When you arrive at baggage claim and your luggage is more than you can push yourself, many airports around the world have carts for you to use for free. In the U.S. it’s far more common for you to pay to use a cart, like one from SmarteCarte. You’ll pay around $5 to release the cart at a nearby station, and then you can move your bags from the carousel to your ground transportation. Someone has to collect the carts, and then they get re-rented again.
But what if that $5 paid to rent the cart for an indefinite period of time? They’d sure be useful for hotels. They run $5 to $6 a piece at many USA Airports.
In contrast, hotel bellman carts can run $500 – $1500 each. $5 is a lot less, and there’s an almost endless supply at the nearest major airport!
The AmericInn by Wyndham Denver Airport situated among third tier properties on Tower Road appears to have gotten an idea like this, based on photos sent to me by a reader.
In front of the entrance to the Grand Hyatt San Francisco Airport there’s a luggage cart drop off and pickup area. You can take a cart on the airtrain to the hotel and drop it off in front. Then you can pick up a cart right outside the hotel and bring it back to the terminal. Useful! But that’s a different story entirely than a hotel grabbing just some SmarteCartes.
