Just to keep the TripAdvisor blood pressure up...

[Morticia]

Back to the TA topic...has anyone had this lately...a guest with or without a rez shows up and offers to write a good review if you come down on the price? A broker here in the state says this has become rampant and he's hearing it from more and more small inns & B&B's.

 

[EmptyNest]

Back to the TA topic...has anyone had this lately...a guest with or without a rez shows up and offers to write a good review if you come down on the price? A broker here in the state says this has become rampant and he's hearing it from more and more small inns & B&B's..

ONG! That is ridiculous..I wouldn't even take that guest.

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

As a reminder to our legacy posters and an FYI to our new members on this board, we tend to stay away from political and religious issues. We find that we all enjoy each other's company more that way. Many, many things draw us off-topic but they tend to be much more mundane items. Much as I may agree with some of the opinions voiced - or not - best to stick to innkeeping stuff..

muirford,
Sorry about that, I just assumed if somebody introduced something, it was fair game.
My blood must have still been boiling from the article in this week's Rolling Stone about concerted efforts to further abuse the taxpayer's good will by further liberalization of the estate tax to the tune of $100 BILLION over the next ten years so the ultra rich can laugh at us commoners even harder.
FYI taken, it won't happen again.
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Seriously Tim, that wasn't just directed at you. That's why I didn't post it as a reply to you but as a general post on the topic. It happens from time to time with our regulars, and I wouldn't expect that you would know that as a newbie. It was just information for you and a reminder for others. We get some slippage on that on occasion. Some of us have been members of other forums where talk was all political and we found that was not to our liking. So we try very hard to walk around those topics rather than through them.
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I took it exactly how you so diplomatically put it.
Thank you also for the being so kind about explaining it because I've gone off on a few too many tangents here in a relative short period of time.
With it being so much slower than normal around here, I'll have to redirect my angst and frustration over the economy into more constructive avenues than spouting off on my fellow innkeepers.
Funny, when I watch Martha Stewart and her staff toiling in her vast gardens, it seems so cathartic and very therapeutic, but for me it still feels like hard work and drudgery despite my love of the results. LOL
I already fear I've raised the ire of a colleague I have the utmost respect for who was only looking for input on our state B&B association's new website and I vented off topic about stuff that in hindsight is better off being deleted.
.

No, No Tim, I have no raised ire. But I think you mighta raised a few other ires, from what I read. Go back and see. Not me. My ire is as flat as Rol's Remarkable Blueberry Pancakes. We're soo ok.

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Speaking of remarkable of pancakes.
When are you two gonna get up here for some of Emily's Blue Corn Pancakes with toasted Pinon nuts and Green Chiles?
Gotta come up and see the place one of these days.
We were in the hood after lunch at Sadie's not that long ago, but the heartburn set in really fast, plus we were helping a friend work on a little "flip" house she bought over by UNM.
Emily is really weird about stopping by anybody's place unannounced, so we didn't. I know whose in charge around here.

 

[YellowSocks]

FWIW, a fellow innkeeper from England equally disgusted with the move started a thread on this topic under the "Help Make TripAdvisor Better" forum and a few of us have had some fun with it.
What shocked me was a post from a woman who felt we ( not "we" as in us, but hoteliers in general ) all had shoddy behavior, rudeness, property destruction, inconsiderations, etc. coming to us because we're all so "rich" and your "average, hardworking person could barely afford staying in hotels"
Yup, I almost choked on my bonbon and early afternoon scotch as I read it. LOL
To think I turned off my favorite gameshow to go read what she had wrote too. another big LOL.

What shocked me was a post from a woman who felt we ( not "we" as in us, but hoteliers in general ) all had shoddy behavior, rudeness, property destruction, inconsiderations, etc. coming to us because we're all so "rich" and your "average, hardworking person could barely afford staying in hotels"

Why is it ok to destroy property and treat someone rudely because they have (or are perceived th have) money?
One of my friends had a walk-in say something pretty much to the effect of, 'You have the money, I don't, and I want the room for $90. You can afford it, what's your problem?' Needless to say that fellow was shown the door tout de suite.
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I have so much trouble understanding this type of attitude. Sad to say but there is NO WHERE left in our economy where you get great service as part of the purchase price. From food/dining establishments, to retail big and small...half-hearted service with a side of bad attitude is the NORM...any time you get something remotely pleasant in terms of service it is a big deal, a total exception...
So here we have b&b owners knocking themselves out to give great service and a wonderful experience...and instead of appreciation we get told that we aren't doing enough and make too much money to begin with, so therefore deserve to be treated like dirt and have our properties' destroyed...Grrrrr!
I sincerely hope that what goes around, comes around...
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I have so much trouble understanding this type of attitude. Sad to say but there is NO WHERE left in our economy where you get great service as part of the purchase price. From food/dining establishments, to retail big and small...half-hearted service with a side of bad attitude is the NORM...any time you get something remotely pleasant in terms of service it is a big deal, a total exception...

