People...

[Jay Honeck]

For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".

When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".

On Saturday we:

- Hosted a gathering of Swearingen SX-300 pilots in our Jack Knight
Meeting Room. These top-notch pilots held a seminar on formation
flying, and then spent the day thrilling the city with formation over-
flights. They're doing it again as I'm typing this. (If you're not
familiar with the SX-300, I suggest doing a web search. It is about
the coolest single engine plane out there.)

- Dealt with a couple of Wayne's World look-alikes, who -- at 11 AM --
staggered into the lobby so stoned they couldn't feel their feet,
looking for a suite. Mary took one look at them, loudly pronounced
what she was smelling in their presence, and told them to hit the
bricks....

- Took a call from a former guest who -- a week ago -- claimed to have
tripped and fell entering the Mustang Suite. She has supposedly gone
to a chiropractor three times, and is threatening to sue us if we
don't compensate her in some way.

All of this happened between 11 AM and 1 PM. Call it "The Good, The
Bad, and The Ugly".

Next time you're sitting at your big desk in your corner office,
gazing over the city whilst sipping your third latte of the day and
sweating your stock options, try to remember that the real world is
just beyond the smoked glass...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Ken Finney[_2_]]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
> echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
> remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
> existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
> 500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
> populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".
>
> When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
> experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
> world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
> sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
> yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
> different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".
>

Yeah. For every one of me, there are 10 Mxsmanic's, and 0.0001 Ron
Wantaja's.

[Denny]

On Oct 7, 12:09 pm, "Ken Finney" > wrote:
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
>
> ps.com...
>
> > For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
> > echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
> > remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
> > existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
> > 500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
> > populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".
>
> > When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
> > experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
> > world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
> > sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
> > yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
> > different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".

Hmmm... Come to my world for a day... Sorry to point this out, but
the takers are winning...
The, don't work, won't work, sashay in hours late for the appointment
with a 'you owe me' attitude...
The whiners, whackos, and just plain crazy are increasing in numbers
as the decades go by..
My suspicion is thet we doers have created this...
We have made the world so safe there is no penalty for being lazy or
crazy...
A hundred years ago if you refused to work, you starved... And the
town merely shrgged and said, 'that'll learn ya, durn ya'...
Those who pay little or nothing (per their insurance) out of their
pocket at the time of service are increasingly hostile and
demanding...
The medicaid insured who are required by state law to pay just two
dollars for an office call have every excuse in the book why they
can't do that...
The clueless, who owe us thousands of dollars that they have never
made a single dollar in payment upon,
scream and swear and spit <literally> at my receptionist when she
informs them they have to pay before service from now on...

I have been actively practicing medicine for over 30 years, and we
have been in this office for 26 years, and until this past week
I have never turned a patient away for any reason - and especially
over money - but my accountant tells me if I do not start getting paid
I might as well close the doors....

Then there are the mentally challenged who can't seem to grasp that if
they eat everything in sight and weigh over 300 pounds,
why I can't just give them a pill that will make them look like a
magazine cover model...
The diabetics who can't grasp the fact that if they skip their insulin
they will wind up in the EMR unconcious - and keep doing it...
And the COPD with heart failure who can barely walk across the room
who tell me they can't
quit smoking because they will gain weight if they do! <honest injun
story>


denny

[[email protected][_2_]]

Welcome to my world of emergency medicine (the good, the bad and the
ugly of human behavior; unfortunately I can't take one look at them
and throw them out due to pesky federal laws).

And people wonder why I need to go fly (and go for my daily jog) to
clear my head...

And no, I'm not flying while distracted (like Jay got lambasted upon
after a hard day at work in a recent thread). I'm distracted by flying
from the distractions of everyday life...

Unfortunately my 172 is in annual and I'm starting to withdraw...the
shakes are starting, it's been 7 days...I need a second airplane just
for annual time and when it's down for maintence! (speaking of Ron
Wanntaja, I'm enamoured with a Fly Baby!)

-Ryan

[Ken Finney[_2_]]

"Denny" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> On Oct 7, 12:09 pm, "Ken Finney" > wrote:
> > "Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
> >
> > ps.com...
> >
> > > For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
> > > echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
> > > remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
> > > existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
> > > 500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
> > > populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".
> >
> > > When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
> > > experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
> > > world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
> > > sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
> > > yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
> > > different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".
>
> Hmmm... Come to my world for a day... Sorry to point this out, but
> the takers are winning...
> The, don't work, won't work, sashay in hours late for the appointment
> with a 'you owe me' attitude...
> The whiners, whackos, and just plain crazy are increasing in numbers
> as the decades go by..
> My suspicion is thet we doers have created this...
> We have made the world so safe there is no penalty for being lazy or
> crazy...
> A hundred years ago if you refused to work, you starved... And the
> town merely shrgged and said, 'that'll learn ya, durn ya'...

<snip>

The Bible is quite clear on the subject: "Let his who will not work, not
eat." ( 2 Thessalonians 3:10).

Works for me!

[BT]

> wrote in message
ps.com...
> And people wonder why I need to go fly (and go for my daily jog) to
> clear my head...
>
> And no, I'm not flying while distracted (like Jay got lambasted upon
> after a hard day at work in a recent thread). I'm distracted by flying
> from the distractions of everyday life...
>

I "fly a (management) desk" now that I have "retired" from active military
flying.
So people wonder why I spend every Saturday at the local soaring club...
it's called rejuvenation.

BT

[Jay Honeck]

> Hmmm... Come to my world for a day... Sorry to point this out, but
> the takers are winning...
> The, don't work, won't work, sashay in hours late for the appointment
> with a 'you owe me' attitude...
> The whiners, whackos, and just plain crazy are increasing in numbers
> as the decades go by..
> My suspicion is thet we doers have created this...

Absolutely agree. As with all things, I suspect it's cyclical. The
deficit shows that the takers are taking more than we doers can
produce, and the whole cradle-to-grave welfare system in America and
Western Europe will soon come crashing down.

We've now spent three months, and several thousand dollars,
advertising for two positions (one full- and one part-time) at the
hotel. These are not difficult jobs (front desk), but they do require
a person with the ability to follow procedures and be personable. It
also helps if they aren't afraid of working.

We have now hired seven people -- quite literally all seven who have
applied. One never showed up for their first day; one turned out to
be bipolar, and I literally had to call the police to get them out of
here; one showed up late their first two days -- I fired him on the
fourth day; one stole money from us but left before I could fire her.

The other three are still on the payroll, for now. (Why three? Cuz
we went with three part-time workers, rather than risking hiring
another full-time nut-case.)

Meanwhile, I see able-bodied young men standing in front of WalMart
with a cup, begging for change to buy cheap wine, and eating three
free squares a day at the "shelter".

Five years ago I had all the staff I wanted, and few guests. Now I've
got guests coming out of my ears, and few staff. Anyone who says the
economy isn't booming (and, of course, the media would NEVER report
this in an election year) is simply not paying attention.

It's frightening. Luckily, flying is a wonderful escape from it all.
Unfortunately, Sunday afternoon is our usual time to go "family
flying" -- but I'm working till 8 PM tonight because we have no one to
work this shift...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[B A R R Y]

On Sun, 07 Oct 2007 08:04:24 -0700, Jay Honeck >
wrote:

>For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
>echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
>remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist.

Some of us are on the lower "echelons" of corporate life, so I totally
get it.

My "office" alternates between an 8'x10' cubicle and the windshield of
a clapped-out 2000 Chevy Cavalier with Scotchlight major telephone co.
logos on the side.

My wife and I subscribe to the "pay yourself first" plan, so the 401k
and her 403b get paid well before the airplane payment. I build
high-end cabinets and custom furniture to pay for my half of a Beech
Sundowner. Soon, I expect to instruct to pay for my flying. I've had
part time jobs my entire life, as a musician, sound engineer, trim
carpenter, bicycle salesperson, bicycle mechanic, tile and hardwood
floor mechanic, and airport lineman to supplement my fun.

I look at it as "all good", as I've had experiences that I wouldn't
trade for all the money in the world. I know those behaviors... <G>

[Jay Honeck]

> My "office" alternates between an 8'x10' cubicle and the windshield of
> a clapped-out 2000 Chevy Cavalier with Scotchlight major telephone co.
> logos on the side.

Ugh...cubicle life. I spent a few years in one, and wouldn't want to
go back any time soon.

On the other hand, I also worked in one of those vaunted "open office
settings", where you literally had a desk and a file cabinet, in the
middle of a dozen or more other people who ALSO had a desk and a file
cabinet, in one giant room. The idea was to "promote communication and
work flow"...

I'll take the cube any day, thanks. Every single person had to stop
at your desk on their way through "just to say 'hi!'" -- which meant
ZERO work was ever accomplished. Being a social person it was fun,
but in the end very, very frustrating.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[kontiki]

Very well stated Denny.

