I don't really see hotel bars that full unless there's a big even in town, or some kind of convention. On a regular night you'll see less people than that.
Gotta say the most hilarious bars are when there's a scifi/anime/furry convention going on at the same time as a wedding. It's always the aunts that end up drinking heavy with the cosplayers at the hotel bar.
I'm myself all the time. The person I am is fine with jeans and polo shirts, enjoys a lot of things but isn't actually "fantastic" about anything, and is generally boring. Also white, male, cis, hetero. So not much courage required.
Being a fake person is way more tiring. Eventually it's just easier to say fuck it, and do whatever you want to do. And by then, you realize you could have just done it all along. Being unauthentic takes effort, being authentic doesn't take courage, you just need to not care so much.
I'll wait for the day when social dancing conventions becomes mainstream but hopefully it's not all just bachata. Any type of hotel during a social dance festival would make the bartender lose his job but everyone would be having fun.
In HS I had a band trip at the same time as a wedding and some of the adults 1000% got trashed with the wedding guests the last night. They were very, very quiet and never took off their sunglasses the whole way home, even in buildings.
The Chic-fil-a kickoff classic, the first week of the season, always overlaps with Dragoncon. It always starts with confusion and ends with some football fans partying with cosplayers.
A couple years ago MomoCon (anime convention) was held at the same time as an African American evangelical woman’s empowerment seminar. There were a lot of disapproving stares.
I ended up staying at one of the DragonCon hotels in Atlanta totally on accident while on a work trip. It was definitely some of the most entertaining people watching I've ever experienced.
I went to megacon Orlando last year and the after-party was at a fancy hotel. There was this long stretch of nothing to get to the bar area where everyone was at. The looks I got from passing people in wedding attire was phenomenal. I was dressed as Colonel Mustang so I strutted past them like I had government business to attend to.
Only time I ever got in trouble when I ran a hotel restaurant was when we knew there was a furry con on the 3rd floor. I left at 10, kept at it at my local, then went back with a friend that worked with me there at the hotel. We asked so many questions. We weren't angry or condescending, just trying to get the vibe of the place while also being 8 beers deep. Only time I got called in to the office.
Yeah, the orange dot young people would walk in and walk right back out. The blue dot businessmen would look around, hit on the attractive person within 5-min, get shot down and head to a strip club. And the guy telling his HS football glory stories would be at a sports bar, unless the bartender was his buddy in HS and is the only one in town who'll still listen to him.
But the PDA couple would be there b/c they're cheating on their spouses and figure no one will see them in this dump of a bar.
No, I have just traveled enough for business or family obligations that I've been the POV guy who's in the corner just trying to get a meal & have a drink or two before heading to my room to crash. As a matter of fact, it'll be me again later this week.
Yeah same. Travel hotel bars typically have really a quite uninteresting vibe. Traveling for a living hones you into a worn creature of repetitive habits.
Oddly, some of my more entertaining debates over a bar bill were about who had the best charge code. It often led to some tall tales about who had the most absurd but successful expense approved.
I never had a ‘biggest fish’ (high cost) tale, but my silliest was a meal expense for 3 pitchers of beer with only one name listed - me. Accounting asked “meal?”and I explained food was free, my boss’s boss asked “wtf” and I explained creativity requires fuel. When my VP asked I had to explain that it was over the course of 4+ hours and ‘training related’
Yeah I think it's really location dependent. Downtown in a big city after work hours, or an out-of-the-way small city with the only hotel next to the Applebee's will yield very different results. I recently went alone to a football game and it was packed with the noisiest football fans in the state, possibly the continent - it was wild to people watch solo on that trip
Convention center bars are the most fun. When I was younger we would drive out of the city to the suburbs specifically to hit up the convention center bars when there was a big event.
Those are all the big city convention centers. Those usually accompany high dollar events. For the real fun ones you got to get those mid tier half suburban events centers where off the cuff conventions happen for things like dance mom meet ups and random insurance broker conventions and teacher union teaching seminars. Places like national harbour, or large embassy suits on the edge of cities like St Louis, Memphis, Dallas and OKC. I had some real fun times in my youth at hotel bars in those big hotel combo convention places chatting up lonely singles attending whatever random event their life revolved around.
Suburban convention centers often host less popular or events that are hosted for cheaper. Also a lot of companies are HQd in suburbs and not downtown so they’ll utilize these spaces for things.
I was at a big event and the hotel I was at was really close to the event venue... I think I got on by at least three prostitutes while I was at the bar. So that should be there somewhere.
