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Hotels Getting Rid Of In-Room Phone Books

Filed under: Journeys

Last year I wrote out about hotels getting rid of the Bible, now it looks like some are ditching another standard hotel item, the phone book. Omni Hotels has announced that they will eliminate phone books, recycling their current stock of 30,000 phone books will be recycled. The hotel chain found that no one uses the phone books and they just take up drawer space. USA Today also notes that Hyatt hotels, Hyatt Place, Kimpton hotels and several chains operated by Starwood Hotels, Westin, Sheraton, Aloft and Element, have also stopped having phone books in the rooms and instead offer them by request at the front desk.

These days travelers are more likely to look up what they need on a laptop or smartphone. Unfortunately Omni only offers free WiFi in the rooms for its loyalty program members, guests who aren't loyalty program members still have to pay $9.95 per day. I think it's fine if hotels get rid of phone books, I just wish they'd give us free WiFi instead.

The Ultimate Airline Perk: In-Flight Email Access

Filed under: Services, Wings

No matter how rich you are and no matter what kind of perks the airlines may offer you in first class to make your flight more comfortable, there's one thing that they've never offered no matter who you are: mid-flight wi-fi internet access.

JetBlue is changing that. They aren't offering enough bandwidth to surf the net necessarily, but just enough to make checking and sending emails through Blackberries and other devices, even laptops, possible. The new perk is now being offered on select flights only, on a trial basis. But JetBlue expects within about six months to be rolling out internet access company-wide.

Nabaztag by Andr

Filed under: Gadgets

The adorably cute Nabaztag Rabbit gets an artist's touch with the limited edition Nabaztag by André, a famed French graffiti artist. The Wifi bunny is a little companion that blinks, moves ears, speaks, plays music and reads texts in 16 languages. The bunny can give short news through color-coded lights, play podcasts and chat with other rabbit owners through voice, music and ear movements. The André version is a graffiti-inspired creation with a little tattoo on one ear and the artists signature on the back. The limited edition version sells for $300.


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