I believ you are right... the "Do'ers" created this worthless POS
"takers" by enabling them.

Some things will have to change in this country or it will end
up a chapter in history one day along with the Roman empire.

[Gene Seibel]

On Oct 7, 9:04 am, Jay Honeck > wrote:
> For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
> echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
> remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
> existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
> 500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
> populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".
>
> When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
> experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
> world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
> sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
> yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
> different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".
>

"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can
only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse
(a liberal gift) out of public treasury. From that moment on the
majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits
from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always
collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a
Dictatorship."

We are there. The takers have won.
--
Gene Seibel
Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

[Carl Orton]

While not 100% on-topic, if you have a chance, view the movie "Idiocracy".
Warning: foul language, lousy acting, and weak script, but if you stick
with the precept of the dumbing-down of society, it's a funny but sobering
view of where we could be heading.... Basically, a 2005 guy who's the most
center-of-the-bell-curve goes into a hibernation experiment, gets forgotten,
and wakes up 500 yrs later - as the smartest guy in the world.

Carl


"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
> echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
> remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
> existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
> 500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
> populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".
>
> When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
> experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
> world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
> sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
> yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
> different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".
>
> On Saturday we:
>
> - Hosted a gathering of Swearingen SX-300 pilots in our Jack Knight
> Meeting Room. These top-notch pilots held a seminar on formation
> flying, and then spent the day thrilling the city with formation over-
> flights. They're doing it again as I'm typing this. (If you're not
> familiar with the SX-300, I suggest doing a web search. It is about
> the coolest single engine plane out there.)
>
> - Dealt with a couple of Wayne's World look-alikes, who -- at 11 AM --
> staggered into the lobby so stoned they couldn't feel their feet,
> looking for a suite. Mary took one look at them, loudly pronounced
> what she was smelling in their presence, and told them to hit the
> bricks....
>
> - Took a call from a former guest who -- a week ago -- claimed to have
> tripped and fell entering the Mustang Suite. She has supposedly gone
> to a chiropractor three times, and is threatening to sue us if we
> don't compensate her in some way.
>
> All of this happened between 11 AM and 1 PM. Call it "The Good, The
> Bad, and The Ugly".
>
> Next time you're sitting at your big desk in your corner office,
> gazing over the city whilst sipping your third latte of the day and
> sweating your stock options, try to remember that the real world is
> just beyond the smoked glass...
>
> ;-)
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>

[Andrew Gideon]

On Sun, 07 Oct 2007 09:43:16 -0700, wrote:

> And no, I'm not flying while distracted (like Jay got lambasted upon
> after a hard day at work in a recent thread). I'm distracted by flying
> from the distractions of everyday life...

Isn't that amazing? It all just falls away during pre-flight.

I've recently started studying Taekwondo, and it's the same: as soon as I
start the warm-ups, the various demands and pressures of the day just
seem to fall away.

[Admittedly, mine are nothing like those of an ER MD.]

- Andrew

[Mxsmanic]

Jay Honeck writes:

> We have now hired seven people -- quite literally all seven who have
> applied. One never showed up for their first day; one turned out to
> be bipolar, and I literally had to call the police to get them out of
> here; one showed up late their first two days -- I fired him on the
> fourth day; one stole money from us but left before I could fire her.

How much do you pay them?

[Jay Honeck]

> How much do you pay them?

Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.

Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
trouble finding good people....
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Gatt]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...

> - Dealt with a couple of Wayne's World look-alikes, who -- at 11 AM --
> staggered into the lobby so stoned they couldn't feel their feet,
> looking for a suite. Mary took one look at them, loudly pronounced
> what she was smelling in their presence, and told them to hit the
> bricks....
>
> - Took a call from a former guest who -- a week ago -- claimed to have
> tripped and fell entering the Mustang Suite. She has supposedly gone
> to a chiropractor three times, and is threatening to sue us if we
> don't compensate her in some way.

Ironically, of the two, Wayne and Garth were probably the least worrisome of
them all. (Can't afford frivolous lawsuit attorneys.)

-c

[Jay Honeck]

> Ironically, of the two, Wayne and Garth were probably the least worrisome of
> them all. (Can't afford frivolous lawsuit attorneys.)

We're not normally so rude with the college kids, but we had a meeting
room full of pilots doing a seminar, and Mary wanted them *out* before
Garth and Wayne could cause any trouble.

We've learned to set a "tone" with kids that age, which is then
communicated back to their group(s). Our hotel was known as "Party
Central" under its previous owners, and it took us several years to
finally get the message to the frats and sororities that we are "off
limits".
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> For sitting at a counter and signing in a few guests?
>
> Damn........Righteous bucks.

Well, I think so. Funny thing is, the pay isn't mentioned in the ad,
so it has nothing to do with our recent lack of applicants. We used
to run the exact same ad, in years past, and get dozens of people
applying.

One problem we've discovered is that we have incrementally added
services since we opened five years ago that make the job more than
"sitting at the counter". When you add these tasks a little at a
time to a worker, over a period of years, they seem insignificant.
When you're training a new person from "zero", however, they can seem
overwhelming.

Things like knowing how to run the Kiwi flight simulator, for
instance, can take more mental horsepower than some people are able to
produce. Between that, and delivering breakfast baskets to the proper
suites, we're discovering that there are a lot of people who simply
can't perform.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Mxsmanic]

Jay Honeck writes:

> > How much do you pay them?
>
> Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.
>
> Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
> college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
> trouble finding good people....

How much does an apartment cost per month in your town? What about groceries
for one person?

[Jim Stewart]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>> How much do you pay them?
>
> Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.
>
> Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
> college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
> trouble finding good people....

I don't.

Only because my company is in a college town
and I have exactly the same problem. And being
in California, I'm offering about 25% more
than you.

[Jim Stewart]

Mxsmanic wrote:
> Jay Honeck writes:
>
>>> How much do you pay them?
>> Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.
>>
>> Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
>> college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
>> trouble finding good people....
>
> How much does an apartment cost per month in your town? What about groceries
> for one person?

Don't worry. I think it's unlikely that Jay
would hire you....

[brtlmj]

> Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.
> Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
> college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
> trouble finding good people....

There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
not cheap.

Bartek

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Mxsmanic > wrote in
:

> Jay Honeck writes:
>
>> > How much do you pay them?
>>
>> Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.
>>
>> Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
>> college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so
>> much trouble finding good people....
>
> How much does an apartment cost per month in your town? What about
> groceries for one person?
>

What, getting evicted from your dumpster?


Bertie

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Jim Stewart > wrote in
:

> Mxsmanic wrote:
>> Jay Honeck writes:
>>
>>>> How much do you pay them?
>>> Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.
>>>
>>> Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
>>> college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so
>>> much trouble finding good people....
>>
>> How much does an apartment cost per month in your town? What about
>> groceries for one person?
>
> Don't worry. I think it's unlikely that Jay
> would hire you....
>

I think burger king is looking for a nighth manager.

He might last a week before getting fired.

Bertie

[Viperdoc[_3_]]

Jay:

Don't tell him- he may want to move back to the States from France and live
on the dole in Iowa City. That would be a quick way to ruin the town.
Imagine Anthony attending the airport commision meetings?

[Montblack]

("Viperdoc" wrote)
> Don't tell him- he may want to move back to the States from France and
> live on the dole in Iowa City. That would be a quick way to ruin the town.
> Imagine Anthony attending the airport commision meetings?


I for one would welcome Ms Maniac X moving to the Midwest - near the
Mississippi River, and me.


Montblack

[Matt Whiting]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>> For sitting at a counter and signing in a few guests?
>>
>> Damn........Righteous bucks.
>
> Well, I think so. Funny thing is, the pay isn't mentioned in the ad,
> so it has nothing to do with our recent lack of applicants. We used
> to run the exact same ad, in years past, and get dozens of people
> applying.

Sounds like your reputation has gotten around. :-)

Matt

[[email protected]]

> "A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can
> only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse
> (a liberal gift) out of public treasury. From that moment on the
> majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits
> from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always
> collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a
> Dictatorship."
>
> We are there. The takers have won.
> --
> Gene Seibel
> Tales of Flight -http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
> Because I fly, I envy no one.

Isn't that an Alexis de Tocqueville quote?

[Morgans[_2_]]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...
>> For sitting at a counter and signing in a few guests?
>>
>> Damn........Righteous bucks.
>
> Well, I think so. Funny thing is, the pay isn't mentioned in the ad,
> so it has nothing to do with our recent lack of applicants. We used
> to run the exact same ad, in years past, and get dozens of people
> applying.
>
> One problem we've discovered is that we have incrementally added
> services since we opened five years ago that make the job more than
> "sitting at the counter". When you add these tasks a little at a
> time to a worker, over a period of years, they seem insignificant.
> When you're training a new person from "zero", however, they can seem
> overwhelming.

It might be time to add to the pay a bit, with the extra duties. I don't
know what the commission adds, on an average per hour basis, to be really
fair in suggesting that, though.

