New App that Identifies Trees Makes Its Debut

I just sat down for lunch with Dan Donohue, General Manager at the Lenox Hotel and asked him how the Lenox Hotel earned the number one ranking of all hotels in Boston on TripAdvisor. I always believed these rankings, especially as hotels inch their way to the top, are totally random. But he disagrees. He told me there’s a simple reason the Lenox is the number one hotel in the city–service. When he first took the job at the Lenox, he visited many of the lobbies of other hotels in the city. He sat and watched and realized that hotel employees wouldn’t even say hi to each other, let alone give a gracious nod to their guests. Not at the Lenox. His workers always go up to guests to ask them how their day is going. But what I really like about the Lenox is there’s no extra charge for that water in the mini-bar. There’s no extra charge for Wi-Fi. Guests aren’t nickled and dimed to death. “If a child wants a candy bar,” says Donohue, “we’ll find him one.” I visited two hotels this summer, Wequassett on Cape Cod and The Athenaeum in London, where everything in the mini-bar is free except for that bottle of Moet Chandon and other alcohol. There’s a certain degree of respect between hotel and guest when you’re not charged silly fees for beverages and Wi-Fi. On the other hand, nothing pisses off your guest more than charging them for these basic services after they already paid a decent amount for a night’s stay.