In 2013 the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley found its own way of remembering 9/11: 30 minutes of free mini-muffins for guests. I remember thinking at the time at least it wasn’t a Marriott in Manhattan. Context matters, and surely New Yorkers wouldn’t trivialize the event.
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— guillotease (@eclectrica) September 11, 2013
Only the Marriott New York Downtown now takes the memory of 9/11 and sells it back to us – at a hefty markup – in the form of a 9/11 Remembrance Package for weekend stays. For $130 more per night than the prepaid rate, and $105 per night over a AAA full cancellable rate, the hotel offers a promo code for 25% off admittance to the 9/11 Museum and two tickets to the One World Observatory.
The regular price of admission to the 9/11 Museum is $26. A 25% promo code, then, is worth up to $6.50 off per ticket. However tickets must be purchased in advance for specific times, and ticket sales begin six months in advance. Since you do not receive your discount code until check-in, it’s possible that you won’t be able to use the promo code or even visit the Museum. (The 9/11 Memorial itself is free, and the museum offers free tickets on Mondays, and is also free to active and retired military.)
General Admission tickets to the One World Observatory are $38 each, though if you were buying these separately you might want to look into the Mastercard deal.
A couple staying on this package might save $89, at most, over the course of a two night stay – for the extra $200++ or more. And it’s extremely unlikely that the hotel is spending close to $89 here.
Readers know that I’m as much of a capitalist as anyone, but call me old fashioned, 9/11 doesn’t seem like one of those things you’re supposed to market and turn a profit on. Maybe it’s just because I grew up in New York, knew people who worked in the Towers, and am old enough to remember the day one of the planes hit right along my commute to work in Northern Virginia.