Word may have gotten around about your pay, and how much is required of your
workers.

I'm in no way criticizing your pay, or management style. It is just a
commentary on the fact that higher pay will usually attract a better class
of employee. Some may even switch from another job to come to your place,
if the pay is higher and the job is more interesting.
--
Jim in NC

[Gene Seibel]

On Oct 8, 4:17 pm, wrote:
> > "A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can
> > only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse
> > (a liberal gift) out of public treasury. From that moment on the
> > majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits
> > from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always
> > collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a
> > Dictatorship."
>
> > We are there. The takers have won.
> > --
> > Gene Seibel
> > Tales of Flight -http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
> > Because I fly, I envy no one.
>
> Isn't that an Alexis de Tocqueville quote?

Yes, circa 1848.
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Flying Machine - http://pad39a.com/gene/
Because we fly, we envy no one.

[[email protected]]

On Oct 7, 5:54 pm, Gene Seibel > wrote:

>
> "A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can
> only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse
> (a liberal gift) out of public treasury. From that moment on the
> majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits
> from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always
> collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a
> Dictatorship."
>
> We are there. The takers have won.

Makes sense, especially here in Canada where we have a nanny state
that spends far too much on people who need a kick in the pants. But I
think there are some factors introduced by the Social Engineers that
have created much of it. For 30 years at least we've been telling kids
that they are #1 and that they deserve this or that. We've taught them
about self-esteem---a necessary part of one's makeup, but it seems to
have become the ONLY part of their makeup, for many. Everyone else can
just get out of their way, because THEY are important. They also
ignore traffic rules as often as possible ("you can't tell me I can't
do that") and think cheating in university is OK and normal. Anything
at all to get ahead. We've had the no-spanking stuff carried to
ridiculous extremes so that the kid can thumb his nose at the teacher,
later at the cop, and then at the judge. We've let universities train
way too many lawyers and way too few engineers and doctors. We have
groups that won't let anyone starve. We have parents who will buy
their kids anything they want, any education they want, and will
defend the kid when the teacher says he's lazy. Then when that kid has
to finally get to work, whether at college or in the workplace, he
can't handle it. Never had to work before.
Don't get me wrong. There are really needy people out on the
street, many who, 20 years ago, would have been in institutions
because they were mentally or physically incapable of caring for
themselves. Many of those places were closed to save money. But the
vast majority of takers are wholly responsible for wrecking their
minds or bodies or for refusing to go to work at bottom-end jobs and
work their way up, then expecting the rest of us to pay for the
repairs.
A friend lived in Mexico for awhile. He said that they had no
welfare safety nets, and that a man's family was expected to look
after him if he was in dire straits. That same family would throw him
out to starve if he refused to work when he was again capable. Reality
at its best.

Redneck Dan

[Maxwell]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> On Oct 7, 5:54 pm, Gene Seibel > wrote:
>
>>
>> "A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can
>> only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse
>> (a liberal gift) out of public treasury. From that moment on the
>> majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits
>> from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always
>> collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a
>> Dictatorship."
>>
>> We are there. The takers have won.
>
> Makes sense, especially here in Canada where we have a nanny state
> that spends far too much on people who need a kick in the pants. But I
> think there are some factors introduced by the Social Engineers that
> have created much of it. For 30 years at least we've been telling kids
> that they are #1 and that they deserve this or that. We've taught them
> about self-esteem---a necessary part of one's makeup, but it seems to
> have become the ONLY part of their makeup, for many. Everyone else can
> just get out of their way, because THEY are important. They also
> ignore traffic rules as often as possible ("you can't tell me I can't
> do that") and think cheating in university is OK and normal. Anything
> at all to get ahead. We've had the no-spanking stuff carried to
> ridiculous extremes so that the kid can thumb his nose at the teacher,
> later at the cop, and then at the judge. We've let universities train
> way too many lawyers and way too few engineers and doctors. We have
> groups that won't let anyone starve. We have parents who will buy
> their kids anything they want, any education they want, and will
> defend the kid when the teacher says he's lazy. Then when that kid has
> to finally get to work, whether at college or in the workplace, he
> can't handle it. Never had to work before.
> Don't get me wrong. There are really needy people out on the
> street, many who, 20 years ago, would have been in institutions
> because they were mentally or physically incapable of caring for
> themselves. Many of those places were closed to save money. But the
> vast majority of takers are wholly responsible for wrecking their
> minds or bodies or for refusing to go to work at bottom-end jobs and
> work their way up, then expecting the rest of us to pay for the
> repairs.
> A friend lived in Mexico for awhile. He said that they had no
> welfare safety nets, and that a man's family was expected to look
> after him if he was in dire straits. That same family would throw him
> out to starve if he refused to work when he was again capable. Reality
> at its best.
>

Right on.

[[email protected]]

>
> > Isn't that an Alexis de Tocqueville quote?
>
> Yes, circa 1848.
> --
> Gene Seibel
> Gene & Sue's Flying Machine -http://pad39a.com/gene/
> Because we fly, we envy no one.

Yes, he seems to be the Nostradamus of the USA. I think that George
Orwell may have been inspired by Alexis...

[Jay Honeck]

> Sounds like your reputation has gotten around. :-)

Guess so. We've been the top-rated hotel in Iowa City for the past
three years...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> I'm in no way criticizing your pay, or management style. It is just a
> commentary on the fact that higher pay will usually attract a better class
> of employee. Some may even switch from another job to come to your place,
> if the pay is higher and the job is more interesting.

True, but with margins razor thin, and competition from our gummint-
built new hotels growing over-more ferocious, there just isn't much
room to do more...

One major impediment to filling one of the desk jobs has been that it
includes some morning hours. (Mary and I take Wednesday/Thursday as
our "weekends", so we need someone to fill those morning hours.)

Morning hours pretty much weeds out students -- which is 90% of the
workforce in Iowa City. It would be great for a retired person, but
lots of businesses have caught on to hiring "gray"...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination

[Jay Honeck]

> There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
> about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
> employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
> not cheap.

We would love to pay our employees $16 per hour. Heck, I'd like to
pay myself that much!

We are in a strange spot regarding our prices (and, thus, our ability
to pay more). Many who stay with us request "the cheapest thing
you've got" but -- after hearing so much about us now -- they expect
the world from us.

These high expectations can lead to real problems. I always feel
guilty giving someone "the cheapest thing we've got" knowing that it
won't live up to their expectations (or what they've heard) of us, but
the flip-side is that I can't afford to give them the coolest
honeymoon suite for $69, either.

It's a real Catch-22. We find ourselves ever more busy -- we're now
running 80+% occupancy -- but we're scared to death to raise our
rates, due to our competitive position. In fact, we haven't raised
rates since we bought the hotel in 2002 -- that's five years of
holding the line on rates -- but in the meantime we've added service
after service.

This has severely limited our ability to pay our employees more, since
we're being ever more tightly squeezed by energy costs (up 35% in five
years!) and tax increases. Eventually the pressure will become
impossible to bear, and we will be forced to raise rates -- but surely
at the expense of occupancy.

Finding the "happy medium" is always the trick, and has forced many
good businesses under.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Mxsmanic]

Jay Honeck writes:

> True, but with margins razor thin, and competition from our gummint-
> built new hotels growing over-more ferocious, there just isn't much
> room to do more...

Whatever the reasons for low pay, you'll inevitably get what you pay for.

> It would be great for a retired person, but
> lots of businesses have caught on to hiring "gray"...

I suppose whoever pays the most will win, especially when hiring "gray"
employees who know their priorities.

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Mxsmanic > wrote in
:

> Jay Honeck writes:
>
>> True, but with margins razor thin, and competition from our gummint-
>> built new hotels growing over-more ferocious, there just isn't much
>> room to do more...
>
> Whatever the reasons for low pay, you'll inevitably get what you pay for.


True enough in your case where you make nothing.


Bertie

[S Green]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...
>> There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
>> about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
>> employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
>> not cheap.
>
> We would love to pay our employees $16 per hour. Heck, I'd like to
> pay myself that much!
>
> We are in a strange spot regarding our prices (and, thus, our ability
> to pay more). Many who stay with us request "the cheapest thing
> you've got" but -- after hearing so much about us now -- they expect
> the world from us.
>
> These high expectations can lead to real problems. I always feel
> guilty giving someone "the cheapest thing we've got" knowing that it
> won't live up to their expectations (or what they've heard) of us, but
> the flip-side is that I can't afford to give them the coolest
> honeymoon suite for $69, either.
>
> It's a real Catch-22. We find ourselves ever more busy -- we're now
> running 80+% occupancy -- but we're scared to death to raise our
> rates, due to our competitive position. In fact, we haven't raised
> rates since we bought the hotel in 2002 -- that's five years of
> holding the line on rates -- but in the meantime we've added service
> after service.
>
> This has severely limited our ability to pay our employees more, since
> we're being ever more tightly squeezed by energy costs (up 35% in five
> years!) and tax increases. Eventually the pressure will become
> impossible to bear, and we will be forced to raise rates -- but surely
> at the expense of occupancy.

