Recently it seems all you hear is bad news and how horrible people are doing. Sort of the opposite of waiting for the other shoe to drop – instead, it’s shoe after shoe, negative headline after negative headline (even Brian Williams can’t take it – he’s pleading for good news). We certainly understand that times are tough – at our hotel we are keeping positive and continuing to offer the resort as a place to escape.

And we know for some, even with getaway specials that is not an option as mortgages, credit payments, tuition, employment and more trump the family vacation to Ogunquit this year. We will certainly miss you and welcome you to come back to Maine just as soon as you can.

However, we are a bit confused about guests calling to book a vacation and saying ‘they cannot believe X would exist in these economic times (insert whatever it may be – good examples are suites costing more than standard rooms, high season rates or any kind of minimum stay) and demanding to speak with a manager about it.

A really odd one was a guest who couldn’t believe we would clean and change the water in the Roman Spa and that the entire stay should be complimentary. This really puzzled us. In good and in bad economic times, it’s still important to maintain the hotel – which means our pools and jacuzzis will be cleaned every day to the degree necessary. This may sound crazy but we’d rather present a clean pool then have you sit in anything else. Clean amenities have nothing to do with economic times – and it seems odd to have to apologize or have guests demanding refunds for maintaining the resort. Aren’t we expected to take care of the hotel for you? It would be far more irresponsible to let our standards down.

Yes, times are tough and choosing (or even being able) to take a trip to visit the Meadowmere is something we are grateful for. However we hope that using ‘these economic times’ as a reason for refunds, upgrades and freebies when planning or taking a vacation during this recession will stop. Seems reasonable to all the families that will not be taking any trips (heck, may not have a home) in these economic times.