It should never happen, but it even happens to the most experienced of travellers. Last Friday, I checked into a well-established hotel at the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin, the most beautiful central point of the city. The hotel receptionist asked me twice if she could check my electronic key card. I thought: 'OK, well, why not?' Everything went smoothly, even opening my door automatically. And what did I see to my utter amazement? Someone had left his fancy suitcase on my bed. 'Darned', I thought, 'now what? There must be another visitor in the room. Ha, you see, that's why they had to verify my key card twice. Now it all makes sense,' a voice in my head said. So I went downstairs with an angry look on my face, but politely I said: 'come on, how is that possible?' The receptionist responded very friendly: 'are you dreaming, are you tired, is something wrong?' - 'No, miss, someone left his suitcase on my bed.' - 'Impossible, that cannot be', her soft voice answered. But OK, I'll send someone along and we'll see.' The door was opened again and yes, the suitcase hadn't moved a bit. 'But Mister Vissers,' my hostess shouted releived: 'You're mistaken, that 's a gift for you from the new low-cost carrier Air-Berlin, who is the main sponsor of the Meeting Place Berlin event that you're invited to!' Then I got it. I'm so sorry, Mister Ronald A. van Weezel - the freshly appointed director of Hilton Berlin - from now on I will think twice before I do the same.
I immediately told my story to Heike Mahmoud, Director Conventions of the Berlin Convention Office. She burst out laughing! And she told me the real answer: 'Marcel, do you know the song by Marlene Dietrich 'Ich hab’ noch einen Koffer in Berlin'... That's our marketing story... Always coming back to Berlin, because there's a suitcase waiting for you there.'By the way, it's a very nice, high-quality nostalgic suitcase that I will keep forever. Believe me, I'll never forget Berlin!
Posts
