KEY POINTS:
I've never had a terrible travel experience overall but that's not to say there haven't been a few awkward moments along the way.
I'll never forget the night when, in a half-asleep blur, I got up to visit the bathroom of my Japanese hotel. I was grateful I'd left the light on in the bathroom to guide me, but surprised when the spring-loaded door smacked me from behind. That was when I woke fully to find myself standing in the hall locked out of my room. And I wasn't wearing jimjams.
Another classic was the time I arrived in Tokyo having booked into The Prince Hotel. At the airport, I duly bought a transfer to the Prince Hotel Shinagawa.
I starting reading the English language promo material on the bus, at which point I discovered there were no less than nine Prince Hotels in Tokyo. Predictably, the Shinagawa was not expecting me. I then had to direct a taxi driver to go to Prince Hotels. "Which one?" he asked.
"All of them," I replied, which took a chunk of extra explaining from the hotel concierge.
I had just worked out that I could probably afford to check six hotels before running out of local currency when the fifth paid off.
Steve Bayliss is general manager marketing at Air New Zealand.
