What's With Hotel Pillows?

Alright, anyone who has traveled on business lately will get this one. And you fellow travelers out there know that hotels have developed a fetish for pillows.

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room that had about ten pillows on the bed when I came into the room. In fact, there were so many pillows that there was no room on the bed. In a move that is now common in my hotel stays, I make a big sweep of my hand and knock all but two of the pillows onto the floor so I can actually use the bed. The pillows stay on the ground until the maid comes back and makes the bed, and later in the evening the pillow fight between guest and the help starts anew.

While some hotels go with volume, others go with "speciality pillows". They have a menu in the room with a variety of pillows (down, foam, firm, etc.) and you can call the front desk and have the proper one sent up to your room at no additional charge (I'm not making this up - this is really out there).

I am not sure where this is all coming from all the sudden - I can only surmise that some hotel market study came up with research saying that guests have a thing for pillows, and doing something in that area would be a cheap way to increase positive feedback of the hotel experience.

For me it isn't working - it just adds a hassle factor when I come back to the room drunk and just want to go sleep.

This "Unexpectedly" Thing Really Is a Big Joke

Instapundit for a while has been tracking press reports about the economy that keep using the word "unexpectedly" over and over and over again on bad econommic reports. The latest one is this morning:

New claims for unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week, mostly because state agencies processed a backlog of claims caused by snowstorms the previous week

If every piece of bad economic news is "unexpected" then perhaps the press (and the government they are cheerleading for) need to look at their expectations. Maybe the economy is not improving as well or as fast as they think. Maybe house declines will continue, unemployment will keep increasing, tax revenues will keep decreasing, and consumer sentiment will keep tanking.

Maybe if everyone starts thinking this we can stop seeing "unexpected" until the economy improves? Just an input here.

Bare Feet and Advertising

I think most people are unaware how much in advertising is about manipulating feelings. I ran across this entry on a real estate blog and found this little example both funny and insightful:

If you never noticed all the bare feet in new home ads, you will now (sorry). Some marketing consultant long ago noticed that bare feet suggests the comforts and coziness of home. Doesn't the couple in the picture look like they have the life all of us want?

Bingo. And now you will notice it consciously, where before you noticed it only at gut level.

Being an Early Adopter Has a Price

The article is trying to be provocative by saying early adopters are "screwed", but that is the definition of an early adopter - you are willing to pay the price, whether monetary, being obsoleted quickly, or buying from a company that goes out of business or changes its business model. Don't whine about it.

Gödel Thought for the Day

First principles cannot be proven within their own system.