Beware a Hotel Calling Itself "Limited"
I have never in my life had a more incredulous experience as a traveler until my recent, unfortunate, first and last stay at a Ramada. I knew I should have been skeptical when the word limited appeared in the official name of the hotel. Limited, as in limited competency for basic hotel policy and procedures. Here is a breakdown of the complete lack of aptitude displayed by the limited service staff at this limited hotel: We check in at 10:30 p.m. Sept. 30 after a four-hour, post-work drive from Tampa to Miami. I wake up early, leaving my wife and 2-year-old daughter behind. On my way out, I affix the handy do not disturb sign on the doorknob. A few hours later, my wife awakes to the sound of a strange man entering the room with luggage in tow because your limited staff gave him a key to our room! The man was apologetic; the limited Ramada staff was not. In fact, the two people my wife spoke to when she called the front desk to report this incident at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Saturday Oct. 1, 2005 were downright defensive stating that the limited computer showed we had checked out and the room had been cleaned. When I returned later that evening, I spoke with the manager on duty who naturally was limited in what he could do to appease a mortified woman who feared for the security of our young child and lacked the innate privacy due a hotel guest. Turns out your limited staff was so new it couldnt figure out how to properly check guests in to the limited computer system. Instead of checking us in the previous night, the clerk wrote it off as a no-show at 2:37 a.m. and resold our room, which we had booked for two nights and the hotel had plenty of other vacancies. I learned two things from this horrid experience: never trust a hotel that calls itself limited and never trust Ramada.