💵 Nickel and Dimed
Ep 31: Keeping track of milestones, resorting to fees to make ends meet, and a heart-stopping rescue in the snowy backcountry.
Well, it’s that time of year again when @phoebe.the.bunny endures the humiliation of being placed amidst plastic eggs in a wicker basket. She’s a good sport, and hopes (hops?) y’all had a happy weekend. Thanks to Elizabeth for capturing this gem.
A Tip for the Modern Worker
Record incremental progress. Do you have a long-term goal you’re trying to reach? It can be helpful to record and report on your incremental progress. Whether you keep tabs on hours, task completion, or another metric, seeing steady progress toward a long-term goal can be a great motivator. Metrics help you stay on track and give you the assurance you need to keep working.
This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. I have a calendar reminder to document significant accomplishments every Friday. It’s a cinch to write my self-assessment at performance review time. The documentation is a great reminder of things I’ve done throughout the year.
#365DayDraw
I drew this and wrote the accompanying annotation as part of my #365DayDraw project 7 years ago today.
Probably the only skunk cabbage I'll see today #NeverendingWinter
Well, this is ironic timing, given the focus of last week’s edition. Seven years ago, Skunk Cabbage was a week after it was held this year. Given the hashtag, I assume it was a cold day for running in Ithaca. And it was! My race report from that year tells the tale, and I won the prize for first Masters finisher that day. Always nice to defray the cost of a pair of shoes.
And what is a skunk cabbage, anyway? Well, my drawing does it no justice. It’s one of the first plants to emerge in spring. Per the National Wildlife Federation, skunk cabbage gets its name from the nasty odor it emits. Its goal: attract pollinators that enjoy the scent of rotting meat. Mmm.
Commentary
We just returned from a weekend getaway at a luxurious waterfront hotel just over an hour from our house. The hotel, which shall remain nameless for the sake of this article, was beautifully sited. The views? Spectacular. Accommodations and furnishings? On the new side, clean, and well-maintained. The food and beverages? Really great.
So the overall experience must have been pretty great, right? Well, that’s where this story of experience design begins. At the end of it all, we walked away feeling kind of meh about the whole thing, and it boils down to a few interactions and policies that negatively impacted our guest experience. I’m a user experience designer — of websites — but the whole concept of experience design is (as Disney is surely aware because they do it so well) crucial to keep those guests happy and returning.
It started at check-in. We booked through Amex Travel (let’s get those credit card points) and prepaid a hefty room rate for this rare indulgence. It was easier to rationalize, given that we’d get a $200 statement credit as an annual perk and a $100 amenity credit to use onsite. The check-in process took a half hour as they tried to sort out why they couldn’t see that I’d prepaid. They tried to get me to pay the whole amount again, and I pulled up my confirmation and showed them that I had indeed already paid. We were so frustrated (though we held our cool) that we declined their welcome glass of sparkling something-or-other, but came back down the following afternoon and enjoyed that when our heads were a little clearer.
The room was beautiful, but we immediately regretted not bringing sleeping bags. We decided to not use our travel hack of packing sleeping bags for extra comfort, assuming that the bedding would be ample, but we were mistaken. The sheets were way too light and there wasn’t a comforter in sight, belying the impression we think they were trying to give. We’d suffer poor sleep for the next two nights thanks to our assumption.
However, there was a single chocolate cupcake on the table with a nice handwritten Happy Birthday card. I remembered then that when I’d called after booking to inquire about signing up for their complimentary fitness classes, they had asked me if it was a special occasion. Amy’s celebrating her birthday this week and I’d shared that information. So that was a nice touch, and we enjoyed splitting the cupcake late that evening.
After morning yoga and a fitness class (which were both wonderful experiences), we attempted to use one of their two saunas. They prominently picture these two beautiful barrel saunas on their website, but they seemed impossible to access. We walked into the building they backed up to and found ourselves in the spa. The receptionist told us the saunas were mostly booked for the day, but we could have a slot at 4:30 for $75 plus $45 for each additional person. We politely thanked them for the information and left. We bought a barrel sauna for our backyard six years ago, and were suddenly really grateful that we have regular access to it. $135 for what seemed to be just 15 or 30 minutes? No thank you.
We’ve since talked about it, and would have happily paid for an experience like what we’ve enjoyed at Spa Scandinave in Mont-Tremblant. There, you get access to the entire complex of saunas, plunge pools, steam rooms, jacuzzis, and tranquility spaces, and for as long as you’d like to linger. Here, it was literally just the saunas. Paradoxically, the complex had a beautiful heated pool and adjacent hot tub that were free for guests, and we did enjoy using those. We had a lovely dinner that evening at one of their onsite restaurants, too, and that was a highlight of our stay.
We experienced the final straw at checkout, when they presented me the total balance. I had prepaid, but we still had to pay taxes and fees, and settle up that $100 resort credit that we’d used during dinner. The total sounded a bit high, so I asked to see a printout. I scanned it and saw three interesting things.
The first two were $30 resort fees, separate from customary sales and local taxes. I asked about those, and yeah: all guests pay that, ostensibly for access to the pool, hot tub, Wi-Fi, free fitness classes (which had at most four people including us in a class) and that welcome drink we enjoyed. But it’s a hidden fee, above and beyond the room rate, and I’ve not really encountered them outside of NYC.
The third was a cryptic $10 charge for a “F&B Charge.” I asked about that, too. “Did you get something for room service? Maybe cake or a cupcake?” We laughed in disbelief. “You mean the cupcake that was placed in the room for her birthday?” They asked me if I’d ordered that, and I clarified that I had not ordered that. I had a chat with the reservationist who’d asked me if we were celebrating something special. I had certainly not asked for, or agreed to pay $10 for, a lone celebratory cupcake.
And with that, we left. Happy to be heading home, with renewed appreciation for the four walls we’ve built ourselves, and the complimentary sauna in our backyard.
Miscellanea
💳 I ran past a couple hiking the opposite direction at Taughannock. One hundred feet later I came to a stop when I saw a folded up $20 bill along the trail. Underneath it was a bright blue debit card. I picked up the card and flipped it over, and read the name printed in raised silver letters. I turned around, looked for the retreating couple, and boomed in my loudest parent voice, “Are you Anne?” They stopped and turned, and the woman cocked her head and tentatively replied, “Yes?” I held the card and bill aloft. “Is this yours?” I ran back her direction and we met in the middle. “I thought it was my lucky day,” I said, “but it turns out it’s yours!” I smiled and handed it over. Bring it on, karma, bring it on.
🏂🌲🙇 Thanks to the Morning Brew, I watched this video of a skier (Francis) saving a buried snowboarder (Ian). It shows raw humanity, perseverance, and the value of being prepared with a backpack shovel while skiing in the backcountry. As I looked up more details about the rescue and subsequently chatted with Francis on Instagram, I learned that he lived nearby recently, too. He was a Production Line Operator and Digital Strategist at Ithaca Beer and lived in Brooktondale, NY for the last 4 years before moving to Bellingham, WA. He’s a professional photographer, too. It truly is a small world.