David J. Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org 
Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
Can You Hear Me? – June 2023
If I thought about it for long enough I could probably recite Dr. Seuss’ One Fish,
Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish from memory.
The illustration and excerpt from that book above is what comes to mind
about the state of business travel today.
Specifically, try calling someone in the travel and hospitality industry
and you’ll likely be disappointed.
These were the most routine of calls in the past, but
for the last few years you can no longer get through to the local
location.
“Hey
hotel – I’m going to be there at 8am tomorrow.
Can you see if there might be a room available that I can change and
wash-up in? I’ll pay for the extra night
if I have to.”
“Hey
car-rental counter – my flight looks like it will be delayed, can you make sure
you wait for me before closing-up for the night?”
“Hey
front-desk, where can guests in your hotel go to see the parade / fireworks /
random event that’s happening next week?”
All simple harmless questions that show one to be a
planner…someone who tries to make sure they’re as prepared as possible. Nowadays they are impossible to complete
because you can’t reach the local property…ever.
Don’t believe me?
Try to call the Rio Suites hotel in Las Vegas and speak with someone at
the front desk. Their number is (702)
777-7777. (Go ahead, I’ll wait
here.) See? It’s impossible to reach
anyone that’s actually working at the check-in/out desk. We wanted to know if the garage roof would be
available to watch the New Year’s Eve Fireworks show from. It turned out to be,
but we could never reach anyone in advance to ask.
That’s not enough for you? Try calling the Avis Rental Car counter at
Greensboro airport. Their number is
336-665-5700 – and just to show you I’m a sporting guy, I’ll already tell you
the option to ring the rental counter is #6.
(Go ahead, I’ll wait again.) Our
flight there is/was (depending on when you read this) scheduled to land at
11:30pm and they close at 12. We wanted
to make sure they’d wait till we retrieved our gate-checked bags and not close
before we could get our car. Callers get
transferred, it rings three times, then we get transferred again to the Avis
call center which I assume is somewhere in South America from the accents. You can’t ever get through to the local
counter.
Want one more?
OK, try calling the Doubletree in Toronto near the airport and tell the
front desk you’ll be arriving early or running late. The number is 905-624-1144. Again here, you’ll be able to reach their
shuttle driver or the central reservations number, but not anyone at the
property.
Whether you’re outside a property and want to ask a
question or coordinate an issue, or even in many cases inside a hotel property
and want to reach someone by phone, you’ll find the cutbacks have been so
drastic that it’s almost impossible.
In all these cases it wasn’t Dr. Seuss’ mouse that cut
the wire, it was some greedy bean counter trying to squeeze more profit out of
what is supposed to be an industry that provides excellent service. Here again, they’ve gone too far. I’d tell you to call them and complain, but
it’s probably a waste of time. Try
tweeting them instead, stunningly you’ll probably get a quicker response. I suppose I’m just an old fish in a bowl of
new fish…..
Also, p
I had another exasperating experience with the TSA at
Newark airport last week. This one was over
the top and caused me to file an official complaint. You can read the
thread (typos and all) here, but the bottom line is the TSA has to get this
location in line with all the others in the USA. Either all TSA pre-check locations need to
strip-search all carry-on baggage or none of them do. It can’t be a different set of guidelines in
one airport than others. If we don’t fix
this then we’re risking another 9/11 style approach where terrorists will enter
the secure side of airports through the most lax location (which was Boston’s
Logan back then) and just connect-through behind security at the airport where
they want to attack from. This is
serious. The TSA needs to develop
consistency, and hopefully in the process weed-out the confrontational and
belligerent agents. I live in New
Jersey and I’m embarrassed for our state when people get their first impression
of us by how the TSA shamefully behaves here as they try to pass through
security.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.
Copyright 2023 David Danto
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As always, feel free to write and comment, question or
disagree. Hearing from the traveling
community is always a highlight for me.
Thanks!