email madness

Have you noticed the same thing, more and more promotional emails hitting your inbox?

I spend my working day in front of a computer. A big part of my job is simply managing emails. I get hundreds of emails per day. They're constantly coming in, so I have to prioritize. What do you suppose actually gets my attention?

Requests from clients are my top priority. I am asked for travel advice, hotel recommendations, rates and amenities. I do the requested research, answer the emails, deal with follow up questions, and make bookings. I want to get back to my clients immediately, if possible.

Responses from hotels are next in line. I've sent off questions: Can the hotel guarantee an upgrade? What's the difference between room types? Can a requested service be provided? These also get read as soon as possible, and the information forwarded to clients.

What about the rest? Frankly, there is no time to read the scores of promotional emails that come in each and every hour, much less digest the information. I trash most of them the second they hit my inbox, especially the load of promo emails in my Inbox when I start working at 6 a.m.

My new strategy: I am systematically "unsubscribing" to promotional emails from most travel partners. I've unsubscribed to over a dozen senders during the writing of this blogpost. This doesn't mean I don't value your product. I'm just trying to get some sanity back into my work day!

copyright  (c)  2014 by David Ourisman LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.