Travel games
Jane sent me this e-mail, maybe in response to the admission that my daughter and I were playing the license plate game: ...
here is a fun game I play with my sister when one or both of us is traveling:
Guess the price. Person reads (or types) description of food on menu, and you have to guess the price. Minibar is always fun, but we do it with regular menu food too. Tests your sense of the economy of a geographic place, factoring into that the kind of place it is within that place, plus one's sense of what things should cost based upon ingredients and preparation.
We just did it tonight, she was chatting online with me from a hotel bar in Raleigh, NC, and I way underestimated the price of a shrimp pasta dish with artichokes, and then overestimated the price of a salad based upon the outrageous price of the shrimp dish. But after that I nailed the steak, appetizers (california rolls) and beer prices.
You can do it together in person too, only one person has to refrain from looking at the menu for a few minutes. It's great fun.
Comments
What a fun game! And I thought I was the only one who played it. The last time I did so I was in Denver at a conference; the hotel was close enough in walking distance to several chain (ugh) places but I took my first meal in the hotel's restaurant. After I ordered my martini and before I opened the menu, I mentally determined the price of a filet mignon. I underestimated by more than five dollars.
Btw: Why are room service prices so grossly inflated? And that's not counting the added gratuity?
Posted by: Piano Rob | April 3, 2008 9:02 AM
Fun game, and addictive too!
Piano Rob asks an interesting question. I'd love to know the answer. Is it opportunism? They know they can charge more because you don't want to leave the room? Is it to discourage you because it's a hassle for them? Do they think you will spend more if you actually go to the hotel restaurant/bar?
I've stayed in a few hotels recently where the room service menu was the same as the restaurant, including the prices. Even for drinks. Nice.
Posted by: Bacon Girl | April 3, 2008 6:31 PM
From what I know of the hotel industry, their food rates across the board (room service, restaurant, event catering) are obscenely overpriced because that's where they make the most money. Room rates tend to bring in lower profit margins, so hotels make up for that elsewhere. If they jacked room rates enough to the point where they were happy with that profit, nobody would stay there. But $18 for a burger and fries? People will do it if they're hungry enough.
Posted by: Dr. Erlenmeyer Cantaloupe | April 4, 2008 9:40 AM