I was eating lunch with 3/4 of my active JW family earlier today and they were bemoaning the idea that they were going to have to leave the central Oklahoma area very early tomorrow morning to find a room so they could attend an assembly on the otherside of the state. They had tried calling the 'approved' hotels and motels in the town where the assembly is being held and they were all booked. So that left them looking at the rest of the approved list and having to travel as much as 50 miles away to get a room.
I whipped out my new cell phone, put the town where the assembly is being held into the map function and punched the button for 'hotels and motels'. Within 45 seconds I had two different motels on the towns main strip very near the assembly hall with rooms available. When I asked the relatives if they wanted me to book them the rooms, they got into a heated debate over if it was right and proper to bypass the 'socities direction' to book rooms off the approved list or drive as much as 50 miles back and forth to keep the book publishing company happy.
The hardcore jw matriarch of the family told me to book the rooms, but as we were walking out of the restaurant suddenly started feeling very guilty for her 'sin'. Her excuse for declining the reservation?
"The society sends out people to check over the rooms before they put them on the list. The motels you found are probably fleabag rooms that were not approved because they weren't up to the standards and I don't mind driving that far to stay in a clean room."
Yeah. BTW, the rooms I found were part of two nationwide chains and have listings on Hotels.com and Frommer's guide, so they must be real sh**holes.
...OUTLAW