Crowne Plaza Houston Reliant - FAIL
Crowne Plaza is usually a good hotel. This Crowne Plaza.... not so much. When I arrived Thursday, the woman who checked me in was quite nice and efficient. But my heart sank as soon as she pulled out the map. Maps in hotels typically indicate huge, sprawling complexes in which it is difficult to find anything. Many hotels have expansive conference centers, but the rooms are usually in towers over the main lobby area (or some similar arrangement), and it's not too hard to figure out where you need to go to find your room. Or rooms in general. Maps, in my experience, mean confusing layouts and long walks with heavy luggage.
So, the map came out, and my heart sank. She told me my room was on the fourth floor and asked me if I knew where the conference was being held. I said I didn't, and she proceeded to circle the conference area on the map, and directed me down a hall towards the conference area. I started that way, then wondered if I had just been mistakenly directed to conference registration, rather than my hotel room. I looked at the map. There was no indication of where or how to get to the hotel rooms.... just all the conference rooms on the first and second floors. Not helpful. I looked at the signage in the hallways. Again, there were signs and arrows to the conference rooms and stuff on the first floor, but no indication of where to find an elevator or, you know, places where guests might actually sleep.
So, rather than wander half way across Houston to the conference rooms, I stopped a passing staff member to get better directions on where I might find rooms with numbers (and beds) rather than names like "Main Ballroom" or "San Jacinto 6." This is not something one should have to do in a hotel, but evidently I haven't been the first customer with this problem, because I heard other people talking about it during the conference. Anyway, this staff person explained that I had to go past the conference area, through the second lobby area, all the way down the last hall, and up to the fourth floor.
*sigh* I would have chosen this trip to bring a duffle bag rather than a suitcase with wheels...
But, at least I now had a fairly clear destination in mind. So I walked, and walked, and walked, and went around tiny bends in the hallway that looked like dead ends or entrances to closets until I finally found the second lobby. It was a bit creepy because it looked abandoned, and no one else was around, but I finally found a hallway with *gasp* actual hotel rooms.
Yay!
Well, it was a short-lived celebration because the first elevator I came to was out of order. After a long trek to the other end of the hallway, I came to the second elevator, which I swear is older than my 86-yr old mother. And ran about as smoothly as a car without shock absorbers driving across a dirt road with washboard ruts. By the time I reached the fourth floor, I was thankful to still be alive.
I found my room and got in without trouble. But, there was no toilet paper. I called housekeeping and asked for a roll. Eventually, after getting tired of waiting for housekeeping to arrive, I decided to go register for the conference and set up the booth for the morning. Instead of taking the elevator and risking certain death, I took the nearest set of stairs (which were probably older and more decrepit than the elevator) and which dumped me in the parking lot with no way back into the hotel.
At this point I started to get a wee bit cranky.
When I found out that my boxes still hadn't arrived for the show, I got even more cranky. When I walked the half mile back to my room, hiked up four flights of stairs because NEITHER elevator was now working, got into my room and discovered that I still didn't have any toilet paper, I started getting mad.
I tracked down a housekeeper and politely requested a roll of toilet paper, which she gave me. Another roll showed up about an hour later, presumably after the message was finally delivered from somewhere downstairs. I ordered a pizza for supper and the room service was fine. Eventually my boxes arrived, and I was able to set up my tables. The elevators still weren't working, but I figured out a staircase that connected to a hallway in the building, rather than the parking lot. This was progress.
Next morning I debated if I should take my laptop down to the show with me or leave it in the room. Normally, I would leave it, but I decided I didn't trust the housekeeping staff after the toilet paper incident and the run-down state of the hotel in general (the staircases didn't look like they'd been cleaned in months.... dirty dishes next to the ice machine, sticky stuff on the floor in the elevator lobby, etc.). It was a good decision, because when I came back to the room late that afternoon (after the half-mile walk, up four flights of stairs, etc.), I found the door open. The room had been cleaned, and nothing appears to have been taken, but anyone could have walked in and taken anything they wanted.
Creepy abandoned lobby, creepy elevator, creepy staircases, and now creepy occurrences.
I've never complained to hotel management before, but I did a u-turn, closed the door behind me (and made sure it locked), climbed down the dirty stairs, hiked the half-mile back to the main lobby and found a manager to talk to. Actually, two of them together. They apologized profusely and gave me a coupon for a free breakfast buffet.
So, it was back to the room (somewhat mollified)... another half-mile hike and four flights of stairs. I knew breakfast would be guilt free because I was certainly getting my exercise.
At breakfast this morning, I watched a mouse running around the restaurant floor.
The dirty dishes still haven't been moved from next to the ice maker.
The schmoo is still on the floor in the elevator lobby.
Oh, and half the doors in the women's restrooms in the conference center don't lock.
One of the vendors at the conference was complaining she could get no hot water in her room.
This morning, I put the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on the door because, quite frankly, I don't trust the hotel staff not to, I don't know, blow up my room or something.
