Online travel agencies (OTAs) are taking some hits when it comes to customer satisfaction. Most recently a customer satisfaction survey run by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) showed a 2.6 percent drop in the average consumer’s positive experience rating with OTA’s, markedly the biggest among all retail categories measured. The index measures some 70,000 […]

Caesars Entertainment finally has been bitten by hotel fee fever and, as of March 1, added daily fees ranging from $10-$25 at its Las Vegas resort properties. The news is significant because Caesars, with its nine hotel properties, including Caesars Palace, Harrah’s, Bally’s, the Flamingo, the Quad, Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood on the […]

It is now possible for North Americans to go to China without a visa – for three days, that is. As of January this year, North American citizens traveling to Beijing or Shanghai can bypass China’s onerous visa process and get their passport stamped on arrival. But, of course, there are caveats. The 72-hour visa […]

Where do you find calm in bustling, buzzing, brazen New Delhi? The Lodhi opened  on some seven acres of green parkland and nature in central New Delhi in February, directly across from the Delhi Golf Course. The grand expanse was formerly the home of Aman New Delhi and now, as the Lodhi, it serves as […]

Story and Photos by Susan McKee “They tie the children to the cows so they don’t tumble into the fjord.” I looked at the Norwegian guide’s face, but he didn’t seem to be kidding. I looked back at the mountains, with widely scattered farmsteads clinging to steep slopes that started above the tree line and […]