Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

We just finished a conference last week. The conference went well. But not everything was perfect.

Let's talk about the noise. The conference food services (kitchen, cleaning) seemed to be directly behind the conference room. The walls of typical conference centers are about as thick as a sheet of aluminum foil. So, when the staff even thinks about stacking plates or cleaning silverware, you hear it in the conference room. 

When the racket began the first time, I envisioned the staff behind the wafer-thin wall playing a demented game of pin the tail on the donkey. But this version involved chucking silverware. I went back and gave them my "take it down a notch" look.  My glance worked some temporary magic. Unfortunately, 20 minutes later, pin the spoon on the donkey began anew.

Perhaps the hotel did a cost/benefit analysis to determine that the best place to clean dishes and silverware is 8 centimeters behind the conference space itself. I'm not sure I buy it. But let's say they did. They could still do a much better job of soundproofing the area. They could time the cleaning much better. They could train staff much better. 

But they don't. And here's the rub. Our conference brought more than 1,000 room nights to the hotel. Not to mention banquet dollars and more. And yet they don't seem to worry about the situation all that much.

Let's move on to #2. The person who cleaned my room took stuff out of my toiletry bag and arranged it neatly on the counter. 

Took it out of the bag. (Read that slowly, and with a cold, flat demeanor.)

I'm not a germaphobe, but I wasn't too happy that the person took stuff out of the bag. They neatened and rearranged my stuff all week. I had colleagues who didn't like it either. The thought of strangers handling your toothbrush isn't something one should think about. 

Finally, I arrived one evening to see an animal on my bathroom counter. I'm not sure if it was an elephant or a goose. It was made of various towels, and it was taped together, complete with a pair of eyes.

I didn't really think about it much until I tried to undo the tape. Then I wondered why Marriott uses tape normally utilized to repair international space stations to put together their towel animals. It took me 10 minutes to dissect my little buddy back into usable towels. After the encounter, I warily walked into my room each night, wondering whether I'd have to wrestle a fluffy rabbit or other animal before I could take a shower. 

Where am I going here?

I think in each of these three cases, the person/organization didn't think that there was a problem. The first one surprises me, but for the last two, I can almost see the employee leaving my room whistling a happy tune, confident that they did a great job.

But for many of my colleagues, they didn't. They actually created some unintentional aggravation. 

And that got me thinking...

If Marriott unintentionally does this, what makes any of us immune?

I'm sure all of us do something that ticks off our members. 

But what are those things? And how would we know? (Surveys, surveys, surveys...)

Just something to chew on for today...