It’s another hotel offer that’s worth checking out: Westin is offering a free third night with a two-night stay. Their third night free offer is valid for stays through December 31, 2009, and the rules state that it’s available at all Westin properties worldwide.

Normally, I’m skeptical of these deals, because it’s often hard to find availability for the dates and locations you really want. But I just ran a few searches myself, and found good deals at properties in Berlin, Tucson, and Los Cabos. Then again, I had no luck finding rooms available through this offer at any property and date combination I searched for anywhere in California. Your mileage may vary, of course, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

Hat tip to Julia Bainbridge writing on Wendy Perrin’s page over at Conde Nast.

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Westin recently launched the WestinWorkout — whereby you can have a treadmill or spinning machine in your hotel room.

For some, this is a good thing. For me, it’s the antithesis of what I want in a hotel room. I don’t get the appeal of having a large piece of exercise equipment next to your bed. Aesthetically it’s all wrong, especially in a chain that pitches serenity and luxury. Much like I don’t like to sleep at the gym, I don’t like to use exercise machines in the bedroom.

I’ve worked out at hotel gyms, and they’ve never been crowded. It’s hardly a meat market. I guess it’s convenient to not have to take an elevator down a couple floors, but is that really so hard? I’m sure market-testing indicates a market niche here.

I’m reminded of two things. First, a theme in Robert Putnam’s somewhat alarmist book on the “collapse and revival of American community,” Bowling Alone: Activities that were once communal or social activities have become solitary and individual. We can’t even work out in a gym anymore when we’re away from home.

Second, it gives me the opportunity to tell a Bob Costas anecdote. And none of my Bob Costas anecdotes — none — are complimentary. Thankfully the Olympics are over, so I don’t have to see his arrogant mug on my television any longer. Hallelujah!

In my one and only job in the hospitality business, back in the mid-90s, I worked in the offices of a 4-star hotel in Chicago. Costas and other NBC Sports figures were regular guests, typically in town to cover Chicago Bulls games. The sportscasters and the visiting team typically stayed at the same hotel. Coworkers related stories galore about the ego trips that some of these celebrities went on, but it was always the sportscasters, never the athletes, who drew the employees’ ire.

In one of his more minor transgressions (and the reason why I’m mentioning him now), Costas insisted on having exercise equipment trucked up to his room, because he didn’t want to work out at the hotel’s attached health club. The same health club where visiting NBA teams regularly worked out. Good enough for the Seattle Supersonics, but not for Bob.

My favorite story, though: Costas complained to a staffer because the sun was waking him up, shining brightly into his face every morning. The reply: “Were the curtains closed?” (No.) Costas flies off the handle, screaming at the staffer for “questioning him.” He proceeds to insist that housekeeping come up to his room to cover the bedroom windows in his suite with black construction paper. Much to my chagrin, the hotel management agreed to do it.

Bottom line: Now Westin is letting us all be Bob Costas, hiding from public sight while we curl our dumbbells or ride our spinning cycles in the same rooms where we work and rest. Will they take construction-paper requests for windows soon, too?

Would this be a room you’d reserve? Hit the comments.

What if you could arrive in a distant location and yet be assured that you wouldn’t suffer from miserable jet lag?

Pipe dreaming, perhaps. But it’s encouraging that hotel chains are working to help travelers in getting on the right time zone quickly and comfortably. For example:

[Westin] has partnered with Philips and a group of sleep doctors to create a “concept room” aimed at aiding sleep deprivation and cutting jet-lag recovery time in half. This hotel-room laboratory is currently being tested at the Westin Chicago River North [...]

The concept room is equipped with Philips’ ActiViva lamps — revolutionary new blue-light lamps that provide high-quality lighting and directly affect the way people feel by supposedly making them feel more alert, awake and energized. [...]

The lights, along with other cutting-edge amenities such as a guided-meditation TV program (it actually walks you through into a sleep experience) and a room-service menu filled with calming snacks such as a banana-milk smoothie, are being tested by Westin through a series of evaluations with travelers who have recently crossed two or more time zones. Window shades are custom blackout models. Other white-noise machines are also in the room. [...]There are oscillating fans, calming tea, and [a shower with] a high-intensity light that its manufacturer claims will reset your body clock.

I appreciate the fact that hotels are thinking about this, and not just by offering customers cherry pie or offering jet lag advice like their airline counterparts. But this takes it up a notch. It’s very welcome.

And I kinda want those shower lights for home.

Staying awake until a “normal” time for the local time zone is often a struggle, so travelers need all the help they can get. These innovations are welcome, even if some of them, individually, are corny. (Talking meditation machine, anyone?) Anti-jet-lag features would especially be a great feature at airport hotels — particularly since airport hotels are rarely inspiring spaces.

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For ages, hotels have offered “romance” packages to couples looking to reignite the flame. Now, hotels have introduced something new: the procreation vacation (or “procreavacation”?).

Having trouble getting pregnant? [...] Doctor Jason James says he often recommends fertility-challenged patients book a vacation. He says de-stressing with your spouse away from daily life can actually aid in conception. [...] Hotels are introducing procreation vacation packages, offering everything from on-site sex doctors to age-old fertility boosters promising to hasten the pitter-patter of little feet. At The Westin at Our Lucaya Grand Bahama Island, couples can sip fertility-boosting pumpkin soup and down sea moss elixirs.

And I thought pumpkin soup was just a seasonal dish.

With European governments worried about an aging citizenry and minimal growth putting their pension systems at risk, perhaps this will be the next great policy prescription from Brussels.

But the name “procreation vacation” has got to go. That’s even worse than the mancation.

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