Well, I'm here in this glorious, expensive, isolated resort, and I can tell you this much - for business travel, this sucks. It would be nice for vacation, but I've done a lot of business traveling, and this is just not up to par. I hate to sound jaded, but business travelers have specific needs, and I'm at a loss as to why the conference organizers decided to have the conference here as opposed a real city (i.e., Rome).
We are so isolated. There is no copy center, and one tiny computer center. There is no ATM machine, and the resort does not take credit cards or traveler's checks. In my room, I don't have any of the following: a clock, a radio, an ironing board/iron, any form of temperature control, a "Do Not Disturb" sign, a latch for the door, or a phone capable of taking messages. All of those things, plus a staff that responds quickly to requests for help or special needs, are what business travelers require, and none of that is present here. The staff often refuse to answer the phones (which disconnect after 45 seconds of unanswered rings), room service is rarely available, and the switchboard shuts down at night so that room to room communication is impossible.
Almost none of the staff speak English - and I'm not being a snob here, it's just that this is an English-speaking conference in which the only language all of us are guaranteed to know is English. There is no reading material, be it book, magazine, or newspaper, available in English here.
All of this is, I suppose, can be chalked up as the bitching and crabbing of a American used to being spoiled by business hotels (not that I usually stay in anything grander than a Sheraton). What troubles me more is that perhaps the staff do not know that many of us female business travelers are traveling alone, and we don't like it when they let themselves into our rooms without knocking, and refuse to leave when we ask them to (because we are, for example, not dressed, or sleeping). As I said, my door has no latch, so I cannot keep people out when I am sleeping, and every nap I have taken so far has been interrupted. One person from Reception even let themselves into my room in the middle of the night to return my passport, and I didn't realize they were there until they were standing right beside my bed. So the crime rate is lower here, fine. It still creeps me out.
Okay, so you got to listen to me whine today (you should have heard me Saturday night, when I realized my luggage had been left in Rome, and I had to sleep in the same skanky clothes that I'd been wearing for 36 hours at that point). This is a shared computer so I don't have time to post more of my oh-so-cheery comments. Let's just say I will not be unhappy to have to return to the decidedly-unMediterrean Philadelphia and my little rowhome.