But How Do You Define Hospitality?
But How Do You Define Hospitality?
I recently spent a night in Philadelphia's Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel, one of the city's finest properties when I was growing up there. Of course, that was so long ago that mountains, to say nothing of hotels, could have crumbled in that amount of time.
I reserved a "deluxe guest room" online. The confirmation notice I received referred to it as "spacious." As soon as I walked into the room, I called the front desk and asked for an explanation of "spacious." I was certain the room was one of the smallest in the place.
The clerk at the desk contacted the manager on duty, who chose to give me a vocabulary lesson instead of a better room. She told the clerk to inform me that "spacious is a subjective term."
To tell you the truth, I was proud of her. It proves that the Philadelphia school system, which has been going to hell even longer than the Warwick, isn't as terrible as everybody thinks.
My "spacious" room had a rusty air-conditioner, two chips in the bureau, and peeling wallpaper in the bathroom. The base of the tub, originally white, was mostly grey. At this point I am speaking objectively.
I know I am supposed to be writing about food, so allow me to describe breakfast at the Warwick. It stunk. "Stunk" is a subjective term.
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I enjoy the blogs and will have my students complete an exercise in which they reply to one of your blogs.
jfitzpatrick
Sep 20, 2006 8:12:07 PM
Well, I guess hospitality is a subjective term as well. I lived in Belarus for a while and over there ?hospitable? usually means ?not rude?. The customer is the one who is usually wrong if there is an issue. So maybe the manager was a foreigner? Too bad you didn?t get a chance to hear her accent. :-)
czeburaszka
Sep 21, 2006 7:48:25 AM
2. I once was lucky enough (lucky being the subjective term here) to stay in one of the worst Comfort Inns ever. It was almost two months ago and I am still fairly sure that I will never go to a Comfort Inn again. My family was supposed to stay there for more than a week; the second that we saw our room, we made reservations at another hotel. I will not share any details as to not disgust anyone reading this. Instead, Ill just say that it was a hotel room that most imagine in their nightmares. The worst part about it, however, was how the reviews on websites like Yahoo! were all favorable. Also, this hotel had no vacancies the night that we left. Maybe people these days are just willing to settle for less. Im not sure.
barton
Sep 21, 2006 1:21:11 PM