Road Trip Rage

I recently completed another of my road trips, this one to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had company on the trip, one of my fellow barbershop singers, and we had a good time and saw lots of great sights.

I could tell you about the trip in general, but I am doing that in a separate reference, so I’ll just say that the UP is a wonderful place to visit if you like lighthouses and waterfalls and forests.

No, this is my bitch session, and the topic is hotel accommodations.

I am a member of Wyndham Rewards® and Choice Privileges®, so I use hotels in those two chains for all of my stays. On this occasion I used Wyndham more than Choice, and I’m sorry that I did. The hotels proved to be less than expected, and the prices weren’t in line with the service.

I try to select hotels with a hot tub, because I feel that the ones with that amenity are of higher class than the “bunk and breakfast” ones. For that reason, I selected Baymont Inn for several of the nights.

The second night out, we stayed at a Baymont Inn that had been in the AmeriHost family of motels. I had stayed at several of those when AmeriHost was still in business, and they were of good quality. This one, however, had been taken over by Wyndham about two years ago and had been allowed to deteriorate horribly. The bed linens were torn and shabby. I took a shower after my hot tub, and found myself standing ankle deep in water by the time I finished. The tub drain was clogged. Yech!!!

We stayed at a Days Inn in Marquette, Michigan for two nights. The first night we didn’t arrive at the hotel until 11 PM, so I had no opportunity to use the hot tub or any other facilities. However, the second night we arrived back early enough. I looked forward to the hot tub, but when I got into the pool area I found the hot tub crowded with screaming kids.

A trip to the front desk to complain was met with the explanation that the hot tub in the pool area was for kids. There was a separate room with only a hot tub on another level, and it was for adults. I started through the pool area to the ramp up to the adult hot tub, only to be followed by a family of the same kids who had been in the first one.

I turned and left the room for another trip to the front desk, lodged my complaint, and then went to my room. A half-hour later I went back to the hot tub, and finally had my soak in peace and quiet. My buddy, Tom, who had remained in the pool area, said the kids were pretty intimidated by my rant, and left soon after I did.

On another note, I looked at the bill after I checked out and was down the road, only to find that I had been charged $1.50 per night for the in-room safe that I never used. The bill said that I could have had the charge removed, but why should the onus be on me to reverse a charge for a service I never opted for in the first place?

Needless to say, I am preparing a letter to the corporate headquarters of Wyndham Hotels to lodge a formal complaint and possibly withdraw any further reservations. I’ve built up quite a number of reward points, but they aren’t much good if the hotels don’t deliver what they promise.

I admit that I am cheap in that I won’t pay over $100 per night for any hotel, and some would say that “you get what you pay for”, but I still think that $100 should get decent accommodations for the night, not some flea-bag hotel with lousy bed sheets and poor or missing services.

There, I’ve got that off my chest!