Back in July, I had the opportunity to visit Pittsburgh for 2 nights due to a business event I needed to attend. It was my first experience seeing Pittsburgh, and this is one city that doesn’t get enough credit! My friend Marisa was nice enough to pick me up at the airport, and we cruised through the rolling hills outside town, past the Ikea where I’ve shopped with Sindy and into the tunnel. Coming out of the tunnel, you’ve got a beautiful view of the rivers and downtown, and bridges as far as the eye can see. Someone described this to me as “Pittsburgh’s front door” and I agree!

Price: I paid $200 a night for this hotel. Actually, my company paid. Based on the location of my event and not having my own car, I needed to be able to walk to PNC Park, and this hotel fit the bill.

Location: Marisa quickly navigated through town and we drove over the Sixth Street Bridge to the North Shore area, where we quickly located the Springhill Suites North Shore and checked in. The hotel is located on a lovely quiet street just north of PNC Park - literally, a block away. While there are bars and restaurants and pubs on the street, there wasn’t much traffic and it was a quiet area.

Cleanliness: Everything was new, or looked new, from the carpet to the wallpaper to the furniture. The room was very clean, as were the common areas.

Staff: The staff was quick to check me in and helpful upon check out. Other than that, I didn’t interact with them too often.

Amenities: The hotel has an indoor pool and hot tub which I didn’t take advantage of, as well as a free continental breakfast. The hotel is also connected to a restaurant, which made for each access for dinner each night.

Comfort: I checked in and found my room to be larger than a standard room, due to being next to the elevators. Apparently rooms on either side of the elevator shaft end up with some extra square footage, and I had a great view of the city. The room featured a small living room with wet bar and desk, a large soaking tub, an even larger bathroom with a regular tub and shower, and huge, plush king bed. One of the reasons I love chains like this is that you won’t find low thread count sheets and those nasty polyester bedspreads. The sheets, pillow, and crisp white duvet were amazing.

Here’s a picture of that nice big kind sized bed:

And the soaking tub:

The living room and work space, as seen from the bedroom area:

A view from the door into the suite:

My very own jacuzzi:

Overall rank: On a scale of 1 to 10, the SpringHill Suites Pittsburgh North Shore receives a 10!

After visiting Montreal this summer, my son has decided that our next big family vacation should be to Paris. Apparently he was quite taken with the language and the croissants. I’m all for another trip to Paris - Jim and I went in 1995 together, and it was just a quick 3 night stay. I was 5 months pregnant and miserable in the heat and humidity, so I’d like to take another trip back where we can take our time and enjoy the city a bit more.

Having been to the city one, I know exactly where I’d like to stay, should we return, and it’s a charming area down a side street, within walking distance from the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. You can find reasonable priced Paris hotels if you’re willing to make a few small concessions, like perhaps going without air conditioning, or an elevator, or sharing a bathroom with other travelers. (Our room had a/c, but it died during our stay!) Otherwise, you’ll probably find that hotels with larger rooms and more amenities run closer to $150 - $200 USD. It’s an expensive city to eat in as well, so plan accordingly - when you see a small grocery store near your hotel, buy food for lunch and breakfast there. Dinner can easily run $100 USD a night!

The listings at HotelClub.com offer a range of hotels in Paris, from the budget to the high end. Each offers reviews from other travelers, so you can see for yourself what the pros and cons of each location and hotel offer. Landmarks are listed with each hotel, so it’s easy to determine where your hotel is for easy access to sightseeing.

My husband dreams of going to Spain someday, so that he can participate in the running of the bulls. Me, I just dream of going to Spain. I have no intention of showing how out of shape I am by letting myself get gored by a bull! I prefer my vacations to be injury free. Should you be level headed traveler, like myself, you’re probably less interested in the running of the bulls, and more interested in seeing the sights and history of Spain, especially it’s capital city - Madrid. This is one place in Europe where you won’t find a bevy of bilingual residents, so it’s a good idea to learn a few simple Spanish phrases before you go, or purchase an English to Spanish dictionary to carry along with you.

