Hotel Experience, not the best

Here is an experience that we recently had when going on a weekend away. I wanted to share some of the experience with everyone, so you can also be away of what can happen when you decided to take a vacation and possibly extend it.

The original plan for this trip was to spend one night in a hotel, so we booked it online through the hotel chain’s website. That was easy enough to do, and we got a reasonable price for the Saturday night. When it was getting closer to the weekend, we decided to see if we could add the Friday evening onto the reservation again at a reasonable cost. I phoned the hotel directly as I wanted to see what they would quote us for adding the Friday night and when I got through, they quoted me $294 CDN for adding the Friday night. I knew that was a crazy price so after asking to speak to a manager (no manager on duty) I hung up and figured there was no way we were going to be paying that price. I then looked up the hotel chain’s reservation number and was quoted $152 CDN to add the Friday night to our reservation. Yes, a major difference between calling the hotel directly and booking it through their central reservation. We did find out that some of the other people that we were seeing that weekend also booked directly through the hotel and when they went to pay for the rooms discovered the price, so they went to a different hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we found out why we don’t use this chain very often. The reason we were using this chain was it was very close to where we were going. Next time, we will drive a little further for a better experience. When we got to the desk to check in, we were not welcome but just asked for our driver’s license and credit card. The person then checked us in and told us that we would get no housekeeping during our stay until we requested it. That isn’t something that bothered either of us, as we were only staying two nights, it wasn’t a big deal.

We then went up to check to see that the room was what we wanted and to figure out where it was, given we would be carrying our luggage up a flight of stairs. The room was just a basic room with a queen bed and a table and a small couch. When we went into the bathroom, we discovered that there was no soap at all so figured we would check with the front desk to see if we could get some. It was then we decided to go and get our luggage and get settled in for the two days. As we were returning to our room with our luggage the front desk person was walking by, so we asked about the soap and her comment was “Oh, we don’t have any soap as we are waiting for the truck to delivery some. If you really need some, I might be able to find something.” Thankfully, we normally have some soap in our suitcases.

Signing in to the Wi-Fi also was a bit of a challenge because there was no place that showed you how to sign in or what the password could be, so we had to call down to get that information. Yes, another frustration during the first hour of being in our room. Thank goodness I looked to see what time breakfast each morning of our stay was because that wasn’t mentioned either. Yes, this hotel left a lot to be desired for the price we were paying for the weekend. The Friday night was the cheaper of the two nights.

Now, here is a summary of what we thought of the room/hotel. The desk chair was missing both arms and there had been arms on the chair previously as you could see the locations of where they attached. Air conditioning was rotten, you were either freezing or very hot because if you set the air conditioner to auto it just kept running and didn’t stop when it reached the temperature you wanted. Oh, the shampoo and conditioner were on the wall in the shower and the shampoo was also empty. The room was ok given everything, but the couch was also right in front of the air conditioner, so sitting on it might you froze. Breakfast was included in the price of the hotel, and it was a very basic meal and there were only 6 tables where you could sit and eat (not enough at any time for people to eat).

So yes, the experience at this hotel reminded us why we don’t use this hotel chain very often. When we were checking out, of course they asked how our say was, and I said it would have been nice to have soap and shampoo. The front desk person looked at me and said, “Oh, you could have let us know you didn’t have soap or shampoo.” My reply was “We did, and you told us the truck hadn’t brought the soap and checking the status of shampoo should be what the staff do.” Of course, we only discovered that there was no shampoo when my husband was having a shower.

Yes, so one of the biggest things that I want everyone to take from this experience is if you want to extend a hotel stay, call the hotel directly if you can, so

You can see what rate they will quote you. Also check the hotel website for the rate and then call the central reservation number to see what rate you get with them. It will probably be a lot cheaper than the hotel is quoting you.