Wake Up Call

I took a new job after moving to Texas, and it's a job that involves traveling.  So I now get to play the business traveler game of collecting points when I fly and when I stay in hotels, in the hope that down the road I can earn some free nights that my wife and I can enjoy during our non-working lives.

Having stayed at many hotel chains already, I am certainly very taken by Holiday Inn Express, who seem to do a bang up job of taking care of a business traveler.  But the reason I am venting here is because I have noticed that some hotels who are not corporate owned, but franchised refuse to give frequent traveler points, if you book through a web site like Hotels.com (as I do).  And the interesting fact I have discovered, is that almost universally the hotels that refuse to do this are usually crap.

Now I don't know how it works, but I'm guessing it costs a little bit to give away the points, so some of the franchises would rather save the money and screw the traveler.  Sadly, that kind of selfish business attitude is pretty much always reflected in the standard of the accommodation.  No HBO, no flat screen TV, shampoo but no conditioner, poorly maintained rooms, dated hotel fixtures and fittings, etc.

I've always hated false economies, and screwing business travelers out of a few points in the loyalty program is just going to piss them off, and deprive your business of thousands of dollars over the long term.  In business it's far better to have repeat customers that refer others, than make a one time hit and never see that customer again.

As the expression goes, "You can shear a sheep many times, but you can skin him only once."