Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Business Travel's Chief Culprit

What is the worst aspect of business travel?

As an old road warrior, I've encountered terrible airports, dangerous shuttle drivers, disappearing flights, sauna-like conference rooms, and bizarre passengers.

Those irritations, however, are not common. I would submit that the most frequent downside of business travel is the hotel bed.

Peter Drucker once commented that he refused consulting projects that required him to spend a night away from home because he found it more and more difficult to sleep in a strange bed. George W. Bush used to take his own pillow with him on the campaign trail.

Those practices once sounded weird to me. They don't anymore.

2 comments:

Kurt Harden said...

I can't sleep on hotel pillows. I will get up at 2:00 a.m. to be an 8:00 a.m. meeting five hours away. I hate hotel rooms. I hate them more as I get older.

Anonymous said...

I agree. While some hotels have done wonders to improve the bed, the pillows are always a challenge. I made a suggestion a few years back to the two hotel chains I use the most, to put an assortment of pillows on the bed - a couple flat ones, one down, one medium thick, and one thick. My thinking was a guest could find one similar to 'theirs', and get a decent night sleep. Seemed like a differentiator to me, but the idea didn't stick. When I drive and stay, I now bring my own pillow. Otherwise, well I'm getting used to a poor nights sleep...