Lodger Beware!
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 06/07/09
Econo Lodge in Disguise. Find other accommodations unless you’re into disappointment. No directional signage – anywhere. You’ll have to search or ask directions for parking, check-in (temporary appearing podium like stands), and the elevators. Reserved a king bed weeks ago, but they gave me a room with two double beds– but it was on the “Club Floor” – had to use key card on elevator just to get to the more exclusive “club floors”, so I was feeling pretty exclusive on my elevator ride!
Well that wonderful exclusive feeling ended quickly as I discovered that the room backed next to the elevators, Honestly, I hardly noticed the sound of the elevators for a couple of hours. After working all day at a stressful job, driving 4 hours to reach my hotel, I was looking forward to a relaxing evening only to find that just below the windows of my exclusive “club” room was an outside stage with a very loud playing band which reverberated the windows, preventing any sane conversation, and you could forget watching television. (I realize it must have been much worse for those on the lower floors, tho!) I called to find out how long the entertainment would last and the girl responded cheerfully “a couple more hours.”
I did find in my room a little “Sleep Advantage” bag supplied by the hotel – equipped with ear plugs and a cd of soothing music. (How does one listen to soothing music with ear plugs?!) Finally, at 11:15 the music stopped. Unfortunately, the music was covering up the incessant churning of the elevators.
At midnight and tensions flaring, made another call. No, they didn’t have any other rooms – all booked – sorry. So was I as the toilet started running on it’s own – constantly refilling the tank, on top of not flushing well to begin with. At that point I was exhausted and there was no way I was calling to get maintenance in to try and fix it. So, I rigged the closet door (the closet doors, located next to the bathroom door, were broken and wouldn't close) so that I could close the bathroom door all the way to muffle the sound in the bathroom. If the closet door wasn’t rigged, one could risk ripping it off the hinges in the dark night when pressing through to the bathroom. Then the water pipes from the room next door began knocking. I began to fear that the 10 plagues were coming next.
In attempting to set the alarm clock for an early escape, I discovered that once turned, the alarm clock made a constant buzzing sound so I turned that off in favor for my quiet cell phone alarm. Finally got some sleep. The morning didn’t improve things much. A huge puddle, probably from the toilet running all night, was between the tub and the toilet and the water temperature in the shower fluctuated from cool to not quite warm enough.
The one positive experience with Crowne Plaza: I checked out that morning, a day early, with no hassles from the staff. The most pleasant moment in the last 14 hours.