La Quinta Inn Walla Walla, Walla Walla

My daughter and I visited Walla Walla for the first time this past weekend [17 Jan. 2010]. We stayed with a friend of a friend near the college, but they have cats (we didn’t know that) and my daughter’s allergy induced asthma kicked in to the point of needing to take her to the local Emergency Room at 3 am. The ER doc strongly suggested we not go back there to sleep, so at 5 am we drove around foggy Walla Walla looking for a place to stay. One place wouldn’t answer the night bell. One place said “No!” to every question thru the intercom no matter what my question. And, GET THIS: the Best Western said, AND I QUOTE: “I can’t give you a room at this hour. Come back at 3 pm when it’s time for check in.” I explained that my daughter had a severe allergic reaction to the cats in the home where we were guests, that we could NOT return there to sleep, and that we needed a room because we’d just come from the hospital emergency room. He repeated that he could not give us a room at 5 o’clock in the morning and that we’d have to check in, like everybody else, after 3 pm. We sat in the car in the fog in the parking lot and tried to think of how we could sleep in IT. I never felt so alone and defeated. I was thinking, aren’t hotels and motels in the business of renting rooms to people regardless of the hour? What does it matter, REALLY, what time it is? It’s not like they had “No Vacancy” which would have been an entirely different matter. It was La Quinta who said, “Oh-my-Sure! We’ve got a room for you. No problem. Would you prefer one king or two queens?” and in minutes we were in bed asleep after quite a harrowing night, especially for my daughter--- who was in such distress from not being able to breathe that at the hospital they took one look at her and whisked her back inside the emergency room so fast I had to trot to follow them in. Thank you LaQuinta! You can be sure I’ll be telling THIS story to every friend, co-worker, and relative for the next three months. Best Western better take another look at their corporate policies. We are so grateful to LaQuinta in Walla Walla. They deserve our repeat business, to my way of thinking….