My family enjoys going to conventions that cater to a particular common sub-culture fiction genre (spanning books and t.v./film). Part of the reason is that we read a bit in this genre, part is that all our friends go, and part is that we dig the music scene. We’ve been to several in the past year, and one in particular is famous for having a horrific hotel. It is a major chain and ought to be quite nice, but it has not been so in our history with the convention - thankfully there is a new hotel on the horizon. I just have to get out a few thoughts on this particular awful experience.
Quite frankly, the hotel sucks huge [darker expletives deleted]. Last year I had a merry go-round with the front desk because we had reserved a crib but couldn't get one when I checked in. I had about four phone calls with the liaison for that chain's special "club thingy" until he finally said "Well, there's childcare for your convention and they have all the cribs up there. You can check with them to see if they have a spare." My response was "No, we reserved a crib. YOU can check with them." I got another call where he said "They have an extra, you can go get it." To which I reply (feeling like a broken record) "No, we reserved a crib. YOU can send someone up to bring me a crib." Which he did. Finally.
The first thing that happened this past year when I checked in is that they gave me the key to a room that was occupied. That's right, a total lived-in wreck and people's bags open sitting all around. I freaked and was infinitely grateful no one was actually in the room. I turned around immediately and had to tote a full cart and a 3 year old downstairs (my husband came in on a later train due to his work schedule so I was checking in alone with the Bundle) where they apologized sort of profusely and got me into a new room. I had to remind them that my husband had reserved a king, and had to remind them about the crib. When I asked about late check out I was told we had to ask for that the morning we planned to check out, not before (in what world, people?). I had to remind them several times that we're part of the special club they have... and it took about 6 hours for us to get the little amenities basket they send in.
When I woke up on Saturday I found our door open. I had thrown the security bolt (but not the deadbolt) so it wasn't completely open, just clear that someone had managed to key in and turn the knob of the door so that it was open. I had pushed Bundle's crib against it as well so if anyone had tried to come in further (had I not thrown the bolt) they'd have awakened everyone in a heartbeat (don't freak out, they couldn't have gotten the door open, the inner hall is narrow and configured so that the door would not open more than an inch or so against the crib - I checked that before Bundle went in it). We found out at breakfast in the con suite that a friend of ours had someone break into his room while he and his roommates slept the night before and steal his pants (which had keys, wallet & cash in them) and his laptop. We'd heard about the security issues and had prepared quite a bit against them. After hearing this story about our friend, my husband went to complain to the management - to no avail, of course. I will so NOT miss this suck hotel. The odds of us going back if the hotel wasn't changing would be zero, let me tell you. We honestly only went back this year to support the music track and meet a particular popular author who was there.
Saturday afternoon I decided to try to talk to them about late checkout again. They said it wasn't available to con goers... I said "But we are (their club thingy)". He whined, and I just repeated "But we are (their club thingy)." He grimaced and gave us the late checkout. I'm sorry.. there is a list of things that they advertise for club members, and late checkout is guaranteed. I would be fine with it not being available to con goers IF and ONLY IF they advertised that in their (club thingy) brochures. Those brochures do not say "Available to everyone but Genre Fiction Congoers who can just suck it." So... I was quietly assertive and we got what we wanted. No more staying at that crap hotel ever again, and I will personally vote against staying at that particular chain again.
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