Actually, there are still pockets of good service, and I am fortunate to live in one of them.
The current downturn is very hard on my area, as we had already lost several key industries in town. Jobs here are hard to get, and everyone knows people who have lost theirs. Dh didn't get laid off, but got switched to second shift to a horribly mundane job (he folds boxes all night), and we're just glad he's still employed.
That reality is coupled with a local culture that has a real work ethic (a farming and heavily Amish area). I can give specific examples of how our community reaches out to help people who are down and out, but how we also have very little patience for someone who just takes handouts and sits around. We'll help you, but we expect you to work at it, too.
These factors combined with being a small town equal great service. Sure, once in a while you get a clueless teenager, but that's the exception. I like to brag about our Wendy's. If you go there at noon on a weekday the drive-thru line is wrapped around the building and down the street. But if you get in that line you are in and out in minutes. They are FAST... and friendly! The ladies in there have worked there for years and have their system down pat. It's everything fast food should be. The line is so long because people know they can go there on their lunch break and still get back to work on time. And the same can be said for other stores and restaurants in town.
When I moved to Maryland, there was this kind of disrespect for people who worked in fast food and other service industries, like gosh, that's the best job you can get? Here any job is a respectable one, and any job that is full-time (or even close to full-time) and day-time is coveted. It definitely changes the dynamic of the town...
=)
Kk.

 

[JBloggs]

That comes from living in an area where the socio-economic levels are closer to even. Where we live we do not have a ghetto area, everyone works, unemployment is below 8% (after many businesses closed up shop) and it was below 3% just one year ago. Down the road 10 minutes is a city with unemployment near 21%, crime, gangs, ghetto, low paying jobs, the socio economic levels there are expansive. The haves and have nots are very evident in that small city, there is a great divide between a professional job and blue collar.

 

[YellowSocks]

That comes from living in an area where the socio-economic levels are closer to even. Where we live we do not have a ghetto area, everyone works, unemployment is below 8% (after many businesses closed up shop) and it was below 3% just one year ago. Down the road 10 minutes is a city with unemployment near 21%, crime, gangs, ghetto, low paying jobs, the socio economic levels there are expansive. The haves and have nots are very evident in that small city, there is a great divide between a professional job and blue collar..

That comes from living in an area where the socio-economic levels are closer to even.

I agree.
The only difference is our unemployment is significantly higher here... we've lost several big employers, and now the GM plant in the next county over will be closing by June. Not good news for an already hard hit area.
=/
Kk.

 

[Morticia]

That comes from living in an area where the socio-economic levels are closer to even. Where we live we do not have a ghetto area, everyone works, unemployment is below 8% (after many businesses closed up shop) and it was below 3% just one year ago. Down the road 10 minutes is a city with unemployment near 21%, crime, gangs, ghetto, low paying jobs, the socio economic levels there are expansive. The haves and have nots are very evident in that small city, there is a great divide between a professional job and blue collar..

That comes from living in an area where the socio-economic levels are closer to even. Where we live we do not have a ghetto area, everyone works, unemployment is below 8% (after many businesses closed up shop) and it was below 3% just one year ago. Down the road 10 minutes is a city with unemployment near 21%, crime, gangs, ghetto, low paying jobs, the socio economic levels there are expansive. The haves and have nots are very evident in that small city, there is a great divide between a professional job and blue collar.

I think this refers to the work ethic, am I right?
Anyway, the disparity between who has and who doesn't around here is huge. You're talking million dollar homes on one block and trailer courts on the next; people who own their own multi-million dollar corporations (lots of them, not just the big one) and people who get WIC and food stamps. And still the service ethic is there. And it is everywhere in town except one chain ice cream shop. So I chalk that one up to bad management.
AND, I just came back from a place that seems to be in flux. Very expensive homes but a lot of them for sale. EVERYONE I met was friendly and helpful. Including at an antique store where I wanted to buy a radio. I didn't care if it worked, but the woman in charge would not let me out without plugging it in and when nothing but static came on saying, 'There's a lot of interference here in the basement, lets go upstairs and try it there.'
I wanted to know how far Swirt's town was from where I was and even tho no one recognized the town (sorry Swirt) they went and looked it up on the computer and told me about how far it was.
When I asked about buying wine at the grocery store (not done in NY, but I didn't know) the cashier went and got the manager to ask where I could get a bottle of wine at 8 PM. The line was building up behind me and I was saying it didn't matter, but it mattered to them that they weren't able to help me. I talked to the mgr for 5 minutes about alcohol sales in different states and then she had to go help someone else. And this was in a run down grocery store.
Even the people working at the highway rest stops were pleasant and helpful.
We've gone to very depressed areas of SC and been treated very well.
I seriously think most of it has to do with how you're trained where you work and how you're brought up.