Polite Behavior “Rewards” for Travelers

Hotel check in
BobLee
September23/ 2015

Travel Industry “insiders” revel that travelers who are “polite” DO receive better treatment than impolite ones.

As a former Hotelier I can confirm that “being nice” does indeed reap rewards for guests.

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Good behavior is your most valuable travel asset

 

Don’t forget to pack your manners. Not because polite travelers are treated better, but because impolite ones are treated worse.

Much worse sometimes.

Just ask Olivia Perez, a yoga instructor from New York, who recently found herself in a long line to buy tickets for the Colosseum in Rome. Several guests grew impatient and started shoving and yelling.

“A frustrated security guard guided us to another section where we’d be first in line for tickets,” she remembers. The pushy tourists? Left to bake under the Roman sun.

Rude people are treated rudely. It seems so obvious, but in the tourism business, it isn’t. Airlines, hotels and cruise lines want you to think you’ll always be served with professionalism, particularly when you flash a platinum card in their faces. But that’s nonsense. No one wants to see obnoxiousness rewarded.

Good behavior may be your most valuable asset on the road — more important than your connections, the color of your card or even the amount of cash you paid for your transportation or lodging.

Hospitality insiders would never admit to punishing a rude guest, at least not to someone like me. But with a little prodding, they’ll admit that unfriendly travelers don’t get the red carpet treatment.

Stephen Fofanoff, the innkeeper at Domaine Madeleine Bed & Breakfast in Port Angeles, Wash., remembers one guest who arrived late with an unexpectedly large entourage.

“He immediately began making loud demands to use our kitchen, which is a violation of the health code,” Fofanoff says. “He refused to pay any additional guest fees, claiming it shouldn’t matter how many people they want to put in the room.”

The next morning, the problem guest demanded breakfast, even though it hadn’t been ordered as part of the package. Could Fofanoff have served breakfast? Sure. But he refused, citing the inn’s policy: Reservations were required.

“The guest did not appreciate the work we were doing for him, was rude in making demands that violated the law and our policies, and then created a poor atmosphere for other guests,” he explains.

Guests have observed the same thing. Jennifer Hancock, who runs an education company near Bradenton, Fla., recalls staying at an upscale hotel in Italy with a friend. One day, she got her hair braided while she was in town, and came back to the hotel looking like a vagabond instead of a guest at a five-star resort.

“At dinner that night, one of the patrons in the hotel restaurant complained loudly that they let a hippie like me eat in the restaurant,” she says.

The servers quietly revolted. “The waiters and managers came to our table and made a big show of upgrading our meal and giving me and my girlfriend extras we hadn’t ordered or paid for and an amazing dessert,” she says.

The other patron, meanwhile, was given minimal service at his table.

“The staff did the exact opposite of what he had ordered them to do,” she remembers.

Bad manners are a travel industry pandemic. In a recent TripIt survey about annoying behavior, a majority of travelers (62%) complained about “travelers being rude.” The problem isn’t getting any better as airlines, car rental companies and hotels work harder to separate the “haves” from the “have-nots.”

The ones with status are told they’re super-special; the rest are often made to feel as if they’re lucky to get the table scraps. That leaves both groups with a powerful motivation to behave inappropriately.

READ MORE …. LINK

Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate and editor at large for National Geographic Traveler. Contact him at [email protected] or visit elliott.org.

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