Madrid has a long history, both religious and royal, and no trip is complete without stops at two important destinations. The first is the Royal Palace, which is a the largest in Europe, and the second is the Catedral de la Almudena, located across the street from the palace. You can easily find Madrid hotels located with walking distance of major attractions on HotelClub.com, and the site offers both cheap hotels for the budget traveler, and 5 star hotels going for as much as 419 Euros per night.

We had a bunch of my husband’s buddies over this weekend, and of course, the talk turned to their next “guy trip”. They’re thinking, Costa Rica. I’m thinking, with what money? HA! I’d be al for it if I were going too! These are the same guys my husband went to Amsterdam with back in 1999. They flew into Amsterdam, spent a few days seeing the sites, and then bought rail passes to travel through the rest of Europe. Nice, huh? Of course these guys did a lot of sleeping in train stations and hostels. They’re not exactly the type who would use an Amsterdam hotel guide to plan out anything in advance. Me? I’m exactly that type. When I plan my next trip to London, I also plan on pouring over a London hotel guide for several weeks before making my hotel selection. Where you stay, as far as location, is VERY important to me. I’ll stay at a hotel with fewer amenities, or pay a little more, simply for having a great location. The last time we visited London, we stayed in a great hotel down a side street, which happened to end at Buckingham Palace. Talk about a fabulous location! Quiet, but literally close to EVERYTHING. It was called Buckingham Palace Road for heavens sake, and in a lovely area called Westminster.

Maybe my next trip won’t be to London. No worries - there’s a Europe hotels guide to give me information on any city I could hope to ever visit!

This is a sponsored review.

If you’ve searched all of the big travel sites, like Travelocity, Expedia, Cheap Tickets - and you’re just NOT finding what you require, there are plenty of other sites that offer rates for smaller chains and privately owned hotels that usually aren’t listed on the larger travel sites. You’ll pay a small booking fee ($5.99) for using LodgingHunt.com to reserve your room, but you might just find a smaller hotel that is more affordable than a large chain.

For example, the Arizona lodging on their site lists small motels in Lake Havasu for just $50 a night, or lodges just a mile from the rim of the Grand Canyon. Their Illinois lodging offers motels and hotels in Chicago and every small town you can think of! Or how about Nevada lodging? Not only will you find the big hotels of Las Vegas that go for several hundreds of dollars per night, but I also found older hotels on the strip for just $39 - now that’s how to see Las Vegas on a budget! (I always heard about people finding rooms that cheap, but I’ve never seen those hotels on the big travel websites. They’re not for everyone, but they’re definitely affordable!)

This is a sponsored review.

I absolutely love London. I’ve been there twice (with my mom in 1995, and again with my mom and husband-to-be in 1996) and found it to be delightful both times. It’s rich in history, which I so appreciate, and a very hip, fun city to visit. We enjoyed seeing the Tower of London, and a play in the theater district, and touring Buckingham Castle. Something that wasn’t there when I visited is the London Eye - you may know it as the big ferris wheel. The London Eye gives you a birds eye view of all the city has to offer, and on clear days, you can see as far as Windsor Castle, located 25 miles away. (Been there, toured that!) The eye is 135 meters high, and overlooks the banks of the Thames River, which I’ve enjoyed a river cruise on. Over 3.5 million people visit the London Eye each year, and should you wish to see it, you can easily find a London hotel within close proximity to the eye. Did you know, you can even get MARRIED on the London Eye? It’s true! Wouldn’t that be something to tell the grandkids?