The issue is not occupancy but revenue per day. A full hotel paying bugger
all for the rooms is not much use nor is holding out for premium rates with
the hotel empty.

My experience of US motels is that at the budget end (ie less than $70) all
they seem to offer is a bed, variable television, possibly free internet,
ice and a donut and coffee for breakfast so the opportunities to add revenue
from customers is limited.

Similar establishments in Europe tend to have restaurants and shops attached
which gives additional revenue from residents or even from local trade and
can make a big difference to the top and bottom line numbers, to the extent
that revenue per day can be 50% on top of the room rate. But then there is
not the plethora of fast food outlets sucking the customers away.

[Crash Lander[_1_]]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...
>> There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
>> about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
>> employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
>> not cheap.
>
> We would love to pay our employees $16 per hour. Heck, I'd like to
> pay myself that much!
>
> We are in a strange spot regarding our prices (and, thus, our ability
> to pay more). Many who stay with us request "the cheapest thing
> you've got" but -- after hearing so much about us now -- they expect
> the world from us.
>
> These high expectations can lead to real problems. I always feel
> guilty giving someone "the cheapest thing we've got" knowing that it
> won't live up to their expectations (or what they've heard) of us, but
> the flip-side is that I can't afford to give them the coolest
> honeymoon suite for $69, either.

It's a tough game Jay.
I'm no business man, but surely it's better to get $69 for that top class
room 2 or 3 nights a week, than have it sit empty earning nothing?
Mind you, you'd think that 'someone' would work for $8 an hour, as it's
certainly better than nothing at all!
Crash Lander
--
Straight and Level Down Under.
http://www.straightandleveldownunder.net/

[Matt Whiting]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>> Sounds like your reputation has gotten around. :-)
>
> Guess so. We've been the top-rated hotel in Iowa City for the past
> three years...
>
> ;-)

Rated by your employees or your guests? :-)

Matt

[Matt Whiting]

Nomen Nescio wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> From: Jay Honeck >
>
>> Finding the "happy medium" is always the trick, and has forced many
>> good businesses under.
>
> Calculus is your friend. :)

Calculus alone won't solve this problem.

Matt

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Nomen Nescio > wrote in
:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> From: Mxsmanic >
>
>>Whatever the reasons for low pay, you'll inevitably get what you pay for.
>
> I'm laughing way too hard to comment on this

you have to wonder if he's to thick to even feel it when he walks into
something like this.



Bertie

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Matt Whiting > wrote in news:D22Pi.262$2n4.17223
@news1.epix.net:

> Nomen Nescio wrote:
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>
>> From: Jay Honeck >
>>
>>> Finding the "happy medium" is always the trick, and has forced many
>>> good businesses under.
>>
>> Calculus is your friend. :)
>
> Calculus alone won't solve this problem.
>


I'm thinking electro shock therapy.

Bertie

[Jay Honeck]

> Whatever the reasons for low pay, you'll inevitably get what you pay for.

Yep, we have a saying "Pay peanuts; get monkeys"...

There are many intangibles about working a position like this that
make things worthwhile, however. Entry level positions are, to a
large degree, like school. You're learning skills while getting paid,
and -- in the end -- you should come out much more qualified for your
next job.

Finding an employee who understands and appreciates this fact is, as
always, a trick. Most people don't plan their lives farther than
their next paycheck.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> >> Calculus is your friend. :)
>
> > Calculus alone won't solve this problem.
>
> I'm thinking electro shock therapy.

*Now* we're talking.

People think we're nuts to be doing this business. Some days I agree
with them!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Jay Honeck > wrote in news:1192023178.522770.61560
@o80g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

>> >> Calculus is your friend. :)
>>
>> > Calculus alone won't solve this problem.
>>
>> I'm thinking electro shock therapy.
>
> *Now* we're talking.
>
> People think we're nuts to be doing this business. Some days I agree
> with them!
>
> ;-)


Only some days?


Bertie

[Mxsmanic]

Jay Honeck writes:

> There are many intangibles about working a position like this that
> make things worthwhile, however. Entry level positions are, to a
> large degree, like school. You're learning skills while getting paid,
> and -- in the end -- you should come out much more qualified for your
> next job.

That would depend on the job. Today, well-paid jobs usually require skills
that no poorly-paid job will provide--which is why poorly-paid jobs pay
poorly, and well-paid jobs pay well. If one could prepare for a lucrative job
by taking a minimum-wage job, people would be falling over themselves trying
to get the minimum-wage jobs.

Today, not even an expensive stint at college prepares a person for a
lucrative job.

> Finding an employee who understands and appreciates this fact is, as
> always, a trick. Most people don't plan their lives farther than
> their next paycheck.

Younger generations have grown up with such uncertainty and rapid change that
planning ahead may not seem cost-effective.

[brtlmj]

> > There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
> > about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
> > employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
> > not cheap.
> We would love to pay our employees $16 per hour. Heck, I'd like to
> pay myself that much!

You must really love what you are doing...

> We are in a strange spot regarding our prices (and, thus, our ability
> It's a real Catch-22. We find ourselves ever more busy -- we're now
> running 80+% occupancy -- but we're scared to death to raise our
> rates, due to our competitive position.

The supermarket I mentioned does just fine, even though there are two
or three WalMarts within driving distance.

Bartek

[Jim Stewart]

Nomen Nescio wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

> One of my math professors, in college, used to like to say that "All problems
> can be put in the form of a mathematical equation......and then solved".

Pity he isn't out in the real world
using his method...

[Dan Luke[_2_]]

"Mxsmanic" wrote:

> Today, well-paid jobs usually require skills
> that no poorly-paid job will provide--which is why poorly-paid jobs pay
> poorly, and well-paid jobs pay well.

Brilliant. How does he come up with this stuff?


--
Dan

"How can an idiot be a policeman? Answer me that!"
-Chief Inspector Dreyfus

[Dan Luke[_2_]]

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

>
> People think we're nuts to be doing this business. Some days I agree
> with them!

Mighty tough business model you've got: a value-added hotel in the commodity
accomodation price range.


--
Dan
T-182T at BFM

[Bertie the Bunyip]

On 10 Oct, 16:05, Mxsmanic > wrote:
> Jay Honeck writes:
> > There are many intangibles about working a position like this that
> > make things worthwhile, however. Entry level positions are, to a
> > large degree, like school. You're learning skills while getting paid,
> > and -- in the end -- you should come out much more qualified for your
> > next job.
>
> That would depend on the job. Today, well-paid jobs usually require skills
> that no poorly-paid job will provide--which is why poorly-paid jobs pay
> poorly, and well-paid jobs pay well. If one could prepare for a lucrative job
> by taking a minimum-wage job, people would be falling over themselves trying
> to get the minimum-wage jobs.
>
> Today, not even an expensive stint at college prepares a person for a
> lucrative job.
>

Not that you'll ever have any job..


> > Finding an employee who understands and appreciates this fact is, as
> > always, a trick. Most people don't plan their lives farther than
> > their next paycheck.
>
> Younger generations have grown up with such uncertainty and rapid change that
> planning ahead may not seem cost-effective.


Oh brother.

Bertie

[Matt Barrow[_4_]]

"Dan Luke" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Mxsmanic" wrote:
>
>> Today, well-paid jobs usually require skills
>> that no poorly-paid job will provide--which is why poorly-paid jobs pay
>> poorly, and well-paid jobs pay well.
>
> Brilliant. How does he come up with this stuff?
>
My guess is LSD.

[Matt Whiting]

Nomen Nescio wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> From: Matt Whiting >
>
>> Calculus alone won't solve this problem.
>>
>> Matt
>
> For finding the "happy medium"?
> Of course it will. And quite easily.
> The trick is to define Profit=f(Rates). That may not be quite as easy.
> Then solving for the derivative dP/dR=0 should yield the inflection
> point where an increase in rates will start to decrease profit, and a decrease
> in rates will start to decrease profits.

But you don't know the Profit function. Now using just calculus tell me
how to find the optimal point.

As I said, calculus alone won't solve this problem.


> I've used similar analysis with my machine shop to decide the questions:
> Do I raise shop rates? And how much?
> Should I bid a job at a loss to steal it from a competitor?
> Do I drop another $150k on another CNC millng machine?
> Do I hire another machinist? And how well trained does that machinist have
> to be (ie. What do I pay?)?

Calculus alone won't solve any of these problems either.


> One of my math professors, in college, used to like to say that "All problems
> can be put in the form of a mathematical equation......and then solved".
> I think that there ARE exceptions to this rule. But not nearly as many as most
> people would tend to think.

Your professor was an idiot. Statements like this are why professors
should be required to have some work experience outside of the ideal
world of academia.

