Probably the least favorite part of my job is business travel, especially overnight trips. I don’t mind it so much when it’s a solid week of meetings in a far off land. It’s more the 1 night trips which are iust far enough away to be able to go home overnight.
I had just such a trip scheduled for tomorrow and I must say I was rather relieved when a colleague of mine suggested we drive up there together Thursday morning instead of meeting some colleagues there for dinner tomorrow night. SCORE!
Some of my co-workers might not understand this, but I love my wife and I would prefer a trip to start at the butt-crack of dawn just so I can spend a night at home with her. Anyways, when I came home and shared the news of not going with Tiff, she was very happy – but like the good cost cutter she is she handed me the telephone and said “Call the hotel and cancel now, so your company won’t get charged” – which of course means “Call them to cancel the room so WE won’t be charged cancellation fees”, since I am notoriously bad about doing my travel expenses.
I called the hotel directly and told them not to count on me showing up tomorrow night. The nice gentleman on the other end of the line asked me some questions and I thought everything was dandy. Well, just like when you call your credit card company where you get asked to input your credit card number while you wait just to repeat it to the operator picking up – the same was the case here. He need to transfer me – after the third try of him connecting me and him then picking up the line again while stating the ridiculously long name of the hotel as well as his full first, middle and last name as a greeting he decided he could try to cancel my room at the front desk.
Turns out, he can’t find me in the system – hmm, what did he do with all the information I gave him in the first place, if not checking in the computer if I had a reservation before attempting to transfer me. I give him the name of another co-worker attending thursday’s meeting who’s name my room might be reserved under as well and he finds the reservation. GREAT.
Me: “OK, then it will only be the one room for Mr xxxx, and not the second room under that reservation”
Hotel Dude: “So you want me to cancel that one? – I gotta check if I can do that”
2 minutes on hold
HD: “Yup, Ok I cancel that room for you”
Me: “Great, just make sure you cancel only one of the two rooms under Mr xxxx’s reservation”
HD: “What do you mean the second room – there is only one room here”
OK, well – I guess my secretary messed up and didn’t get me a room, fantastic – but why is this guy so stupid on the other end of the line? Sometimes I really wonder about the state of the human race! I do have to say though, I am having a much better time hanging out at home tonight knowing I won’t have another night in a hotel tomorrow night.
