Thought I would pass along an update. Here's what has been going on at the Frommers.com message boards. Someone claiming to be an owner of the Nags Head Inn has posted a couple of messages. (Can't say if he is really an owner or not, but the first response has enough history in it to make me think it might be legitimate.) The first message was pulled after about a day, but I saved a copy of it.
Nags Head Owner Post #1:
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To Whom It May Concern:
I am one of the owners of the Nags head Inn. Generally matters such as the Morris vendetta are handled by my competent staff, over half of whom have been with us for over ten years. The vile nature of this individual’s allegations and innuendo now forces me to personally respond.
In 1983 with all of their personal savings, some borrowed money from two relatives, two high school buddies from Raleigh, N.C. put enough capital and negotiations together to purchase a small mom and pop motel in Nags Head, N.C. Their objective was to live a dream by seeing if quality service provided for a good value would work in the resort hospitality business. In less than two years by using only their own hard work and by following their creed of the best service and value they could provide, they doubled the revenues of that mom and pop. They sold it and took the profits and invested all of them plus more borrowed money in the construction of a new facility. The Nags Head Inn was incorporated as a small business corporation in 1983. The only shareholders in that corporation are those two high school buddies. Sorry, no big corporation exists, just two working stiffs. The new motel was built over a three-year period and opened in 1988. Without any professional training or major capital investors, we have operated under a creed of excellent value and excellent treatment of all our guests. Since that time over 520,000 guests have enjoyed their stay at our facility. Fewer than one dozen written complaints have been received from those 520,000 guests. You may judge whether or not Mr. Morris’ representation of the facts is true by how these facts contradict Mr. Morris’ statements. We dispute his self-serving recollection of the facts and we stand on our sixteen-year track record as a total contradiction to everything he has alleged.
Cancer has directly touched both of our families and I’m sure almost all of you as well. We resent and are totally disgusted by the way Mr. Morris is attempting to use this disease for his personal financial gain and distorted ego fulfillment. Some people defy logic with their actions. Mr. Morris appears to us to be one of those people. We have chosen to ignore him and let the remaining 519,999 of our previous guests serve as testimony to how we run our establishment. I’m sure most people can see that the facts as represented by Mr. Morris do not square with our reputation. Mr. Morris never requested or asked for anything. He threatened, demanded and tried to bully and intimidate both our staff and several innocent bystanders and guests in the lobby of our hotel. Mr. Morris’ angry little world revolves only around himself and he will even use his sick friend to try and reach some sort of ego fulfillment. Mr. Morris was offered several reasonable options but refused all attempts to work with us to resolve the situation. Instead of respecting the other guests who were trying to check in and the employees whose only job was to clean his room for the next occupants, he chose instead to try and extort his entire expenditure under a threat of an internet blackmail campaign.
Our company policy has been that in those few instances where we did reach an impasse with a guest, that we would usually refund their entire payment with the provision that they not return to our facility. Because of his now fulfilled threat and verbal assault as well as his continuing conduct on other internet sites we have decided not to refund any money ever to Mr. Morris. We are certain that any payment made to him, will only encourage him to attempt other extortions to satisfy his ego. Nothing we can do will ever change Mr. Morris and we will never bow to his attempted extortion and threats. We can only ignore his actions, restrict his access to our property and continue to provide the best service and quality we can provide to all our guests just as we always have for the last twenty one years. This letter will most likely be our only response to this situation. It is refreshing that even prior to hearing the truth about this situation many posters have seen through Mr. Morris’ attempted extortion.
The Nags Head Inn, Inc.
My Response:
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That is certainly quite a scathing response, filled with personal attacks and genuine animosity. I, however, would like to keep this on a factual level, so I will respond to it on a point-by-point basis, as I did your previous email response to me. Again I am pleased that you have not disputed any of the facts put forth in my original post. You certainly imply untruthfulness on my part, but point out no such occurrences. That being said, I will now respond to your post.
1) You claim that my allegations are of a vile nature. My allegation is that the Nags Head Inn would not consider letting us stay in our room for even the slightest amount of time past check-out unless we paid for a full day. You are absolutely correct, that is vile.
