Now that The Big Soccer Tournament is over, the hot takes are rolling in on hotel performance, booking windows and which cities were winners. We have plenty of it right here in our pages.
My takeaway is a little different. The post that really made me think was of course from everyone's favorite German soccer fan, Freddy. Earlier this week, he posted this, saying, "Now that the trip is almost over, I want to answer one of the questions we’ve been asked the most: 'How are you guys able to afford a trip like this?'"
His reply? "The answer is actually pretty simple. We saved up for this trip over the past year, and it wasn’t nearly as expensive as most people probably assume."
Simple, straightforward, attainable.
Freddy and his buddies stayed in budget hotels and found cheap flights early because they saved for the trip for a year.
It's like we've forgotten that travel scenarios like that even exist.
Here in America, it's so easy to get caught up in the storyline that all travel is crushingly expensive. The gap between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else is large — that is true. And one sad side effect is that all the content we see about travel is designed to feed the ultra-wealthy segment. We see so many people around us staying in ultra-luxury hotels, flying first class, posting photos on Instagram from their gorgeous tropical resorts.
It doesn't help that we hear every travel-industry talking head talk from stages all the time about how "Americans will always love to travel! It's their right!" Let's call a spade a spade: They're talking about the people with higher-than-average incomes who drop whatever, whenever on a first-class ticket and a luxury stay.
And that's OK in our business. The top-tier travelers are the most valuable to hoteliers because they will spend the most.
But it's time to read the room and remember that it's not all just luxury versus everything else.
What Freddy and the other high-visibility foreign travelers documenting their World Cup months on social media did was bring back the Great American Road Trip. You know the one, or you might remember it from your childhood — you drive a lot, crash in economy hotels, argue with your companions, see the sights, do a little marveling.
That was how my family of five vacationed in the 1980s: We piled in our station wagon, where I — the youngest and only girl — got about one square foot of seat. Typically my mother planned a road trip to a historic destination, like Colonial Williamsburg or Washington, D.C. But nine times out of ten, we kids argued so much that my parents just called it quits in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where we splashed in the pool and I slept in a Days Inn rollaway bed squeezed in next to the bathroom.
My mom found AAA hotel deals and attraction coupons and yes, I did lie to waitresses to qualify for kids' menu pricing all the time.
I hope families still do this. I hope Freddy and Elsa and the other World Cup visitors who documented their joy at discovering Waffle House and unlimited chips and salsa inspire more Americans to travel with wonder, too. Want some inspiration? Read our Natalie Harms' great photo-filled story about the classic motels of Route 66.
What do you think? Email me or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CoStar News or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.