There isn’t much that gets me annoyed more than a hotel offering a great rate and then when you look at it closer you notice that it is Per Person Sharing (pps). I object to this for a 2 reasons
1. It is out of step with the rest of the world – I regularly stay in hotels all over the UK and sometimes further a field, when I book a hotel room I get a room rate. Not a per person rate, a room rate, how do I know this? Because when MrsK comes over for a weekend I do not pay anymore than my current rate for us to stay for an extra day or two. So by doing this Ireland as a tourist destination looks awkward, out of step and backward.
2. It is an underhanded ploy to look cheaper – Let’s not kid ourselves, this is a way to make the price look really attractive and draw you in. I guess this is what annoys me most – I KEEP falling for it and looking at it again. Shame on you for making me look once, shame on me for looking twice but it is a ploy and it should be called out for what it is – marketing BS.
There are many things I would write about the various hotels in Ireland and how they like to view themselves – 11 years of consulting in Ireland/UK and many hotel stays have been an eye opening experience. Hotels in Ireland are slowly being dragged into the 21st Century, led by the many boutique hotels and the high levels of service they offer. This insistence of our ‘finer’ establishments to keep quoting prices in pps, shows that they are stuck in the dark ages and show little signs of moving forward. This is a disappointment as it will discourage people from staying in these places, I will not willingly hand my money to an establishment that is not up front about the cost of a room for 2 people – what else are they hiding?
So I challenge the hotels in Ireland, North and South, to get a grip – stand by your establishments, your reputation and price yourselves accordingly. Give us, the customer, a room rate that reflects how much you value your establishment and our custom, not one that makes you look like a weak, underhanded, sneaky child that will cry foul when things do not go exactly your way. Yes there will be times when you find more than 2 people in a room, but if the rest of the world is going room rate then I question how big a problem it is actually.
My final word on the matter of hotels in general – never ever stay in an establishment that advertises the rate on the outside of the building, it will only end in tears.
