A Nice New Travel Blog from USA Today...

USA Today has a relatively new (three months old) website-blog-online community called Hotel Check-In. This is said to be "A Road Warrior's Guide to the Lodging Landscape" and is hosted by business travel reporter Barbara De Lollis. The site includes news, interviews with lodging CEO's - sometimes inviting questions from actual road warriors like you and me - news on frequent traveler and loyalty programs, advice and just interesting tidbits.

Here's a sample De Lollis post from April 13, 2009 (first seen in PC Today):

Hotel Guests: Where's my newspaper?

Some of you have already complained to me and my colleagues about how it's getting less common to find a USA Today or other newspaper outside your room in the morning. Hotels have recently started buying fewer papers, and in some cases, placing them near elevators instead of in front of doors for the earliest risers. And now, Marriott International said it's going to end automatic paper delivery to its rooms, citing a drop in guest demand.

It's not all bad news for newspaper junkies who stay at Marriotts. Guests at full-service hotels such as Marriott and J.W. Marriott (have) a choice between USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, a local paper or no paper. Starting April 20, guests at Marriott's less-expensive chains such as Fairfield Inn and Courtyard will be able to grab free papers in lobbies. And Marriott's loyalty club members [members of Marriott Rewards] can still receive their preferred paper automatically by updating their online profiles.

Commenting on my Twitter call for reaction, travel analyst Henry Harteveldt of Forrester Research says he likes the idea of having more papers to choose from. "This won't get Marriott any new market share," he tweeted, "but it should help improve customer satisfaction."

http://hotelcheckin.usatoday.com

And don't forget to travel to our Twitter site:

http://twitter.com/troybear07