How I am an Idiot

So, this week, I'm in Florida on business (company's main office is down here). Near the main office, the company has a condo where up to two out-of-towners can stay when visiting. When we come down, we are supposed to first check on the availability of the condo, and only if that's already booked up are we supposed to get a room at a nearby hotel.

Now, the trip that I'm on this week was planned about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and I should have gotten everything together back then. I did get the plane tickets in plenty of time, however, I kept forgetting to email the person at the company that keeps track of the condo. I would remind myself, on my way to work some mornings, to do so, but once I got to work, I'd get busy with one thing or another and forget again. This went on until this past Friday evening, when I realized that 1) the trip was the next Monday, 2) it was past quitting time and everyone had gone home. Oops.

In that "oh crap" sort of panic that's ultimately useless, since it wouldn't have mattered if I'd gotten the email out 30 minutes later (when I got home), I boot my computer back up and (finally) send an email to the necessary person, hoping that, maybe, she'll happen to check her email over the weekend (hey, it could happen). I also decide to go ahead and book a room at a Doubletree hotel near the office, just in case. I decided to book it on my own personal card, so that, if the condo did end up being available, and I had to pay some sort of cancellation fee for canceling the reservation at the last minute, the fee would go on my own card, since it was my stupidity that brought this about.

Sure enough, I get an email while about to board the plane this morning saying that the condo is, in fact, available for the week. So, after landing in Florida, I go into the main office for the remainder of the work day. While there, I get online to cancel my reservation at the Doubletree.

Unfortunately, because it's within 24 hours of the check-in time, I can't cancel the reservation online. I call the number it suggests, only to find that the "central reservation office" couldn't cancel the reservation, either. I was going to have to contact the hotel directly and talk to a manager to get it canceled.

I call the hotel, and get transferred to the reservations manager. After waiting on hold for some time, I get sent to voicemail; the manager is not currently available. Sigh. I left her a message, with my number to get back to me. I never heard back from her.

Wanting to get this taken care of, I finally decide to just drive down to the hotel after work and talk to the front desk directly. Preparing for resistance (just in case they wanted to give me a hard time), I walk into the hotel and explain to the guy at the desk that I need to cancel my reservation. I'm sure he was wondering why I'd be canceling my reservation while I'm obviously in the area. So, I explain what's going on, and he hit a few buttons and says, "Okay, you're done!"

I was kind of surprised; that seemed too easy. No cancellation fee? Nope. No paying for a night or anything? Nope. Just canceled the reservation and I was on my way.

Yeah, boring story, but I said in a Twitter update I'd post it (since I alluded to it in the update), so there it is. Sorry you had to read that.