Tomorrow morning, it will be a long hike back to the lobby with all my heavy luggage... down four flights of dirty stairs; through the abandoned, creepy lobby; around small, unexpected turns; down long, endless hallways; but I'll be happy because it will be my last trip, and I'll be out of here.
So, the map came out, and my heart sank. She told me my room was on the fourth floor and asked me if I knew where the conference was being held. I said I didn't, and she proceeded to circle the conference area on the map, and directed me down a hall towards the conference area. I started that way, then wondered if I had just been mistakenly directed to conference registration, rather than my hotel room. I looked at the map. There was no indication of where or how to get to the hotel rooms.... just all the conference rooms on the first and second floors. Not helpful. I looked at the signage in the hallways. Again, there were signs and arrows to the conference rooms and stuff on the first floor, but no indication of where to find an elevator or, you know, places where guests might actually sleep.
So, rather than wander half way across Houston to the conference rooms, I stopped a passing staff member to get better directions on where I might find rooms with numbers (and beds) rather than names like "Main Ballroom" or "San Jacinto 6." This is not something one should have to do in a hotel, but evidently I haven't been the first customer with this problem, because I heard other people talking about it during the conference. Anyway, this staff person explained that I had to go past the conference area, through the second lobby area, all the way down the last hall, and up to the fourth floor.
*sigh* I would have chosen this trip to bring a duffle bag rather than a suitcase with wheels...
But, at least I now had a fairly clear destination in mind. So I walked, and walked, and walked, and went around tiny bends in the hallway that looked like dead ends or entrances to closets until I finally found the second lobby. It was a bit creepy because it looked abandoned, and no one else was around, but I finally found a hallway with *gasp* actual hotel rooms.
Yay!
Well, it was a short-lived celebration because the first elevator I came to was out of order. After a long trek to the other end of the hallway, I came to the second elevator, which I swear is older than my 86-yr old mother. And ran about as smoothly as a car without shock absorbers driving across a dirt road with washboard ruts. By the time I reached the fourth floor, I was thankful to still be alive.
I found my room and got in without trouble. But, there was no toilet paper. I called housekeeping and asked for a roll. Eventually, after getting tired of waiting for housekeeping to arrive, I decided to go register for the conference and set up the booth for the morning. Instead of taking the elevator and risking certain death, I took the nearest set of stairs (which were probably older and more decrepit than the elevator) and which dumped me in the parking lot with no way back into the hotel.
At this point I started to get a wee bit cranky.
When I found out that my boxes still hadn't arrived for the show, I got even more cranky. When I walked the half mile back to my room, hiked up four flights of stairs because NEITHER elevator was now working, got into my room and discovered that I still didn't have any toilet paper, I started getting mad.
I tracked down a housekeeper and politely requested a roll of toilet paper, which she gave me. Another roll showed up about an hour later, presumably after the message was finally delivered from somewhere downstairs. I ordered a pizza for supper and the room service was fine. Eventually my boxes arrived, and I was able to set up my tables. The elevators still weren't working, but I figured out a staircase that connected to a hallway in the building, rather than the parking lot. This was progress.
Next morning I debated if I should take my laptop down to the show with me or leave it in the room. Normally, I would leave it, but I decided I didn't trust the housekeeping staff after the toilet paper incident and the run-down state of the hotel in general (the staircases didn't look like they'd been cleaned in months.... dirty dishes next to the ice machine, sticky stuff on the floor in the elevator lobby, etc.). It was a good decision, because when I came back to the room late that afternoon (after the half-mile walk, up four flights of stairs, etc.), I found the door open. The room had been cleaned, and nothing appears to have been taken, but anyone could have walked in and taken anything they wanted.
Creepy abandoned lobby, creepy elevator, creepy staircases, and now creepy occurrences.
I've never complained to hotel management before, but I did a u-turn, closed the door behind me (and made sure it locked), climbed down the dirty stairs, hiked the half-mile back to the main lobby and found a manager to talk to. Actually, two of them together. They apologized profusely and gave me a coupon for a free breakfast buffet.
So, it was back to the room (somewhat mollified)... another half-mile hike and four flights of stairs. I knew breakfast would be guilt free because I was certainly getting my exercise.
At breakfast this morning, I watched a mouse running around the restaurant floor.
The dirty dishes still haven't been moved from next to the ice maker.
The schmoo is still on the floor in the elevator lobby.
Oh, and half the doors in the women's restrooms in the conference center don't lock.
One of the vendors at the conference was complaining she could get no hot water in her room.
This morning, I put the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on the door because, quite frankly, I don't trust the hotel staff not to, I don't know, blow up my room or something.
Tomorrow morning, it will be a long hike back to the lobby with all my heavy luggage... down four flights of dirty stairs; through the abandoned, creepy lobby; around small, unexpected turns; down long, endless hallways; but I'll be happy because it will be my last trip, and I'll be out of here.