point during the day. I don't know how many people I have had to tell this to."

9. For the morbidly curious

"I worked at a hotel with a few friends of mine while at university. The biggest thing I found out while working there was that six months previously, a guest had hanged himself in one of the rooms and was found by the cleaner. From what I gather, the hotel was particularly empty at the time anyway and it was mid-afternoon, so they did their best to keep it quiet. The police arrived with the appropriate people, took away the body, without any guest having the faintest idea what was going on. It never even appeared in local news."

10. Timing

7 sci-fi innovations that will change travel

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 03:01 PM PDT

by Hoishan Chan

You may recall from January a story about a Canadian man who was able to cross the U.S. border using a scan of his passport on his iPad. Turns out that wasn't entirely true, as he also had his birth certificate and driver's license on him.

Nevertheless, it's assumed this kind of digital identification will be part of the future of travel, just as some airlines already allow digital boarding passes on smartphones.

More high-tech innovations that appear beyond reality now could soon become standard.

Here are seven innovations that could just change, even enhance, the travel experience.

1. Driverless cars

AutoNOMOS Labs tested its first driverless car in Berlin in September 2011. A similar project has persuaded the State of Nevada to allow Google to test its autonomous cars on Nevada roads.

How to travel with your dog

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 11:40 AM PDT

by Karla Cripps

dog passport Don't deprive your dog of the opportunity to dress up in tacky tourist outfits. Take him on holiday with you. At the five-star Fairmont Whistler Hotel in British Columbia, cocker spaniels, golden retrievers and even German shepherds can be seen strutting through the hallways with their owners.

Out the hotel's back entrance, stainless steel dog bowls filled with fresh water are set out to rehydrate tired pets returning from brisk walks in the mountain air.

Long gone are the days when pet owners were banished to grim roadside motels with their contraband canines.

Thanks to a surge in the number of pet-friendly hotels, airlines with pet-friendly policies and pet immigration guidelines to facilitate international travel, more people than ever are taking their dogs overseas with them.

"I travel with my dog everywhere," says TV's "Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan. "It's the right thing to do. In Mexico, we went to the market -- dogs follow. Went to school -- dogs follow."

7 hotels that changed China

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT

by Steve Bellman

Hotels, in the Western sense, are a relatively new addition to China -- the oldest still standing only date back about 150 years.

But in that time, they have formed the backdrop to many turbulent moments in China's modern history.

Here are the hotels where you can still stay, and the history they've witnessed.

The Astor Hotel, Tianjin

China hotel with history -- inline 1 Imagine tangoing with China's last emperor in this very ballroom.

The Astor in Tianjin dates from 1863 and hosted Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th U.S. president, during a two-year world tour following his second term, and Herbert Hoover in 1899, who lived in Tianjin when he worked as an engineer for the oil company Bewick, Moreing & Co.