Welcome to The Morning Shave. We read a ton of travel articles each day for our personal research and to share the best travel tips and tricks with you. Here are the articles for Friday, March 27, 2020, that we think you should read.
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As COVID-19 wrecks markets, will Chase relax the 5/24 Rule? – During boom times, banks started tightening the rules for us to qualify for many of the best credit cards. It seems like every bank has a rule now limiting new cards or signup bonuses to one degree or another. But once the effects of coronavirus are felt across the economy, they may be hurting for customers. If they’re struggling to drum up new sales, banks may be more willing to let us get more bonuses again. In the meantime, take these steps to ensure that you’re keeping your credit score up so you can pounce when great opportunities become available.
The Importance of Financial Relief for the Hotel Industry. – As much as we think about hotel brands being under one umbrella, most hotels are independently owned. They are not actually owned by IHG, Hyatt, Hilton, etc. Some are owned by families, while others are owned by big corporations, hedge funds, or private equity firms. This article tries to make the case of why the hotel industry needs financial relief. I’m in favor of the government backing loans that need to be repaid, but not in outright grants of money. What do you think?
Keep your distance for free: National Park Services suspends park fees. – Some National Parks are closing or limiting guests during the coronavirus epidemic, so do your research before heading out. Our National Parks are huge and offer an awesome reason to get out into nature. You can surely do some social distancing at one as long as you can drive there and back in the same day. Remember, many hotels, restaurants, and facilities are closed right now. And please don’t touch anything!
21 Sites Offering Virtual Tours and Live Streams for Travelers Stuck at Home. – A better option is to stay at home and tour some of these amazing locations around the world through virtual tours or livestreams. Destinations include the Sistine Chapel, Victoria Australia Zoos, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.
A Botanical Garden in Seattle Is Livestreaming Plants to Help You Relax. – Whether it is kids, roommates, your spouse, or just cabin fever, we all need to get our minds off of everything and relax a bit. I’m not one to stare at plants, but I do enjoy nature walks. And this sure beats staring at my office wall all day.
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I think it’s silly to close most beaches and parks. I also think national parks funded by our taxes should always be free.
I understand closing the beaches because of the large crowds so close together. Very easy to transmit airborne viruses that way. But it is very easy to distance ourselves in parks. My family and I are trying to take regular hikes using the AllTrails app while being cautious to distance ourselves whenever we come across anyone on the trail.
I think that the government should help hotels and cruise lines in exchange for a few basic things:
Hotels
– All-in pricing. Clear comparable pricing that includes any non-optional fees. Failure would impose a large penalty per instance.
– A customer Bill of Rights. Basically EU261 for hotels. Codifying what an agreement is between a customer and a hotel. Currently this is heavily skewed against the customer. Possibilities include specific amounts due if a customer is walked, rooms are not substantially as promised, and if check-in times are not honored.
Cruises
– All cruise lines that operate primarily out of US ports would permanently reflag all ships to the USA, thereby requiring compliance with US labor and environmental laws and ensure greatly improved accountability.
– A customer Bill of Rights, ensuring that cruise lines will deliver what they promise. Similar to the above and EU261 in Europe.
These requirements would help undo some of the harm that has come to consumers in favor of hotels and cruise lines over the years. The corporations would make a little less money but would be bailed out, the government would gain oversight over the under regulated cruise industry and consumers would have guaranteed minimum standards with regulations that actually had teeth. Win/win/win.
Those are some good suggestions. We need to use these opportunities to make the cruise lines and hotels be more consumer-friendly. We are giving them a lot of money, we need to get something else in return.