Letter From America and Pillow Menus
Posted by Steve Munroe | Under Life, travel Sunday May 25, 2008
It’s my last night of my week long stay in the US. I’ve spent most of it in Detroit visiting friends and the last 2 days I’ve been in a hotel in Chicago where I met up with an old University buddy. I stay in hotels just infrequently enough to still enjoy the experience. I like the mini bars and the maid service 
One thing new at the hotel I’m staying at tonight: Pillow menus! These are basically a selection of pillows that you can choose for free. One has built in speakers and plays soothing music, one is impregnated with aromatherapy oils, one is made of silk and so on. Now, I like being pampered as much as the next person but seriously..pillow menus!? This kind of gimmick I term ’superfluous luxury’, which is basically any extra service or freebee that doesn’t really add anything except the illusion of luxury. Its the kind of thing I can live without. What I do appreciate are innovations and extras that help me do something more easily or removes the need for me to do something I’d rather not do. To give an example, laundry service is always great, as is room service. If hotels concentrated on adding new services that remove the need for me to have to do things I’d rather not do, or help me get things done in an easier, more pleasurable way i’d pretty much always take advantage of them. But pillow menus? I wouldn’t miss them if they weren’t there.
Anyway, not much in the way of practical tips in this post but at least you now know that pillow menus exist! (Oh, and by the way, if you feel the urge to give them a try go to the Affinia Hotel in Chicago on East Superior, just off the magnificent mile.)
Back to normal posts next week.
