by Jim McCarthy
It seems like no matter how much money a person has or makes, they want to feel that they are getting a good deal. People like to have expensive things, but they also like to boast about how good a deal they got. People love to be the first in line at a good sale.
When
Sir
Beelzebub called for his syllabub in the hotel in Hell
Where Proserpine first fell,
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
One thing that merchants do to capitalize on people’s want of a good deal is to promote coupons. It seems that you can get coupons for everything from grocery items to hotel discount coupons. The important thing is to read the coupon completely prior to trying to redeem it. This can save you some time and grieve when you are in line trying to use the coupon.
Recently my husband and I decided to take a trip to a resort city that is located about two hundred miles from our house. We had clipped a coupon from a tourism book. The book contained several hotel discount coupons. It stated on the coupon to let the reservation person know at the time of making the reservation that you had the coupon, which we did. We made the reservation on line and entered the coupon number in the space that was provided. We were given a confirmation number as well as a rate that reflected the discount. I printed the confirmation and also brought along the booklet with the hotel discount coupons in them. When we got to the hotel we were told that the rate that was confirmed was a mistake and that they were no longer accepting the hotel discount coupons that were listed in the travel guide. The discount was forty percent off the regular price of the room so it was a substantial difference. We showed the confirmation, but were told that it was not valid. We insisted on talking to the manager. Unfortunately the hotel was very busy at the time we were checking in and there was quite a line forming behind us. I wanted to just forget the discount and go to a different hotel, but my husband was concerned that there were not going to be openings at other hotels.
For weeks or months they moved through their separate lives and slept side by side as though they were two strangers who had mistakenly been assigned the same hotel room. And then something would happen and he would find himself staring at her as though he could see the soul of her, looking for an end to his troubles inside the loop of her arms, and he would be snagged with the fishhook of herself, with the barbed hook of his powerless infatuation with something that she seemed to have, some answer that she seemed to offer.
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
When the manager came he told us that the confirmation should not have been given to us at the low rate. He said that the hotel discount coupons were still valid, but the small print stated that if the hotel was more than eighty percent full the coupon would not be honored. When we booked the room the hotel was not full, but now it was. The gentleman standing behind us over heard this explanation and told the manager that he was an attorney and that what he was doing and saying was not legal. The manager immediately gave us our room at the quoted price and gave the man behind us a discount also. When using hotel discount coupons you need to be firm about the amount you are willing to pay.