2) After the history of the creation of your empire, you state "Fewer than one dozen written complaints have been received from those 520,000 guests. You may judge whether or not Mr. Morris’ representation of the facts is true by how these facts contradict Mr. Morris’ statements. We dispute his self-serving recollection of the facts and we stand on our sixteen-year track record as a total contradiction to everything he has alleged." Yet you do not refute any of the statements made in my original post. Since that post is a point-by-point rebuttal of your original response to me, incorporating quotes from your email, I'll assume that none of the facts contained therein are in question. And since you did not refute my account of the events in that response, or in your current post, I can only come to the conclusion that there are no facts in dispute. If there are, please state them clearly. Having spoken to your general manager, the only point that appears to be in question is whether we were offered a stay in the conference room. I never heard such an offer made, but your general manager tells me that it was, and I believe her. But even if I had heard the offer, I suspect that it would have made little difference in the eventual outcome, unless perhaps there was actually a bed in the conference room.
3) You state "Cancer has directly touched both of our families and I’m sure almost all of you as well. We resent and are totally disgusted by the way Mr. Morris is attempting to use this disease for his personal financial gain and distorted ego fulfillment." Your disgust would be warranted, if the statement that you made was true. It appears that you believe my repeated posting of this open letter is a vendetta, and perhaps part of my distorted ego fulfillment. In fact, I am only doing this in order to let everyone who might be in a similar situation know the policies of the Nags Head Inn. For anyone who is in a situation where a loved one's health can change from day to day, they should know that they cannot expect an extended stay from the Nags Head Inn, no matter how dire the consequences. This is very useful information. I only wish that I had seen such a post before our trip to the Outer Banks. It would have saved us a world of heartache. And as far as using this disease for my personal financial gain, I can only assume you mean a refund. I sincerely doubt that most people would call a $175 refund for a three-hour stay financial gain.
4) You state "Some people defy logic with their actions. Mr. Morris appears to us to be one of those people. We have chosen to ignore him and let the remaining 519,999 of our previous guests serve as testimony to how we run our establishment." It seems logical to me that someone being ignored in a case such as this would pursue other avenues, as I have done. Perhaps the logic that eludes you is my desire to warn other people in similar situations about the lack of flexibility they can expect from the Nags Head Inn. It all seems quite logical to me.
5) You state "I’m sure most people can see that the facts as represented by Mr. Morris do not square with our reputation." I refer to Point 2 above. If there are any facts in dispute, please state them clearly. I stand by my original post.
6) You state "Mr. Morris never requested or asked for anything. He threatened, demanded and tried to bully and intimidate both our staff and several innocent bystanders and guests in the lobby of our hotel." It is quite true that I never requested anything. My hope was that the next time a situation like this arose, or hopefully one much less severe, the Nags Head Inn would think twice about how to handle it. After being told several times that the Nags Head Inn believed it acted appropriately in our case, I no longer held out hope that the Nags Head Inn would change their ways. I resorted to posting their policies on the web so that people would at least be forewarned (and perhaps even relay their concerns about these policies to the Nags Head Inn via phone or email). I am unclear as to what you are referring when you say threatened, demanded and bullied. I suspect that the innocent bystanders were the two ladies checking out the lobby who I told "the best thing about this place is that if your friend has cancer and needs to stay a couple of hours past check-out, they charge you a full day." Again, it was the truth and I stand by it. If there are any other instances in which you feel I was threatening, demanding or bullying, please state them clearly.
7) You state "Mr. Morris’ angry little world revolves only around himself and he will even use his sick friend to try and reach some sort of ego fulfillment. Mr. Morris was offered several reasonable options but refused all attempts to work with us to resolve the situation." I discussed your outlandish statement that I am using a sick friend to boost my ego in Point 3. I discuss the inappropriateness of the options offered in my original post and in Point 2, but I am curious about the phrase that I refused all attempts to work with you? Aside from the disputed conference room option, the only other option offered by the Nags Head Inn was the "pool option," which I discuss in my original post as being a poor option for a cancer patient. What other attempts were made? Please state them clearly. The only other option proposed was the prorating option, which I suggested, and which was quickly dismissed by your staff.
8) You state "Instead of respecting the other guests who were trying to check in and the employees whose only job was to clean his room for the next occupants, he chose instead to try and extort his entire expenditure under a threat of an internet blackmail campaign." I really don't even understand this statement. I came to the logical conclusion in my original post (which you have not refuted and which has been supported by replies from people in the hotel business) that a guest staying late does not mean another guest will not be able to check in. And since we were so generously allowed to pay for another night, the room was obviously not reserved for someone else. And frankly, I don't think we were disrespecting the housekeeping staff by asking that our room be one of the last ones cleaned (if in fact we had been offered an extended check-out). I would like to hear the housekeeping staffs' opinions on that. And I really don't get the extortion/blackmail statement. You already stated that I asked for nothing. By definition, that statement rules out extortion/blackmail. As I said in Point 3, my only motivation for posting the open letter is to alert potential vacationers to the policies of the Nags Head Inn.
