The honest layover

The midscale airport hotel is not trying to be a destination. It is trying to be a clean bed attached to a parking garage and a 4:40 a.m. shuttle. On those terms, the good ones are a civic service. The bad ones are a fluorescent short story about carpet.

Inspect, in one minute: curtains that meet, a door that latches, a breakfast that does not smell like a wet waffle iron from the hallway. Check the total, not the headline.

Book for the shuttle and the blackout curtains. Eat somewhere else. Leave at dawn.