The road not taken

The road I am referring to is the high road, which is the one I would hope that hotels and like business would take when unforeseen circumstances, such as the current disruption of air travel over Europe, occur. I can feel the eyes rolling already.

It appears that hotels in Europe are gouging stranded travellers by jacking up the prices of hotel rooms daily. This opportunism might seem like a profitable idea at the moment, but it is ultimately a bad business decision.

For instance, the hotel I had booked in London has charged me a ten percent penalty for cancelling (postponing, really) even though they have a week's notice and are not going to be out of pocket. However, since I am going to make this journey eventually, they are going to lose the ninety percent that I will give to some other hotel in this instance, and all the other hotel room dollars that I will not give to them or their affiliates until the end of time (well, my time anyway). I cannot even estimate the actual amount of their future lost revenue, but it will be a boatload more that the ten percent they are gaining from this decision. Ditto for the hotel in Paris, which is penalizing me the amount of one night's stay. I am actually not losing anything, because I am fully covered by insurance.

Furthermore, if I can convince even one more person to steer away from these two establishments, The Hotel Antin Trinite in the 9th district of Paris, and the Days Inn, Westminster on Belgravia Street in London SW1, then the losses increase. And they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on ....

I am aware that this post is arguably an instance of me not taking the high road.