Jean Lepage

I go to the airport and wait and wait. There must be a better way. Waiting at the airport can become a real pain. There is a solution.<BR>Virtual Bellhop will come to my house, pick up my luggage and then deliver it right to the hotel. Then come back to the hotel pick up my luggage when I am leaving town and<BR>return my stuff to my home. I no longer need to wait to check in at the airport or to collect my bags from the carousel at the end of my flight. Sure saved me a lot of time.<BR>www.virtualbellhop.com<BR><BR><BR>

xxx

Back again with your advertising, I see. Couldn't take a subtle hint the last time you posted here?

Thyra

I am tempted to write to this "Virtual Bellhop" garbage and tell them that though I may have used their service had they paid for and advertised in the proper places... I will purposfully AVOID using their company because they are trying to glom on to free advertising through another companies hosted forum... obviously, they are a CHEAP CHEAP company, and it would be foolish to do business with them...<BR>What are they, some kind of luggage theives????

fiona

well said thyra!!!! they are obviously not a good company if they have to resort to these tactics! At least they've let us know this so we know NOT to use their services!!!!!

anon

They post their mailing address on their website:<BR><BR>TraveLite/Virtual Bellhop, Inc. <BR>31632 N. Ellis Drive<BR>Volo, Illinois. 60073<BR><BR>Send them a letter and let them know how you feel about violating the no advertising policy here. Put a 1 cent stamp on it. They can pay the postage due. Perhaps hundreds of times. Perhaps thousands.<BR>

john

I don't even see how you could use this service anyway:<BR><BR>First, how does your luggage get from your house to your hotel? Does it go on the same flight or is delivered by an express service? If it goes on the same flight then how do you check your bags? How can you honestly answer that your luggage has been in your control? <BR><BR>Secondly, this in no way diminshes the "wait" at the airport. You still have to see a ticket agent (at many airports) to get a boarding pass to get through security. I've noticed many airports are no longer accepting printed itineraries off your home computer (how easy it would be to dummy one of these up). <BR><BR>Third, you still have to go through the long time consuming security (to get into the terminal and possibly to get on the plane).<BR><BR>Fourth, you still have to be at the gate a minimum of thirty minutes (domestic)/hour (international) if you plan on getting on the plane.<BR><BR>Fifth, you still have to wait with everyone else as the planes are delayed.<BR><BR>Sixth, the only possible timesaver is when you arrive at a destination - but how often does it take more than 20 minutes to get your luggage. I doubt this is even available for international flights because you would have to go through customs with your bags...of course if you are a smuggler, why not let someone else do the dirty work.<BR><BR>Finally, without even looking at the ADVERTISED website I would think the "cost of money/to time saved" ratio would be ludicrous.<BR><BR>So, this seems like a STUPID SERVICE not even counting the fact it is a BLATANT ADVERTISMENT and not the tip it is pretending to be. I haven't been to their website, and don't plan on visiting their website. But I will probably post on other travel forums what a ridiculous service this pretends to be.

fiona

what a dangerous idea this is!! who in their right mind would use it? Perhaps Mr B Laden has escaped Afghanistan and has started up a new business!!!!

x

Strike Back:<BR><BR>If they can use our Forum then lets all go to their website and fill out a fake request for service (or several). I just did this. They will be spending their time and money working up a quote for an Mr. Bob Davidson, when they call the number given they will get the local FBI office (or choose something appropriate).<BR><BR>If enough people did this they would soon be out of business as they wouldn't be able to tell a "real" order from a fake one.

Christina

that is odd that this company came back after the last time which didn't make them look so good. Basically, this service is just like UPS or something, that's all -- so it's just like shipping your bags by any parcel service. It's very expensive, they deliver to your hotel like a package and you have to have them pick it up at your house several days before you want it. Sounds really dumb to me although I could see it for business travelers who had a lot of samples, projectors, etc for a presentation which could be shipped ahead to a hotel and then shipped back separately (I have business colleagues who ship stuff back by parcel services that are bulky to free them from taking it to the airline). You don't have to answer questions because you don't have the bags with you, any more than if you shipped them UPS. It sounds really awful for vacation travelers. In theory (even though I hate this company just for being liars) it could save you some time at the airport if you could then travel solely with a carryon and had your ticket and didn't need to stand in the regular airline desk line where you check baggage. The bags at pickup aren't much of a problem.

Cindy

When I used to travel on business, I simply used Fed Ex to ship documents and materials I would need at my destination. One phone call to Fed Ex will do it. Why on earth bother with the trouble and expense of using this so-called company?<BR><BR>Frankly, they can't be too bright over at Virtual Bellhop, as they apparently figure bad publicity is better than no publicity.