In 2013 the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley found its own way of remembering 9/11: 30 minutes of free mini-muffins for guests. I remember thinking at the time at least it wasn’t a Marriott in Manhattan. Context matters, and surely New Yorkers wouldn’t trivialize the event.
What pic.twitter.com/L35ytAtCWP
— guillotease (@eclectrica) September 11, 2013
Only the Marriott New York Downtown now takes the memory of 9/11 and sells it back to us – at a hefty markup – in the form of a 9/11 Remembrance Package for weekend stays. For $130 more per night than the prepaid rate, and $105 per night over a AAA full cancellable rate, the hotel offers a promo code for 25% off admittance to the 9/11 Museum and two tickets to the One World Observatory.
The regular price of admission to the 9/11 Museum is $26. A 25% promo code, then, is worth up to $6.50 off per ticket. However tickets must be purchased in advance for specific times, and ticket sales begin six months in advance. Since you do not receive your discount code until check-in, it’s possible that you won’t be able to use the promo code or even visit the Museum. (The 9/11 Memorial itself is free, and the museum offers free tickets on Mondays, and is also free to active and retired military.)
General Admission tickets to the One World Observatory are $38 each, though if you were buying these separately you might want to look into the Mastercard deal.
A couple staying on this package might save $89, at most, over the course of a two night stay – for the extra $200++ or more. And it’s extremely unlikely that the hotel is spending close to $89 here.
Readers know that I’m as much of a capitalist as anyone, but call me old fashioned, 9/11 doesn’t seem like one of those things you’re supposed to market and turn a profit on. Maybe it’s just because I grew up in New York, knew people who worked in the Towers, and am old enough to remember the day one of the planes hit right along my commute to work in Northern Virginia.
Which village idiot thought of this? Why the f**k would I want to be reminded of the hell I and many others on this blog went through that day and days after.
It seems not well thought out if not tasteless.
I wonder if Marriott hotels will jack up their price and offer a “Remembrance Package” so guests can remember the father of a Marist College student fatally shot last month in the lobby of the Courtyard by Marriott in Poughkeepsie, New York. Fortunately, police officers discovered bomb-making components in the room booked by the two men charged in connection with the killing. According to the New York Times, “Further investigation of the room at the Courtyard by Marriott turned up handbooks with instructions on creating explosives, and the police quickly evacuated the hotel and broadened their search, officials said.”
Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/nyregion/poughkeepsie-hotel-shooting-marist-college.html
The Poughkeepsie Journal reports, “The indictments indicate Taylor had a room at the Courtyard rented for him by a third party, and details weapons and materials found in his room.
According to the documents, Johnson entered the lobby of the hotel just before 7:30 a.m. armed with a loaded 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol outfitted with a fixed pin that rendered it fully automatic. He was dressed in an Army green-colored jacket, green boxer-type shorts and a black balaclava over his head and face.”
https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/crime/2022/10/11/poughkeepsie-ny-marriott-hotel-shooting-marist-parent-killing-new-details/69556486007/
Its a bit weird with marriott that this would go on. Especially since the world trade center marriott was destroyed on 9/11 and 40 people died there including two employees. Marriott gave up their lease and donated the space to what is now the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Maybe this property is a franchise owned by someone who didn’t live in NYC on 9/11. Its pretty clear the people in charge of the San Diego property didn’t live in NYC. Have to wonder if the einstein who came up with the idea was even old enough to remember 9/11.
Repugnant to think this Marriott marketing department regards 9/11 as an event to monetize. Sadder still that this hasn’t been nixed by corporate.
While I understand the initial response to this is indignation or outrage but I think we also need to put this in historical context. We have a full generation of adults who were not alive for 9/11. I would equate this with similar marketing around Pearl Harbor vacations you see in Honolulu. While 9/11 is seared into the collective memory of many of us it is not the same for young adults who were not alive or too young to have had the same impression of 9/11. This about how servicemembers in the 60s would have reflected on Pearl Harbor vs their children. While I understand the value proposition here is dubious I can see this becoming a destination for tourists based on learning the history for that new generation.