Mary Ellen and I are attending an alumni dinner at George Washington University in DC. My wife booked the airfare but asked me to make the hotel reservations.
I find discount websites like Expedia, Priceline, and Travelocity very confusing, but I decided to try my hand at it. I opted for Kayak so I could tell friends I went Kayaking, which sounds macho and is much easier to say than Expedia…ing.
I wanted to stay at the University Inn, a historic hotel near the university. I clicked on it and was pleasantly surprised at the cost. Notification quickly arrived confirming three nights. I showed Mary Ellen the email. She examined it carefully. “Dick, didn’t we want a hotel near campus?”
“Of course. Aren’t we close?”
“About 2,300 miles. Well, at least we’re in Washington.”
Sure enough, I had booked us at the University Inn…in Seattle. We would have definitely been late for dinner. Panicked, I called the University Inn in DC (directly, this time), to book a room but when the confirmation didn’t come right away, I called back. “Sorry, Sir, I don’t see your name. Would you like to book something now?”
“Yes, yes. I need a reservation for three nights.”
“You want to eat here three nights in a row?”
“Isn’t this the hotel?”
“No, this is the University Inn Restaurant.”
I called my friend Mark and told him the story about booking the Seattle hotel by mistake. I mentioned I became a little suspicious when I saw the low rate they offered. Mark interjected, “May I ask how good a deal?”
“About 150 a night.”
“Wow, 150 a night! How can you pass that up?”
“IT’S THE WRONG CITY!”
“Just tell me, was breakfast included?”
The next morning I told Mary Ellen about my plans for the day. “I’m going to see a newspaper editor in Lebanon.”
“Just in case, better take your passport.”