Instant

Check-in procedure at my Boston hotel: insert credit card. Wait. Receive receipt and key card. Time from walking in the door to walking in the room: 37 seconds. Impressive.

Comments

Andrew's picture
Andrew on June 15, 2002 - 20:49 Permalink

Do you time everything? :) Sounds like a good system though…

Craig Willson's picture
Craig Willson on June 17, 2002 - 19:10 Permalink

Sounds like the “new” Esso Speedpass. Point the little key chain thingy at the gas pump, pump gas, take receipt and drive away. Very cool.

Oliver's picture
Oliver on June 18, 2002 - 00:25 Permalink

The system sounds great when I think of the vapid and insincere pleasantries that management sometimes forces their unhappy minimum wage employees to put us customers through. But then I think about the interactions I have traveling in foreign countries where I barely speak the language—like Thailand. The people whom I paid for things are practically the only locals I got to talk to, and my interactions among guest-house proprietors were among the best (taxi drivers the worst). I hate to think there will be a day when a traveller never interacts with his “hosts”—the people who offer him or her shelter.