Matt

[Mxsmanic]

Nomen Nescio writes:

> I couldn't count the number of times my resume moved toward the top of
> the pile for ONE reason.
> Age 14- picked Tobacco all summer for $1.25/hr.

You were told that your resume was moved to the top, and why? That's
extremely unusual.

> You're ignoring a skill that a minimum wage job may not develop, but it
> certainly verifies.............The ability to actually do WORK.

For every former fast-food employee who does well, there are a thousand who do
poorly.

[Jay Honeck]

> > You're ignoring a skill that a minimum wage job may not develop, but it
> > certainly verifies.............The ability to actually do WORK.
>
> For every former fast-food employee who does well, there are a thousand who do
> poorly.

A thousand? Hardly.

One common denominator I've found amongst successful people is that
they started work at a young age. Learning to work -- not necessarily
a specific skill -- is the key. And *that* is what makes succeeding
in entry-level positions critical to future success.

Conversely, the one common denominator I've found amongst people who
are not successful is that they think the world owes them something.
Because of this false belief, they live in a continual cloud of
confusion, wondering why they "never get ahead". It's sad to watch
because there is so little that can be done to help them.

Of the true failures I've personally known, without exception they
were either (a) mentally ill, (b) abusing drugs or alcohol, or (c)
lazy beyond belief. All three of these groups fall into "the world
owes me something" category, although for obviously different reasons.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> > Younger generations have grown up with such uncertainty and rapid change that
> > planning ahead may not seem cost-effective.
>
> Oh brother.

What's funny is how this statement illustrates a complete lack of
historical knowledge.

Let's talk about "uncertainty". My dad graduated from high school in
1937 -- the depths of the Depression. He did whatever it took to
survive, including selling West Bend pots and pans door to door. (He
would cook a complete meal for a family, just to get in the door.
While cooking, he would tout the fantastic nature of the pots and
pans, and he did well...)

"Planning ahead" meant wondering if you'd eat on Friday. There was
no "welfare" -- only your wits.

When I graduated from college in 1981, inflation and interest rates
were at all-time highs. It made NO sense to save money, since it was
devaluing at 12% per year. Jobs were few, unemployment was
staggeringly high (by today's standards) -- yet we somehow managed to
survive and prosper.

"Certainty" in a free market economy is a pipe dream. Uncertainty is
what makes the system work, as it makes sure that everything and
everyone is operating at peak efficiency. You want certainty? Check
out Communism, and the collapse thereof.

History is full of the failures of these "certain" utopian economic
systems. (For one very close to my home, check out the history of
"the Amana Colonies" -- a communal system that existed here in Iowa
until the 1930s...)

Is it easy? Hell, no! But thanks to the free market system, we are
able to enjoy a standard of living that my father couldn't have
imagined back in 1937.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Jay Honeck > wrote in
ups.com:

>> > Younger generations have grown up with such uncertainty and rapid
>> > change that planning ahead may not seem cost-effective.
>>
>> Oh brother.
>
> What's funny is how this statement illustrates a complete lack of
> historical knowledge.
>
> Let's talk about "uncertainty". My dad graduated from high school in
> 1937 -- the depths of the Depression. He did whatever it took to
> survive, including selling West Bend pots and pans door to door. (He
> would cook a complete meal for a family, just to get in the door.
> While cooking, he would tout the fantastic nature of the pots and
> pans, and he did well...)
>
> "Planning ahead" meant wondering if you'd eat on Friday. There was
> no "welfare" -- only your wits.
>
> When I graduated from college in 1981, inflation and interest rates
> were at all-time highs. It made NO sense to save money, since it was
> devaluing at 12% per year. Jobs were few, unemployment was
> staggeringly high (by today's standards) -- yet we somehow managed to
> survive and prosper.
>
> "Certainty" in a free market economy is a pipe dream. Uncertainty is
> what makes the system work, as it makes sure that everything and
> everyone is operating at peak efficiency. You want certainty? Check
> out Communism, and the collapse thereof.
>
> History is full of the failures of these "certain" utopian economic
> systems. (For one very close to my home, check out the history of
> "the Amana Colonies" -- a communal system that existed here in Iowa
> until the 1930s...)
>
> Is it easy? Hell, no! But thanks to the free market system, we are
> able to enjoy a standard of living that my father couldn't have
> imagined back in 1937.

Well, for now!

Bertie

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Mxsmanic > wrote in
:

> Nomen Nescio writes:
>
>> I couldn't count the number of times my resume moved toward the top
>> of the pile for ONE reason.
>> Age 14- picked Tobacco all summer for $1.25/hr.
>
> You were told that your resume was moved to the top, and why? That's
> extremely unusual.
>
>> You're ignoring a skill that a minimum wage job may not develop, but
>> it certainly verifies.............The ability to actually do WORK.
>
> For every former fast-food employee who does well, there are a
> thousand who do poorly.
>

And still the worst of them is streets ahead of you.


Bertie

[Morgans[_2_]]

>> Brilliant. How does he come up with this stuff?

> My guess is LSD.

Nope. He should be on one (or more) of a number of drugs meant to help
people with serious psychological disorders. Seriously.
--
Jim in NC

[Mxsmanic]

Nomen Nescio writes:

> A damned good estimate of the rate that will maximize profit.
>
> The results could be rather surprising.

Since it's so easy, why don't you work it out yourself and annouce the answer
here? I'm sure Jay would be interested.

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Mxsmanic > wrote in
:

> Nomen Nescio writes:
>
>> A damned good estimate of the rate that will maximize profit.
>>
>> The results could be rather surprising.
>
> Since it's so easy, why don't you work it out yourself and annouce the
> answer here? I'm sure Jay would be interested.
>

Why, when we hasve you to tell us, well, everything!



Bertie

[Jay Honeck]

> > The results could be rather surprising.
>
> Since it's so easy, why don't you work it out yourself and annouce the answer
> here? I'm sure Jay would be interested.

Yep, I would!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Gig 601XL Builder]

Mxsmanic wrote:
> Nomen Nescio writes:
>
>> I couldn't count the number of times my resume moved toward the top
>> of the pile for ONE reason.
>> Age 14- picked Tobacco all summer for $1.25/hr.
>
> You were told that your resume was moved to the top, and why? That's
> extremely unusual.
>
>> You're ignoring a skill that a minimum wage job may not develop, but
>> it certainly verifies.............The ability to actually do WORK.
>
> For every former fast-food employee who does well, there are a
> thousand who do poorly.


I hire people and help other companies hire people for a living. I do it
every single day 5 or 6 days a week.

Let's say I have two applicants, both recent graduates that are pretty much
equal in all respects except one has worked since they could at virtually
any job and the other didn't. I and EVERY HR person I know is going to hire
the one with the work history.

You show me someone that worked since they were 15 or 16 and then went on to
make B's in a state school and I will hire them over a guy that made A's at
a major who never worked a day in their life.

[Mxsmanic]

Gig 601XL Builder writes:

> Let's say I have two applicants, both recent graduates that are pretty much
> equal in all respects except one has worked since they could at virtually
> any job and the other didn't. I and EVERY HR person I know is going to hire
> the one with the work history.

The problem is that all else is never equal.

[Gig 601XL Builder]

Mxsmanic wrote:
> Gig 601XL Builder writes:
>
>> Let's say I have two applicants, both recent graduates that are
>> pretty much equal in all respects except one has worked since they
>> could at virtually any job and the other didn't. I and EVERY HR
>> person I know is going to hire the one with the work history.
>
> The problem is that all else is never equal.

This coming from a ****wit that has never hired a person in their life. I,
on the other hand, who was involved in the hiring of over 500 people so far
in 2007 see it all the time.

[Jay Honeck]

> Sure, I'd be happy to.
> I'll leave it up to you to convince Jay to post the required financial
> data in this thread, though.

Whaddya need to know?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Ken Finney[_2_]]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> > There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
> > about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
> > employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
> > not cheap.
>
> We would love to pay our employees $16 per hour. Heck, I'd like to
> pay myself that much!
>
> We are in a strange spot regarding our prices (and, thus, our ability
> to pay more). Many who stay with us request "the cheapest thing
> you've got" but -- after hearing so much about us now -- they expect
> the world from us.
>
> These high expectations can lead to real problems. I always feel
> guilty giving someone "the cheapest thing we've got" knowing that it
> won't live up to their expectations (or what they've heard) of us, but
> the flip-side is that I can't afford to give them the coolest
> honeymoon suite for $69, either.
>
> It's a real Catch-22. We find ourselves ever more busy -- we're now
> running 80+% occupancy -- but we're scared to death to raise our
> rates, due to our competitive position. In fact, we haven't raised
> rates since we bought the hotel in 2002 -- that's five years of
> holding the line on rates -- but in the meantime we've added service
> after service.
>
> This has severely limited our ability to pay our employees more, since
> we're being ever more tightly squeezed by energy costs (up 35% in five
> years!) and tax increases. Eventually the pressure will become
> impossible to bear, and we will be forced to raise rates -- but surely
> at the expense of occupancy.
>
> Finding the "happy medium" is always the trick, and has forced many
> good businesses under.
>

Jay-

One thing to think about: Many of your visitors are, I expect, on business
trips. The IRS allows (1040, Schedule C) lodging expenses to be fully
deducted, but only 50% of meals. So to business travelers, meals provided
(e.g continental breakfasts) fall under "lodging", and are fully deductable,
making them more valuable than you would otherwise think.