The last stop on our vacation in Canada was Niagara Falls, where we stayed at the Hilton Fallsview on the Canadian side. This was, by far, the nicest hotel we stayed at during our trip to Canada. We stayed for 2 nights, from June 25th through June 26th. The hotel is located at 6361 Fallsview Boulevard in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Having never been to Niagara Falls, we had no idea what to expect. The picture on the hotel website is a *bit* misleading, as it shows nothing but trees between the hotel and the falls. While I’m sure that would be lovely, it’s not true. There are several other buildings, including a hotel, between the Hilton Fallsview and the falls. That said, we still had a fantastic view from our room of the falls. Considering the view on half of the hotel was a run down motel and a parking lot, I’d say we lucked out.

But alas - I’m getting ahead of myself!

Price: This was the best deal of our stay. We got our rooms for around $120 per night, and considering that this was quite possibly THE nicest hotel in Niagara Falls, I was quite pleased with what we paid for our stay. The price also included the breakfast buffet, which was in the hotel restaurant on one of the highest floors.

Location: You can’t beat the location of the Hilton Niagara Fallsview. If you like to gamble, you can cross through the covered walkway from the hotel to the casino across the street, without even leaving the comfort of air conditioning. The Skylon Tower and IMAX are just a block away. There is a park just 2 blocks down the hill where you can view the falls, and the dining / entertainment district is just a few blocks past that. There is plenty of dining to walk to as well.

Cleanliness: Our hotel room did smell like cigarette smoke when we checked in. We complained immediately to the front desk and asked for another room but they said they were full and couldn’t accommodate us. Considering it was only 4pm, I was more than surprised that EVERY single guest had already checked in, causing the hotel to be out of rooms. Instead, the front desk sent up a maid to spray the room with Febreeze. It helped, temporarily, but each time we entered the room we were hit with the stink. I realize this isn’t the fault of the hotel entirely, since it was a non smoking hotel, but I sure wish they had given us another room.

Other than that, the room was perfect. Beautiful bedding, clean, high end fixtures - everything was perfect. The public areas were beautifully maintained and had a rich, luxurious feeling.

Staff: See above comments about the smoky room. Also, when we checked in, at 4pm, we were told our rooms weren’t ready yet and to come back. WHAT? I hate that. The concierge desk was fabulous and a big help in booking our tours and filling us in on what Niagara had to offer.

Amenities: We specifically picked this resort because of the fabulous pool complex. We knew after 1 1/2 weeks on vacation, the kids would appreciate some down time in a great pool. And it was GREAT! There’s a huge waterfall, and an even bigger slide, plenty of seating, and the kids had a blast.

We also took advantage of the free breakfast. If you paid for the buffet, it was $10 per adult, and it is NOT worth it. For free, it was acceptable. It was a pretty lean buffet, and didn’t even have a make your own waffle machine, just some pre-made waffles out under the heat lamps. The restaurant is located on one of the highest floors of the hotel, and affords a wonderful view though. I would have liked to have had dinner there with Jim if we had more time.

The hotel also offers a free shuttle to the entertainment area, should you not wish to walk there. We took it over a few times, but ended up getting a cab back the first night since we grew tired of waiting for the shuttle.

Comfort: Cold a/c, nice sheets and a duvet - this camper was quite please!

Overall rank: On a scale of 1 to 10, the Hilton Fallsview receives a 9.

Around the same time I submitted a complaint about our stay at the Doubletree in Montreal, I submitted a complaint about our stay at the Best Western in Toronto. A manager from the Best Western called me last week to inquire about the issues we experienced, and said that the hotel is NOT completely renovated. No, really? Gosh, I wouldn’t have guessed that from the cracked and dirty tiles in our bathroom. I pointed out that the corporate website states:

This Best Western hotel features renovated guest rooms and suites with all the right amenities including high-speed Internet access and cable television.

If you read that, would you take it to mean some of the rooms were renovated? Or that ALL of the rooms were renovated? We took it to mean all.

He got a little flustered at that point and said he’d check into it and call me back.

It pays to bitch! (And by “bitch”, I mean write a well thought out letter of complaint that is not overly emotional, but details what you found to be unacceptable.)

