It happened in Marseille, as stories often do. I was on my way from Paris to Cannes during a particularly aggressive rail strike - one foot in the grève - when my train came to a halt. And refused to go any further. When I found an SNCF employee, he told me that the next train to Cannes would leave... in the morning.
So I was stranded. Luckily I had my laptop, and the McDonald's at Saint-Charles station has Wi-Fi, so I was able to search for a hotel, give them a call and reserve a room. I spent a pleasant evening eating bouillabaisse and that was that. The next day I arrived safely in Cannes.
But today I'd do things differently. Last week my friend Sandrine (salut!) told me about an app called "Hotel Tonight". At the swipe of a finger, the app tells you which hotels have rooms available within walking distance (or a short taxi ride) of wherever you happen to be standing. Reservations are open from midday, so the app is clearly aimed at "last minute" customers - just like yours truly in Marseille. Based in San Francisco and Paris, the service covers 150 destinations in Europe and North America. If you're stranded in Mumbai that won't help you very much, but I imagine global expansion is just around the corner. I often daydream about the Golden Age of travel - steam trains and flying boats - but the Digital Age of travel definitely has its advantages.
