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Volume 5, Issue 33, August 14, 2007 |
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According to a recent study of personal assistants by LateRooms.com, the three things that assistants to traveling executives find the biggest pain in the neck are booking travel arrangements, finding hotel rooms at the last minute, and dealing with changing travel plans.
LateRooms, a last-minute booking service, compiled a list that can help make your assistant’s life easier. “Business travel is not only expensive for companies but can be a headache for whoever is having to make the travel arrangements,” said Tony Walsh, LateRooms development director. “(Our) top tips are designed to give PAs and secretaries a checklist to help them get the best deal in the most efficient way.” Some of the tips are common sense — check the convenience of the location, find out if breakfast is included — but others will prod traveling executives to be more aware of things that help their assistants help them.
We’ve added our own suggestions. To smooth the process, give a list of your personal likes and dislikes to the person you call about last-minute changes:
What matters to you more, serenity or convenience? Would you take a room facing the street, or would you rather travel an extra 20 minutes to have peace and quiet?
What do you like to do with your free time? Are you a museum-goer, a bar-hopper, an equestrian, a tennis player? That can help your assistant find a hotel that lets you make the most of spare time.
How much service do you need? Would you trade room service for a location with plenty of restaurants nearby? Would you prefer a smaller room in a full-service hotel or a larger suite with no room service? What’s more important to you, dry cleaning or a business center? 
The Singapore Marriott, on Orchard Road, has finished its six-month renovation project. Depending on the room category, upgraded features include ergonomic workstations, mood lighting, softer sheets, plusher mattresses, and high-speed Internet access. Junior suites, for example, now have new digital panels that let guests plug laptops into the LCD high-definition TV monitor, split the screen to see both their laptop monitor and watch TV, view digital images, and play music from their own MP3 players. Rates for rooms with Internet access start at about $309.
If you’re doing business in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, a new hotel has the perfect location almost halfway between the two — and it’s a castle, too. The brand-new Glenskirlie Castle is 25 minutes from Glasgow and 40 minutes from Edinburgh. It has 15 spacious guestrooms, including two 1,100-square-foot turret suites, and a casual restaurant and bar, plus it is next-door to the highly regarded 25-year-old Glenskirlie House restaurant. An added bonus: You can say you stayed in the first castle built in Scotland in the 21st century.
New videophones are being installed at Chicago-area airports for the benefit of the hearing-impaired. The devices connect travelers with a sign-language interpreter to convey requests and information. The first kiosk Chicago O’Hare (ORD) will be up and running near gate K-1 in Terminal 3 by the end of this month. Eight more are planned for O’Hare and two will be installed at Chicago Midway (MDW).
A $35 million renovation of the South Terminal international passenger section at Paris-Orly Airport (ORY) is making life easier for travelers. Fourteen security checkpoints now process 1,800 to 2,000 passengers an hour, an improvement of between 20 and 33 percent. The terminal’s boarding concourse features a new Icare lounge open to business-class passengers of, so far, 10 airlines. Ground-floor passport control and a larger baggage claim area will also help simplify life for arriving passengers.
Gulf Air, which already offers free chauffeured limousine service to its first- and business-class passengers in Abu Dhabi (AUH), Dubai (DXB), Muscat (MCT) and London (LHR), is extending the service to five more countries. Gulf Air premium passengers in Bangkok (BKK), Frankfurt (FRA), Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Manila (MNL) and Paris (CDG) can also now avail themselves of the service. Groups or families have the option to choose free minivan transport instead. The free service must be requested at least 72 hours before the flight.
Rendezvous
502 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel 617 576 1900
www.rendezvouscentralsquare.com
“It’s between Harvard and MIT,” I said to my friend in a telephone conversation following my dinner at Rendezvous. Anyone overhearing my end of the phone conversation might think I was deciding which college my child would attend, but I was describing the restaurant’s location in Central Square, a gritty Cambridge neighborhood with soul, attitude, several scruffy, inexpensive ethnic restaurants — Middle Eastern, Bengali, Mandarin — and one very good, somewhat pricey, eclectic restaurant called Rendezvous.
I visited specifically for the grilled Portuguese sardines, which I had read about in the July/August issue of Atlantic magazine. Served with a fennel vinaigrette and roasted tomato bruschetta, accompanied by a glass of Aia dei Colombi wine and the best French bread this side of Lyon, it was all quite delicious. And that was just the appetizer.
I ordered the grilled wild sockeye salmon, hoping it held up after its frozen flight from Anchorage. I was pleasantly surprised when presented with a beautiful red fish, perfectly cooked and served with olive oil-braised artichokes. I was seated at the restaurant bar, surrounded by regulars, including an older professorial type who convinced me to order the mixed summer-berry shortcake with toasted almonds for dessert; a good choice.
The 75-seat restaurant, bright and airy with large skylights, is open for dinner seven days a week. The French Mediterranean-style menu is limited, but the choices — striped bass and littlenecks with pesto; roast chicken with preserved lemon, couscous, almonds and honey; Gascon style duck; braised rabbit with chanterelles and fresh tagliatelle — are so authentic and fresh, it’s difficult to choose just one dish. Next time, I’ll return with a group and share everything.
Score: ••••• Ron Bernthal
International BusinessElite passengers flying Delta Air Lines out of New York’s JFK International Airport can now take advantage of a free helicopter transfer service between midtown heliports and the airport. The service, provided by US Helicopter, is offered to premium passengers holding nonstop tickets for flights between JFK and destinations in Africa, Brazil, India or Europe, where BusinessElite is the premium cabin. Estimated travel time is eight minutes. The offer is good through Dec. 31, for Delta tickets purchased since July 1. First- and business-class passengers on other Delta routes can use the service for a discounted fee.
Choice Hotels’ Points of the Game sweepstakes will accept entries through Oct. 1 for a trip to the 2007 LPGA ADT Championship. The event is being held in West Palm Beach, Fla., and the grand prize includes round-trip airfare, five days/four nights hotel accommodations, tickets to the Championship, a set of Ping golf clubs, two golf lessons, and $1,000 in spending money. First prize is a set of Ping clubs, golf lessons and a $100 Choice gift card; second prize is a $200 gift card.
This coming weekend — Aug. 17-19 ― is a good time to visit Texas. During its annual tax-free weekend, the state suspends state and local taxes for dollars spent on retail purchases. That amounts to a savings of $8 for every $100 spent.
The Kitano New York is offering a Labor Day Weekend Package. Valid Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, the package includes a discounted room rate (at least 40 percent off), breakfast for two, 15 percent off lunch or dinner at the hotel’s Garden Café, late checkout, and discount coupons for area department stores. Prices start at $319 per night.
Skywards, an exclusive club for frequent flyers of Emirates Airlines’, Sri Lankan Airlines’ and their travel partners, is offering Global Reduced Rewards. During the special promotion, which applies to departures from Sept. 11 through Oct. 11, members can used accrued rewards mileage to buy flights for half the normal reward miles required (in all classes of service), get two flights for the price of one, or add reward flights together for a multi-leg trip.
