Thinking about vacationing in San Francisco or anywhere else in coastal California and don’t want to spend your little bit of cash on a faceless, nameless monolith hotel chain that’s charging you to use a business center and gym you’ll never use? Give the Joie de vivre Hotels a chance and sign up for their Joy of Life Club (http://www.joyoflifeclub.com/).
After living in San Francisco for some years and moving away, I regularly make visits back to the city. But doing this with kids is problematic. I can’t couch surf with a three year old and five year old (well , I could but then those people wouldn’t ever want to talk to me again). My friends don’t have kids, have dogs, or live in studio apartments. No more couch surfing. But San Francisco’s main hotels are all downtown in places I don’t want to go (downtown) or don’t want to go with children who still like to lie down on sidewalks now and then.
Enter my saving grace: Joie de vivre Hotels and their Joy of Life Club. Basically, they are a chain of boutique hotels up and down California—a few of which are slightly off the beaten path (read: cheaper) and a little eccentric (read: older buildings). When you join the club each stay is worth points. I’ve racked up enough points that my next stay in San Francisco will be free.
Free stays in San Francisco! Can it get better than that?
As a club member you get funky little perks: emails giving you a discount during certain months or dates, a bottle of wine at check-in, fresh milk and cookies, sake happy hours, wine tastings, the local paper instead of the godforsaken USA Today. It’s damn well cute really. Most gimmicky club things just don’t do it for me. I hate joining things that’ll give me a discount on a pizza I wouldn’t want to put near my mouth in the first place. Free alcohol though? Dude, after a day schlepping two preschoolers around the city all day, I am so totally there…
This time around we’re staying at the Hotel Del Sol in the Marina. It’s kitschy in color scheme (read: that’s so gay). It certainly ain’t fancy but very friendly and uber kid friendly (becoming a very important element). Another family favorite is the Hotel Tomo in Japantown over the hill from this one (it’s like Ikea mated with a 13 year old Japanese anime girl and gave birth to a hotel). Last time I did the very elegant Hotel Kabuki in Japantown (they have the only hotel rooms I ever wanted to permanently live in—plus Japanese style bathtubs (read: deep and drawn by a bath assistant). The husband and I spent an anniversary at the Hotel Rex which channeled the 30s in a non-pretentious way.
A few spas are also included in their mix---notably the Kabuki Spa in Japantown (I think the perk for that one is free parking at the Japantown Mall).
Some of the reward options are pretty over the top (Choose your own adventure type stuff or VIP Sonoma County Vineyard weekends) and I know I’d rather just work up to a few free nights stays. Check it out if you are out this way.
And just cause they are quirky doesn’t mean they don’t have the basics—which for me seems to be wireless Internet access. Spending less on accommodations in California is always a plus—and it’s great when you can tell the people running things have some taste--I’ve wanted to steal every print in every room I’ve stayed in –when does that ever happen that they don’t all look like thirftstore rejects?
Happy travels…meet you for free milk and cookies at 4 pm by the pool.
译文:
幸福生活俱乐部
正在考虑去旧金山或是加州的任何一块阳光海岸度假？囊中羞涩的你不愿把银子砸在一个又没有门面又没有名气的连锁酒店？这家酒店还会一直怂恿你去使用他们的商务中心和健身房，这些地方你碰也不愿碰？给幸福生活酒店一个机会，注册为他们“幸福生活俱乐部”的会员吧。
我在旧金山住了好些年后搬家了，但我还是会定期回来看看这个城市。但是和我的孩子一起跑来跑去是很麻烦的。我不能和一个三岁的小破孩和一个五岁的小屁孩进行沙发旅行呐（好吧，或许我能这么做，可是这样一来那些朋友都不愿再和我说话了）。我的朋友们没有孩子，没有宠物狗，也不住在小公寓里。沙发旅行是不可能了，可是旧金山的主要旅馆都在市区，我可不想去这些地方，或者说是不想和孩子们去这些地方，因为他们到现在还喜欢时不时地跑到人行道上躺一躺。
现在看看我的法宝：幸福生活酒店和他们的幸福生活俱乐部。基本上，他们是遍布加州的连锁小酒店——其中有些相对较便宜，而且是旧些的建筑。当你加入他们的俱乐部后，每次住宿都会赢得一些积分。我已经攒足了积分所以我下次去旧金山的时候就可以免费入住。
免费呆在旧金山！还有比这更划算的事情吗？
作为一个会员你可以得到一堆小恩小惠：告诉你在某些月份或日期酒店会有打折的邮件啦，登记入住时会赠送一小瓶葡萄酒啦，不要钱的牛奶和小饼干啦，美酒品尝机会啦，还有当地的报纸可以看看，而不是那份被上帝遗弃的“今日美国”。这真是太棒了。很多花样百出的俱乐部的项目都不会为我们设身处地的着想。我讨厌加入那些所谓的俱乐部，他们喜欢给那些我根本吃也不吃的匹萨饼打折。噢，酒精饮料全部免费？伙计，在拖着俩个还不够上学年龄的孩子绕着城市逛了一整天后，我就只能瘫在那边了……
这次我们呆在旧金山湾的德尔索尔旅馆。但是这儿的光线很昏暗……这当然不是一件令人愉快的事，但是他们的态度很友好特别是对孩子们很友好（这才是我选择的重点要素）。另一个很受家庭旅行欢迎的是日本城里的友人酒店，就在从这儿出发的山那头。（就好像是宜家和一个13岁的日本动漫小姑娘结合在一起，还诞生出了一家旅馆！）上次我在日本城里住了一间非常优雅的歌舞伎旅馆（他们的旅馆套房使我曾经一度想永久的住下去——除了那个日式浴缸。我老公和我还曾经在雷克斯酒店一起度过了一个周年纪念日，雷克斯那时正低调地走过它的第三十个年头！
温泉浴场也是在这些酒店的服务项目中的——值得一提的是日本城的歌舞伎温泉浴场（我想他们给的小恩惠就是在日本城广场上停车是免费的）。
有些旅馆回馈顾客的奖项是很诱人的（就像自由选择旅行冒险的装备或是去索诺玛郡葡萄园过个VIP周末假期）。我嘛，就只能享受享受一些不要钱的住宿喽。如果你还没有尝试过,赶紧加入吧。
然而，他们的方法千奇百怪并不意味着他们的基本设施不完善——对我来说就是无线网络了。在加州，住宿费能省就省总归是个明智的决定——当你可以悠闲的告诉忙的焦头烂额的人们要品位生活的时候，这种感觉很棒——我一直都想把我呆过的房间的每一张打印纸带走，它们什么时候才能看起来不那么拒人于千里之外呢？
祝旅途愉快……下午4点在有免费牛奶和小饼供应的游泳池旁见。