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On the way back from our vacation in Florida, we needed a stopover in Georgia. For this I almost always turn to the Choice Hotels network: the quality is consistently good, and the prices reasonable. I initially made reservations through the website at a hotel in south Georgia but needed to change the reservation when we decided to go home a day early. So I called the hotel directly. I found myself speaking to someone with a very strong Indian accent; so strong, in fact, that I failed to understand (or so I assume) their instructions to call the national chain to cancel the reservation made through the website, although they could create a new reservation for me.
On the way home, we made better time than we had estimated, and decided to change our reservation again to a hotel in north Georgia. So I called the hotel again to cancel the reservation. Another Indian. This time I did understand the necessity of calling the national chain, which I needed to do anyway to make a new reservation in N. Georgia.
I called the national chain and spoke to a white guy with good English who cancelled the initial reservation and made a new one. We arrived that evening at the hotel and were checked in by a very polite and helpful young Indian woman. The next morning we went into the lobby to eat (free!) breakfast, and an older and much more reserved Indian man was working the desk.
Today, I received an email from Choice Hotels inviting me to fill out an online survey of my experience. The email was signed:
Sona Gupta
So . . . what's up with this? Is Choice Hotels a predominantly Indian operation? Is it a Georgia thing? Or is it random chance? I never remember getting that strong an Indian vibe before.
1 comment:
Not sure. My wife and I have commented, though, that the Indian Convenience Store Operator is much less common than the Indian Hotel Owner (and, for that matter, the Pakistani Convenience Store Operator).
That they would pour into the same profession isn't all that surprising. Ditto that they might populate the same organization. If you're going to a strange new land, you're probably going to hew as closely as you can to the paths of those that have already succeeded.
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