At A Hotel Crossroads? When is it time to look for another place to stay?
A few weeks ago, my husband, daughter, and myself flew across country to visit family. We took the same voyage last year, and did roughly the same trip – spent the first night at the airport after we got in, spent 3 nights staying at my Mom’s house, and then spent another 3 nights in a hotel near by to my Dad’s house.
The first night at the airport was good. Since we stayed at the Westin attached to the airport, we didn’t have to get anywhere after we got off the plane so we were able to get dinner, meander to the hotel, get checked-in, relax, and even check out the pool before going to bed. That was we were rested and ready to go before dealing with the car rental, car seat installation, etc. The Westin DTW was just the relaxing influence we needed after a day of flying, just like last year.
Then it was off to 3 days with my Mom, and we had a great time (though I can say I wished she had a air conditioner more than once)! Luckily she has plenty of room for us to stay and for us to spread out.
After that we moved to a hotel near my Dad’s condo. Just like last year we decided to stay at the StayBridge suites so that we could have a full (though small scale) kitchen in room, plus two bedrooms and a living area to spread out in and not feel like we were on top of each other. Last year, I noticed very small things with the room that I would have improved upon, but didn’t interfere in the slightest with out trip, like a few cigarette holes in one of the window sheers, a window that was a little sticky, that the elevator was about 30 degrees warmer than the rest of the building. I didn’t say anything since these things really didn’t detract from the enjoyment of our stay.
This year, however, there’s a whole laundry list of things in addition to the ones from last year: only one of the two burners on the cooktop worked, one night at 9pm the fridge decided to heat up instead of cool down (but miraculously fixed itself an hour later, making me suspicious of it for the other 2 nights that we were there), one of the room phones didn’t work at all (found out when I was calling the front desk about the refrigerator), the ice maker in the freezer didn’t make ice, the dishwasher tilted forward precariously when you opened the door all the way, and there was never any waffles at breakfast (though they were advertised).
Outside of the stressful hour when I thought I was going to have to throw away all of the groceries that we had bought in the fridge, I can’t really say that any of these items made our trip worse, but so many little things can add up after time. I didn’t really pursue any of these with the hotel when I was there, because we were busy being in and out and enjoying the small amount of time we had with family (though I did mention it in the survey they sent us). However, I am definitely looking at other options for future trips as likely we’ll be visiting again. And, honestly, I am quite disappointed – I was so enamored with this hotel after last year’s visit, and it seemed to meet my family’s needs so well, I’m sad that my perfect find, wasn’t so perfect a year later and that some of the sheen has worn off. I am also dreading the unknowns of staying at a new place.
Are there things that get your loyalty when you stay in the same place regularly? What are the things that cause you to move on and look for a new home away from home? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.