First
of all,
let me
tell you
that I
am not
rich,
but I am
not
cheap
either.
I have
traveled
all over
the
world
and
stayed
in some
of the
nicer
hotels
available
and I’ve
stayed
in some
dumps as
well.
Once on
a trip
with my
family
back
from
Washington
D.C. we
stopped
in New
Orleans
and the
only
motel we
could
find
available
rented
rooms by
the hour
so you
have an
idea of
what
this
place
was
like. On
the
other
hand
I’ve
stay at
the
Waldorf
and the
Plaza in
New
York,
the Ritz
in Paris
and five
star
hotels
in
London.
Generally
you
expect
better
service
and
treatment
for the
expensive
hotels.
As they
say…
“You
pays
your
money
and you
takes
your
chances.”
What you
don’t
expect
is to
pay
through
the nose
and then
get
below
average
service
and
treatment.
Such was
our
plight
last
week. My
wife
signed
us up
for a
promotional
five
day,
four
night
mini-vacation
in
Steamboat
Springs,
Colorado.
We got a
good
deal on
the
room,
from a
large
well
known
hotel
chain,
with an
additional
$100
gift
card. So
far, so
good.
We
arrive
in
Denver,
and then
have to
take a
four
hour
shuttle
ride to
get to
the
hotel.
No big
deal.
Our room
is at
the end
of the
hall
next to
the
maid’s
chamber,
but on a
promotional
trip, I
don’t
expect
to get a
choice
suite or
the best
location
in the
house. I
do
expect a
clean
room
with
regular
service.
Out of
the
three
full
days we
were
there,
our room
was
cleaned
once. We
did get
clean
towels
each
day, but
that’s
it. The
shower
was
moldy
and the
carpet
was
stained,
but I
can live
with
that if
the room
is
cleaned,
which it
wasn’t.
On our
first
full day
there
(Friday)
we call
down in
the
morning
for room
service
since we
had
gotten
in so
late the
night
before.
No
answer.
Finally
the
front
desk
answers
and
tells us
the
restaurant
is too
busy to
take any
more
orders,
and they
will
tell
them to
call us
back
within
the
hour. No
call. We
get
dressed.
I call
housekeeping
to tell
them
that we
would
like our
room
cleaned
early
since we
planed
to read,
relax
and
sleep.
We don’t
ski.
I tell
the
maids in
the hall
also to
clean
the
room. We
go off
to
breakfast.
Two
scrambled
eggs and
a box of
Cheerios
for each
of us
for
breakfast…$42.86.
We go
back
upstairs,
room
isn’t
clean. I
ask the
maids
again
and call
housekeeping
again.
At noon
we go
back
downstairs
to
another
restaurant,
hamburger
and a
salad…$55.00.
Back
upstairs,
no luck.
My wife
gets
sick
from the
hamburger
and goes
to
sleep.
About
5pm, the
maid
wants in
to
clean,
and we
take the
towels
and tell
her to
forget
it. I
call the
manager
who
assures
me that
the room
will be
cleaned
the next
morning
between
9am and
10am.
The next
morning
(Saturday)
we go
into
town for
breakfast,
do some
shopping
and
sight
seeing
and
return
about
1pm. No
maid
service.
Call the
manager,
but he
doesn’t
work on
Saturdays
so his
assistant
has the
maids
come
over and
clean
while we
go sit
in the
lobby
for an
hour.
In the
meantime,
I keep
getting
calls
from the
guy who
handed
me the
$100
gift
card. It
seems I
am
supposed
to sit
down for
some
tour of
their
new
condo
sites
and real
estate
offers.
There is
nothing
on any
of the
letters
concerning
the gift
card
that
ties the
gift
card
into any
type of
real
estate
offer.
Saturday
evening,
my wife
is
feeling
better
but not
up to
going
out for
dinner.
We order
a ham
and
cheese
sandwich
and some
quesadias
and two
cans of
soda….this
time the
charge
is
$61.38.
Now I
don’t
mind
paying
big
prices
for good
food,
but a
greasy
ham and
cheese
sandwich,
with a
handful
of chips
and a
pickle
slice is
hardly
gourmet
food.
This is
one star
food or
what you
get at
truck
stops.
No,
that’s
wrong
I’ve had
better
food
than
this at
truck
stops.
We turn
on the
television
for the
first
time and
want to
watch a
movie,
but the
TV is
broken.
They
send a
guy up
to fix
it, nice
guy,
takes
him over
an hour,
now we
can
watch
movies,
but the
reception
is too
bad to
really
see
anything
and it’s
now too
late and
we’ve
lost
interest.
I write
a
complaint
letter
to the
home
office
of the
hotel
chain.
Sunday
we
abandoned
the idea
of
getting
any
decent
food in
this
place.
Once
again,
we
trudge
out of
the
hotel
after
asking
the
maids
and
housekeeping
to
please
clean
our
room.
Once
again we
return
and once
again
the room
has not
been
cleaned.
We give
up on
the idea
of this
ever
being
done. I
leave a
wake up
call for
5am as
we have
to take
the
shuttle
back to
Denver
at 6.
About
9pm, I
get a
call
from a
nice
lady who
says she
has
gotten a
call
from
their
corporate
office
about my
complaint
letter.
She
wants to
know
what she
can do
to make
our stay
more
enjoyable.
Since we
are
going to
bed and
have to
get up
in 8
hours to
leave
for
home,
there
isn’t
much she
can do
outside
of
teleporting
us back
home,
which I
don’t
think
she can
do
anytime
soon.
Thinking
that
there
isn’t
anything
else
this
place
can do
to screw
up, I
set my
alarm
clock on
my cell
phone,
just in
case
they
don’t
make the
wake up
call.
Sure
enough
someone
had
forgotten
to reset
their
clocks
for the
change
over to
daylight
saving
time and
they
didn’t
call
until we
were
walking
out the
door.
The
perfect
ending
to a
perfect
weekend.
Never
again
will we
stay at
any of
these
hotels
from
hell.
More
stress
than I
needed.
The
house
never
looked
so good…
