When was the last time you traveled?

As you ponder that, I just did. I actually flew on a plane. Let me tell you why.

Vegas Baby!

The reason I flew was to speak at Lexicon Vegas, one of the first in-person conferences held anywhere in a long time. I was actually scheduled to speak last May, but Covid-19 happened. A few observations.

1. The planes (except for one small jet) were packed.
2. On the last plane I flew on, the pilot had to make 9 "Please wear your mask" announcements, including one in which he threatened to return to the gate.
3. The hotel (Lexicon Vegas paid for it) I stayed at was the Flamingo Hilton, one of the oldest hotel-casino's in Las Vegas. I made sure to ask for a "newer" room, and it turned out to be a very nice one. That said, it was pretty crowded at the hotel, and according to the pleasant front desk folks, they were almost full.
4. All in all, the experience I had traveling wasn't bad.

A Quick Trip

Note: I was only in Vegas for 2.5 days. My thoughts are as follows.

The visitors who were there were not the usual suspects. Why?

Because up until now, most hotels were offering extremely cheap rooms. Like $30 a night, cheap.

Given that, I had a chance to read some of the reviews of the Flamingo Hilton before I arrived...and they were horrible. Here are some of the more memorable ones:

"Walking down the hallways to get to the elevator, there was a constant cloud of skunk weed. You had to walk through this haze every time you left your room.

We will never go back to the Flamingo. Very disappointing trip."

"There were people in the halls that tried to sell you things that really became annoying every single time you would walk by. The bathrooms were the worst part! They were always filthy and toilets were always clogged. There was construction going on in the casino which was very noisy and made it unpleasant while gambling."

"Very rude staff checking in and out. We stayed 4 nights. House keeping didn’t come one time after two requests and a call to the front desk. They never picked up trash and we had to call twice just to get clean towels. All this for a $41.50 daily resort fee. Very disappointed. Will not return."

After reading those reviews from TripAdvisor, I was a tad concerned that my stay would be smelly, dirty and ugly.

It wasn't.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Finally, if you are going to travel by jet anytime soon, you'll need to be patient and...patient.

That's because things don't move as quickly as they did pre-Covid, and as I said, the planes are packed.

Packed.

Are you planning on getting out of town?

________________________________________

The Franchise King®

Joel Libava

216-831-2610

My Free Tools

"Room service? Send up a larger room."

- Groucho Marx