Don't Mess With The Booker. . .

This is the exciting follow up to the saga of me trying to book the church with the annoying lady for the last weekend of August. On Tuesday, Ms. Annoying called to cancel the scheduled tour of the camp on Wednesday. This is after I changed my whole schedule around in order to accommodate her. Sure, it took me a whole 3 seconds to do that but why let that get in that way of trying to make you feel sorry for me? She then asked if I can send her the new deal that I was going to offer her. I informed her that I had already offered her a new deal which was the same deal she called a few weeks ago to complain about. She told me that she couldn't afford that. She would be leaving if I didn't offer a lower price to help her out. I told her that would be fine and I hope she can find a new camp. She didn't like that response and actually seemed quite shocked about it. She tried to play hardball and it didn't work out for her. She asked if I was really willing to let a group of her size (120 +) go due to the amount of money she could offer us. I told her 'yes'. I had about 4 other groups with interest and would have little problem to fill it. She hung up upset and I hung up relieved that I would never have to talk to her again.

I then had a problem. She was a big group. Our camp definitely wants a big group for that week. We did have 4 other interested groups but I had to turn them down because I felt we had this group (which at one time, I was pretty sure we did). I assured my Supervisor that we would be okay and I would have no problem filling that week. Even if I didn't quite believe myself. On a plus side, my supervisor agreed that it would be a much easier retreat now that we didn't have to deal with her anymore.

This is where I attach the happy ending. Today, the day after I turned away the group of 120+. The day I planned on frantically trying to beg back the other groups. I got a phone a call. A lady wanted to book a group of 100+ for the last week of August. The whole week. We don't often get whole week bookings. I was pretty sure I would be lucky to fill half of the now empty week. This lady wanted it all. She was willing to pay the full price -- what a novel concept. The best part, I didn't have a headache after talking to her for a few minutes. Only one day later, August is full again as if nothing ever happened. I'll give all the credit to God for that one.

Here is my proof that some tiring tales actually have a silver lining in the end. I truly hope that the poor lady (Ms. Annoying) can find another site that is willing to have her for the price she expects. I also secretly hope she calls back to try to book that week again (after finding no available places)but I have to tell her it's already full. Hm, maybe I'm the bad guy?