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Step Out of Your Comfort Zone and Trust Your Instincts
- Jul 26, 2009 at 7:55 PM
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- Comments (4) Total Views (146) Everyone can see this journal post.
A friend of mine and I went to a PTA conference this weekend. It is a fun, annual trip to the capital city of our state about four hours from our home. A good girls' getaway weekend that is also full of great information and a plethora of vendor freebies.
When I made the reservations for the hotel, out of habit and familiarity, I booked us a room at the same hotel we had stayed at for the last couple of years, even though we had experienced a few small problems at the hotel, I pushed my instincts to try something new aside for the familiar. As we were driving up to the hotel, my friend asked me why I didn't try another (nicer) hotel down the street for a change of pace this year. I explained that, since the problems we experienced weren't huge I didn't really want to take the time to research other hotels (that I figured were much too expensive) and then end up possibly having even worse troubles.
We got to our destination, a hotel down the street from the convention center where the conference was being held. The desk clerk could not have been any less welcoming or have had a more bored expression on her face as we checked in. Strike one for them. We got out of the elevator on the fourth floor and were not a bit impressed that we were on the street side of the hotel. I had specifically asked for a room on the other side. Last year the problem had been a lot of loud construction on the street on that side. Although there was no obvious construction going on, being on the fourth floor was not enough buffer between us and the busy street below. We could hear the traffic very clearly as we stepped into our room. Strike two for them. We began to unpack. I noticed a musty odor in the room, but tried to ignore it as my disappointment mounted; my friend was feeling it too. Then the kicker happened, we found out the only benefit to that hotel - the Sleep Number Bed was no longer available in any rooms except their suites. Strike three for them.
Neither my friend nor I are big complainers but, we were really not happy with our accommodations. My friend screwed up her courage and called the front desk and explained our predicament. They offered to move us to another room with a Sleep Number Bed, on the other side of the hotel. Problem was there was only one bed in the other room. They offered to get us a cot though. Uh...no thanks.
A few quick phone calls and a little finagling on my friend's part landed us in a much nicer room at a bigger, nicer hotel just steps away from the convention center where we would be attending our workshops all for only $10 a night more. The first hotel allowed us to check out with no monetary penalty. Score! The clerk at the first hotel seemed perkier when we checked out than she had when we checked in. It was kind of bizarre.
If my friend had not tenaciously stepped outside her comfort zone, we would both have been a lot less happy with our situation and the weekend might have been tainted and perhaps ruined altogether. Of course, if I had trusted my instincts a bit more and stepped out of my comfort zone and booked us at the other hotel to begin with she might not have had to step out of hers. All in all it was a bit of a learning experience for us both and we had an outstanding time.
It is good to move outside a place in which we are comfortable, but not really growing and to expand our lives beyond what we expect for ourselves. It is also nice to know that those instincts - those little voices inside our own heads that give us a gentle nudge are often smarter than we give them credit for. It is wonderful to go away for the weekend, renew ourselves and also learn a few good life lessons in the process.
Comments:
It sounds like you ended up having a nice time, which you deserved muchly!
Sounds like you have a new "regular" hotel! I'm OCD about staying in hotels. I bring my own sheets, blankets and pillows. My suspicions were years later confirmed when I did some housekeeping that most places don't always change the sheets or blankets from person to person. ICK!
ICK is right Robyn. I didn't need to know that. What I don't know won't hurt me, you know. :)
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Good post Kim. I'm glad you guys ended up somewhere nicer. The clerk at the first hotel was probably happier to have one less room to take care of, sounds like she wasn't very thrilled with her job.
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