The Promiscuous Nature of So-Called Partnership

I’ve never been to Ronda (Spain). From what I can see online, it's a stunningly beautiful place. So when I decided I fancied visiting the place, my first task was to find a hotel. Being of a somewhat lazy disposition, I decided to let google do the searching for me.

Low and behold the first site to grab my attention was Trip Advisor, which offered a plethora of hotels I could choose from. The top rated hotel (by feedback) was the Hotel San Gabriel.

I entered the dates that I wanted but was disappointed to get a message telling me that rooms were not available for the dates I have selected. Trip Advisor then offered me rooms in it’s other ‘parter’ hotels in Ronda.

I really like the look of the Hotel San Gabriel, so I decided to try their own site. Guess what? – plenty of room available. It certainly redefined the meaning of the word partnership for me.

Then I began to wonder........in the technology world all the big vendors have their own, often overlapping, network of partners.

Are these real partnerships working for long term mutual gain and support or are they of the promiscuous ‘Trip Advosor’ type.

I’m OK with the latter – just don’t call it partnership.