What Are Your Demands?
April 15, 2010
The other day I watched a lady check out of a hotel. She was unhappy on the outside (ie. clearly did not take care of herself) and the inside (angry at herself and the world around her). You can almost spot this kind of personality a mile away. She proceeded to complain of a faulty shower and stood expectantly waiting a refund or discount.
First off, I’m not new to travel or hotels, and the time to bring up a problem with your room is when it happens, not the morning of checkout. Any front desk clerk or manager worth their salt will have no problem moving you to a different room right away, and this hotel was nowhere close to full.
Secondly, her reservation was made through a “third-party” company — Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz, Hotwire, Expedia, or similar. Those reservations are pre-paid before the guest even arrives, which means the hotel could not issue a discount if they wanted to. The guest’s card is charge ahead of time, and the hotel then bills the third-party company. So what was this woman really after?
Sadly, such stories are not uncommon. Greediness, selfishness, and a nasty streak of arrogance are prevalent in today’s society, and it seems the disease is only spreading. Rooms on third party websites can be had at decent hotels for very little money these days ($40 a night or less!), so where is the valuation of such purchases? What are you as a consumer expecting in a hotel for that kind of money?
It seems that we as an American culture especially seem to value price over quality, and have for years. Fake bling is everywhere, as the appearance of wealth takes precedent over actual wealth. Paying $40 for a hotel room will get you a considerably different experience than $400 per night, but how many are willing or able to save up and spring for the more expensive but much nicer room? Even the able are seldom willing.
While growing up, we were indoctrinated in the art of pinching pennies, shopping at cheap stores, and generally exercising frugality. I will be honest and say that it wasn’t much fun . . . materialism usually wins every time. Over the years I’ve learned that inexpensive is not at all the better option in many cases. Buying a cheap pair of pants from Wal-Mart does not mean you got a better deal than a pair from CK or Guess, it simply means you paid less, but the cheaper pair will likely wear out much sooner . . . meaning you’ll have to go back and get another pair soon.
My goal in the next week or two, amidst all the chaos of packing to move and several other projects, is to seriously consider the limits of wealth and spending. At what point is lavish consumption excessive? Is a $500 or $1000 hotel room necessarily that much better than a $150 room? How many luxury cars or homes are too many? If a family has 6 cars and a 5000-square-foot house on the oceanfront, are they living in gross excess? I’ve seen multi-millionaires driving $3000 Jeeps around daily, and broke people laughably trying to maintain minimum payments on a Lexus to keep up appearances.
What are your perceptions of wealth?
