Focus

You go to check in at a La Quinta Inn at 11 a.m. and ask if you can check in early so you can wind down from travel, clean up, and be ready for a 3:30 p.m. meeting. Sarah, the reception clerk says, "Sorry. We can't let anyone check in before 3 p.m. so the maids have time to clean all the rooms." You try to get the clerk to bend, but it's not possible, she says. You think, "This isn't about what is convenient for me. It's about what's convenient for them." So you cancel your reservation, drive to the Sheraton, and they let you in right away. Somewhere up the experience chain at La Quinta someone has made a rigid rule that no one checks in before 3 p.m. Or, and this is more likely, that's just the way the clerk hears or perceives this is the....