Not Actually All That Silly

Okay, I don’t really spend all that much time surfing the blogsphere; I really do have a day job, and contrary to popular belief, I actually DO spend most of the day working. By the same token, however, I do spend a lot of my spare time (including lunch hours, breaks, and off-duty time) reading news aggregation sites, which are quoting more and more blogs as time goes on. Which is where I get stories like this one: a boutique hotel in Nashville is offering what it calls a “Redneck Package,” which includes such Southern favorites as a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, a bag of pork rinds, and snacks like Moon Pies and RC Cola. The special package is timed to coincide with the CMA Music Festival being held in Nashville this summer…

Now, on the face of it this may sound like a silly idea. I mean, really, who is going to book a hotel based on less than $10 worth of consumer goods? If it’s a typical boutique hotel it probably costs two to three times as much as comparable facilities in the same area, and the owners are not promising anything that constitutes REAL added value, such as convenience, larger or better appointed rooms, transportation or even location. But when you actually stop and think about it, it’s an excellent example of a business selling something larger than just a hotel room: it’s an image, a lifestyle, and even a social identity that is on the line here…

There was a time when calling someone a “Redneck” (e.g. someone who spends much of their working life out in the sun without benefit of a hat or sunscreen, as in the case of an agricultural worker or manual laborer; an uneducated person or hick) was an unforgivable insult – unless the person doing so was also a “Redneck,” in which case it might be a simple matter of identifying with that person or even a term of endearment. The famous comedy routine by Jeff Foxworthy called “You Might Be a Redneck” is essentially both; if you see yourself in the scenarios presented you are probably part of this group, and since the comedian is presenting this as a positive (or even “glorious”) thing, it’s obviously meant in an affectionate way. As such references have become more common, more and more people have begun to self-identify as Rednecks, and seek the company of others who do the same…

Which leads us back to the “Redneck Package” referenced above. While we may reasonably question how many people would be willing to pay extra for a “True Redneck Experience,” even if they self-identify as part of that group, a boutique hotel is usually a small facility, and it will not require that many additional bookings to fill all of its rooms for any given week. I wouldn’t suggest trying this as part of a national chain’s promotional specials, let alone building hotels specifically along this theme, but for a single small business, on a specific week of the year, it’s nothing short of genius…

Which begs the question, why don’t other hotels offer similar packages designed to tie into popular events in their home cities? If there’s a science fiction convention in town, a hotel could offer geek fodder like Skittles ™ Dorritos ™ and Mountain Dew in the rooms; a Star Trek convention could be the occasion to offer Earl Grey tea (hot, of course) and other character favorites; rodeo in town could be the occasion to offer Slim Jims ™ and barbeque-flavored anything; a Monty Python convention might tie into a bucket containing almost any kind of foodstuffs except wafer-thin mints, and so on. Unless, of course, such packages are already common in the hospitality industry, and I just need to spend more time reading news aggregation sites…