I had decided to just see how far I got for the night and not make a reservation anywhere. I ended up in Ontario, and Best Western had the best rate for a decently rated hotel in the area. I showed up and asked what the rate for a room was, and was given a rate 34% higher. So, I asked if she would honor the online rate, and was told I had to book it online to get that rate. I commented that this was a pretty poor policy, and poor customer service, and that seemed to cause her to absolutely flip out on me. She told me I didn't know how hotels worked, that I didn't know how to make a reservation, that they were now mysteriously full and I couldn't have a room, and she stormed off. I made the reservation online because, well, come on. I had to ring the bell to make her come back (honestly, I hate doing that and try to be as nice as possible to anyone working in customer service). She did, and acted like nothing happened. I asked why she was being rude to me before, and she flipped out on me again, told me she was going to call the police, and again that they were full. I said I had a non-refundable reservation at that point, and she told me I didn't. I did. I did want the price, I didn't want to go anywhere else, and just wanted a place to stay, so I decided to apologize to her (I had to make something up, because I have no idea what I would possibly apologize for - she never seemed to consider apologizing to me). It took me several minutes of asking her to just listen to me for a second before I could even start an apology. Throughout all of this, she didn't have any interest in listening to a word I had to say.
For whatever reason, she "upgraded" my room. Maybe this was her way of apologizing without saying it, but I think it was more that she had the room keys for these two rooms - one a suite with a jetted tub, and the other a regular room with a jacuzzi - just ready to go. I told her I didn't want an upgrade, but she forced me into the suite. Fine. After all that, though, the room hadn't even been cleaned. It looked like maybe the bed was made, but there were piles of garbage in the kitchen area, bathroom, and living area. I went back up front, and she told me she would have to go check the room before she would give me another one. Whatever.
I was put in the jacuzzi room. The jacuzzi didn't work right. The bed was terrible. The room was loud next to a main entrance. I turned the heat down to 64 and it still never turned off, so I had to turn off the unit completely and ended up cold in the morning. The shower wouldn't drain until I removed the plug completely, and it was low-pressure. They were too cheap to offer individual bottles of shampoo & conditioner, and the conditioner dispenser in the shower didn't work. The woman from the night before was very insistent that I would get an invoice under the door and I could just leave the keys in the room - that didn't happen. The breakfast room was tiny and the woman working it didn't seem to care we were all shoved in there - she was just pushing her way in front of everyone to do her work. I had to go back to my room to eat because there were maybe four tables and they needed maybe twelve just for who was there. Remember that this hotel was clearly nowhere near full, too.
There really wasn't anything good to say about this place. I responded to the survey Best Western always sends, and of course I just got the generic form letter from the manager. It seems the issues with this hotel come from the top. less