3000 Nights in a Hotel

Aug 24

It’s official. This week, I have now slept in a hotel over 3000 nights across my business career. So much to be proud of in that number, and a bit that makes me shudder.

A year in a hotel in Switzerland. A year in a hotel in Germany. Months and months in hotels in Manchester, London, and France. Plus my usual hotel haunts in the Northeast. And the patchwork of hotel nights all over the globe. For twenty years.

Sheraton used to have hotels across the street from each other in NYC. When they ran promotions, I’d check in and out every night, crossing the street back and forth, to get more points for “new stays.” I’d book miles away from the client just to be in my favorite hotel for points. Those points have taken me around the world on free vacations that would make Atlas himself jealous. (Of course, they weren’t really free. Those points were fully earned at a price, weren’t they?)

I gotta tell you, I really enjoyed it. Much of the time, I even loved it. It worked for me and my family most of the time. And when it was no longer working, I had options. I could check out of my hotel lifestyle. Options is the key word here. Options give us the right, not the obligation, to make a change.

If you’re feeling a bit stuck or trapped, check out my book, Options Are Power, for practical tools to surround yourself with options.

As I write this in my hotel in Philly tonight, I marvel, “Does anyone actually put clothes in the hotel room dresser?”