Survivor – Sheridan IL Part 1

We laughed about this post series, because we weren’t sure if we should call it survivor or Almost Naked and Almost Afraid.  Either would have worked, but the naked part, I thought, might give folks the wrong idea.

I’ve decided to break this up in smaller posts so this is part 1 of 3.

Last May (2016) Gene got a call from someone at IHG (International Hotel Groups).  Since we were members (we didn’t know we were) they were offering us this awesome deal.  For $249 we could go to one of their hotels, and hear about their great offerings.  Gene wasn’t interested, but then his interest was peaked when the man on the phone told him that they were now associated with Holiday Inn.  Since we bike and go to many places and need a hotel, he figured Holiday Inns are every where and if we could get discounts on rooms, it might be a good idea to chat with them, but he was still unsure and said he wanted to wait until I was home and talk to me about it.

The guy didn’t want to let Gene off the phone. He continued to ask questions about our vacations and how we liked to travel and what was most important to us when we stayed somewhere – you know, the usual.  Then he asked Gene where he’d like to go and Gene mentioned it would be fun to go back to Las Vegas.  Lo and behold, they have a premier property in Las Vegas and if we stay in that hotel, we could get our $249 back – so the stay would be free.  All we had to do was sit and listen to their presentation and it would only take 2 hours of our time during the whole weekend.  That didn’t seem so bad.  On the up side, we thought we might actually like what they were selling us and if we could make use of it on rides, win/win.

After a bit more than 45 minutes, Gene relented and thought we’d have a nice winter vacation in Las Vegas.  It would be free and that it should be super fun.  He told the man on the phone that he wouldn’t have his schedule until January and that we were unable to book until then because our vacations for the current year had already been scheduled.

In the end, Gene paid the $249 with the agreement that the IHG rep. would call us back in January and we’d schedule our weekend to Las Vegas.  True to his word, we received the phone call in mid-January, asking if we were ready to schedule.  We sat down, pulled our respective calendars out and came up with three dates that worked for the both of us.  Guess what?  The Las Vegas hotel was completely full during the dates we were available.  We came up with another date – nope, all full.  But, good news!  Their premier property in Sheridan, Illinois was available.  

Keep in mind, by this time, we’re irritated at how this is going, and by irritated I mean pissed.  Nothing against Sheridan, Illinois, but there is no comparison between there and Las Vegas.  None!  But, if we didn’t sit through their presentation we wouldn’t get our money back, so now I was determined to sit and listen to them and enjoy my free weekend at one of their “premier” properties.  Worst case scenario, we’d have a great weekend. Right?  What could go wrong?  

Part 2 coming next week Tuesday.