My 'day job' is as a travel writer for military families. I love doing it. On the side, I also am a travel writer for the general public. I was approached by a five star hotel that wanted to be included in one of my articles. I was excited because it happened to be located in a military city. I knew that not only would my non-military audience enjoy learning about this hotel, but my fellow military wives would love to hear about their spa and luxurious rooms. After all, my hubby will take me anywhere after a deployment or detachment (even if out of sheer guilt or appreciation for taking care of things while he's gone). I'm always looking for those romantic places where fellow military wives can be pampered as we deserve.
I mentioned to the hotel how excited I was to write about them for both my audiences. I received an email back telling me that they appreciated my willingness to tell my audiences about their property but would prefer to only be written about to my non-military audience. She said the following:
"Please know that since "XXXXXX Hotel" is a luxury resort on the pricey side, we prefer not to be included in the Guide to Military Travel – especially since the resort does not offer any sort of military rate."
Is it just me, or did she just say military families can't afford her hotel? I know that all military members make different amounts of money. I also know that we can all afford different nightly rates; however, shouldn't we still be considered a viable audience? It's not like she was paying for my article in any way. All it was going to be was free publicity for her resort. Is it wrong that this offended me? Tell me what you think.
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THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY! It makes me feel like as a military family just because they dont offer a military discount we wouldnt be able to afford it,,,, Honestly for what all of our families go through with someone serving overseas with, that they are just not being so "OFFERING" to us because of it. REALLY ,, who gave them the right to just not accept MILITARY FAMILIES, WOW, I was SHOCKED WHEN I READ THIS AND SO APPALLED. The one thing the person does have right is when I call around I definitely ask for a military discount if the place does or does not have one, and you know what I will continue to do so , because I am proud of what my husband does in serving his country and if there is any discount for him missing a year with his family and two small children you are darn right I am definitely going to use any discount possible. But to just not consider military families that is absolutely ridiculous, because after a deployment that is the first thing we are all looking for is some type of SPA/HOTEL to be able to reconnect before our family continues onward and tries to get back to family fulltime mode,,, Really. I think it is really sad that in this time of Iraq and Afghanistan that there is still a certain mindset, because all my thoughts go out to families, and soldiers, but I also walk in their shoes. God Bless everyone serving and their families.
ReplyDeletewow. What hotel is this?
ReplyDeleteI want very badly to know what hotel this was but equally as important what position this person holds in the company. I would be even more surprised to see them in a management position SPEAKING for the company as a whole. Perhaps they are just a bad seed and their boss would be glad to know the damage they are doing to their company. I understand that you might not be able to tell us which hotel that is but I urge you to follow up on this and speak to the OWNER if possible. PS. I am a military wife with a husband deployed in Kuwait for the next 6 months.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I won't share what hotel this was or where it was, I will promise to tell them that they offended us! Thanks for the comments. You all are the best!
ReplyDelete