When I’m not able to produce a PlaneMadness Podcast for whatever reason, I still like to update PlaneMadness.Com as much as possible. One of the ways I can do that is through making blog posts, like this one.

What I want to discuss today is the subject of crew hotels. I’d expect that most folks who aren’t in the airline industry would probably be surprised to learn that to crew members, the subject of what hotels we stay in is a very important topic.

To understand this, one has to imagine spending half their life in hotels. That’s right. For a typical crew member, a 15 day per month schedule could be called average. For more senior folks (see Pilot Seniority), that number’s less while for the more junior folks, it’s more. But for an average amount of time that a crew member spends in a hotel per month, 15 days away from home seems like pretty typical schedual. So you can see why crew members care quite a bit about where their airline decides to put them up - These hotels can become like our second homes.

First let me mention that when a union is involved, there are contracts in place which determine to a large extent what hotel accommodations are utilized. This is true in many cases for non-union carriers as well who have verbal agreements with their employee groups. These contracts may stipulate things like:

• Each crew member to his or her own room
• No rooms on the first floor
• Restaurants within walking distance
• Availability non-smoking rooms, etc.

But let me turn away from the legalese contract mumbo-jumbo and just focus on some basic tenets of crew hotel worthiness. When you ask two crew members what they think of the same hotel, they may disagree on certain things, but they’ll probably all agree on the following:

• Hotels within walking distances of shopping centers, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. are better then any hotel ‘in the sticks’
• Big name hotels are usually cleaner then ‘mom and pop’ type outfits
• Getting you’re own room is always better then sharing one
• Never take a bath. Always take a shower. Too many other people have used it before you!
• Free internet is the only kind; Hotels that still charge for internet access are draconian!
• Why do they always put us on the same floor as the 12th grade girls soccer team?
• The hotels with shuttles that go somewhere besides the airport are revolutionary!
• Jacuzzi bubbles are nice
• Jacuzzi bubbles are annoying

The debate could rage on, but I think you can see what crew members care about and what makes a good crew hotel. By the way there is no one particular hotel chain in my opinion that provides a better crew hotel then another. They all seem to have their pluses and minuses. A lot of the time what makes or breaks a hotel is location anyway. I’d rather have a fair hotel in a great location then a great hotel in a fair location, but that’s just me- On my overnights I try to get out of the hotels as much as possible!

And with that, I’ll wrap it up. Fly safe.

~Capt’n Chris

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