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Think!
Think!
When we first spotted one in our hotel room, we were amazed, excited, and any of a dozen other emotions that comes with an encounter of something completely new and different.
Oh, we’d seen them before. Lots of them. Grew up with them. But never had I seen one in the bathroom and never had I seen or expected to see one… behind the toilet.
It was a rather nice hotel. Most would describe it as a resort hotel but, however you describe the property, having a television in the bathroom was definitely over the top. (Actually it was over the toilet or, more accurately, on a small shelf behind the toilet.)
I had a sudden urge to experience this luxury personally but for once, I didn’t need to “use the facility.” I mounted the seat facing in the traditional direction. That didn’t work. The small black and white television was behind the toilet. I could not avoid a feeling of inadequacy over my inability take full advantage of this marvelous amenity.
Slowly I turned until I was facing the TV. That couldn’t be right, I thought, while I pondered the ridiculousness of straddling a toilet, backwards. I should have predicted the outcome. (After all, I still haven’t figured out what the French do with a bidet other than you are not supposed to use them for brushing your teeth.)
Then it occurred to me. Maybe I’m not the problem. Maybe putting a television behind the toilet is not so much an amenity as it is a really dumb idea!
Take the Ritz… please!
The folks who run the Ritz Carlton are pretty good listeners and very smart when it comes to operating world class hotels. They do nothing that is not first class, world class. But tell me, please, why an intelligent human being would put a mile deep duvet on a bed in Orlando in June… or even February?
The only way I can sleep at a Ritz, without removing the duvet, is to crank the AC into overdrive, getting the room temperature as close as possible to Absolute Zero! Unfortunately, when you make that early morning trip to the little house, you run the risk of having your feet stick like a tongue on a metal post the instant they hit the deep-chilled bathroom tile.
Home Sweet Home
Yesterday we spent the obligatory few hours waiting for a flight from Chicago O’Hare, a place we lovingly refer to as God’s Penalty Box. What’s the total investment in O’Hare? It’s got to be in the billions.
So why aren’t folks who are smart enough to design and operate a multi-billion dollar airport smart enough to design a PA system that doesn’t blow you across the waiting room? Why is it that the gate agent with a voice that will peel paint is always the one most likely to be first to pick up the microphone?
At our house we have these problems figured out and we’re not corporate geniuses! Our television is not behind the toilet. Our duvet is packed away for the summer. And, uh-oh, I guess we’re not perfect. We’re only two out of three. I just realized that when I send this to my wife for editing, there is a 100% chance she is going to yell from half way across the house, “TG! Are you available?”
I should have bought a PA system!
T. Scott Gross is the creator/author of the management classic Positively Outrageous Service. He loves to hear from his readers. Catch him at www.tscottgross.com. In the meantime…. have fun and make the world a better place!
