Planes,

hotels,

automobiles:
gouge ‘em
till they drop

UNTIL RECENT times,
airlines had a unique ap-
proach to marketing.

It might have been described as
“those your best customer.’’ Be re-
lentless. When the business travel-
ler walks up to the counter,
squeeze every nickel out of him
that you can get.

‘*When Aunt Martha takes her
flight in 20 years, give her the ab-
solute rock bottom rate. Save the
big blasts for the people who
spend money with us every day of
the year. Drive them into
bankruptcy. That’ll show ’em!"’

This remark is not even a hair
exaggerated. Airline executives
and their schedule planners would
invest fortunes in what are charm-
ingly known as ‘‘gates’’ to ensure
that the business traveller didn’t
accidentally walk into a bargain.

That’s where the advanced
booking rules come into play.
Then there would be better fares
if your trip covered a weekend.
Another clever tactic involved
remo -ing any fare savings for
routs deviations.

While every other industry was
trying to find ways to reward its
best customers, the airlines were
deliberately doing the reverse.

The ill-will this fostered was
immeasurable. Businessmen would
find that the chap in the next seat
was on some ridiculously-named
deal (something like: ‘‘The Super
Sunday Wizard Special’’) that cost
$40 to go from New York to
Miami. When the businessman
pulled out his ticket, he would
discover that he had paid $500 for
the same route.

As consumer protests became
increasingly virulent, and business
travellers explored every deal] of-
fered by deregulation, airline loy-
alty went ont the window. When
industry salesmen asked why their
“‘regulars’’ were no longer flying
with them, the replies were terse.

Several remedies were devised,
the most minor of which was a
dramatic easing of the advanced
booking bargain limitations.

But, an historic phenomenon
constituted the major assault.
Travel poincs have revolutionized
all forms of transportation. At
* last, the frequent flyer could be
rewarded for loyalty. The best
part of the deal is that‘most com-
panies have allowed their expense
account staff to personally benefit
from the points.

It has been such a rage that
billions of dollars worth of free
travel is now on the books as a
future liability for the airlines. If
these were audited and reported
like ordinary liabilities or pension
plan commitments, the balance
sheet of many air carriers would
appear to be perilously weak.

This has been a creative solu-
tion to a vexing problem. And
now, everyone else is tumbling
after in the points business:
hotels, rental car agencies and
other retail outlets.

Hotels and car rental companies
are now the modern-day villains.
Their deliberate exploitation of
the consumer is shameless.

A typical car rental counter at
an airport will have 10 different
rates for the same vehicle. Unless
you make a scene, or wander up
and down the aisle conducting a
demented auction among com-
petitive counters, you might as
well paint a bull’s-eye on your
forchead.

Gary
Bannerman

OPEN LINES

The hotels are worse.

One prominent Victoria hotel,
asked recently for its rates for a
single room, offered a range of
from $80-$225 per night. It may
be the same room.

The government rate is $80. But
senior front desk clerks can
dispense that rate to anyone, if
they have to.

The lowest corporate rate is
$135. At the lower rates, you run
the risk of getting a poorer room,
but that’s not always the case.
The best rooms are often the last
to be booked and therefore the
only ones available.

The New World Harbourside in
Vancouver has a government rate
of $65 a night and a bottom cor-
porate rate only slightly more than
that. But the “‘rack rate’’ for the
same room is $140. That’s what
you will pay if you don’t ask any
questions.

Using $100 a night as a guide
for the best double room ina
modern hotel, fair fixed prices
would offer the poorest room at
30 per cent less. This room would
be structurally identical to the
best, but the appointments may
not be so nice, it would lack a
view and it might be less desirably
located.

In older buildings, with a
broader range of facilities, the
cheapest room could be 60 per
cent less than the best.

The price differential today,
however, has little to do with fa-
cilities. It’s a matter of whim and
circumstance. Front desk staff are
trained in techniques by which
they can up-sell their customers.
They are graded on the average
price they secure per room book-
ed.

Finance ministers just shake
their heads in amusement when
hoteliers complain about sales tax.
The GST will add seven per cent
to the price of a room. The hotel
will, if it can get away with it,
double or triple the charge a con-
sumer pays, but that doesn’t
count — apparently.

There is another factor at play
here. In Greater Vancouver, none
of the top 12 hotels are locally
owned.

The usual scenario is that a real
estate company owns the building
and the hotel chain operates on
various types of management con-
tracts. Locals own neither the
buildings nor the hotel chain on
the masthead.

When once hears the industry
scream for convention centres,
tourism dollars and tax breaks, a
tittle caution would be very much
in order.
an ns CS

RCMP seeks attacker

THE NORTH Vancouver RCMP
Sex Crimes Unit is searching for a
man who attacked a young
woman in North Vancouver City
on Oct. 24.

The woman was on her way to
a catch a bus at Lonsdale Avenue
and 8th Street at approximately
6:20 a.m. when she was accosted
by a man sitting on a park bench

Drivers guilty

RECENT CONVICTIONS in
North Shore courts have resulted
in fines and penalties, including a
one-year driving suspension, for
drinking and driving related of-
fences:

NORTH VANCOUVER: Natalie
Bilic, 21, L-1247 East 27th St.,
North Vancouver (impaired, $500
fine); Wayne McKenzie Seal, 34,
1935 Queens Ave., West Van-
couver (impaired, three months
jail); Steven Car! Jondreau, 27,
997 Cherrybrook Place, Co-
quitiam (over .08, $700 fine).
WEST VANCOUVER: Brian Lee
Wingrove, 41, 2939 Eddystone
Cres., North Vancouver (im-
paired, $750 fine); Kevin David
Dale, 23, 214-615 St. Georges
Ave., North Vancouver (over .08,
14 days jail); Anita Barbara Jahn,
20, 42 Lions Bay Ave., Lions Bay
(impaired, $300).

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Sunday, November 25, 1990 - North Shore News - 9

near the intersection.

The suspect grabbed the victim
around the neck, threw her to the

ground and began
clothes.

The man was scare
proaching pedestrians.

ripping her

ff by ap-

The suspect is described as be-
ing a white male, approximately

183) cm
height,

and a muscular build.

He was wearing dark-colored
pants and a dark, kangaroo-style
windbreaker with a red crest and

white writing on the left side.

Information may be forwarded
to Const. P.J. Cross at 985-1311.

(approximately 6’)
86 kg (189 Ibs.), 35 to 40
years old, with short dark hair

in

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