News and notes from around the interweb:
- Beijing hotel used toilet bowl cleaner on teapot and glasses, and guest grabbed a photo of it happening. This is certainly against the brand standards of all the major chains, and would be a firing offense for housekeeping, which doesn’t mean of course that it never happens. (HT: Alan H.)
- United CEO Oscar Munoz sent a message to United MileagePlus members about the airline’s commitment to improve and its strong future. Tellingly to me, the message did not mention MileagePlus.
- On Wednesday I wrote that Delta pulled its sponsorship of Atlanta’s Fox Theater after 20 years — an institution that dates to 1929, which played an important part in the city’s racial integration, and that was even the site of Prince’s last performance — because Qatar Airways rented function space there for an event.
Several readers pointed me to Delta’s corporate sponsorship of the Seattle Pride Parade which reportedly excludes Alaska employees from marching in uniform. In other words, they cannot attend as Alaska employees, they have to hide one part of who they are if they want to join the march. Ironic.
The drama escalated with Delta claiming they weren’t excluding anyone and the parade itself saying anyone could march (though by my read it’s not clear they said anyone could do so in their airline uniform). Regardless it didn’t seem like Delta had done anything wrong here, ‘category exclusivity’ for a sponsor is fairly standard — Delta views it as a marketing opportunity, and they pay enough not to let competitors market there too. The event itself, on the other hand, may be getting a bit too corporate..
- Stuck with a pricey hotel reservation? Maybe you can sell it. (HT: Alan H.)
- Travelers are staying away from Trump Hotels because of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
- 2000 free Air Algerie miles for joining their program
- Here are the insane things airports are doing to pacify travelers waiting in line for TSA (HT: Alan H.)
The polling data from that Skift story about Trump may be wrong — or just irrelevant. Just this week, Trump’s FEC filing showed that his candidacy has been GOOD for his businesses!
This actually surprised me because I would think that his voters are not the people his businesses actually cater to. I would guess that the elites who stay in his hotels and buy into his real estate developments would shy away from having anything to do with the Trump name. But there are a lot of surprising things about the Trump candidacy, so who knows.
I don’t like politics.. and Trump but I also don’t mind him either. But the Skift.com’s so called survey is a farce. The link to survey’s methodology goes nowhere but to generic google survey page. Even Google admits that the polls are anonymous and they assume the age, gender, income category by browser history.
Trump hotel is an upscale brand that caters to a different demographics. I don’t think the people who usually stay at Trump hotels are not the ones online filling out surveys. Trump hotels aren’t Hampton Inns or Hyatt Places. Hell, I make pretty good salary and I can’t afford to stay in Trump hotels.
The real truth of his candidacy hurting his hotel business would be to compare the SEC filings of 2015 and 2016 and then we may be able to infer any loss of business has occurred since his running for political office, not some insignificant online survey of 2000+ people.
Interesting story on Trump Hotels. I travel regularly to Panama and always stay at the Trump Hotel because it is reasonably priced, the accommodations are excellent and it very conveniently located. But I’m a conservative and this is one of the differences between lefties and conservatives… we generally don’t boycott everyone under the stars that we happen to disagree with politically. Lefties are in the business of punishing people for having the “wrong” ideology. There are some conservatives who engage in boycotts, but they usually don’t get much support because conservatives prefer to just let the market make the decisions. That may move us into the dinosaur category some day, but I sleep better knowing that I reward good service and good products by voting with my dollars.
The story about dirty hotel glasses should be no surprise. Disposable plastic wrapped plastic cups – the kind found in many moderate and low priced hotels – are far cleaner than washed and reused glasses that more expensive hotels place in hotel rooms and bathrooms. For one thing, cloths used to wash and dry the glasses are often used for other cleaning purposes, too.
BGO1:
Target would love for you to get on to your high horse and talk to some sense into your conservative friends.. Come to think of it, maybe the Dixie Chicks and also every department store that wishes you a “Happy Holidays” too.
I would be happier if they spent the money now being spent on entertainers instead on more TSA workers.