I have just arrived home to London following a week in Nashville, Tennessee, for Hotel News Now’s annual Hotel Data Conference.
This was the 15th edition of HDC, and the first one held at the Grand Hyatt Nashville. The conference will return to that hotel next year, so save the date for Aug. 7-9, 2024.
The weekend before the conference began, I was in Chattanooga.
I like Chattanooga. Like Nashville, although not to the same level, it is seeing a building boom as Americans from other states realize what Tennessee has to offer.
I stayed in two hotels there.
The first was the Best Western Heritage Inn the night before I ran the Still Hollow Trail Half Marathon in nearby Enterprise South Nature Park.
As I walked in my room, it could have been anywhere on the planet, but it was perfectly comfortable, the shower was good, there was so-so coffee to perk me up and when the race was over. After running in 86 degree temperatures, humidity you could see, over hills and roots, I could put my calves in the chilly pool to help get rid of some lactic acid in my legs.
I have run this race three times now, when the event corresponds with the dates of HDC, so I have stayed in three hotels in this area of freeway interchanges. The fee to take part in the race in part benefits Wild Trails, a nonprofit that promotes healthy living and protects and preserves natural spaces that can be used for activity and exercise.
The two interchanges close to the start line are a sea of brand names, either hotels — America’s Best Value, DoubleTree by Hilton, Econo Lodge, Homewood Suites by Hilton, MainStay Suites, Motel 6, Red Roof Inn, Super 8, WoodSpring Suites and others — or restaurants, such as Acropolis Grill, City Café Diner (next to the Best Western and crammed with people every time I passed) Firebox Grill, Super Pho & Grill, Taco Roc and Waffle House and others.
The evening after the race, I moved camp to stay at the Crash Pad right in the heart of Chattanooga.
It is a very cool spot. It is open to all but has an affinity to climbers, who stay here, swap tales of mountains climbed and prepare to ascend new rock faces in the area such as Deep Creek, Foster Falls, Sunset Rock and the famed Tennessee Wall.
As I chatted with the receptionist, it turned out he was a climber, too.
The Crash Pad: An Uncommon Hostel, to give it its full name, is in Chattanooga's Southside district, which since the hostel was built with environmental and sustainability guidance at heart in 2011 has seen its neighborhood flourish into a thriving scene of restaurants, breweries and apartments.
The hostel has a combination of bunk-bed areas and private rooms and was very handy to nearby Finley Stadium, where I watched Chattanooga Football Club beat the Savannah Clovers 5-0 in the National Independent Soccer Association league.
There were 3,048 fans in attendance, and a Chattanooga player, Markus Naglestad, set a new club goal record of 53 goals. The team also features an Englishman, Alex McGrath from Spennymoor, County Durham.
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