@ the right place

I never really understood who finds real interest in those fancy magazines lying next to the TV cabinet in most of the hotels around the world.
The photos are always spectacular, the information is usually up-t0-date, and still - chances to find something relevant to my visit in this place, are much lower than chances to get a free upgrade to the presidential suite.

I really don't know what are the content guidelines of the publishers of those hard-worked-but-useless magazines. Maybe they want to ensure they stay in the room long after the guests have checked-out. So why do I, and millions of other tourists and business travelers always find themselves paging through these kinds of products? The answer: just because they're there. The right place, and the right context.




Not long ago I traveled to Amsterdam. I stayed at the HN Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky. I got a great price, and I knew exactly what to expect from my stay in this place. It's just wonderful, what the Net enables us. Now all I I need is to search for information about interesting stuff to do, excellent but not expensive restaurants, and things not to miss in this lovely city. Nothing that a good web connection, lots of time, a bit of concentration, sorting and filtering can't solve. Too bad I don't have 3 months to get prepared to my weekend trip to Amsterdam.
It's also too bad that the good guys from Trip Advisor, for instance, that gave me such detailed and precise information on the hotel, its services, virtues and down-sides, didn't throw-in some tips on what to do near the hotel. Where and what I should eat, when's the line to Anne Frank's house the shortest, is the Heineken Experience really worth its 15 Euro, what exactly do you see there on the red lights district, that is 1 block away from the hotel, and where is the coolest coffee-shop. Not that I'm really interested in that, but it wouldn't hurt to know, if you're in Amsterman.
When I got back from Amsterdam, it occured to me that if this kind of information was written in the hotel's fancy magazines on the Krasnapolsky Hotel cabinet, I wouldn't think it's so unnecessary anymore.


GRAZEit snippet is providing a usefull link to Gaucho's
Restaurant Reviews @ TripAdvisor, located just around the block

Write, print and publish dozens of copies to the Krasnapolsky cabinets is a little too much for me, but to contribute to the graze list of the hotel's website, is definately possible. In the right place, at the right context, and also a humble contribution to the war against Rainforest extinction. Who knows, maybe a clever user, who already downloaded GRAZEit, will visit the hotel's website before his trip, and thanks to my grazes he won't miss the fabulous Gauchos restaurant located just around the corner, the spectacular french-fries of Vleminckx, 5 minutes walk from the Dam square - where the hotel is located, and not even Dampkring - the best coffee shop in town, in the little street next to Vleminckx.

Bon-Voyage