July, 1996:
The month started with me in London, England, for the second European PD Grad School. A few days later I was in Cleveland to speak at McVay Media’s Programmers’ School.
It was while preparing to check out of the hotel in Cleveland that I became consciously aware of the tendency of certain people to refuse to answer direct questions — choosing instead to answer questions they weren’t asked.
Case in point: I knew I wanted to arrive at the airport no later than 5:00PM. So I asked the hotel’s concierge, “If I want to arrive at the airport not later than 5:00, what time do I need to leave the hotel?”
“What time does your flight leave?” she replied.
In courtroom terms, that was a non-responsive answer.
By the way, the hotel concierge should be the most knowledgeable, most resourceful person in the building. In certain American hotels, however, the “concierge” is an entry-level position filled by the lowest-paid, least experienced person available.
The hotel in Cleveland was one of those hotels.
“No, listen: All I want to know is when I have to leave this hotel if I want to reach the airport by 5:00.”
A desk clerk overheard this and interrupted, with great assurance: “What time does your flight leave, sir?”
“No, no, no! It doesn’t matter when my flight leaves! All I want to know is when I have to leave this hotel if I want to reach the airport by 5:00.”
The front desk manager appeared. “May I help you, sir?”
“I hope so,” I sighed. “I’ll be taking a taxi from this hotel to the airport later this afternoon, and I’m trying to find out when I should leave the hotel if I want to arrive at the airport by 5:00.”
“Ah, I see,” he purred. “And what time does your flight leave?”
“That’s none of your business! That’s completely irrelevant to my question! Maybe I want to reach the airport 15 minutes before my flight. Maybe I have to take care of some ticketing and want to get there 90 minute early. Maybe I have a meeting scheduled there two hours before my flight. Maybe I just want to hang out at the airport and watch the planes take off! Just tell me how long it takes to get to the airport late this afternoon!”
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Thinking inside the box! Answering based on training which apparently covers only how much time before a flight is required due to regs. So time of flight, answer you leave at *****, but your point is correct, answer the question asked, don’t assume the answer you have been trained to give is the only one! Thinking outside the box!
So Dan, what time did your flight leave?
What if your flight was at 5:30 (or even 6:00) and you grossly underestimated how long it would take to check in and clear security. If you then missed your flight you might then point the finger at the hotel staff and say “well they told me to leave at such-and-such time!” You probably know how much time to give yourself and even if you didn’t you may not blame the hotel staff… but some people would… and some might even attempt to sue. I believe they were only trying to super serve and make sure you got to the airport in plenty of time.