If you’re not happy with a hotel stay, and the manager doesn’t do anything to help you, always follow up with the corporate office. I submitted a letter of complaint to Hilton.com last week about our stay at the Doubletree in Montreal. I received an email this morning stating that I would receive a credit on my charge card for one night of our stay. I’m quite pleased!

In a few short months, I’ll be whooping it up in Vegas. I’ll be there for a big blogging conference and a little bit of R&R and gambling and I’m sure I’ll be doing some shopping in Las Vegas, too! We haven’t even looked at hotels yet, but I want to stay somewhere nice, right on the strip. When I read about the pool complex at the MGM Grand - sold. 5 pools, 3 whirlpools, a lazy river, fountains, and waterfalls. That’s my kind of resort! The kids won’t be coming on this trip either, so I’ll have plenty of time to chill by the pool without playing referee.

Our second stop on our Canadian vacation was Montreal. We left Toronto and made the drive east towards the city, arriving in the late afternoon. We stayed for 3 nights, beginning Friday June 22nd, at the Doubletree by Hilton Montreal Centre-Ville, located at 505 Sherbrooke Street East in Montreal.

Price: After comparing prices on the major travel websites, I booked the room directly through the Doubletree website, paying $125USD per night, for 2 rooms. The rooms at this hotel were not suites, but the hotel did offer free breakfast and a coin laundry, which we felt was a good trade off for not having a microwave and fridge in the room. We received a small discount off the regular room rate by selecting the “Get Going Canada” rate.

Location: While the hotel wasn’t located right downtown, in the middle of the hustle and bustle, the location was excellent. Two metro stops away from the center of Montreal, and the metro station was under our hotel! It was nice being on a quiet street, filled with residences and offices. My only complaint about the location is that there wasn’t much to eat in the immediate area. It was perhaps a 10 minute walk away, but not bad.

Cleanliness: This hotel was perfect. Beautiful lobby, clean corridors (with fresh paint, even!) and perfect rooms. I let out a huge sigh of relief when we entered our room and saw that everything in it, from the bedding to the furniture was in pristine condition.

Staff: Here’s where I have mixed feelings. Some of the staff was helpful, others…well, they were clueless. The hotel website stated there was a coin laundry, so my husband inquired about it, only to be told it was 5 blocks away! I looked at the website again and verified it said coin laundry on site, and called the front desk again to inquire. The first person I talked to claimed there wasn’t one, then the manager said there WAS one, but they weren’t sure where it was - perhaps the 2nd or 3rd floor? (How exactly does one manage a hotel without knowing where the coin laundry is?) When I had an issue with the laundry (see below) their response was apathetic.

Amenities: The pool was inside but large, and heated. The kids enjoyed it quite a bit. We had fantastic views of the city from our room as well. After searching the 2nd and 3rd floor for the coin laundry, I went back to the front desk to inquire where exactly it was - keep in mind I was dragging a bag containing dirty laundry and detergent. One of the staff finally left the desk to walk me upstairs, where we found the laundry on the 4th floor. I put in clothing, and put in soap, and put in coins…and discovered it was BROKEN! Thoroughly infuriated by now, I trudged back downstairs and complained that now I had dirty, soapy clothes. Their response was that they would let me know when the machine was fixed. Grrr!

The hotel also boasted free breakfast, but the first person we asked about it said they would have to check our “room plan” to see if we were eligible. Again, I verified on the website that continental breakfast was offered to all guest, and complained, and magically our breakfast passes appeared.

Comfort: Doubletree excels when it comes to comfort. The bedding and mattress we slept on were FABULOUS. However, the a/c didn’t work right in our room for the duration our stay. Despite multiple complaints, the manager’s only solution was to provide a single fan for our room.

Overall rank: On a scale of 1 to 10, the Doubletree by Hilton Montreal Centre-Ville receives a 7. It could be much higher, had the staff not been quite so inept.

