Furious, Homeless Chunk

Well after leaving my beloved Millennium Hotel in Sharjah for the atrocious and disgusting fly-covered festering pile of elephant dump called the Four Points Sheraton in Dubai (which lured me in by its promises of wireless internet in every room, and a mere 400m walk to my favourite shopping center, the BurJuman Centre), I have now spent about 24 hours chasing my tail, trying to figure out how to economize, be happy, be productive etc.

After a total customer service train wreck yesterday at the Four Points (which involved an internet card, me sitting by the phone for an hour, and which culimated today in the ENTIRE network going down the for the ENTIRE day -- while the engineer prays -- and me being sent to a CLSOED internet cafe to try to make a reservation at a new hotel), I've decided to just grunt and bare it (is that the expression? or is it "grin" and bare it?)...anyway I'm grunting, but bearing it. If I weren't a total freak about privacy (mp3 dance time) and not inconveniencing people, then I'd stay with my friend in Cairo's cousin here in Dubai (who I tried to see last time I was here but who was sick).

I just HATE feeling like the 4stars I'm paying for are only worthy of about 2.5 (and twice the price), and I also have VERY little tollerance for anything but good 5star service, which is kind of a problem (I know it's bad to be that picky and reliant on luxury). This is what I've decided, having stayed in places of widely varied quality across many different cultures and continents:

* Bead and breakfasts/guesthouses sound ghetto but normally have excellent comfort and customer service, and are priced at the rate of a 2 star hotel but are seriously good options (and very worth the money)

* A clean hostel or 2 star hotel is IDENTICAL (I cannot stress this enough) in terms of room quality and ammenities (tv, internet, bathroom etc.) to most crap 4 star hotels, and are only lacking things like bad hair salons, ugly gift shops, tiny pools and dirty gyms, and bogus business centers that in their 4 star competitors are not something you care about anyway (ESPECIALLY not their plethora of "international" restaurants and inedible cuisine, which in Dubai and I'm sure many other places become late night brothels). My opinion is that the "extras" that move you along the spectrum from 2-4 stars are usually not worth it (and are mostly useless and for show) until you hit the 5 star level where the restaurants are good, the shops excellent, and the services ACTUALLY things you can and want to use.

* IN SUM: Go 5 star/luxury and get a good deal, and really enjoy all that you should in a nice hotel experience OR go for a huesthouse or the CLEANEST and MOST EFFICIENT 2 star/3 star DEAL you can find. There is no such thing as a 4 star hotel -- only over-priced 2/3 stars with poorly-functioning ammenities.

SPECIAL NOTE: Every Sheraton, in every country, sucks. From my prom night in a Sheraton Embassy Suites, to my time in a Sheraton in the hills outside Zurich, to my current 4 points (like 4 daggers stabbing at my already fragile sanity), they have ALWAYS been overpriced, underfunctioning, and totally ghetto (it's a whole Starwood conspiracy for people who work in one bad hotel to travel cheaply and get bad service in another of the same bad hotel chain in some other country...in my opinion, the rates they pay of like $15/night with Starwood points are what EVERYONE should pay, because Sheratons are TOTAL CRAP).

Wow this actually makes me feel better.

I also think that I might be fixating on changing hotels out of displaced anxiety over the work I need to do (Arabic and paper writing) over the next 4 days, as well as anxiety over finances.

I will blog tonight with more info -- hopefully focused on all the stuff that I accomplished since the afternoon (starting by going to the gym to work out some of this anxiety!).

VC