I know I’ve posted before about quirky hotels, but can’t resist this one: TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Quirkiest Hotels. They’re everything from ice to prison to barge to wigwams to caves to, well, just indescribable.

Larry Mundy’s latest column compares the customer service experienced on an airplane to that experienced in a hotel. I like this bit:

He must arrive at the airport two hours early and stand in a long line of people who have removed their shoes, jewelry, and pocket change to shuffle though a portal made from a highly modified microwave oven, where his entire skeleton is exposed onscreen to a grumpy federal employee. At the hotel, he will be cheerfully welcomed and no one will ask him to disrobe in the lobby or demonstrate the functionality of his laptop.

I also like his conclusion that gee, do you think that rising RevPAR in hotels and airlines that are filing bankrupcy could have anything to do with the customer service levels they provide? I know, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but isn’t it amazing what we’ve come to tolerate in air travel that we never would in other areas of life?