Well, the wedding went off without a hitch. Beautiful day, beautiful bride (my sister-in-law, Erin), and pretty good food. All in all, a very good wedding.
The hotel? Well, let's just say they could have done better. No, this isn't turning into a review site for hotels, but there are some important observations I made this weekend about the Cambria Pines Lodge that can serve as important selling lessons (or, lessons in how not to operate a hotel if you happen to be someone who is in the hotel business).
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The beds were really bad. Obviously old mattresses. Many of us in the wedding party talked about that throughout the weekend, along with the outdated decorations. A month or so ago, I talked about the superb Hilton Suite Dreams mattress that I discovered on some business trips. It is wonderful. I've told 10 or 15 people about that mattress, and given them the web address where they could check it out themselves. Which begs the question: Why don't hotels everywhere make sure they have an unbelievably comfortable mattress, and cut back on other stuff that most travelers really don't care about? Hilton has got the right idea by giving their guest the best - and I mean THE BEST - mattress of any hotel anywhere. They've set the bar so high that any other hotel I stay at pales in comparison - this hotel more than others.
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The pool. We went there two nights in a row (our main goal: Wear out the kids right before bedtime). Why we went back the second time still is a mystery to me, because it was delapidated from top to bottom. The huge pool was lit by just one underwater light, giving it that you're-about-to-be-part-of-a-horror-movie feel. The "exercise area" featured equipment from 1975 and a couch that was stacked 7 feet high on top of unused lounge chairs. My daughter described the water by saying, "It tasted like a mixture of chlorine and sweat." I guess that about says it all.
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It was hot this weekend, but there was no ceiling fan or air conditioning in the room. That made for a semi-miserable sleeping experience for my lovely - but very, very pregnant - wife.
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The bathrooms in several of our party's rooms were outdated, from archaic faucets and nozzles to chipped paint and stained ceilings. And, might I say, the plunger next to the toilet in every room was an interesting touch of ambiance....
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Oh, and the wedding coordinator responsible for this lovely outdoor wedding? She was a no-show. Never met her, never talked to her. Everything came together thanks to a minister who knew the grounds and the crew, and a great florist team.
OK, OK...here's my point: Your product better deliver. In today's world, word of mouth will make you or break you. And while I'm sure the good experiences had at the Cambria Pines Lodge are still outweighing the bad experiences, the dissatisfied customers count more and more. Because more and more of us have blogs, and an audience of people who read what we say and look to us for guidance.
My guidance for any sales professional reading this is simple: Under-promise and over-deliver. Not once this weekend did we experience "over-deliverying." The result? I doubt we'll recommend an otherwise nice facility (their gardens are amazing!) for a stay or a wedding. For a family with the potential to have seven potential weddings over the next 20 years or so, that's a lot of lost potential business.
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