Revenge of the Nerds
So today, or technically yesterday - Monday, I worked my butt off in Wilmington, then made a mad dash for the airport to come home to Chicago so I can get a fresh set of clothing and underwear, and turned right around back to Midway so I can fly out to Baltimore. The flight was delayed due to bad weather in the Baltimore vicinity.
When I finally got here, the rental car shuttles were overwhelmed by the sudden influx of passengers who themselves were delayed. And for the first time I have ever seen at BWI, there was a humongous, snaking line waiting for the shuttle. Great! I have to be at work first thing in the morning, and I just landed at 00:30!
Finally I got to Hampton Inn in Inner Harbor Baltimore around 01:20, and to my disbelief, they have no room for me. What? Let’s see. I have made a reservation a long time ago. And I am a Diamond VIP Hilton member. And I have no room? Well, the property assistant general manager decided early Monday morning to strand about 30 people who, like me, also had reservations. Some of them are also Diamond VIP Hilton members too!
Despite my rage in this spent day that have practically drained the life out of me, I was courteous to Patrice, the front desk girl, and I told her that I was extremely pissed, but not at her because she had nothing to do with it, but I wanted this resolved. Emile, the AGM, wasn’t there, and he had printed out about 30 copies with directions to another property which he had made arrangements with: the Holiday Inn clear the f**k out of Baltimore! The rate was $129, and Hampton Inn will pay only for the first night.
Wait a minute. I am stranded out here without forewarning, and he decided to dump me at some craptastic hotel {sorry, I have never had a good experience with Hellishday Inn}, and only cover for one night when I have made a reservation for the week. And on top of that, I have to deal with the hour long commute each way to work. What the hell?
To make matters worse, Patrice at the front desk decided to tell me the true story, since I was unlike the other patrons who yelled and cussed at her before storming out to Hellishday Inn clear the f**k in tinbuctoo. Here’s the story. Godspeed is a recreation of one of the three ships that first brought the English colonists to Jamestown in 1607. This recreated ship is here in the Inner Harbor from June 9 (Friday) to June 12 (Monday, the evening of when I was supposed to check in), and the celebration also called for a “Landing Party Festival.” Hey, that’s cool, right? There’s nothing wrong with great history going around helping kids learn the fascinating world of our great history.
Now, there is a bunch of hooligans from Williamsburg who is here in Baltimore not only to enjoy the festivities, but also push a ridiculous, unfounded political agenda of theirs. {Unfortunately, I can’t find any website about this mysterious group.} Their agenda? They are lobbying and doing some sort of a public demonstration urging historians to rewrite history. Basically, they are contesting that Plymouth, Massachusetts was never the original landing site of the Pilgrims, but Williamsburg. And they want all history textbooks to be “corrected.” At this very moment when Patrice told me this, I was flabbergasted and speechless. I was hoping that the reason why I got bumped off was because the ship caught fire, sank, and killed some of the relatives or something, thus requiring emergency plans. That I could deal with. But this?
Notice that the Godspeed port of call in Baltimore ends in June 12. This huge group of hooligans from Williamsburg also booked their hotel stay at the Hampton Inn till June 12. But apparently, something must have changed, causing this nerdy group to beg the property AGM on Monday morning to extend their reservations, citing that collectively, they all made a mistake with the departure date. Hmm. Sounds kind of suspicious. So Emile the AGM decided to extend the nerds’ reservation, thus kicking out a bunch of others. And he did so without care or concern about the customers, Diamond VIP or not. I must assume that he picked the ones who are paying the lowest corporate rates so that he could make more money. Or else why would he have the audacity to kick out so many Diamond VIP members, who actually have earned the privilege to kick out other non-Diamond VIP members? And of course, I asked Patrice to find out if any of these hooligans are even regular Hilton patrons with some kind of level {silver, gold, elite, or diamond}. Nope, none of them are regular patrons of any Hilton property.
So! A bunch of silly nerds who walk around all day in their Colonial outfits managed to convince a stupid Assistant General Manager and conspired to leave a bunch of business men and women out in the cold. And to add salt to injury, this dumbass decided to redirect business to a competing chain of hotels instead of another Hilton property, no less! All because the Hellishday Inn was a steal at $129 a night! Mother effer! You bet your ass I will be writing a nice letter to Corporate Hilton to file a formal complaint about this extremely poor business decision. In over five years of corporate travel with Hilton Hospitality, this was a first. It was so maddening that I started laughing hysterically while blogging this. This is going down in history for the St Halcyon Chronicles!
