no-vacancy corporate nonsense

Bob and I decided to run away this past weekend. We skipped out on all the renovation and moving craziness we've been dealing with around the clock and escaped down to Adamstown Pennsylvania to look for an armoire. Adamstown is a quiet little town built primarily around antique malls, flea markets and Amish motels. We've gone there many times on weekends in the past to hunt for Christmas ornaments, old photographs and furniture and each time we've been able to find a motel room at the last minute without any problem.

So early Saturday morning, while we were rushing around the house quickly showering and packing our overnight bag like two kids who had decided to play hooky, we never once thought about calling ahead to get a room. That was our first mistake. Our second mistake was not bothering to check for rooms when we got into the Adamstown area. We took our time visiting a furniture vendor's warehouse north of town, then having dinner in the bigger city of Reading, and even going to see a movie, comfortable that we'd find a room easily when we got to Adamstown.

But as we drove into Adamstown we noticed that the small Amish motels, even the one without air conditioning, all said "no vacancy." Still no alarms in our heads, there were bigger franchise motels like Holiday Inn and Days Inn just down the road. The Holiday Inn didn't have a sign to indicate whether they had a vacancy or not, so we pulled into the lot confidently, parked the car and walked up to the desk where a little blond girl in a suit jacket kept her head down until we reached the desk and asked her about a room. "Sorry, we're all booked up," was her response. I asked why there was not a "no vacancy" sign and she mumbled that Holiday Inns were not allowed to have "no vacancy" signs. I thought it strange that Holiday Inn would have such a policy until the Days Inn, Econo Lodge, Comfort Inn, Travel Lodge, all were booked solid without any indication from the road. Instead of simply driving past "no vacancy" signs until we could find something, we had to drive into the parking lot and go into each motel to find out that they couldn't help us. A half-hour search took almost two hours.

Finally, I asked the little Poltergeist woman at the Travel Lodge why no one had "no vacancy" signs anymore and she informed me that franchise motels no longer have these signs so that their reservationists can send you to their affiliates down the road. The funny thing is, she was not offering me that service, nor had anyone else. From the little blond girl at the Holiday Inn to the surly slacker with the leather wrist band at the Comfort Inn to the 40-something that looked at me like a beat-dog at the Days Inn, they all just mumbled "we're all booked up." The little woman at the travel lodge even snidely remarked that I should have made reservations.

Long story shortened, the Best Western in Lancaster, about 15 miles (and two hours) down the road, had a few vacancies because a wedding had been cancelled. Thank heavens for cold feet! And the cause of the sold out status in the "Antique Capital of the USA" as they call themselves: some race-car event just north of Adamstown. So Bob and I and the blue-haired crowd had the antique malls to ourselves the next morning while everyone else went to the races. And Holiday Inn continued to welcome weary travelers, at least to their front desk, vacancies or not.