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[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

"The county is having an employee appreciation breakfast and we want a 2 night weekend stay donation from you as a door prize."
They drive me absolutely batty - do they send people to us? No, to the uncomfort inn where guests refuse to take off their shoes cuz it is so dirty and have all sorts of problems there.
I get 10 calls per week begging for donations and am so fed up with it.
How about this? How about YOU donate something to me? Like a property or business or personal tax fee weekend?
Guess who brings in out-of-towners into this community to spend their money? How about an appreciation breakfast for me!!!!
No more missus nice guy.
(End. Rant is over)

 

[wendydk]

"Guess who brings in out-of-towners into this community to spend their money?"
Oohhh, good point Junie! I'll have to remember that one.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Yep!
100%.
But they think we are here and people just drive up and find us when they are in town. NONE find us this way, NOT A ONE!
and in return, as well, I spend all my money locally...dentist yesterday, two kids in glasses, grocery stores, everything local. Uncomfortinn is a corp and the money goes out. Sure they employ people - maybe I could afford to employ people if THEY SENT ME COUNTY BUSINESS. Doh

 

[gillumhouse]

How timely! I have donate to the silent auction for the lobby arm of the induatry (yes, but I now do things not rooms), the CVB annual dinner (yes, an item), and today's mail brought a request from a private school in Maryland (NOT). I agree, we get bombarded by entities that give us nothing. I would gladly give to someone who generated business for me - and I do to the Palatine, Illinois Woman's Club because they do bring extra room nights or rooms, not just the certificate.

 

[user 26]

each year i donated one or two stays and no one (local) ever redeemed them. it was as if they got the booby prize.

 

[The Farmers Daughter]

I've backed off on this too. I am not convinced that people who get a freebee necessarily come back and spend money. The other thing is the locals are not my customer to begin with, so I might as well take money and toss it out the window.

 

[Hangfive]

We generously discount a prepaid 2 night stay to a Charity in one of our feeder markets. They pays us in advance and then auction the stay off as a package with items that locals in their city donate. This has worked out well for us and we have had word of mouth guests stay with us as a direct result.
When the locals call looking for a hand out, I tell them the truth. That we have already decided what charity we are going to donate to for the year.

 

[EmptyNest]

We got sucked into donations our first year...after that..NO way. It got us nothing. There were however a few groups I am personally involved with that I would give a free room night to..but they were never used.

 

[Proud Texan]

A close second to donations are all the groups and local schools that want us to buy advertising in the venue du jour. I tell them "sorry, but our advertising budget has been spent/allocated for the year. It's a waste of time for us to advertise locally. We have a very nice visitor's center in town where we've had rack cards since opening. Not once have we ever had a reservation generated from there or any other local advertising.

 

[gillumhouse]

A close second to donations are all the groups and local schools that want us to buy advertising in the venue du jour. I tell them "sorry, but our advertising budget has been spent/allocated for the year. It's a waste of time for us to advertise locally. We have a very nice visitor's center in town where we've had rack cards since opening. Not once have we ever had a reservation generated from there or any other local advertising..

I now not only say no to local (except for the insert our Blueprint Community Team does in an area paper) and most distant organizations because they do not generate anything but I do try to educate them in how to get and keep donations coming. I tell them they not only need to urge attendees to patronize the donors but to also TELL the donors - I found you at the XYZ fundraiser. I tell them the businesses need to be able to tie business to the event! Most of the time it is like talking to a wall.

 

[sharpe]

A close second to donations are all the groups and local schools that want us to buy advertising in the venue du jour. I tell them "sorry, but our advertising budget has been spent/allocated for the year. It's a waste of time for us to advertise locally. We have a very nice visitor's center in town where we've had rack cards since opening. Not once have we ever had a reservation generated from there or any other local advertising..

I now not only say no to local (except for the insert our Blueprint Community Team does in an area paper) and most distant organizations because they do not generate anything but I do try to educate them in how to get and keep donations coming. I tell them they not only need to urge attendees to patronize the donors but to also TELL the donors - I found you at the XYZ fundraiser. I tell them the businesses need to be able to tie business to the event! Most of the time it is like talking to a wall.
.

The worst guests that I've ever had are the ones who "win" the free stay if they bother to show up at all. We actually had to replace the carpet once when a drunken guest's dinner was sprayed around the room. It was a horrible mess to clean up made all the worse by the knowledge that we "gave" this Saturday night away.
So when the local children's play group asked for a door prize last year, I offered a dinner for two instead of a stay. The lucky winners phoned up and asked to reserve for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day. No, no, no and no. Finally, we managed to agree a date and they didn't show but had the nerve to phone the next morning for another date. Can you believe it?