A few good links: Saving some cash in Boston, and more

What happened to the ordinary hotel concierge? Westin Hotels have "running concierges;" London's Milestone Hotel has a "pet concierge;" and the new 117-room Good Hotel in San Francisco is debuting the "philanthropy concierge." Living up to its name, the completely renovated hotel in the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood offers guests immediate access to local volunteer opportunities via a dedicated phone in the lobby. On the other end of the line, One Brick, a local non-profit, acts as a personal voluntourism guide, presenting a menu of opportunities for visitors to help the city during their stay. Guests can find a task that suits their interests, with options such as planting grass and flowers around the San Francisco Bay or sorting food with Feeding America. The management company Joie de Vivre also stocked the hotel with furniture constructed from reclaimed materials—including headboards made from 100 percent reclaimed wood, lamps made from recycled water bottles, and a table made from skateboards. Plus, with doubles from $89/night (including Wi-Fi access), it looks like the hotel is shaping up to be a pretty good deal. MORE ON BOUTIQUE HOTELS IN SAN FRANCISCO Fill out an online quiz at Joie de Vivre's website, and it'll suggest which one of its roughly 30 hotels may most closely match your personality. Curious about the neighborhood where any hotel is located? Then watch one of the site's professionally produced videos about local attractions. Want to make a friend of a fellow traveler? Then look through the profiles of other guests who have visited the hotel.

Happy Halloween! Before it's time to start ladling out—or getting sick from—too many Zip Poppers and Head Pops, here are a few seasonally appropriate links: Spooky Walking Tours [Budget Travel] Halloween-themed Hotel Deals [BT] Uncommon Lodging in Transylvania [BT] Frankenstein's castle offers Halloween chills [CNN] "No Trick or Treat" Posters Issued by Police Such as it is, Halloween is rowdy in the UK, and these posters are intended to help the anti-Halloween crowd keep their treats without the danger of tricks, such as having their house egged. [Exmouth Herald] World's Weirdest Hotels [BT] Wacky Festivals [BT] Underground Tours [BT] Theme Parks Celebrate Halloween [MSNBC] Find haunted prisons online for Halloween [Northwest Herald] Sleep with a Ghost This Halloween Haunted inns [Gadling] World's Best Costume Parties [Concierge] A Las Vegas Halloween, with spooks of all kinds "There's even a haunted casino for folks who don't find the real gambling halls scary." [Los Angeles Times] 13 Great Travel Horror Movies Alien (?!) yes, but no love for Hostel… [World Hum]

I'd like to think of myself as a New Yorker. So when I heard about a new interactive public light sculpture in Madison Square Park that gives a visual shout out to the city's vitality, I rushed over to see it—and take part. Pulse Park, an installation by Mexican interactive art practitioner Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, uses the heart rates of two hundred visitors to activate theatrical spotlights across the central Oval Lawn. Every night after dusk until mid-November, Madison Square Park will be embellished with these interwoven rays of pulsing light as an expression of the vital signs of its inhabitants. When you enter the park, you measure your heart rate at the north or south end of the green. You place your hands on metal sensors for 15 seconds, and then let go to see your solitary spotlight pulse to the beat of your body's most vital organ. The remaining 199 are then activated; your beam of light will begin to move across the lawn sequentially as each participant measures his own heart rate. Late last week when I visited, I followed my heart rate while dodging visitors who were posing for pictures haphazardly. While the aerial view of the matrix of light (shown in the simulated image posted above) may be more dramatic, I was more than happy to be on the green, immersed in what was essentially this city's vibrant heart. The display marks the US public art debut of Lozano-Hemmer, who has exhibited his work in more than three dozen countries, including the Venice Biennale. The interactive exhibit will be viewable from dusk until 10 p.m. in the park, which is located between Madison and Fifth Avenues, and 23rd and 26th Streets. Exhibit ends November 17. EARLIER The free Times Square walking tour

Tomorrow (October 31) at noon Greenwich Time (7 a.m. ET), the Hoxton Hotel in London will put 1,000 rooms on sale—500 rooms will be available at £1 (or $1.64) and 500 will be at £29 ($47.52). The sale covers the period November 1, 2008, to January 31, 2009. Regular room rates at the Hoxton start at £59 ($96.81), so even though everyone really wants the £1 room, the £29 rate still represents a substantial savings. That means there will be a lot of people trying to get rooms, so you'll have to type fast on the reservations page. Each person can only book one room for one night, but still, if you manage to snag a London hotel room for under $2, the rest of your trip to the expensive city will feel a lot more manageable. If you aren't planning to be in London during that period, just remember this for the future: The Hoxton runs this sale every few months. Fun fact: The Hoxton is owned by Sinclair Beecham, cofounder of Pret A Manger, a British sandwich-shop chain that now has outlets in New York City and Hong Kong. EARLIER FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Hot Property: The Hoxton Hotel