9) Finally, you state "Our company policy has been that in those few instances where we did reach an impasse with a guest, that we would usually refund their entire payment with the provision that they not return to our facility. Because of his now fulfilled threat and verbal assault as well as his continuing conduct on other internet sites we have decided not to refund any money ever to Mr. Morris. We are certain that any payment made to him, will only encourage him to attempt other extortions to satisfy his ego. Nothing we can do will ever change Mr. Morris and we will never bow to his attempted extortion and threats." As I mentioned before, I never asked for a refund. (Though since the Better Business Bureau required that I fill out a settlement statement, I told them I would like to see a refund for the ridiculous 3-hour charge, and a significant contribution to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. I believe that they have contacted you already.) And I addressed the extortion-though-not-asking-for-anything charge in Point 8. I am, however, extremely curious as to the fulfilled threat and verbal assault. Please state clearly, what was the threat and what was the verbal assault? The non-specific allegations you make throughout your post only serve to weaken your credibility when you do not substantiate them.
In closing, I would greatly appreciate it if you would respond to my comments on a point-by-point basis, speaking specifically to all facts that you feel are in dispute, and backing up all of your allegations with evidence. I would like this discussion to be not an argument of facts, but a referendum on the policies of the Nags Head Inn.
John Morris
Fredericksburg, VA
Nags Head Owner Post #2:
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My firm and I have now been approached by several cancer patients and cancer survivors who are either friends or past customers and a few that know us only by these recent postings. These people have made a personal appeal asking me to do anything within my power to remove all of the posts concerning this situation. They have expressed a great amount of distress over the fact that their plight has become a focal point for a petty dispute. After hearing this appeal, I agree with their position and therefore I have decided to take a unilateral action. In accordance with our normal business practice (as previously stated)it appears that this guest and my management staff have reached an impasse regarding his stay. Therefore I have ordered that he be issued a credit for all monies he spent with us, not just the charge he questions. Also in accordance with that same policy, we must ask that he never again visit our establishmnet. In accordance with the request of those patients we hereby request that Frommer's remove our previous post. We also ask that this one be removed no later than 9/5/04. Unfortunately, as I have explained to those friends and customers, we are not in a position to remove Mr. Morris' posts, that is up to him. My staff and I hereby apologize to anyone who has been offended by any posts, no matter the source, that contain the name of our firm. This is the last post from us on this matter.
My Response:
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As I explained before, the reason for my posts was not to seek a refund, but to ensure that travelers in a situation similar to ours would be informed as to the extended stay policies of the Nags Head Inn. Up to this point, I have heard nothing from the Nags Head Inn to make me believe that these policies have changed in any way. The very fact that you call this a "petty dispute" only serves to strengthen my conviction that you will behave in exactly the same manner the next time a situation like this arises. If it wasn't so downright sad, I would find it quite comical that you now call for the removal of these posts on behalf of cancer patients, when eight weeks ago you wouldn't even let a cancer patient stay in one of your rooms for a few extra hours unless you were paid for the entire day. If I actually believed that you were requesting the removal of these posts for the benefit of cancer patients, rather than the benefit of the Nags Head Inn, I would be more than happy to oblige.
Instead, I suspect that you are chiefly concerned with the bad publicity (and perhaps angry emails and phone calls) that you are receiving. If that is indeed the case, I see no need to remove my letter from any forums, or to discontinue the posting of your policies in other forums. People need to know what to expect when visiting the Nags Head Inn. If, however, you can provide some assurance in this forum that future occurrences of a similar nature will be handled with compassion, caring and class, I will gladly request the removal of my posts. A signed statement documenting how the Nags Head Inn intends to handle similar situations in the future will suffice. (Provided it is an improvement over how these matters are currently handled.) I would suggest granting extended stays, up to four hours and prorated accordingly, to any guest who is noticeably ill and who can provide evidence of a serious medical condition. (Ideally, your guests should merely need to request an extended stay in order to be granted one, but given your current approach, I feel that even these serious restrictions are a vast improvement.) Additionally, an apology to my friend for your callous disregard of her situation and an apology to me for your outlandish accusations of extortion, blackmail and using a sick friend for ego and profit would be a nice gesture.
Finally, while I never expected to receive any compensation from your corporation, if the charges from our previous two nights (to which you are rightly entitled) are refunded, they will be promptly donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. At the very least, this will have made an otherwise regrettable episode somewhat worthwhile.
John Morris
Fredericksburg, VA
To make your own donation, visit
http://www.komen.org/intradoc-cgi/idc_cgi_isapi.dll?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=298