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Mxsmanic > wrote in
:

> Gig 601XL Builder writes:
>
>> Let's say I have two applicants, both recent graduates that are
>> pretty much equal in all respects except one has worked since they
>> could at virtually any job and the other didn't. I and EVERY HR
>> person I know is going to hire the one with the work history.
>
> The problem is that all else is never equal.
>

Which would explain why you are broke,

Wannabe boi

Bertie

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

"Gig 601XL Builder" <wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net> wrote in
:

> Mxsmanic wrote:
>> Gig 601XL Builder writes:
>>
>>> Let's say I have two applicants, both recent graduates that are
>>> pretty much equal in all respects except one has worked since they
>>> could at virtually any job and the other didn't. I and EVERY HR
>>> person I know is going to hire the one with the work history.
>>
>> The problem is that all else is never equal.
>
> This coming from a ****wit that has never hired a person in their
> life. I, on the other hand, who was involved in the hiring of over 500
> people so far in 2007 see it all the time.
>
>
Yeah, but what do you know?


Bertie

[Montblack]

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
> Whaddya need to know?


We'll start with a softball, so to speak...

http://www.chiroeco.com/article/2006/Issue8/PD2.php
What do women want...????!!! :-)


Montblack

[Jay Honeck]

> One thing to think about: Many of your visitors are, I expect, on business
> trips. The IRS allows (1040, Schedule C) lodging expenses to be fully
> deducted, but only 50% of meals. So to business travelers, meals provided
> (e.g continental breakfasts) fall under "lodging", and are fully deductable,
> making them more valuable than you would otherwise think.- Hide quoted text -

Hmm. I'll bet very few people know about *that* little loophole...

Thanks.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Matt Whiting]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>> One thing to think about: Many of your visitors are, I expect, on business
>> trips. The IRS allows (1040, Schedule C) lodging expenses to be fully
>> deducted, but only 50% of meals. So to business travelers, meals provided
>> (e.g continental breakfasts) fall under "lodging", and are fully deductable,
>> making them more valuable than you would otherwise think.- Hide quoted text -
>
> Hmm. I'll bet very few people know about *that* little loophole...

Really? You think it is coincidence that almost every motel in the US
now "includes" breakfast as part of the room charge? :-)

Matt

[Jay Honeck]

> Really? You think it is coincidence that almost every motel in the US
> now "includes" breakfast as part of the room charge? :-)

Good point, although that's been done more in reaction to competition
than anything else, methinks.

Some of what is called "breakfast" at motels (I.E.: Eating stale,
reconstituted frozen muffins with a bunch of guys who haven't taken a
shower yet) is enough to make us go running into the street,
screaming...

One nice part about being small -- the big-box McHotels can't compete
with our "delivered-to-your-suite" breakfast each morning...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Matt Whiting]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>> Really? You think it is coincidence that almost every motel in the US
>> now "includes" breakfast as part of the room charge? :-)
>
> Good point, although that's been done more in reaction to competition
> than anything else, methinks.
>
> Some of what is called "breakfast" at motels (I.E.: Eating stale,
> reconstituted frozen muffins with a bunch of guys who haven't taken a
> shower yet) is enough to make us go running into the street,
> screaming...
>
> One nice part about being small -- the big-box McHotels can't compete
> with our "delivered-to-your-suite" breakfast each morning...

Yes, I have no doubt that your breakfast is far superior to the normal
fare. I've had some motels that were pretty good with a good selection,
but many are as you describe above.

If my company stock keeps climbing, I may have an airplane by spring.
Maybe I'll get out to see your place and collect my room discount for
being 3rd or so in the suite naming contest! Then again, I didn't check
to see if that offer had an expiration date! :-)

Matt

[B A R R Y]

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:24:06 GMT, Matt Whiting >
wrote:

>Maybe I'll get out to see your place and collect my room discount for
>being 3rd or so in the suite naming contest!

I need to get the Slowdowner out there and pay full price.

Really! <G>

[Jay Honeck]

> >Maybe I'll get out to see your place and collect my room discount for
> >being 3rd or so in the suite naming contest!
>
> I need to get the Slowdowner out there and pay full price.
>
> Really! <G>

If any of you guys ask for "the cheapest thing you've got" -- I'm
gonna kick your ass....!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[B A R R Y]

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:35:45 -0700, Jay Honeck >
wrote:

>> >Maybe I'll get out to see your place and collect my room discount for
>> >being 3rd or so in the suite naming contest!
>>
>> I need to get the Slowdowner out there and pay full price.
>>
>> Really! <G>
>
>If any of you guys ask for "the cheapest thing you've got" -- I'm
>gonna kick your ass....!
>
>;-)


Have you ever seen the "over limit" front desk scene, with Eugene
Levy, in "Best in Show"? <G>

[Travis Marlatte]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Hmm. I'll bet very few people know about *that* little loophole...
> Jay Honeck

The only people that are going to fully appreciate that little loophole are
the people traveling for their own business.

When I travel for the company I work for, meals are fully reimbursed. The
company is absorbing the 50% that they can't deduct as a business expense.
So, to me, included or not, it doesn't cost me a thing.

When I travel for my own business. I don't tend to worry about it. I don't
eat lavishly anyway but I'm gonna do what I gotta do. When tax time comes,
it's just a little annoyance to see that 50% slide off the bottom line.

On vacation? Comfort is everything. Feed me in bed anytime after 10, please.

On a business trip, time is everything. I'll grab a muffin and a cup of
coffe as I check out.

-------------------------------
Travis
Lake N3094P
PWK

[C J Campbell[_1_]]

On 2007-10-07 08:04:24 -0700, Jay Honeck > said:

> For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
> echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
> remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
> existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
> 500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
> populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".

Before I retired, I was a CPA running a business that syndicated real
estate, managed commercial properties, and had a construction company
on the side. I dealt with every day people every day. I love
retirement. I no longer lie awake at night listening to rain and
wondering which roofs are leaking, which insurance company is going to
quadruple my rates and drive me to bankruptcy, which bank is going to
suddenly charge me tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for
paperwork fees because I have to refinance in a year, etc.

The fat lady who slipped and fell on County property next door is not
going to sue me again, nor will my insurance company settle with her
because it is cheaper than fighting it and then more than double my
rates because we had a claim. The SWAT team is not going to visit my
business again (and again, and again). No one is murdering one of my
residents, cutting him up, and leaving the pieces stuffed in an old
chest of drawers beside a running trail in a public park. No one is
moving in on one of my residents at gunpoint, raping her and forcing
her to take drugs, forcing her to work as a prostitute in her own
apartment, stealing all her stuff and pawning it, and dealing drugs out
of her apartment while holding her three year old son hostage.

No one is coming home drunk and passing out on his couch with a lighted
cigarette, setting fire to the whole place, and then suing me because
his smoke detectors did not work after he had removed the batteries to
keep them from going off because he was a heavy smoker. No one is suing
me because he started a fire trying to re-wire his stove. No one is
suing me because I evicted her after her pit bull attacked several
residents and employees. No one is suing me because I evicted their
family after their kids set fire to the stairs and halls with butane
lighters.

I am not called up in the middle of the night by managers who are
telling me that the police are there again or that the fire department
is there again.

I don't have a nut who has put 9 locks on his door and covered the
inside with a metal plate and piled the whole apartment waist deep with
newspapers. I don't have a nut who wants to dig up the neighbors'
apartment to look for her baby. I don't have a nut who 'hides,' stark
naked, behind an invisible pink couch and shoots with an invisible gun
at the kids playing in the pool. Neither will I again have city housing
officials telling me that I can't evict him because that would be
discriminating against a handicap. I don't any longer have escaped
mental patients driving up to my place in a stolen car with a stolen
gun wanting to kill all the 'Russians' in my apartment complex.

The guy who left a burning cigarette on his couch, setting fire to his
whole apartment, and who threw his burning drapes onto his can of
lighter fluid for his hibachi and blew himself off his second story
deck with the explosion will not try to sue me again.

The city is not going to work on the water mains and lower pressure so
much that when they turn the water back on it blows out 127 hot water
heaters that have to be replaced, nor will the residents threaten to
sue me for it again. Neither will it happen again when the apartment
complex down the street catches fire and the fire department sucks all
the water out of the mains, nor will my insurance company again deny
the claim. Neither will residents threaten to sue me because a
horrendous snowstorm took down power all over the city for a week and
all their ice cream melted.

