As a member of the media, I’m a little embarrassed at this morning’s news reports on Barron Hilton’s donation of $1.2 billion to charity. Instead of focusing on this tremendous act of kindness, nearly every one of the consumer press reports discussed how the donation—and a another one of $1.1 billion he’ll make in the future—will affect the inheritance of Hilton’s granddaughter, celebrity do-nothing Paris Hilton.

In making the announcement, Barron said he will eventually give 97 percent of his entire net worth to charity, namely the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation his father established in 1944. His heirs in the Hilton family, including Paris, will need to split the balance of his fortune among themselves. Presumably, many of them have made their own mark, and fortunes, in the world and don’t need a handout from grandpa.

While the Hilton name is synonymous with quality hotels, it is even more newsworthy that the family, at least patriarch Conrad and his son Barron, have been so generous with their hard-earned fortune. I wish the media would focus on that fact, and not on that no-good idiot of a woman who just happens to share their good name.

I’m not above stealing from another’s blog, but at least I give credit. Credit for this tidbit goes to USA Today’s Kitty Bean Yancey, who writes the paper’s Hotel Hotsheet blog.

She recently wrote about the Don CeSar Beach Resort in St. Petersburg, FL that offers its guests a  neat incentive to check-out early. Those guests who check-out by 10 a.m. are entered in a weekly drawing for a two-night return stay. The payoff for the hotel is that it allows its housekeepers to clean more rooms earlier in the day, keeping them productive and permitting at least some new guests to check-in early.

Simple, clever and efficient: That’s the kind of idea I like.

It’s great news for the tourism business that most travelers have short memories. Following particularly rough hurricane seasons in the Southeast or a rash of wildfires in the West, pundits like to say that these events won’t hurt tourism because travelers, especially vacationers, tend to forget about bad news in a year or two.

It turns out that the pundits are right. Tourism officials in Florida recently announced that visits to the Sunshine State were up five percent during the just-concluded hurricane season (actually the figures covered July 1 to September 30, the heart of the season, and were compared to the same time period in ‘06.)

After a rough storm season two years ago (remember Katrina?), the state and Southeast have enjoyed two quiet years for hurricanes. And sure enough, travelers seemed to forget the past in order to visit Mickey, South Beach, the Panhandle and the state’s other attractions.