Fool Me Once, Unleash Hell

October 15th, 2008 Chris

First, my apologies for missing my deadline yesterday. It was our federal election here in Canada and I was busy trying to hide my civil liberties in case the conservative government won a majority and tried to take them. That didn’t happen so I feel free to express myself, once again, freely.

And timing is good, ’cause I’m grumpy.

As many of you know, we hold an event each Spring in Ottawa where sales professionals and business owners all meet to discuss, well, sales stuff. And, as many of you know, we have been going through the process of finding a hotel for the ever increasing numbers that come to the event. And we’ve had our problems.

I’m happy to report that we’ve now secured our hotel location and are good to go for 2009. Contract is signed.

So now I get to unload. To quote Melville from Moby Dick: “. . . from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee“. OK – how many of you geeks thought it was a “Star Trek – Wrath of Khan” original line. OK – how many of you think I’m a geek ’cause I know the Star Trek reference. Mais je disgress…

OK, so maybe that Melville ditti is a bit over the top. But I am super grumpy about the way we were treated by the local hotel industry. Right now, they have a lot of power because supply is tight. Our local convention center is closed for a year for renovations so everyone is scrambling to find space.

In the process, most of the hotels are screwing over companies trying to do business in the city. There are demands for outrageous food and beverage commitments. There are completely unresponsive sales people who promise to help you find space and then never return your phone calls. For example, a local hotel, the Brookstreet, slow rolled me for four weeks negotiating their contract. Then, at the last minute, they wanted an additional $20K. And then when I balked, they told me there was no space anyways.

In the end, the hotel where we had the event last year squeezed us in. But they also squeezed us out of way more money than last year.

I sincerely hope that the hotels in town enjoy their year of prosperity. Cause, I bet there are a lot of organizations who are going to go out of their way to not give them business in the future.

We are now considering moving our event out of Ottawa – purely to punish those that treated us so poorly. And Colleen is currently the President of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS). Hello hotels – they hold a huge event every year and do you think that our experience won’t impact their decision about where to go?

I know everyone has to make a buck but when you’re so disrespectful to your customers, don’t be suprised when Nemesis drops by. She’s the goddess of retribution (shown here looking like a G-rated airbrush painting off a 70′s van) and unless you’re good, she’s coming to town. And it’s going to cost you.

C.

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