I am not a big-city kinda girl. Never have been, and it turns out that hasn't changed. I'm on the road for work, a conference in Baltimore, MD. The flight went fine, thanks to lots of prayer. But the city is, well, city-ish....dirty, crowded, and lots of traffic, just like in the movies. The hotel, a well-known chain costing $164 per night, SAID they had wireless. Turns out that only applies to the lobby. Otherwise it's $9.95 per night. At 4 nights that's more than I pay for a month's access at home! Then I get back to my room after dinner and my key doesn't work. Back down 8 floors to get it re-keyed. Then I have to go up to the 12th floor to find a vending machine so I can get a soda. No munchies, mind you, which I like to keep in my room in case my blood sugar drops. So it's back down to the lobby to pay $1.25 for a 50-cent pack of crackers. So I get to my room, finally manage to get the internet connected (we talked them into one night of access at no charge) and the heat kicks on. But it's not cold. Well, unless you count the fact I had the a/c on 60. But it's not cold, and there's no way to turn the heat off. So I call the front desk. She's going to send the engineer up. So I get dressed again, having already gotten in my jammies. Then she calls to say he turned the heat off from wherever he is. (side note: it makes me uncomfortable that someone I don't know and can't see can monkey with my heater. I mean, he could cook me whilst I sleep.)
Now, I'm not naturally a complainer. I can pretty much chalk anything up to "everybody makes mistakes". And I could generally overlook most of this. But the internet thing really burns me up, especially since I had my secretary specifically inquire about it. I mean, I could understand if I was staying in Podunk Motel paying $40 a night. But pleeeeze.
So take note, guys, you must specify free wireless access IN THE ROOM. Who knew?
--bru, small-town and loving it
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