Jan 17 2002
Motel contest
So I went motel shopping after work yesterday. For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to do that while carrying 10 pounds of groceries, and after the first couple of places, it seemed like one of my less stellar ideas.
I checked out four motels within a couple of blocks of our place, and the fifth candidate was the place where my father and stepmother always stay. It was both educational and surprising. All the motel managers said that business was extremely slow since 9/11 (it took me until a couple of weeks ago to realize 9/11 could also be expressed as 911, a strange coincidence which I’m sure everyone else noticed months ago), and one even said that he had trouble getting maids to come in because he could only give them a couple of hours’ work. Despite this, the cheapest of these motels was $79 a night, and the place my father used to stay now costs $105 a night. And don’t forget the staggering 14% hotel tax. (Wonder who gets that tax money?)
When I first offered to pay for my in-laws’ plane tickets and motel, I imagined that I could find something fairly simple and acceptable near us for around $50 a night. I was completely wrong about this, as it turned out.
Now, the places I investigated were pretty basic. The first one I rejected immediately on the basis of the grubby carpets, inferior condition of the room, and the rudeness of the clerk. No way am I putting my in-laws there. But it was still $79 a night. My question is: if business is bad, and the accommodations are basic, why haven’t they lowered their prices? Scary thought: Maybe they have.
Last stop was the Pacific Heights Inn. The manager was very nice and the rooms were, too (I saw three of them). He said that they would be very glad to have people staying for 5 nights, and lowered the price accordingly, so he won the motel contest. And this made it actually cheaper than the very inferior others, including the immediately rejected one. Just goes to show that it’s worth it to shop around.
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