TL;DR
1. There was a HORRIBLE noise that happened at all hours of the day (also sometimes early in the morning and late at night) that was so loud it felt like the floor and bed were shaking. We told the front desk twice and maintenance was apparently called, but no one ever came to investigate it during our 3-night stay
2. At check-in, we were given a room that was already occupied. The desk attendant ended up unlocking the door and walked in on them while they were sleeping because he thought the room was empty.
3. There was a serious towel shortage. When we arrived there were only 2 towels in the room, and when we ran out we had to beg the front desk multiple times to get clean ones. We could only get 2 at a time though like they were being rationed and almost didn't get towels at all on our last night.
4. The wi-fi was slower than the dial-up we had in the 90s. I also had to re-enter the password multiple times per day because it kept randomly kicking me off.
5. Covid-19 procedures were not being followed. Only 9 people were supposed to be allowed in the pool at a time, but every time we passed by there were at least 20. The room seemed clean enough, but the morning we left we saw the cleaning staff start cleaning empty rooms immediately after guests had checked out. According to Best Western's website, rooms are supposed to be left isolated for at least 24-48 hours. I was also concerned on our first night after the front desk didn't know which rooms were occupied. If you don't even know which rooms are empty, then how do you know if they've been that way for 24-48 hours or not?
6. The good: Our room itself was actually very comfortable. The beds/mattresses were soft without being worn down or saggy. They were perfect, and if it wasn't for the noise we would have slept comfortably the entire weekend. Also, everything in the room worked, which is a rare find these days.
Now, here is my wife's full review:
We stayed in room 217 from July 2nd-5th and had multiple problems that persisted the entire time we were there. When we arrived we were originally given room 218, but the keycard wouldn't work. The desk clerk said it was just a dead battery in the card reader and came to unlock the door for us with a key. However, the room was occupied and all of us were horrified to have walked in on someone who was trying to sleep! We were then sent to room 217 after being told that it was the last room available.
The next morning at 6:55 AM we were woken up by a mechanical sound that was so loud it actually shook the floor and the bed. It sounded like a combination of drilling and sawing, but it was constant from 6:55 AM till 11 AM. Finally, at 11 it stopped for about an hour, then started again around noon and continued off and on throughout the day until sometime after 5 PM. I had just assumed it was some kind of construction somewhere else in the building (I also thought the break between 11 and 12 was probably the workers taking a lunch break) but then the noise started again around 8:30 PM.
At this point, we realized it was definitely not construction and were concerned that it would continue throughout the night. My husband went down to the front desk and the desk clerk said he wasn't aware of anything that would cause a noise like that. He said it was probably a pipe or boiler in our building and left a message with maintenance to come to find out what it was. No one ever came, not even the next morning. Thankfully it did stop around 10:30 PM and we were able to go to sleep.
The next morning the noise started again around 9:30 AM and continued off and on throughout the day. Our best guess is that it probably was a boiler or water heater that was filling up as other guests were taking showers, and most guests had slept in since it was the weekend by this point. The noise started getting bad again around 9 PM so my husband reported it to the front desk a 2nd time. The clerk on duty that night said she thought it was the dryers since the laundry room was in the building near our room. Still, no one did anything to remedy the very disturbing noise we had experienced for 2 days now, and all other rooms were still occupied due to the holiday weekend.
This was very problematic for me since I have chronic health issues and am currently undergoing alternative treatments that make me feel extremely unwell. The only reason we were traveling at this time was that a close family member was getting married. My original plan was to rest in the hotel room the entire time so I would have enough energy to actually go to the wedding, and my husband would spend the weekend visiting his family and helping them prepare for the event. The noise in our room was so unbearable that I couldn't get any rest at all, and my husband spent quite a bit of time dealing with the front desk, apparently to no avail. I've since had a horrible flare up due to lack of rest and sleep, and am only just well enough to write this almost a week later.
On top of all this, we also had a hard time getting towels for our room. I kept the "do not disturb" sign on the door for the entirety of our stay since I didn't want anyone else entering our room during the COVID-19 pandemic, even to clean. However, almost every time my husband asked the front desk for towels he came back empty-handed. On our second day, the desk clerk did at least bring me one about 2 hours later, but on our last night, we were told there were no towels because everyone had been using them all day at the pool. No explanation was given as to why no one had attempted to wash towels again after they'd been used, just that there were no towels at all. Also, there was a sign posted that no more than 9 people should be in the pool at a time due to social distancing, but every time my husband drove through the parking lot he said there were at least 20. There shouldn't have even been that many people using towels at the pool in the first place.
I understand that it was a holiday weekend, but I just cannot fathom how a hotel with so few towels can even stay in business. The irony that we'd been tortured for 2 days by the sound of either the dryer or the boiler from the laundry room and couldn't get a single towel was just beyond belief. The desk clerk did eventually bring some towels to our room after my husband went back a 2nd time, but it's a little unclear where she got them. They smelled clean (not exactly fresh but still acceptable), and looked very ragged. We used them since we had no other choice but I would have preferred to feel a little safer during the pandemic.
I actually chose to stay here based on the cleaning standards I saw on Best Western's website and reviews I read on TripAdvisor, but in reality, we didn't feel safe at all once we arrived. After seeing what happened with the towels and the number of people not following the rules at the pool we lost confidence that any advertised procedures were actually being followed. My husband also said he saw rooms being cleaned as soon as people were checking out on the morning we left. It was our understanding that rooms would be left isolated for 24-48 hours between guests, but he said that was not the case according to what he saw that morning.
Clearly we are very disappointed and somewhat upset by our experience last week. I don't know if the staff just didn't understand what we were saying about how bad the noise was but it felt like we weren't taken seriously. That being said, the room itself was actually very comfortable. The beds/mattresses were soft without being worn down or saggy. They were perfect, and if it wasn't for the noise we would have slept comfortably the entire weekend. Also, everything in the room worked, which is a rare find these days. On second thought, the in-room phone actually had an issue with the receiver but it was no big deal. I didn't want to touch it anyway due to the pandemic, and the lobby wasn't really that far away.
My only real complaint with the room amenities was the wi-fi. It was slower than the dial-up we had in the 90s. Sometimes it would take 3-5 minutes just to load Gmail. I also had to re-enter the password multiple times per day because it kept randomly kicking me off. Since I was spending so much time in the room I actually had set up my laptop on the desk and left it on the whole weekend. If I left it alone for even a few minutes I would get kicked off and have to re-enter the password again. It was such a hassle I ended up just using my phone. less