An employee's estranged husband is not going to come into my office and
throw boiling coffee on my employees again. Gangs are not going to set
fire to one of my apartments as an initiation rite again. I will never
again have a gang of heavily armed hoodlums hanging around outside the
office intimidating my employees because we are evicting one of their
drug dealers, nor will one of their goons ever again come up to one of
my employees in a large restaurant and wave a gun in her face again.

I am not going to be sued again by the corporate executive who wanted
an extra large garage door for his RV on his new home, decided he
didn't like it because he was not going to get an RV after all, and
wanted me to re-build the whole garage for free.

I will not have a corrupt building inspector who scuffs the dirt away
from under an electric meter and then tells me that it is a quarter
inch too high again. Neither will a corrupt city official tell me again
that it will take a minimum of three years to get a building permit
unless I pay him $30,000 -- and the city attorney will not back him up
again.

The prostitute who was living in building 4 will not again have her
escaped convict boyfriend come over, drag her screaming down the hall
while waving an automatic rifle, and have a shoot-out with the SWAT
team in an abandoned house a block away.

A group of stewardess roomies are not going to throw a wild party again
which burns down a building. No one is going to leave a pile of
firewood leaning against a free-standing fireplace again. No one is
going to knock a hole in the wall and plug all his possessions into an
outlet in the laundry room again. No one is going to rip up their
carpet and cook all their food on an open campfire built on the bare
concrete pad in the living room again.

No roofing contractor is going to give me a 20 year guarantee and go
out of business in six months again. No one is going to destroy all the
soda pop machines in the place again because they were watching
MacGyver where he pours salt water into a vending machine and they
thought it might actually work. I won't have to spend tens of thousands
of dollars every year cleaning graffiti off the walls. No one is going
to go around bashing all my light fixtures with a baseball bat. No
pedophile is going invite the pre-teenage boys over to his apartment to
watch dirty movies. Gangs will not sodomize kids as part of their
initiation ritual again. No one is again going to threaten to kidnap my
kids or shoot up my home with a machine gun or kill me because I have
the temerity to demand that they pay rent.

The local McDonalds is not going to jam the expensive security radios
carried by our employees again and threaten to sue us, despite the fact
that we were licensed to use the frequency and the McDonalds was not,
nor will corrupt city officials try to over-rule the FCC on the matter
again.

Never again will a fire inspector demand that I spend a fortune on
special cases with glass and locks to enclose the dry standpipes
throughout the complex only to have the next inspector in six months
demand that they be removed, nor will I have an insurance company
demand that I ignore both inspectors and install a different type of
case entirely.

I won't have the illegal alien gang member who is paying off city
housing officials to get the city to pay his rent while he drives
around in a brand-new 7-series BMW any more. Neither will the city
again threaten to sue me because I evicted him. Security guards will no
longer be dealing drugs out of the guard shack, nor will they any
longer be burglarizing my residents.

The apartment complex employee who turned out to be a child molester is
not going to threaten to sue me for discrimination again because I
fired him.

Now, the funny thing is -- and this is just a tiny portion of things
that actually happened to me -- that all this stuff happened in our
more expensive apartments or homes. We also had trailer courts. Some of
them were real slums. And none of them had problems worse than the
'rich' customers. OTOH, how could they have been worse?

People have often pointed out that I seem cantankerous and
unsympathetic. Wanna ask me again how I got that way?

;-)

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

[C J Campbell[_1_]]

On 2007-10-10 11:50:16 -0700, Nomen Nescio > said:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> From: Mxsmanic >
>
>> That would depend on the job. Today, well-paid jobs usually require skills
>> that no poorly-paid job will provide--which is why poorly-paid jobs pay
>> poorly, and well-paid jobs pay well. If one could prepare for a lucrative job
>> by taking a minimum-wage job, people would be falling over themselves trying
>> to get the minimum-wage jobs.
>
> So you're holding out for that CEO job?
>
> And as usual, you're wrong again, Dip****.
>
> I couldn't count the number of times my resume moved toward the top of
> the pile for ONE reason.
> Age 14- picked Tobacco all summer for $1.25/hr.
> Looking back, it may have been the best career move I ever made. But, at the
> time, I did it for the $40 a week (after taxes).

Tobacco, eh? I picked blueberries. I also swept up the meat counter at
the local grocery store after hours.

People tell me that success is dependent on being in the right place at
the right time. I tend to agree. The problem with 99% of people is that
they have never figured out that they will never be at the right place
at the right time if they never show up to work.
>


--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

[Matt Whiting]

C J Campbell wrote:

> {large snip}
>
> People have often pointed out that I seem cantankerous and
> unsympathetic. Wanna ask me again how I got that way?
>
> ;-)
>

You just lived in the wrong town. :-)

Matt

[Jay Honeck]

> People have often pointed out that I seem cantankerous and
> unsympathetic. Wanna ask me again how I got that way?

All I can say is that you've made me feel better.

You've also made me extraordinarily thankful that I don't live in
whatever ****-hole city you used to do business in.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[C J Campbell[_1_]]

On 2007-10-13 10:50:07 -0700, Jay Honeck > said:

>> People have often pointed out that I seem cantankerous and
>> unsympathetic. Wanna ask me again how I got that way?
>
> All I can say is that you've made me feel better.
>
> You've also made me extraordinarily thankful that I don't live in
> whatever ****-hole city you used to do business in.

Anchorage, AK; Bellevue, WA; Bremerton, WA; San Diego, CA; Kent, WA;
Auburn, WA; Redmond, WA; Woodinville, WA; Renton, WA; Port Orchard, WA;
several others. They all have government that make Daley's Chicago look
like a paragon of virtue.

Wanna hear a good one? Last week the University of Washington suddenly
discovered that there were hundreds of convicted sex offenders living
near the University. Imagine that! The university demanded that they
move.

Now, I don't have a lot of sympathy for sex offenders and I don't want
them living near me, either, but when the media report a story like
that I smell a rat. And a rat there was.

You see, a 69 year old woman, Carol Clarke (and she seems a feisty
sort) owned some property north of the University named, appropriately
enough, North of 45th Street. The state Department of Corrections
allows her to house these sex offenders, some of them level 3, in her
units, all under Corrections supervision. She had very strict rules and
in seven years there was never an incident with one of her residents. I
wish I could say the same for the many years I tried to take care of
the so-called 'law-abiding.' <sigh>

Anyway, her property was valuable and a developer wanted it, but she
would not sell at the ridiculous fire-sale price the developer offered.
The developer went to his old friend, Mark Emmert, who happened to be
the president of the UW and 'informed' him of the North of 45th Street
project (as if Emmert did not know about it already). The regent then
went to our sympathetic governor, Christine Gregoire, who is a good
friend of his, and got her to order all these dangerous sex offenders
moved, leaving the woman who owned the place without a business. Some
sororities were rallied to protest the sex offenders living there for
good measure, of course.

See how it works? I am just cynical enough now to believe that there is
something like that behind practically every news story you see or
read. So now the rest of us have to live with more sex offenders in our
neighborhoods and the good-hearted developer who was so concerned about
those helpless kids at the UW (the same age kids who are considered fit
enough to fight in Iraq, BTW) can sleep better at night knowing what a
good deed he has done. Only he got caught, this time, so he will have
to put up with some small amount of bad press for awhile.

The developer is portraying this as an effort to stabilize the
neighborhood and reduce the high crime rate, even though none of
Clarke's residents have ever been complained about, let alone charged
with a crime. Now, if you want to talk about the gunfire coming from
properties that the developer already owns...

FWIW, the concentration of offenders around UW was already much lower
than it is around all the other 3 and 4 year schools in the city, and
none of them have succeeded in getting the offenders near them moved.

Oh, and when a sex offender moves into your neighborhood, why don't you
call up the governor and see if he orders the offender to move out
because you don't want him there? Good luck with that.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

[Dan Luke[_2_]]

"C J Campbell" wrote:

> Before I retired, I was a CPA running a business that syndicated real
> estate, managed commercial properties, and had a construction company on the
> side. I dealt with every day people every day.

[troubles of Job snipped]

Anyone who thinks Chris is making this stuff up has never been associated with
managing large rental properties.

I'd rather be the night manager at a ghetto 7-11. At least you get a rest
from that job.

--
Dan
T-182T at BFM

[Mxsmanic]

C J Campbell writes:

> Now, the funny thing is -- and this is just a tiny portion of things
> that actually happened to me -- that all this stuff happened in our
> more expensive apartments or homes. We also had trailer courts. Some of
> them were real slums. And none of them had problems worse than the
> 'rich' customers. OTOH, how could they have been worse?

What city was this?

[C J Campbell[_1_]]

On 2007-10-13 12:53:14 -0700, "Dan Luke" > said:

>
> "C J Campbell" wrote:
>
>> Before I retired, I was a CPA running a business that syndicated real
>> estate, managed commercial properties, and had a construction company on the
>> side. I dealt with every day people every day.
>
> [troubles of Job snipped]
>
> Anyone who thinks Chris is making this stuff up has never been associated with
> managing large rental properties.
>
> I'd rather be the night manager at a ghetto 7-11. At least you get a rest
> from that job.

