Proud of Western New York and apple country ~
I live in Wayne County (no jokes please :-)), Sodus Point to be exact. Needless to say I do a lot of driving back and forth to Rochester to shop, go to appointments etc. and I frequently drive to the airport. I have been traveling for work the past two weeks and was flying back just for the Labor Day weekend before departing again today. I was scheduled to arrive well after midnight this past Thursday so I decided to book a free night at a brand new Hampton Inn in Webster. I had an early morning appointment in Rochester on Friday and I was just too exhausted to drive all the way home from the airport, sleep for only 4 hours and then getup and drive back for my appointment and subsequent meetings.
So I checked in at 1:25 a.m. and let me tell you, the night clerk needs some training in customer service, especially when addressing their frequent – stay program members. I overlooked it, the hotel just opened a few months ago and I am certain they have some kinks to work through. I spent the night and was able to get a few hours of sleep. If any of you have ever stayed at a Hampton Inn, you know they serve a complimentary breakfast in the morning OR they have snack bags available at the front desk to just grab and go. I usually grab one of these bags. No matter where you stay in the USA, the bags always have the same items in them: a Kellogg’s breakfast bar, a blueberry muffin, an apple, a bottle of water and a box of mints.
Don’t we live in New York Apple country? Doesn’t New York State produce an average of 25 million bushels of apples annually? It ranks #2 in the country! Why in the world did this snack bag contain a Washington State apple? Need I say more. I think this was a poor choice on the part of Hampton Inn local management and a poor decision not to support our local farmers. Hampton Inn should be promoting ‘local’ tourism- places and things of interest. I don’t think they would host a fall apple picking event and pick Washington State apples off the trees. It is clearly ridiculous to spend the amount of fuel necessary to transport an apple from 3000 miles away, when the second largest apple producing county in the nation is located just 5 miles away!
I plan to write them a letter. I will let you know if I receive a reply.
2 comments:
We were just talking about how every employee is an ambassador of the company-apparently the night clerk missed the training!
Good idea about the apples in Mew York. Writing a letter seems like a good idea and you can remind them of a few marketing points.
You should send them a copy of Ray's blog post -- maybe they don't know how proud we are of our apply heritage!
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