[Yak] Re: Yak Digest, Vol 15, Issue 18

[Tony Raven]

I agree, I have taken my Bike Friday into some top hotels and provided 
you do it with confidence and assurance its almost never a problem.  As 
soon as you start looking uncertain or guilty you could be in trouble.  
My best experience was cycling up to a very fancy hotel and as I was 
getting off my bike the liveried elderly doorman came over and said "May 
I take that for you sir".  When I came back down later he spotted me and 
asked "Will you be wanting your bike sir?".   I later found out that the 
hotel chain CEO was a keen cyclist.

Tony


From: Dante Lanzetta <dante_lanzetta at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [Yak] Re: Bike in Hotel
>> This isn't on point re: BF bags.  However, whether with a Friday or a
>> regular diamond frame bike, I've had very few problems in hotels, including
>> some very fancy ones overseas.  What seems to matter most is getting the
>> bike to the room in its suitcase or travel case, usually if not always via
>> bellhop; then, the first time you leave with the bike, make it prominent and
>> conspicuous, at a time when the place is fairly, but not impossibly crowded.
>> Leave like you belong there greeting employees and guests pleasantly and
>> confidently.  If possible, return on the same hotel shift, so the people
>> seeing you return and striding to the elevators are more likely to be the
>> ones who saw you leave.  You will have registered in their minds (not just
>> at the desk) as a "Guest" who "belongs" there, bike and all. After a couple
>> of goings and comings, they get comfortable with you having the bike.
>>
>> Ten years ago in Moscow, it took a KGB-looking security guy over a week to
>> get up the nerve to challenge me at all ­ and all he demanded was my guest
>> card.  On one or two occasions when I have been challenged and told I can't
>> take my bike to my room, I have acted relieved and asked to see the secure,
>> guarded place they planned to keep it for me, where it would be ready for me
>> to use at any time.  They decided that place would be my room.  In a
>> rowhouse kind of small hotel near the British Museum I was thankful when
>> they provided a nearby hallway where I could like my Friday.  The room was
>> barely large enough for me and my wife.
>>
>> Dante
>>