Back to the Regularly Scheduled Programming
Well all, my dental woes are over and I have returned from vacation. I will be back to posting regularly, because god knows how much ranting can revolve around the holiday season.
But before I get into all that I have a little rant about the hotel we stayed at during the trip. This wasn't a discount chain like a motel 8 type or a Holiday Inn. It was a chain hotel with a 4-5 star rating (depending on what source you go by) and since we have stayed at their hotels before when travelling we felt as if we could be reasonable assured at their quality and service. Well, we were only partially right. Their front desk staff was perfect, their bell hop incredibly friendly. And while the room was not as nice (by far) as other rooms we have stayed in with the same chain but in different cities it was nice and had 2 balconies instead of 1 because we scored a corner room.
However there were several things at this hotel that made us never want to stay there again.
1. Breakfast- Now I am 100% aware that there is a huge markup for anything at a hotel. Other properities in this chain charge between 13-15 bucks for a full buffet breakfast on weekdays and more on weekends. There was usually a nice array of options, carving stations, waffle makes, omlete chefs, etc. Not so at this property! Breakfast buffet was $25! Wow....60 bucks for breakfast for 2 every moring? Thats an awful lot. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if there was anything even remotely good at the buffet. However, there was no omlete station, waffle station, caving stations/meats of any kind. There was only runny eggs, potatoes, sandwhich fixings, bagels, oatmeal, cold cereal, bacon/sausage, and some fruit. For 25 bucks.... I have to wonder where the money is going...this isn't a champagne brunch.
Me and Mr. First Year compared the price of the buffet to every other meal we had (it was a running joke). When we ate at an Argentinian restuarant that featued a lunch buffet for 13 bucks which included a beer/glass of wine/softdrink a salad station with a million types of authentic salad, an appetizer station with all sorts of delicious dishes (almost tapas style), and a meet station which was a huge grill with any type of meat/stuffed meat/vegetable/etc known to man on it where someone carved you pieces you wanted. All unlimited. The name of that place was The Knife, if any of you are in Florida check it out :)
2. Service- Like I said the front desk, the bell hop, and the conceirge could not have been more helpful. However, the service in the higher end restuarant (they had one for lunch/dinner/breakfast service and another for a romantic dinner, business dinner etc) was absolutely horrific. It wasn't just us, looking around the half filled place people were looking for non-existent servers everywhere, sitting with their plated without silverware, waiting 30 minutes for a drink/to be greeted. We waited for 15 minutes and asked for a server, another 20 minutes later still no server in sight we ask again. Finally a sloppy looking person comes up, sighs, rolls his eyes and asks us what we want.
Listen, if you want to have a crappy restuarant thats fine. What we came for was what was promised in how you hold the place up. As a place one can have great service $50 main dishes of amazing food, and a good bottle of wine or two. We got so hungry after waiting 40 minutes for the waiter to bring our appetizers when we decided to leave, which was just as well because he didn't place our order because he forgot.
I hate to admit it, I did go whine to management, but it was just so irritating. We were staying in an area where it was now too late to find another dinner options. We ended up with room service.
So, my point is this. If you're going to hold yourself out as a nice hotel, with exceptional service, excellent food and charge the prices to reflect that....you need to stop acting like a super 8 motel.
Ahhh that feels good to get off my chest :)
First Year-
But before I get into all that I have a little rant about the hotel we stayed at during the trip. This wasn't a discount chain like a motel 8 type or a Holiday Inn. It was a chain hotel with a 4-5 star rating (depending on what source you go by) and since we have stayed at their hotels before when travelling we felt as if we could be reasonable assured at their quality and service. Well, we were only partially right. Their front desk staff was perfect, their bell hop incredibly friendly. And while the room was not as nice (by far) as other rooms we have stayed in with the same chain but in different cities it was nice and had 2 balconies instead of 1 because we scored a corner room.
However there were several things at this hotel that made us never want to stay there again.
1. Breakfast- Now I am 100% aware that there is a huge markup for anything at a hotel. Other properities in this chain charge between 13-15 bucks for a full buffet breakfast on weekdays and more on weekends. There was usually a nice array of options, carving stations, waffle makes, omlete chefs, etc. Not so at this property! Breakfast buffet was $25! Wow....60 bucks for breakfast for 2 every moring? Thats an awful lot. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if there was anything even remotely good at the buffet. However, there was no omlete station, waffle station, caving stations/meats of any kind. There was only runny eggs, potatoes, sandwhich fixings, bagels, oatmeal, cold cereal, bacon/sausage, and some fruit. For 25 bucks.... I have to wonder where the money is going...this isn't a champagne brunch.
Me and Mr. First Year compared the price of the buffet to every other meal we had (it was a running joke). When we ate at an Argentinian restuarant that featued a lunch buffet for 13 bucks which included a beer/glass of wine/softdrink a salad station with a million types of authentic salad, an appetizer station with all sorts of delicious dishes (almost tapas style), and a meet station which was a huge grill with any type of meat/stuffed meat/vegetable/etc known to man on it where someone carved you pieces you wanted. All unlimited. The name of that place was The Knife, if any of you are in Florida check it out :)
2. Service- Like I said the front desk, the bell hop, and the conceirge could not have been more helpful. However, the service in the higher end restuarant (they had one for lunch/dinner/breakfast service and another for a romantic dinner, business dinner etc) was absolutely horrific. It wasn't just us, looking around the half filled place people were looking for non-existent servers everywhere, sitting with their plated without silverware, waiting 30 minutes for a drink/to be greeted. We waited for 15 minutes and asked for a server, another 20 minutes later still no server in sight we ask again. Finally a sloppy looking person comes up, sighs, rolls his eyes and asks us what we want.
Listen, if you want to have a crappy restuarant thats fine. What we came for was what was promised in how you hold the place up. As a place one can have great service $50 main dishes of amazing food, and a good bottle of wine or two. We got so hungry after waiting 40 minutes for the waiter to bring our appetizers when we decided to leave, which was just as well because he didn't place our order because he forgot.
I hate to admit it, I did go whine to management, but it was just so irritating. We were staying in an area where it was now too late to find another dinner options. We ended up with room service.
So, my point is this. If you're going to hold yourself out as a nice hotel, with exceptional service, excellent food and charge the prices to reflect that....you need to stop acting like a super 8 motel.
Ahhh that feels good to get off my chest :)
First Year-
posted by First Year at 6:06 PM
2 Comments:
You complain a lot. Don't get me wrong, generally speaking I like your blog but I'd really love to see some more upbeat posts!
Why read if you don't like the style of the blogger? Oh.. and don't even think about my blog.. I am much bitchier than FY.
Good to see you back First Year!
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