Dear Independantly Owned Holiday Inn:

GRRRR!!!!!!!!

:tantrum:

 

[what Loverhusband said]

Someone better fucking do that.

 

Quite possibly an overreaction here. Notice the following at the end of the article:

Unless there is some other evidence, or reason to believe that statement is untrue, I say it is time move on to other matters.

 

This.

 

alot of places do cheaper rates for group bookings as they get the buisness. i say its just one of them things and in future they will be more careful on who they give bookings too but in teh end of the day its a motel anyone can be staying there.... and you cant please everyone...

but thats just mpov

 

Yeah, it looks like just a standard discount given to a large group. Just so happens this group is supporting this terrible idea of a bill.

Personally, if I were the manager of the hotel, I would certainly still serve them. However, I would make it a point to come to whatever meeting they hold at the hotel with my partner/boyfriend and act perfectly normal. Their reactions would be so classic.

 

This hotel belongs to my company... Four of us who work for the company happen to be gay as well...

 

It's no big deal.

 

...How?

 

Because of the other things posted in the thread. >_>

 

Okay, I'll try to set a few things straight here (pun intended).

I'm going to claim a little bit of inside insight into this because previous to my current job, I worked at an independently-owned Holiday Inn.

I'll start by saying I didn't read any of the comments after the initial article. I don't really care to see what people think because opinion is opinion. I'll just go by what I know to be the case for how this discount most likely came about. I'm going to use my experience in two different hotels (Holiday Inn and Hilton) as references.

When a hotel receives a call to reserve rooms, one of the first questions asked is how many rooms the guest will need. Both hotels I worked at (and most other ones I've ever called) have a policy that if the caller asks for more than 5 rooms, the call is then forwarded to the Sales Department. Why? Three reasons really.

1. The person taking the reservation initially will probably not have the time to take down all the details of large room blocks. Generally, people will want different names on each one, different room types, different specifications on who goes where. Meanwhile, there are guests trying to check in and out, other calls coming, etc. So, to make it more convenient for everyone involved (no calls put on hold, angry customers, and to make sure all the specifics are followed without being forgotten while multitasking), it is better to have the block of rooms managed by someone away from the hubbub of the lobby and phone systems.

2. The Sales Department can then determine what sort of block this is. Generally, if it's business-oriented they will already have an account with that hotel or will ask to set one up. If it's just a large group of friends or family, they'll probably just make the reservations like normal and all will be well. Now, Sales is only interested in two things: occupancy and income. Their goal is to book as many rooms as possible with the hope of keeping their current guests as repeat customers. With that in mind, there is almost never a time where a group is not offered a discount of some kind. The Sales staff is only instructed (and requested) to ask very general questions about the reason for the booking. Generally it's either a wedding, reunion, meeting, or something off-site. From the sound of the article, whoever booked the rooms did not explain their organization at the time by using the proxy name. That doesn't necessarily mean that the hotel would have turned them down if they had been honest - money is money after all - but the staff is usually discouraged from probing into stuff beyond general room blocking, catering, and hotel-specific events.

3. Some groups are deemed as detrimental to booking. Generally these groups fall into one category: disruptive. They are the party-type groups who like to booze it up, scream down the halls at 2 in the morning, and basically make life hell for both the guests and staff of the hotel. So the Sales staff can use their discretion to determine if a group will actually cost the hotel money and, if so, decline to give them a discount. I imagine now that this article is out that this specific hotel is probably thinking this about now, lol.

Okay, so with that out of the way, I think it would also be safe to say that if a pro-gay group decided to book a block of rooms, they would probably give them a discount as well. The discount would depend on the size of the room block and for how long, but they would most likely be treated exactly the same.

The staff are being caught in the crossfire here. If there's anyone at fault, it's the booking group who decided to create a proxy room block in order slip in under the radar, but even so, it's not like the hotel is saying they support either anit-gay or pro-gay stances. A large amount of the staff at most hotels are gay, so if anything they are generally more pro-gay. And while the Sales staff could have done some digging to find out what this group was coming into town for, they 1. already booked the group and have a binding contract, 2. can't discriminate who they allow to stay unless that party will become some sort of public nuisance or cause expense to the hotel, and 3. are just doing business with a group who wanted to give them money. If they went to McDonalds, I'm sure McDonalds will probably serve them hamburgers too.

Hopefully that clarifies how this probably happened. My time in hotels has taught me that most of the time, in a situation where a hotel has a controversial customer, the hotel is either just making money nonpartisan or was not even aware of the controversy.

 

I always LOVE your posts,Greg! They never fail to make me smile!

 

This

 

Err if you actually um read the article, it states that the only reason they get a discount is because when a group books rooms in a block, they generally get a discounted rate.