I’m sitting in a room at the Ramada in Doha. I’m thinking I have seen the inside of a number of very different hotels in the past ten years. This is my third hotel in Qatar. I have stayed in five in Abu Dhabi, one in Dubai and spent a month in one in Kuwait. I been in a hotel in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, Orlando, Philadelphia, a few in New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Iowa, Milford CT and a lovely little Howard Johnson’s near the airport in L.A. (raise your hand if you’ve been there!). Hotels are strange places. They act as a little oasis in the midst of a foreign territory. They can be comforting or impersonal. Inviting or utilitarian. A home away from home or a cot and a roof – which can be true of even the most expensive hotel.

For example, the Four Seasons (see picture below) was one of the coldest (emotionally) hotels I have ever stayed at and had some of the worst modern artwork on the walls. Whereas the Ramada here is a…. Ramada. The décor is just goofy- from the walls to the furniture – and very 80s. It is lived in and downscale, yet very much alive and welcoming. The Hotel Spectra in Istanbul had two single beds and a room with a shower and a toilet. Not other space, no TV and no amenities except breakfast. Yet that breakfast – on a windowed balcony on the roof that overlooked EVERYTHING – was one of the nicest I ever had. And I spent every day and night walking around anyway, so what did I need? The room at the Venetian in Vegas had more floor space than my house and it took me over twenty minutes to get downstairs and to my meeting rooms on the first floor. The room in Paris had a bathroom where the door hit your knees, but it was in the center of everything and suited our budget. I only stay at the Burjuman Rotana in Dubai because it is connected to the office. I like it, even though with a kitchen and living room area, it is more space than I could ever take up. The Coronado in San Diego was heaven. The two hotels in Orlando I can’t even tell you about. I don’t remember anything distinctive. The Hotel Pulitzer in Amsterdam WAS luxury. But I loved better my soon to be washed away bed and breakfast in New Orleans.

Hotels are very personal. Whether they click with you or not depends on timing and activity, as much as what you want from the hotel. They fall into the category of shoes – they either feel good or they don’t. Here at the Ramada, I’m looking for life and beer and maybe a little live music later. Simplicity has its virtues.

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