This morning I saw a disturbing news report on CNN Headline news. It seems that College Station, Texas area hotels are between in a rock and a hard place due to a Texas A&M football game this weekend. There were hotel reservations made long before Hurricane Ike ever made the scene. Now that Ike has come and gone and football day is here, the Evacuees that were hunkering down are being asked to leave because of the reservations.
The evacuees are left out to find themselves with another place to stay. The report did mention that some hotel personnel were calling people with reservations and explained the situation with some canceling reservations but not all. So the Ike Evacuees are being forced out, again.
It got me thinking how this is a great opportunity for organizations like Hotels.com, Priceline, Travelocity, and Expedia to step up and help by doing what they do to get Hotels for the evacuees lined up. As of 9:00am this morning, I checked all four mentioned websites and only one had a direct link dealing with the hurricane it read "Travel Alert: Hurricane Advisory" but does not directly mention Evacuees and their unique situation.
With a little planning and some forward thinking they could be working with their "vast network" of suppliers to provide evacuee assistance for airline, hotel, and rental car bookings during this and every hurricane season. It really should not be a big burden for these organizations to do something good. Maybe get good old Captain Kirk to go on TV and run a spot directly aimed at those affected by weather or other natural disaster events. It should not be a stretch for Bill Shatner to do a simple promotion to give people a place to turn to, as I am more than sure the brief shameless self-promotional appearance on Saturday Night Live last week will confirm that they will do what it takes to get the message out.
Anyone have other ideas on how to help people in these situations, today and in the future?
Here are some Technorati Tags:
• Dave Guerra • Hurricane Ike • Evacuees • hotels • Texas A&M • college football • fans • CNN Headline News • Hotels.com • Priceline • Travelocity • Expedia • Give to the American Red Cross • Hire A Hero
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