Shopping online

A couple of months ago, I met with some high school roommates. A main reason to meet them was because of a friend’s birthday. The other reason is that I had to get some books from another friend.

In early February, a friend went to San Francisco for a conference. I asked him to do me a favor. I ordered some books on amazon and those books would be shipped to the hotel where he stayed. Before ordering, I checked on the hotel website and it showed that it’s ok to send packages to the hotel and there won’t be extra costs. So, I told my friends and placed an order.

However, there’s something unexpected. I ordered online and a few days later, I received an email from amazon, which indicated that the package would arrive early. I quickly called my friend and demonstrated that the package would be shipped to the hotel before his check-in time. I asked him to send an email to the hotel to notify them of this situation.

A couple of years ago, a colleague told me the same situation. He used to go to the United States on business several times. Sometimes, he ordered some stuff online and normally, those things arrived earlier than expected. Most of the time, a package he ordered would be shipped to the hotel before he checked in. This time, the situation is exactly the same. Thankfully, I remembered his story and checked on the hotel website just in case.

It’s not a bad idea to go shopping online and buy some products while traveling. In particular, it might be ideal to buy some products that are not available in your home country. Nonetheless, it’s extremely important to make sure that those products would be shipped before you left. Additionally, it’s also important to understand the hotel policy to make sure that there won't be extra costs if the package arrives early and it will be stored in the hotel for 1 or 2 days.