When I finally got here, the rental car shuttles were overwhelmed by the sudden influx of passengers who themselves were delayed. And for the first time I have ever seen at BWI, there was a humongous, snaking line waiting for the shuttle. Great! I have to be at work first thing in the morning, and I just landed at 00:30!
Finally I got to Hampton Inn in Inner Harbor Baltimore around 01:20, and to my disbelief, they have no room for me. What? Let’s see. I have made a reservation a long time ago. And I am a Diamond VIP Hilton member. And I have no room? Well, the property assistant general manager decided early Monday morning to strand about 30 people who, like me, also had reservations. Some of them are also Diamond VIP Hilton members too!
Despite my rage in this spent day that have practically drained the life out of me, I was courteous to Patrice, the front desk girl, and I told her that I was extremely pissed, but not at her because she had nothing to do with it, but I wanted this resolved. Emile, the AGM, wasn’t there, and he had printed out about 30 copies with directions to another property which he had made arrangements with: the Holiday Inn clear the f**k out of Baltimore! The rate was $129, and Hampton Inn will pay only for the first night.
Wait a minute. I am stranded out here without forewarning, and he decided to dump me at some craptastic hotel {sorry, I have never had a good experience with Hellishday Inn}, and only cover for one night when I have made a reservation for the week. And on top of that, I have to deal with the hour long commute each way to work. What the hell?
To make matters worse, Patrice at the front desk decided to tell me the true story, since I was unlike the other patrons who yelled and cussed at her before storming out to Hellishday Inn clear the f**k in tinbuctoo. Here’s the story. Godspeed is a recreation of one of the three ships that first brought the English colonists to Jamestown in 1607. This recreated ship is here in the Inner Harbor from June 9 (Friday) to June 12 (Monday, the evening of when I was supposed to check in), and the celebration also called for a “Landing Party Festival.” Hey, that’s cool, right? There’s nothing wrong with great history going around helping kids learn the fascinating world of our great history.
Now, there is a bunch of hooligans from Williamsburg who is here in Baltimore not only to enjoy the festivities, but also push a ridiculous, unfounded political agenda of theirs. {Unfortunately, I can’t find any website about this mysterious group.} Their agenda? They are lobbying and doing some sort of a public demonstration urging historians to rewrite history. Basically, they are contesting that Plymouth, Massachusetts was never the original landing site of the Pilgrims, but Williamsburg. And they want all history textbooks to be “corrected.” At this very moment when Patrice told me this, I was flabbergasted and speechless. I was hoping that the reason why I got bumped off was because the ship caught fire, sank, and killed some of the relatives or something, thus requiring emergency plans. That I could deal with. But this?
Notice that the Godspeed port of call in Baltimore ends in June 12. This huge group of hooligans from Williamsburg also booked their hotel stay at the Hampton Inn till June 12. But apparently, something must have changed, causing this nerdy group to beg the property AGM on Monday morning to extend their reservations, citing that collectively, they all made a mistake with the departure date. Hmm. Sounds kind of suspicious. So Emile the AGM decided to extend the nerds’ reservation, thus kicking out a bunch of others. And he did so without care or concern about the customers, Diamond VIP or not. I must assume that he picked the ones who are paying the lowest corporate rates so that he could make more money. Or else why would he have the audacity to kick out so many Diamond VIP members, who actually have earned the privilege to kick out other non-Diamond VIP members? And of course, I asked Patrice to find out if any of these hooligans are even regular Hilton patrons with some kind of level {silver, gold, elite, or diamond}. Nope, none of them are regular patrons of any Hilton property.
So! A bunch of silly nerds who walk around all day in their Colonial outfits managed to convince a stupid Assistant General Manager and conspired to leave a bunch of business men and women out in the cold. And to add salt to injury, this dumbass decided to redirect business to a competing chain of hotels instead of another Hilton property, no less! All because the Hellishday Inn was a steal at $129 a night! Mother effer! You bet your ass I will be writing a nice letter to Corporate Hilton to file a formal complaint about this extremely poor business decision. In over five years of corporate travel with Hilton Hospitality, this was a first. It was so maddening that I started laughing hysterically while blogging this. This is going down in history for the St Halcyon Chronicles!
posted by StHalcyon at
01:32
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