The value of the euro tumbled this week to a 13-month low against the U.S. dollar. That's great news for American travelers, who now have significantly more spending power while in Paris.
Last spring, when we reported about the currency crunch, the euro was valued at 1.40 against the dollar. At that time, a €200 hotel room cost $280 for anyone paying with dollars. Today, with the euro valued at only 1.27, that same room costs only $254.
That's a big savings, but it gets even more dramatic when you compare this to prices in April 2008. Back then, when the euro was at an astounding 1.60 against the dollar, that same €200 hotel room cost $320.
When you multiply that €200 price for a longer stay, the effect of these shifting currency values becomes clear:
• 3 nights in the Spring of 2008: $960
• 3 nights in the Spring of 2009: $840
• 3 nights in the Spring of 2010: $762
The continuing economic crisis in Europe means that the euro will probably remain weak, with increased spending power for Americans, throughout the summer tourist season.
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Paris's first Restaurant Week may be a bust for tourists
Following behind New York, London, and other hotbeds of gastronomy, the city of Paris has launched its very own Restaurant Week. More than 120 restaurants will be participating in Tous au Restaurant ("everybody in the restaurant") from June 7–13. The celebration promises specially priced menus—€20.10 ($25.56) at lunch and no more than €35 ($44.50) at dinner—and the ability to make reservations online. Sounds tempting, but is this really a good bet for travelers? Not really. Reason number one: these special prices aren't actually very special. Most of the participating restaurants, including several that I really recommend (le Bistrot Paul Bert, Aux Lyonnais, Au Petit Marguery, l'Assiette) have everyday prices that are lower than the restaurant week offer. Reason number two: the online reservation system doesn't work. When I tried (several times) to book a table, I was asked to provide personal information and enrolled in a newsletter before receiving an email that contained—get this—the restaurant's phone number. It doesn't help that the website is only in French. For those who are able to reserve a table by phone, there are really only two good value options to consider booking: Gaya and La Table de Joël Robuchon. Among the 120-plus participating restaurants, these are the only places where you'll snag significant savings during restaurant week. A single dish at world-renowned chef Pierre Gagnaire's Gaya restaurant can run as much as €47, so the multi-course restaurant week menu represents a real steal. Ditto for Robuchon's formal restaurant in the 16th arrondissement, where diners usually spend well over €100. So what do BT readers think? Does Paris Restaurant Week sound like a steal or a waste of time?
TripAdvisor plays it a little too straight
Is it just me, or could TripAdvisor do more to court gay and lesbian travelers? The giant of user-generated hotel reviews doesn't let you filter reviews by sexual preference—to zero in on reviewers like yourself—the way it allows users to filter reviews by special categories like business, family, couples, friends getaways, and solo travel. The site also seems to shy away from officially acknowledging the presence of the LGBT community. It goes without saying that gays and lesbians travel for business, with families, and so forth—so many of TripAdvisor's filters have broad appeal. But LGBT travelers have unique concerns. When we're picking hotels, for instance, we often wonder whether the front-desk clerks are well trained and well mannered. If they aren't, they'll make a silly mistake when a same-sex couple asks for a single king bed: They'll act weird about it. And weirdness is exactly what I want TripAdvisor to help me avoid. I've also noticed that the U.S. division of TripAdvisor has never put out a press release or marketing campaign acknowledging gays and lesbians. A month ago, its U.K. branch produced its first list of the Top 10 Gay & Lesbian-Friendly Hotels in Europe, and I hope this anticipates a formal acknowledgement of the crowd here in the States, too. How about a simple Top 10 List of Gay-Friendly Hotels in America? All I wish is for the Internet's leading hotel review site to do as much to welcome LGBT travelers as nearly every airline, hotel chain, and major destination does. Online travel site Orbitz has a microsite for gay travelers, as does Travelocity. Major airlines have LGBT marketing, such as American Airlines' aa.com/rainbow. Nearly every major U.S. and European city seems to have a webpage or a brick-and-mortar kisok dispensing LGBT travel information, such as Seattle's and London's gay-tourism portals. In fact, the U.S. travel industry as a whole has a proven track record of being much better about courting the gay customer than other industries. To its credit, TripAdvisor allows its users to post info about LGBT travel on its site, particularly in its Gay Travel Forum. Users have posted travel guides ranging from the best LGBT-friendly lodging in New Hampshire to the most LGBT-friendly neighborhoods in Paris. For instance, guides on Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Dublin, Ireland, have lots of helpful info. But allowing your users to ask each other trip-planning questions on your Travel Board is nothing special. What's more: While thousands have participated in TripAdvisor's forums, I bet most TripAdvisor users aren't even aware the forums exist. The site could do more to promote these forums. As of today, on the homepage for TripAdvisor's forums, the Gay Travel Forum isn't listed. (Though things like "Rugby World Cup 2010" are listed.) You have to click "see all" to find it. Some people might say, you can't measure "gay-friendliness," but there are proven proxies for estimating it. Reviews are one way. If TripAdvisor started collecting user-information on how gay-friendly a hotel is, it could build a powerful database. It could add a checkbox on the review form giving a reviewer a chance to mention their interest in LGBT friendly hotels. Another way to judge a hotel is by how it treats its staff because that affects how the staff treats the guests. Will the housekeepers give a same-sex couple second looks? They probably won't if the hotel makes a policy of not discriminating against LGBT staff. TripAdvisor could add a little tag to the listing for any hotel that has been TAG Approved, namely a hotel vetted by an independent organization for its employment policies, services, and support returned to the LGBT community (and not for pay-for-placement deals). At the end of the day, this is a missed business opportunity for TripAdvisor—gay travelers seem to travel more than the average American and should be a growth market for the site. Parent company Expedia was the first major travel site to offer specific content for the gay and lesbian travel market back in 2001, which leads me to think its TripAdvisor division is simply making an oversight. What do you think? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?
