Possibly clean room, deceptive bed descriptions, no cover precautions.
The good parts-plenty of parking, even for oversized vehicles and trailers, room appeared clean. The bad parts are a whole lot longer.
I booked a "two queen bed" room by phone, and the man taking the... more
The good parts-plenty of parking, even for oversized vehicles and trailers, room appeared clean. The bad parts are a whole lot longer.
I booked a "two queen bed" room by phone, and the man taking the reservation from the front desk said he had 11 available. We were well moved in with a lot of stuff before we looked at the beds and they were clearly not queen beds, but only full size. It matters and it's deceptive. When I went to the desk and asked why we were given full size instead of queen the woman at the desk insisted they were queen size. Nope. We measured. A full is 53″ x 75″ which is what these beds were, and a queen bed is 60″ x 80″. She actually came across a little arrogant about it, which I will get in to. I chose the hotel to get queen beds and frankly a full size is like camping. I have a king at home and the queen size is already roughing it, so we of course got a bad night sleep.
When we walked in the door the man at the front desk had a mask on. Under his chin. Where it stayed. I was masked, there are postings on the door that the staff will be masked and that the guests need to be masked, as well as postings from the Iowa board of health. I made a couple trips in with stuff and saw him check in other guests and walk around the building and the mask never traveled north of the under side of his jaw. He remarked that he was going to check the side door that was supposed to be locked but is always propped open. He was right-I only found it locked once and propped open at least 20 times in the 16 hours or so we were there. The trash can next to the door was packed with beer cans and had a half a birthday cake balanced on top when we left later the next morning and guests were partying in the parking lot well into the night. They at least made a passing effort to social distance out there, however almost no guests in the hotel were masked and the staff never said anything. Packs of 8 to 10 kids at a time ran full speed down the halls, unmasked and leaving everything wet. The man working the desk saw it, did nothing. The pool was filled with kids the whole time. Contact tracers will have a field day with this place.
I am an early riser and about 0530 I went out for coffee and the woman mopping was unmasked. I saw her a few times that morning and she was masked once. She was the employee of the stay, the only one to ever have a mask on. The woman who took over for her for the day shift (who thinks she knows bed sizes) had her mask on her chin every time I saw her. She even went up and close talked a woman washing her hands who was masked, in an otherwise empty coffee area. I cannot imagine why. I saw her talking to a male who appeared to be housekeeping staff who also kept a pristine mask on and below his chin the whole time. This is why I doubt the rooms were truly Covid clean, just whatever they regularly did. The grab and go breakfast was packed by hand by the person at the desk as you peered over the desk and asked for each thing. Get some tongs or gloves. At least act like you care. I would never return here since they clearly could care less about their guests. The "full beds are queen beds" thing was encountered at another hotel on our trip and may be a deceptive way to draw business by some hotels and it is fraudulent and deceptive. less
Artur Golebiewski, General Manager at Best Western Plus Des Moines West Inn & Suites, responded to this review
Dear Eric thank you for your review, since you are clearly a bed expert I will refrain from convincing you about the size of our beds. Apparently I bought the wrong beds 20 years ago and all the thousands of guest did not know a queen from a full bed all this time. Just check all the reviews how they constantly mention this. If you are convinced you slept in a full bed then so be it.
I am touched how thoughtful you are about the safety of my staff and guests. We do wear masks and post signs for our guests to do likewise but out of respect for them we do not deny them service if they do not wear one. If that was the case only such meticulous and diligent travelers such as yourselves would travel and we would have closed doors long time ago for lack of business...even if we did have the correct size beds. I am sorry we did not measure up to your standards of pandemic preparedness but keep in mind that hotels are attended by people with varying degrees and attitudes towards the pandemic and we need to respect their just like we respect your choices. We can gently remind with signage and at check in but will not hound guests that do not wear masks. There are plenty of willing guests that do that for us.