I recently had to travel for business and stay in a hotel for 3 nights. Although it was a very upscale resort style place, the germ freak in me never truly enjoys sleeping anywhere but my own bed, let alone showering where several thousand other feet have showered before me (and lets be honest, who doesn’t pee in the shower?)
Whenever I step foot into a hotel room the first thing I do is take out my pocket sanitizing wipes and scrub the place down. First I start with the remote (because we all know hotel porn is like pizza- even when it’s bad it’s good)
By the time I’m done scouring the place to make it suitable enough for me to relax I then head downstairs to explore the facilities. I check out the gym (which I only managed to use the first morning before my meetings and immediately realized I should have gotten a tetanus shot to protect myself from the rusty equipment) and of course it goes without saying that the next place I explore is the lobby bar.
Now let me take it back a few steps for you. The reason I traveled in the fist place is that I needed – no, wanted- to attend a financial services seminar. When I called very last minute to register I was told it was sold out and wait list only.
So I picked up the phone and called the company sponsoring the event and asked for the marketing person in charge and –whala – I managed to secure a spot for the coveted event…. circumventing the wait list.
Then I called the hotel where the conference was taking place to book my room and again was told it was sold out. I hung up and called right back and asked to speak to the manager, explained the situation, asked if I could get squeezed into one of their reserve rooms and – whala – I got “the last room”.
I then did not have WIFI working in my room the first night and when I called down to ask for tech support I was put on hold for enough time to finish a glass of wine. Once my glass was empty I hung up (to refill).
Then I called the front desk, asked to speak to the manager and – whala – not only did I get WIFI working immediately- but they sent up a bottle of wine and snack tray -compliments of the hotel “for my trouble”.
The last day I decided to head back home early so I called the front desk after my last meeting which ended at 5 pm and asked if there were any way the could reduce the room price because although I stayed half the day I would not be staying overnight. The woman put me on hold to ask her manager (at which point I imagined the classic Seinfeld move where Jerry describes to Elaine the conversation between the rental car agent and her manager when they really are discussing absolutely nothing and pretending to care about his concerns) because I ended up with a “Sorry we can’t help you. You’ll be charged the full price”.
At which point I hung up and called right back and asked to speak to the manager and once again asked if they could work out a price for me because I would not be staying the night although I fully understood that I was well past the late checkout time and – Wahla– I got the entire day/night taken off my bill.
Lesson Learned:
All you need to do is ask and – wahla
Magic happens. Sometimes it’s not just about HOW you ask but also WHOM you ask and most often than not, it’s the combination of both.
And now for your viewing pleasure click the link:
Balsamfitsecret 