Originally Posted by
catocony
Dulci, you wrote that you're a retiree on a fixed income. So, while not trying to insult, I'll just say that your ways of booking hotels is a bit out of date. Calling properties was a thing up to the mid-90s. Since then, central reservations has been more and more the standard method. The norm, so to speak.
I'm in complete agreement with your statement catocony. But it does not make it the
only way. Nor is the 'norm' always the
best way to deal with something. Sometimes us 'retirees' know a think or two that younger people never even had a chance to learn about. For example, I can multiply and divide without a calculator (or nowadays, a smartphone I guess). I actually have some communication skills in terms of actually speaking to people rather than texting them. Not everything that changes is in fact progress. In travel there are many examples of where things have got worse rather than better than they were in the past. A 31" seat pitch in economy is now a 'norm' but in the 70s it was 35". Is that a norm you are happy to comply with and consider progress?
Some things in life you have no choice but to accept like airline seat pitches, they are beyond our individual control. Other things may be accepted norms by the majority of people but are in fact not beyond our control to deal with in an alternative way. Like booking a room.
Consider what a central booking system does. It gives the chain control over pricing. Nice for them, good for you? I understand completely why a chain wants all it's hotels to comply with their rules. I also understand that their rules are there for their benefit, not mine. So I choose instead to do things my own way. I choose to question why something changes and then decide for myself if it is something I see as in my best interests or not. I don't blindly follow the herd, I never have.
Many years ago, I was introduced to the saying, 'you can be the architect or the victim of change. What is certain is that change will occur.' Most people are victims of change. They allow it to happen to them. Unfortunately as they are the majority, some things then become 'norms' that even those who choose to be the architects of their own lives, are forced to accept. But until there is not a hotel that will take a phone call from me, I will continue to do things my way.
I should add, that although I am indeed a retiree and on a 'fixed income' as most retirees say, I am not on a low fixed income. But I don't mention that part when negotiating with a hotel.
You use the negotiating tools you have to your best advantage.