Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective: Insider Tips on

Product Review

Indispensable information for away-from-home lodging, from the author of the New York Times bestseller The Travel Detective

In Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective, America’s best-known and most trusted travel authority reveals the insider knowledge that can make every hotel stay as comfortable as (and sometimes even more cost-efficient than) home. With his incomparable access and nose for news, Peter Greenberg shares the secrets that people who know hotels—managers, maids, reservation clerks, bellhops, chefs, and maintenance guys—don’t want you to know about value, service, safety, security, and cleanliness. Tips include:

• How to tell if your room is really clean
• What never to order from room service
• The real way to prevent hotel crime
• How to beat excessive hotel phone charges
• The exact rooms where headline-making events took place

Drawn from the author’s experiences as both an investigative reporter and a constant traveler, Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective is an essential guide to everything from luxury resorts to motels, from airport hotels and bed-and-breakfasts to outrageous (and often secret) alternatives to hotels.

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review

(12 customer reviews)

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

A Must Read Before Travel Season Begins..., March 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective: Insider Tips on Getting the Best Value, Service, and Security in Accommodations from Bed-and-Breakfasts to Five-Star Resorts (Paperback)

This is Greenberg's best book yet. I consider myself a very frequent traveler, but thanks to him, I now understand better the internecine workings of the internet and these third party websites and how to make it work for me without getting trapped by it and get a better deal in the process. That section alone was worth the price of the book! I now know how to pack much better for a hotel stay. I learned some discomforting facts about what the maids don't often clean. but Greenberg explains how how to make sure it's been cleaned. There are some funny sections as well, and I laughed a lot while reading his section on rooms with a past. Perhaps the biggest lesson I always learn from Greenberg is how to become a more savvy, but also responsible traveler, that it can sometimes be a war out there but it doesn't have to be if you arm yourself with information -- especially the kind of inside information Greenberg provides. A must read. He is my travel hero....

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Engaging, Informative and Helpful, July 13, 2006

Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews

So many travel writers tell you where to go, what to see and at what price. Greenberg takes a new tack - he tells you who is really in charge (within hotels: concierge, bellhop, doorman, etc.), why hotels do what they do (hotel ratings, bolting down remote controls, etc.) and, most importantly, what to avoid. The chapter that considers housekeeping is worth the book alone. This section on hotel sanitation and cleanliness is not for the squeamish.

I travel extensively and found that Greenberg's book is not only an enjoyable read, but a helpful read. I took away tips for travel that I will definitely use in the future. It would have been helpful if Greenberg had broken down the franchise hotel chains that exist today and highlighted those that he found outstanding. Yes, he does promote a philosophy that is "consumer aggressive" and demanding, but, as we all know, it has become a jungle out there and those that speak up get the best treatment and, in the hotel industry, the...Read more

26 of 34 people found the following review helpful

Waste of my money!, June 6, 2004

By A Customer

I have worked in the hotel industry for 17 years in the Front Office and Housekeeping. I cannot believe the crock of baloney that this man is dishing out. I have had to deal with "know-it-alls" in the travel industry before and that is why I had to read this book. He states to get the best rate is to call the Manager on Duty, Director of Sales or the General Manager. Good luck in finding them! The manager on duty is too busy dealing with all the people that booked cheap rooms but are demanding the Presidential Suite. If you don't pay for it you are not getting it! This man has only added gasoline to the fire. Save your money-Try being nice to the Front Desk person and they will go out of their way for you. Demand the world and get the worst room in the world!