The funny thing is, I enjoyed the job. There was always something going
on. It was like being mayor, fire chief, police chief, and city manager
for a medium size town. In some respects, it gets addictive. So,
although I keep saying 'never again,' every now and then I see some
apartment complex or trailer court for sale and I think, 'what would it
hurt?'

Well, it would probably kill me. I really did become a flight
instructor for my health. The people I am around are a generally
happier lot.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

[Jay Honeck]

I'm not surprised to hear about California (a state my extended family
has entirely vacated, after living there for almost 80 years), but
Washington? I thought that was the new "paradise" all the "good
folks" from California were seeking?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Dan Luke[_2_]]

"C J Campbell" wrote:
> every now and then I see some apartment complex or trailer court for sale
> and I think, 'what would it hurt?'
>

There are 12-step programs for things like that. ;)


--
Dan
T-182T at BFM

[Matt Barrow[_4_]]

"C J Campbell" > wrote in message
news:2007101310233243658-christophercampbell@hotmailcom...
>
> I will not have a corrupt building inspector who scuffs the dirt away from
> under an electric meter and then tells me that it is a quarter inch too
> high again. Neither will a corrupt city official tell me again that it
> will take a minimum of three years to get a building permit unless I pay
> him $30,000 -- and the city attorney will not back him up again.

At least you didn;t have to deal with zoning officials and attempts to get
variances. A common case is trying to get a variance that the zoning board
(say, for example, Mr. Steve Hegelmann) says a varaince is just not
possible, but 18 days later, Mr. David Hegelmann is issued a variance for
the exact same parcel.

Of course, it helps that your lawyer be someone who worked in the HUD
Anti-Fraud unit for 12 years, and who knows how to tweak the states AG.

> People have often pointed out that I seem cantankerous and unsympathetic.
> Wanna ask me again how I got that way?
>
> ;-)

Interesting, isn't it, that the most difficult aspect of running a business
is getting past the bureaucratic fraud and the ambulance chasers, not the
actual "nut & bolts".

I relish the development process, but let my legal man handle the
bureaucrats. If it wasn't that way, I'd likely be in jail for homicide.
--
Matt Barrow
Performance Homes, LLC.
Cheyenne, WY

[Matt Whiting]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> I'm not surprised to hear about California (a state my extended family
> has entirely vacated, after living there for almost 80 years), but
> Washington? I thought that was the new "paradise" all the "good
> folks" from California were seeking?

Where do you think many of the folks escaping CA went?

Matt

[Jim Logajan]

Matt Whiting > wrote:
> Jay Honeck wrote:
>> I'm not surprised to hear about California (a state my extended family
>> has entirely vacated, after living there for almost 80 years), but
>> Washington? I thought that was the new "paradise" all the "good
>> folks" from California were seeking?
>
> Where do you think many of the folks escaping CA went?

A lot of us snuck across the border to the People's Republic of Oregon.
;-)

[Andrew Sarangan]

On Oct 9, 7:13 pm, "S Green" > wrote:
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
>
> ps.com...
>
>
>
>
>
> >> There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
> >> about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
> >> employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
> >> not cheap.
>
> > We would love to pay our employees $16 per hour. Heck, I'd like to
> > pay myself that much!
>
> > We are in a strange spot regarding our prices (and, thus, our ability
> > to pay more). Many who stay with us request "the cheapest thing
> > you've got" but -- after hearing so much about us now -- they expect
> > the world from us.
>
> > These high expectations can lead to real problems. I always feel
> > guilty giving someone "the cheapest thing we've got" knowing that it
> > won't live up to their expectations (or what they've heard) of us, but
> > the flip-side is that I can't afford to give them the coolest
> > honeymoon suite for $69, either.
>
> > It's a real Catch-22. We find ourselves ever more busy -- we're now
> > running 80+% occupancy -- but we're scared to death to raise our
> > rates, due to our competitive position. In fact, we haven't raised
> > rates since we bought the hotel in 2002 -- that's five years of
> > holding the line on rates -- but in the meantime we've added service
> > after service.
>
> > This has severely limited our ability to pay our employees more, since
> > we're being ever more tightly squeezed by energy costs (up 35% in five
> > years!) and tax increases. Eventually the pressure will become
> > impossible to bear, and we will be forced to raise rates -- but surely
> > at the expense of occupancy.
>
> The issue is not occupancy but revenue per day. A full hotel paying bugger
> all for the rooms is not much use nor is holding out for premium rates with
> the hotel empty.
>
> My experience of US motels is that at the budget end (ie less than $70) all
> they seem to offer is a bed, variable television, possibly free internet,
> ice and a donut and coffee for breakfast so the opportunities to add revenue
> from customers is limited.
>
> Similar establishments in Europe tend to have restaurants and shops attached
> which gives additional revenue from residents or even from local trade and
> can make a big difference to the top and bottom line numbers, to the extent
> that revenue per day can be 50% on top of the room rate. But then there is
> not the plethora of fast food outlets sucking the customers away.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -


When I am looking for a place to stay, all I care about is a good
night's sleep and a clean shower. I do not need a TV, gym, room
service, massages, restaurants and all the other fancy things that are
sold as "hotel staying experience". Is there really a demand for all
this stuff? I can't imagine anyone spending time in the hotel except
for sleeping. I am usually happy with places like Motel 6 for under
$30, unless it happens to be noisy or dirty. They are rarely that way,
but I have found some that were. On the other hand, I also stay at
high-end hotels (out of necessity, not desire). I am sure they must be
nice, but I never spend more than an hour of my waking time there to
find out what the fuss is all about.

[Jay Honeck]

> When I am looking for a place to stay, all I care about is a good
> night's sleep and a clean shower. I do not need a TV, gym, room
> service, massages, restaurants and all the other fancy things that are
> sold as "hotel staying experience". Is there really a demand for all
> this stuff?

Yep.

> I can't imagine anyone spending time in the hotel except
> for sleeping. I am usually happy with places like Motel 6 for under
> $30, unless it happens to be noisy or dirty.

I haven't found a motel for $30/night worthy of kenneling my dog since
the 1980s. In fact, I've found a lot of $99/night motels that made me
want to puke.

This is one of the main reasons we thought we could succeed in the
lodging industry, despite our lack of experience. Almost every motel/
hotel/B&B we'd ever stayed in -- at ANY price -- sucked.

The last five years has vindicated our business model. (Which read,
quite simply: "Eliminate everything we hate; add everything we like.")

> On the other hand, I also stay at
> high-end hotels (out of necessity, not desire). I am sure they must be
> nice, but I never spend more than an hour of my waking time there to
> find out what the fuss is all about.

Lodging decisions are almost always made by the woman of the family --
which is why massage therapists and work-out rooms are important.
Most guys are like you.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> But I'm also strange enough to think that it would be kinda fun to try
> to mathematically model a Hotel business. If you'd want to work on this a little
> off the group, I could send you a reply-able e-mail address. But I do think you'd
> be crazy to want to (Then again, I read your son's post)
>
> What would I want out of it?:
> A) Keep my address private (it's semi-anonymous)
> B) Don't sue me....for anything.

Hee hee! Ahem. Right.

Personally, I think it sounds great, but probably represents more of a
time investment than I can afford right now. With NCAA football in
full swing, we're so danged busy I can't find to fly, let alone work
on theoretical models of the hotel industry...

Send me your email off-group; maybe in a few months, when we're
playing shuffleboard in the halls to occupy our time (in between
remodel jobs), I'll have time to start down this road...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> After replacing the same disappearing light bulb 20 times, after explaining
> to one girl that when she and her boyfriend take a bath together and splash
> half the water on the floor that it goes down to the first floor

Hee hee!

We've got sixteen 84-gallon, two-person jacuzzi hot tubs in our
aviation themed suites.

Mix liberally with inebriated, healthy young couples...

I keep a drywall guy employed darned-near full-time, replacing
ceilings...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]]

Mxsmanic > wrote in
:

> C J Campbell writes:
>
>> Now, the funny thing is -- and this is just a tiny portion of things
>> that actually happened to me -- that all this stuff happened in our
>> more expensive apartments or homes. We also had trailer courts. Some of
>> them were real slums. And none of them had problems worse than the
>> 'rich' customers. OTOH, how could they have been worse?
>
> What city was this?
>

Why, you looking for a move up to a trailer slum?


Bertie

[Blanche]

C J Campbell > wrote:
[snip]
>People tell me that success is dependent on being in the right place at
>the right time. I tend to agree. The problem with 99% of people is that
>they have never figured out that they will never be at the right place
>at the right time if they never show up to work.

'Cuse me, just got back from the office - got a call from one of the
developers about the computer system (aerospace, we're building models
of vehicles and testing them).

Now that's solved (at least until Monday morning), I'm going to be
in the right place at the right time in my cherokee for the rest of
the day.