Why Don't Franchisees Support the Arbitration Fairness Act?

Why don’t hotel franchisees support the bipartisan Arbitration Fairness Act which would make pre-dispute agreements requiring mandatory arbitration unenforceable? Since many hotel franchise agreements stipulate mandatory arbitration which favor franchisors, I would have guessed that franchisees would have fought hard to pass this bill.

Why has Sheraton installed such a complicated thermostat in their new guest rooms-a gadget that generates random images when you push different buttons?  The Haggler column by David Segal, New York Times  (8/22/10) proposes a much simpler selection panel: 

• make it colder
• make it hotter
• fan more
• fan less

Why haven’t hotel suppliers developed a remote control that is easy to clean and hard-to-steal?

Why don’t all hotels follow the advice given by travel expert Marybeth Bond, author of “Gutsy Women: More Travel Tips,” to provide more safety for women travelers in hotels?

• avoid displaying room keys in public places 
• instruct front desk staff not to mention the name or room number of female guests at check in
• provide good room locations near the elevator
• discourage room service from indicating anything on tickets that might suggest that the female guest is alone
• warn employees against fraternization 
• provide escorts to walk women to their cars
• ensure that employees doing work in the room display their identification before entering the room
• always ask to see the identification of the second party coming to a female guest’s room and call the room to confirm
• make safety handouts available at the front desk
• instruct bellmen to remind women to keep guestroom door locked with deadbolt and chain, to point out fire exits, to test windows to ensure they are locked
• make printed safety handouts available at the front desk

Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC has just published “Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry.” It contains 359 pages, 25 illustrations and 16 chapters devoted to each of the following pioneers: John McEntee Bowman, Carl Graham Fisher, Henry Morrison Flagler, John Q. Hammons, Frederick Henry Harvey, Ernest Henderson, Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Howard Dearing Johnson, J. Willard Marriott, Kanjibhai Patel, Henry Bradley Plant, George Mortimer Pullman, A.M. Sonnabend, Ellsworth Milton Statler, Juan Terry Trippe and Kemmons Wilson. It also has a foreword by Stephen Rushmore, preface, introduction, bibliography and index Visit greatamericanhoteliers.com to order the book at a reduced rate.