Pent-Up Demand. Dishonest Dirtbags. A Look At Previous Takes. Grohl Does It Right.
- It still may be difficult for some to imagine taking a flight to a destination of choice. There may be no difference in thinking about the seaside bed and breakfast or VRBO on a mountain lake. My take is that you better start thinking about travel right now as those low airfares and hotel fares are about to skyrocket.
Industry experts have coined the phrase “revenge travel” but call it what you want. The many months of people either not wanting to or unable to travel are going to come to an end once the vaccine of choice penetrates our upper arm. The pent-up demand, from both a business and casual travel standpoint have never been higher, and with airlines and hotels dealing with low capacities, they are all savoring what many think is going to be an onslaught of travel later this year. “Revenge travel” – you might want to book your vacation right now.
If “revenge travel” does drive travel activity in both the business and leisure sectors, the investment play may not necessarily be with the airline and hotel companies, but with the travel technology companies that do the behind the scenes work. It might be worth a look at companies similar to Amadeus, Ovation, Travelopro, and Expensify as it would seem their growth would dovetail with this pent-up demand being satisfied. Then again, who really knows what the markets are going to do?
- Over the last year I have made a pledge to support locally-owned businesses, especially restaurants. I don’t need to remind anyone what the pandemic has done to small businesses, with many ceasing operations. Some restaurants, who ramped up their ability to fulfill to-go orders, have so far made it through a very tough time, and await the day where all of us have been vaccinated. Then I read about a family-owned restaurant in Los Angeles and the devastating result of some dishonest customers. From the L.A. Times: “… as restaurants increasingly receive takeout orders online and through apps, they face a new challenge called “friendly fraud” or “chargebacks.” In the scam, a customer orders food, often through a delivery service, then receives their meal, but disputes the charge with their credit card company to get a refund.” I have no words for people who do this to any type of business but I do have a couple of old friends in Miami that would enjoy the chance to meet people like you.
Updates to previous takes:
- White Castle fail – all of us health food crazies were so excited about White Castle offering up delivery of their special food in the Orlando area. It seems that “… incredible demand overwhelmed their ability to deliver” so after one day they have shut down their delivery service from their “ghost kitchen”. White Castle management now says they will reopen when their first area restaurant opens in May. I am not a conspiracy theorist but is White Castle being on the up and up with this closure or was this a publicity stunt gone massively wrong?
- The vaccine supply chain and General Perna – I sung the praises of General Perna with his experience and his command of the supply chain. While he did bring the vaccine to fruition and the distribution to the state level seemed on strategy, the inability of states to handle the lack of inventory against the demand is worrisome.
- Tiger – after watching the two-part HBO series on Tiger Woods, some of his personality fails came to light. His way back to fame included the win at the 2019 Masters but last December he underwent another back surgery. What happened last week raised some eyebrows but the L.A. County Sheriff’s office has called his car wreck an accident. Tiger may never play again after sustaining those awful leg injuries – but reality states that he is lucky to be alive. Godspeed Tiger – you have a young family to take care of so all the best to a successful recovery.
- I received many replies and comments to my ask for a “no social media day.” As you can imagine, the age of the responders correlated directly with their naysay or support for this one-day a year initiative. Come on, its one day!
- Mars – the photos and video being beamed back from Mars’ surface is really incredible. Kudos to NASA and Perseverance for pulling this off under the close watch of every entity involved with space exploration.
- Godzilla and Kong – enough said. I am not happy but all are invited to my HBO Max watch party…
- DST – We have two weeks to go to Daylight Savings Time. Let’s Go!
I leave you with a feel good moment from a few years ago. I bring you back to the Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City when band leader Dave Grohl invited a 10-year-old boy up on stage. The boy, Collier, come to find out, has battled a plethora of diseases, including a life-threatening ailment, but it is obvious from this video that nothing can stand in his way. With respect to Dave Grohl, James Hetfield’s version of Enter Sandman sounds a bit better, but a huge shout out to Grohl for doing the right thing after Collier is done playing: