So recently I went on a trip to New Mexico for work. You know, the normal ’spend a week in a good hotel’ type week.
I have never before stayed in a La Quinta Inn (for work) and was a little skeptical, but figured it might be a good place to stay. Boy was I wrong!!
Well, first things first, I landed at the NM Airport, rented my car and headed up toward the hotel. Because I hadn’t been there before, I had the rental car agent help me with directions. I do this regularly and usually it provides a direct, albeit sometimes interesting, ride to the hotel. This ride was a little different, in that it wasn’t direct, but it sure was interesting, in a downright slum kind of way. That’s right, my directions took me directly through the slum of downtown Albuquerque, and sadly, my hotel was right in the middle of the ghetto!!
Strike 1, I thought to myself, scary area.
After I arrived at the hotel, I walked in and checked in with the clerk. I received my key, hmm, interesting I thought, a bit out of date, but it’ll do.
Checking in went well, and I was directed to my room at the rear of the hotel. As I walked up to my room, I came upon this:
Nice! Did someone feel ill one evening? And if so, didn’t the housekeeping staff notice the stain? What’s the deal?
Strike 2, Unkempt hallway at the hotel.
So I got into my room, and sure it was okay. It smelled a bit of smoke and disinfectant spray, the A/C sort of worked and the internet worked okay as well, so La Quinta won there. But with my room, I am not yet done. Here’s my bathroom:
Soon after getting into my room, I got ready to settle in for the evening, and as is customary (when I don’t have a fridge in the room) I headed down to get some ice to keep some drinks cool overnight. When I returned, I realized I had forgotten my key, and so I headed back to the front desk to get another key, which as I found out, they didn’t have. Instead, they had a master key, which of course, they wouldn’t lend me because I wasn’t staff, so I waited patiently while the very flamboyant desk clerk finished his conversation with his boyfriend (actually the conversation was with a hotel “guest”), and then we returned to my room.
He, however, when we arrived, we did not need the key after all. As I realized it later, I had not slammed my door. This was apparently required to shut the doors properly, and since I had not done this, the clerk pushed gently on my door and it opened. One strike for me for not checking first, one strike (3 for those who are keeping score at home) for La Quinta for not telling me to slam the door if I wanted it secured properly.
On day two, it wasn’t any better. I thought it would be nice to go down for a swim at the “pool”. I headed down to see what the hours where and I was confronted with a sign that said “Closed, waiting for state inspection”. Wow, I said, this gets better and better. After investigating a little further, I took this picture of the pool: (Strike 4!)
And on day three, I headed down to get some ice. Look what I found. Yappy dogs. Don’t get me wrong, I am not an animal hater, but what kind of ‘hotel’ (and I use that very loosely) lets people keep their dogs in cages outside their room. (I forgot how many strikes I am at!)
Oh, and it grew!! Nasty, nasty stain!!!
You decide!! Am I a hotel snob?
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