Greenberg, Peter

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GREENBERG, Peter

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—Sherman Oaks, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House Publishing Group/Villard, 1745 Broadway, eighteenth Floor, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Writer, producer, consumer advocate, and volunteer fire fighter. Has worked as travel editor and/or correspondent for National Geographic Traveler magazine, Newsweek, ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Today Show, and the Discovery Network's Travel Channel. Author of online column for MSNBC.com. UPN News, travel editor; Avenues magazine, contributing editor; KABC Radio, Los Angeles, CA, host of The Travel Detective.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished Service Award in Journalism, University of Wisconsin; Aviation Space Writers Association of America Award for "Planes with a Past," an investigative piece on ABC's Good Morning America.

WRITINGS:

The Travel Detective: How to Get the Best Service and the Best Deals from Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Ships, and Car Rental Agencies, Villard (New York, NY), 2001.

The Travel Detective Flight Crew Confidential: People Who Fly for a Living Reveal Insider Secrets and Hidden Values in Cities and Airports around the World, Villard (New York, NY), 2002.

Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective: Insider Tips on Getting the Best Value, Service, and Security in Accommodations from Bed-and-Breakfasts to Five-Star Resorts, Villard (New York, NY), 2004.

Coauthor of The Piano Teacher and editor of Learning Adventures around the World: 2000 Trips That Will Change Your Life. Author of syndicated travel column.

SIDELIGHTS: An expert on travel and the tourism industry, Peter Greenberg is an outspoken travel editor, correspondent, and host of his own Los Angeles-based radio show The Travel Detective. Greenberg, who logs approximately 400,000 miles a year traveling, has written several books about how best to travel, beginning with The Travel Detective: How to Get the Best Service and the Best Deals from Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Ships, and Car Rental Agencies. As "The Travel Detective," Greenberg lets readers in on a myriad of inside tips on traveling that travel agents typically don't or can't tell their clients. Some of the secrets Greenberg reveals in his book concern walk-up fares, which can save travelers hundreds of dollars on last-minute flights; how to avoid being bumped from a flight; the best and worst credit card companies to help a traveler in a foreign land; and the hotels with the best and worst fire and crime safety records.

In a chapter titled "I Don't Hate Travel Agents, but Many Travel Agents Think I Do," Greenberg recounts his Good Morning America television segment in which he made random calls to agents while shopping for the best fares. He then called the airlines for comparisons and often got better fares than from the agents. The segment was a huge embarrassment to the travel agency industry. But Marion Flanagan, writing in TravelAge West, noted that "Greenberg ultimately validates agents in [his first] book. And it is worthy of note, since countless consumers will read—and believe—what he writes." Library Journal contributor George M. Jenks commented that Greenberg does not discuss "organized tours, travel by car, and train travel" but added that the book "is packed with valuable information and features an authoritative, and quite funny, voice." James Shillinglaw wrote in Travel Agent that it is Greenberg's "approach to the topic that had me laughing out loud on several occasions" and added that frequent travelers' will recognize that what the author "writes certainly rings absurdly true."

In The Travel Detective Flight Crew Confidential: People Who Fly for a Living Reveal Insider Secrets and Hidden Values in Cities and Airports around the World, Greenberg taps into the insider knowledge of pilots and flight attendants, both of whom are notoriously frugal, to inform readers about how to get the best value for their money while traveling. Tidbits include information on everything from buying furniture in Atlanta and silk in Bangkok to getting medical care in Paris to finding some of the best hidden ethnic restaurants and bars in the world. Greenberg gathered the information through a number of interviews with domestic and foreign flight crews. Once again writing in Library Journal, Jenks commented, "It is laden with airport and city tips, lists of favorite restaurants, book stores, and souvenir shops, and suggestions for things to do." Another reviewer writing in Library Journal noted, "Opinionated, often controversial, but always helpful, The Travel Detective delivers again."

Greenberg focuses on away-from-home lodging in his 2004 book Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective: Insider Tips on Getting the Best Value, Service, and Security in Accommodations from Bed-and-Breakfasts to Five-Star Resorts. This time, Greenberg shares the secrets that people who work in hotels—including managers, maids, reservations clerks, bellhops, chefs, and maintenance people—don't want their customers to know. He offers such tips as how to get the best room rates, how to tell if a room is really clean, how to prevent hotel crime, what never to order from room service, and the best person to ask about hotel conditions. Greenberg also provides information on "famous" lodgings and rooms, such as the hotel room where the late John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their "bed-in" for peace. Chapter titles include "What the Housekeepers Won't Tell You" and "The Truth about Stars and Diamonds." Jenks noted that the "level of detail will overwhelm infrequent travelers, though it might be useful for those who use hotels often." Writing in the New York Times, Joe Sharkey commented, "I welcomed Mr. Greenberg's insights on the wide-ranging topic of domestic and international hotels," adding, "There's practical information" and "good advice."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, January 1, 2003, "What Peter Greenberg Reads."

Houston Chronicle, June 20, 2004, Harry Shattuck, review of Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective: Insider Tips on Getting the Best Value, Service, and Security in Accommodations from Bed-and-Breakfasts to Five-Star Resorts, p. 2.

Library Journal, May 15, 2001, George M. Jenks, review of The Travel Detective: How to Get the Best Service and the Best Deals from Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Ships, and Car Rental Agencies, p. 150; March 1, 2002, review of The Travel Detective Flight Crew Confidential: People Who Fly for a Living Reveal Insider Secrets and Hidden Values in Cities and Airports around the World, p. 83; September 15, 2002, George M. Jenks, review of The Travel Detective Flight Crew Confidential, p. 83; April 15, 2004, George M. Jenks, review of Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective, p. 112.

Men's Health, April, 2004, p. 20.

Newsweek, February 21, 2000, Donna Foote, "It's Home Suite Hotel: Five-Star Living in the Privacy of Your Own House," p. 62.

New York Times, May 18, 2004, Joe Sharkey, review of Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective, p. C7.

Orlando Business Journal, June 8, 2001, review of The Travel Detective, p. 25.

Successful Meetings, November, 2002, Michelle Gillan, "Ramblin' Man: NBC's Travel Guy Can Help Make Your Next Vacation a Real Vacation," p. 144.

Travel Agent, June 4, 2001, James Shillinglaw, review of The Travel Detective, p. 14.

TravelAge West, June 19, 2000, Jerry Changler, "Greenberg: Be Wary of the Airlines," p. 1; September 18, 2000, Nehme E. Abouzeid, "Carlson Wagonlit Confab Finds Times Are Good," p. 6; May 28, 2001, Marion Flanagan, review of The Travel Detective, p. 16.

Travel Weekly, May 28, 2001, Nadine Godwin, "From an 'Agent-Hater,'" p. 64.

USA Today, March 19, 2004, Kitty Bean Yancey, "Highflying 'Detective' Offers Hotel How-Tos" (interview), p. D9.