Four-Star Hotel. For Free. For Real!

December 12, 2009 • Posted in Beth Finke, Seeing Eye dogs, travel, Uncategorized, visiting schools by

A whole slew of generous hotels across the United States are participating in this very cool Give a Day, Get a Night program — if you give eight hours of community service to a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization, you can stay overnight at a participating hotel — for free! Sounds too good to be true, but I tried it. And it’s for real!

To qualify, your volunteer hours have to be completed between July 1, 2009 and March 29, 2010. You call a participating hotel, tell them when you want your complimentary room, and then all you have to do is show up at check-in with a letter on non-profit letterhead verifying your eight hours of unpaid volunteer service, and…you’re in!

That's Hanni and me luxuriating in our lovely Blackstone room.

Hanni and I volunteer for a literacy program called Sit! Stay! Read!, and the volunteer coordinator was happy to provide me with the letterhead note I needed. Hotels in San Diego, Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Tucson and countless other cities participate in the program, but I decided to stay right close to home. I booked a room at the Blackstone, a 99-year-old four-star hotel on Michigan Avenue that was recently renovated. Here’s a description from a magazine called “Hotels:

The extensive nature of the renovation shows in many of the details, including the richly detailed brass wall sconces that McHugh refinished in many public areas. When originals could not be salvaged, the team worked with specialty contractors to cast molds to create duplicates. In other historic portions of the hotel, McHugh removed decades-old carpeting to find that the marble floors underneath had been damaged by carpet tacks. Fortunately, the team was able to repair the floors by salvaging the hard-to-match marble from other areas of the hotel where it would not be visible.

While large-scale reconstruction of a century-old building is bound to turn up unexpected issues, the most significant one was positive, said Brian Hardy, McHugh’s project manager for the Blackstone work. “The biggest surprise of the building was that it is unbelievably well built,” Hardy said. “It’s extremely sound, structurally.”

I can vouch for that soundness — I somehow managed to bang my forehead on one of those structurally-sound surfaces in our room. Ouch! Not to worry – the room service folks deliver ice to each room every night, you know, when they bring your bedtime chocolates!

I wondered how I’d be received–staying free, and all–but the Blackstone staff knew exactly what the Give a Day, Get a Night program was all about, and they seemed tickled that someone was taking them up on the offer. Hanni and I were treated like gold; so many of the staff helped us out in oh so many ways. One of them, named Arturo, was especially kind. He escorted Hanni and me all the way to the nearby Starbucks to pick up our morning coffee, stayed with us as we ordered, held my coffee cup as we got back into the hotel elevator and accompanied us all the way to the sixth floor.

Arturo marveled when Hanni led us off the elevator and guided us right to room #610. We had fun discussing how Seeing Eye dogs are trained, when it’s okay to pet them and when it’s not, stuff like that. Before he left I fished in my wallet for a tip, but Arturo refused the money. “This was my pleasure,” he insisted.

But the pleasure was all mine. A big thank-you to the Blackstone and to Sage Hotels for sponsoring this generous program. And an especially huge thank-you goes out to Sit! Stay! Read! for giving Hanni and me the privilege of volunteering.

MaryEllen On December 13, 2009 at 10:33 am

Yeah, Beth! So glad you and Hanni had such a great time.

All of us at Sit Stay Read are thrilled to have the hard work of our fabulous volunteers recognized with this generous offer from Sage Hotels. What a lovely gift. A big thanks to all the Sage Hotels for their hospitality!

Beth On December 13, 2009 at 11:41 am

Oh, Mary Ellen, thanks for the comment — I plan on passing this post on to the Sit! Stay! Read! newsletter editor. She can quote from me, especially if it helps encourage all my fellow volunteers there to reward themselves with a fun free hotel stay!

Bob On December 13, 2009 at 5:38 pm

Ouch is right! Hope the ice helped…

Chris On December 14, 2009 at 8:11 am

You look right at home in your luxurious robe with your feet up. Sounds like a great stay, great program. Yeah for volunteers!

bethfinke On December 14, 2009 at 8:33 am

Gotta admit, I l-o-v-e a hotel that provides a robe like that. I was in heaven. And I second your cheer: yay, volunteers!

Marilee On December 16, 2009 at 10:11 pm

I don’t see Orlando listed, but I am going to check it out! You look so relaxed! I want to do that.

bethfinke On December 17, 2009 at 7:54 am

Good news! There *is* one hotel listed in Orlando:

Hilton Garden Inn – Orlando

Contact – Nour Asfari 407-903-2107

Happy luxuriating!

becky On December 19, 2009 at 1:20 pm

That is such a wonderful treat. Such sweet notes from the kids in your previous post too.

Anna On December 25, 2009 at 9:14 pm

That’s really cool! Just wanted to stop by and say hi- hope you are doing well. Remember, next time you need to come out to GDB for a guide dog so I can meet you! Anna (your second cousin!)

Beth On December 30, 2009 at 8:33 pm

Hey Safe & Sound blog readers – the comment above really and truly is from a long-lost second cousin of mine –if I have this right, and I *think* I do, Anna is my grandfather’s great-great-niece. My father died just after my third birthday, and although we *did* keep up with his side of the family, they lived in southern Illinois and we didn’t get to visit each other much. Now Anna lives in Oregon, and of all the things she is involved with out there as a volunteer, it’s. GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND. Is that cool or what?! Great to hear from you, Anna, and keep up the good work!

Siobhan Senier On January 7, 2010 at 9:40 pm

What a great list. I guess it’s not surprising that not one hotel is listed for cheap-ass, live-free-or-die New Hampshire, which always works hard to maintain its low ranking in charitable giving.

bethfinke On January 8, 2010 at 11:32 am

Okay, NH may not have hotels on the list, but at least anyone who wants to can get married in your state! I bet a lot of your newly-married friends there do a lot of volunteer work –tell them they should honeymoon in Chicago…at the Blackstone!

Free stuff to do in March « Safe & Sound blog On March 2, 2010 at 9:13 am

[…] hotel room.March 31 is the last day to take advantage of that free hotel room deal I blogged about, you know, the one where you volunteer 8 hours and get the room free. Sounds like a come-on, but […]

jackson On September 20, 2010 at 3:34 am

That is a very nice free night in a four star hotel. it is a full fun in hotel.

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