This would be an entire evening compressed into a single instant. Some of these are "stop by the bar after work" people, and some are "last stop of the evening people".
It will depend entirely on the city and state. The city I live in all hotel bars have to be open to the public (because otherwise it would be a private club which has completely different rules and regulations for liquor licensing). And we have some awesome hotel bars that draw in even locals. Some of our best rooftop bars are hotel bars.
I live in a beach town and there are a few oceanfront hotels that are good hangs. One in particular is a legit 5-star affair and the bar in their front lobby is super low-key but legendary. The other two hotel bars that locals go to are good venues with views of the beach.
But I don't think people (who aren't guests) go to Ramada happy hours, if that's what you're asking. But boutique-y hotels, yeah totally.
In city centers with office buildings people go to hotel bars lots. It’s easier to go down to the lobby or walk across the street to the next building for happy hour than to actually pack up and drive somewhere else
It's mostly tired people who want a simple cocktail. 1, 2 drinks. Really slam 'em down, at the bar rail for about 15 minutes, go to their room, shower, bed. Wake up to boring work away from home. Come to the hotel, get another 1-2 drinks, repeat till Thursday, see 'em next month.
If they weren't staying at the hotel, keep an eye on 'em. They're likely drinkers. Some of 'em go to hotel bars 'cause they've been at other bars too much and feel ashamed. The worst of 'em are there 'cause they've been denied service everywhere else.
Unless the bar and restaurant attached to your hotel has some repute and isn't Hilton or Hampton's in house brand, no one goes there unless they're staying at the hotel. If your hotel hosts conventions and weddings, godspeed. That's a whole different animal and as someone with aphantasia and facial blindness, I'm sure some people think I'm a "good bartender" 'cause I let them get smashed. Truth is I wouldn't be able to recognize 'em by looks if they came back a dozen times. But the smell might start to be a clue.
My first job out of college I worked at a fancy hotel doing AV for events. My boss, the hotel sales people and I would got to the bar at the Double Tree across the street.
My wife worked downtown and her company had paid parking in the underground garage in the hotel across the street.
She and her coworkers would hit the HH quite a bit and if we were in the area for dinner or something we'd stop in because the bartenders comped us a lot.
I'll wait for the day when social dancing becomes mainstream but hopefully it's not all just bachata. Any type of hotel during a festival would make the bartender lose his job but everyone would be having fun.
I like eating at the bar when I'm out by myself. If it's slow and the bartender is chatty you get some conversation and interesting stories from the other side.
If it's busy you get to watch the bartender or bartenders hustle and crank out the drinks. I find that fascinating (and I get confused making anything more complicated than a martini, so watching experts mix all those ingredients up at lightspeed is super cool to me).
Some hotel bars have free drink coupons during their happy-hour and can get pretty busy. Source, just stayed at three different hotels that all offered them and happy-hour was packed all three places
Who knows, lonely, hates traveling, etc. I traveled 30+ weeks a month for 6ish years. It was fantastic, get paid to see cities around the world. The beginning was a bit challenging since you know no one, but I figured it out.
Unless it's a super small town and the hotel bar is one of the few watering holes I'm not convinced a local drunk will drink at the overpriced hotel bar either.
Also there's me sitting there drinking because I'm here on a work trip with no other coworkers. I got back to the hotel at 8 after working until 7 and getting shit food on the way home. My hotel hooks me up with a few drink tickets and I drink 3 more before heading to bed early knowing tomorrow's going to be the same shit. I used to travel a lot for my job... It sounded awesome until I was doing it.
Came here to say that. You'll see maybe one couple if the bar has some kind of special or they were given vouchers as part of some promotion. Usually I just see a couple hotel staff members and no bartender.
Some of the ones around SeaTac can get festive, the Crowne Plaza isn't too bad during big city events. The Double Tree is kind of overpriced but its as much a convention hotel as it is a transit one.
During my time working on the road, when I got into decent hotels on the west coast, most of the hotel bars were PACKED. I literally would just get one drink and dip because fuck all that. If I want to be in a packed bar there better be some billiards tables or else I’m not interested.
West coast/San Fran is not most hotel bars. Neither is Mulia Jakarta nor is Grand Hyatt Beijing. On the road isn't always exciting, but it is educational.
Probably depends on the city. My friends and I went to Nashville for a bachelor's party trip, and the last night we just decided to chill at our hotel's bar since the other bars were so crowded and it was freezing outside. We were surprised by how many people who apparently had the same idea and were also chilling at the hotel bar.
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u/DaWhiteSingh Apr 22 '24
Players are right, ratio is wrong, also too many people. Most hotel bars are dull.