Got stranded in MSP today due to de-icing at ORD. Since when does it take 30 friggin' minutes to de-ice a 737 (actual spray time)?? NOT NWA's fault, that was the de-icing talent at ORD. Missed connection by more than an hour.

Got a room at the Embassy Suites / Airport / Mall of America. Checked in, got to the room, room was 76 degrees. Turned on A/C...got HEAT! Called front desk, sent a building engineer up. He explained to me that this is yet another one of those bass-ackwards building designs where the ENTIRE building is on heat or the ENTIRE building is on cooling. If you are there in May and your room is too cold, you're out of luck. If you're there in December and your room is too hot, you're equally hosed. Windows do not open.

The engineer tried opening up the fresh air damper inside the ceiling unit but that only had HOT air in it as well as it ran through ducts that were all in hot areas. To his credit, he was exceptionally apologetic and tried for 15 minutes to get some sort of cooling in there.

Also, to the front desk's credit, they arranged a room at the Homewood Suites at my request, zeroed out my bill, got their shuttle driver to fetch me and deliver me to the sister hotel a couple of miles away, and did not argue with me about it one bit. That part of it was handled well, so ^^ to the front desk staff at this hotel.

I have run into this at more than one Hilton property. The Embassy Suites at the SFO airport North was like this. So was the Hilton Airport SLC. I can understand this, I suppose, for office buildings (thogh it irritates me there as well) but in a hotel building where people have to sleep??

Hilton should, at the very least, give a warning on its web sites. "WARING! SINGLE STAGE HVAC. Heating only October - April, cooling only May-September."

If they are resisting doing that because people would be dissuaded from staying there, then it's probably time to change those systems.

--PP