Putting Realism Into Your Network

Larry Chaffin

Previous Article Next Article

Business travelers need to read before booking great deals.

Starwood's giving up to 50% off prepaid bookings.

By Larry Chaffin on Mon, 07/27/09 - 8:17am.

Starwood’s Hotels did a good thing by lowering prices at some 600 of 1000 properties by 50%. But be sure if you are reading everything before you book. Every low price I did see of which I checked the Weston Hotels was pre-pay only with no refund. This is not good for business as we all know that plans change every other day. Hotels should always have a 24 to 48 hour cancelation policy to help business out even on thesegodo deals.

If Starwood’s would think about the customer and not just the pre-bookings they would get more business. I know they are trying but it could be better.

Below is a great rate we found for Los Angeles, while this is good we also found good rates in San Francisco and Miami.

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Los Angeles 404 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, California 90071 United States Phone: (213) 624-1000Fax: (213) 612-4800 1 King
Traditional Non-smoking, Heavenly Bed And Bath, Panoramic View, Dataport/desk, Free Access To Health Club Limited Time Offer Fully Prepaid, Non Refundable Terms & Details USD 99.00 + charges & taxes = USD 112.98

I know Starwood’s will say I am not looking at this in the right way and the discounts are a great thing. That could be true but it is like a glass half full, why not give people the option if plans change? I could not book this on my next trip as plans change, so it will cost me more money. Maybe they will listen to me and change it.

Tags

About Putting Realism Into Your Network

Larry Chaffin Ph.D is the Chief Executive Officer/Chairman and founder of Pluto Networks, a Consulting and VAR partner specializing in WAN acceleration, VoIP, WLAN, telepresence and security.

Pluto Networks is a Riverbed reseller. Pluto was previously a Cisco reseller but in June, 2010, ended its reseller relationship with the company and is no longer a Cisco channel partner.

Pluto Networks specializes in the needs of small, large and enterprise companies by always giving them a great ROI on the products they sell. Pluto Networks has a presence in 23 countries around the world enabling all of its consultants to be virtual. Larry was a Judge at Interop for the Best of Interop Awards for 2009.

Larry has also co-authored all of the books listed below:

Managing Cisco Secure Networks, Skype Me, Practical VOIP Security, Configuring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1,Configuring Juniper Networks NetScreen & SSG Firewalls,Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security, How to Cheat at Microsoft Vista Administration, Microsoft Vista for IT Security Professionals, Asterisk Hacking, 2008 VoIP and Video Conferencing, Infosecurity 2008 Threat Analysis and author of Building a VOIP Network with Nortel's MS5100, along with co-authoring/ghost writing eleven other technology books for VIOP, WLAN, security and optical technologies. Larry is currently working on a follow up to Building a VoIP network with Nortel's MCS 5100 Book as well as new books on Cisco Telepresence Networks, Practical VoIP case studies and WAN Acceleration with Riverbed.

Larry also has more than 29 vendor certifications and has been working on many others. Larry has been a principal architect around the world in 22 countries for many Fortune 100 companies designing VoIP, security, wireless and optical networks. He has expanded over time also to include application acceleration. Larry is working with worldwide company now out of Asia as a Special Assistant to the CEO and CIO as they go through organizational and network changes, helping them with strategic advice from his years of experience.

Pluto Networks is a channel partner of, LifeSize, Riverbed, Call Copy, Fastsoft and Symantec.