I’m currently working on my review of the Doubletree we stayed at in Montreal, and when I’m finished with the review, I’ll be publishing it here AND printing 2 copies to mail. One will go to the corporate offices of Doubletree, and the other will be sent to hotel management. No, we were not happy with our room, and yes, I am the type to complain in writing

I figure that the worst thing that can happen is they won’t do a thing. The best case scenario would be a credit for part of our stay, our a credit towards a future stay.

Why can’t I go somewhere really fantastic on a business trip? I went to Pittsburgh last week, and my next trips will be to Dallas, and possibly Boston. We’ve got an office in Australia - why can’t they send me there? Coincidentally, after I posted about wishing I could go down under someday, a coworker of mine mentioned that someone in our division IS being sent there. Sweet! Today I’m continuing my short series on Asia hotels and Australia hotels by filling you in on a town called Cairns. This town is considered to be the gateway to north Queensland, and if you plan on visiting the Great Barrier Reef, you’ll have to go through Cairns to get there. The city is lovely, with part of the city being located on Trinity Bay, and beautiful mountains around the rest of town, and the proximity to the reef (only an hour away) makes this city the 4th visited town in Australia. Should you need to locate hotels in Cairns, never fear - you can do so easily online, with the rating and price noted right on the main page, as well as easy access to information on the city, what to see and what to do while you’re there.

I just got sidetracked looking at Australia information online, and spent a good 15 minutes looking at the Google satellite of the country. I’m a geek for maps! And the level of detail shown on the Google satellite images is amazing. I scrolled all over the Southern hemisphere, and even found Vanuata, where Survivor was filmed. Neat!

I’m not sure that I’ll ever make it to that side of the world. Looking at it on the map makes it seem so far away. Should it ever happen though, Asia hotels has a ton of selection, from hotels in Brisbane to Malaysia. There are a lot of beautiful beach resorts in that area with options for high end accomodations or something to meet the budget traveler’s needs. What I like best about this site is the last minute deals section - for those of you with the freedom to plan a trip on the spur of the moment, you can save a lot of money by snagging a last minute deal. Don’t waste your time by typing “hotels Australia” into Google and weeding through results - just go to AsiaHotels.com!

This is a sponsored review.

I’ve got a list of countries I’d like to see someday, and Australia is on the top of my list. I heard about it from my brother, who lived there for a time, and I’ve see plenty of episodes of Crocodile Hunter, and ALL of the Crocodile Dundee movies, too. I know that the country is a relatively big place, with landscapes ranging from monoliths to coral reefs, desert and rain forests. In order to ever see it all, you’d need a few weeks, at least! A long trip like that, combined with the expensive airfare required to get there, means cheap hotels are a MUST!

Enter HotelClub.com and their cheap Australia hotels! I checked out the offerings in Sydney, which is where I’d start my trip, if I ever took it. Like any big city, you’ve got a lot of options when it comes to Sydney hotels. There are small lodges which are styled after B and B’s, lovely hotels overlooking Sydney Harbour, and skyscrapers in Sydney’s central business district. When you visit the site, you’ve got instant access to a list of hotels in Sydney, which also displays the location, star rating and price for each hotel. It makes it very easy to weed out locations and narrow down your choices. You’ll also find a list of recommended hotels, a forum for Sydney, and information on the city.

This is a sponsored review.

This will hopefully be the first of many hotel reviews, and since I plan to do this more than once, I’m attempting to adopt a format that I can use for all future hotel reviews. I’ll be using the following criteria to give each hotel a ranking, on a scale of 1 to 10:

• Price
• Location
• Cleanliness
• Staff
• Amenities
• Comfort

Our first stop during our trip to Canada was in Toronto, and our home away from home for 3 nights was the Best Western Primrose, located at 111 Carlton Street, in downtown Toronto. We arrived on Tuesday, June 19th and checked out on Friday, June 22nd.

Price: We paid approximately $115 a night for our room with 2 double beds, and a street view. My mother paid $20 more per night, because she requested a room with a microwave and fridge. Upon checking in, my husband and I were also given a room with a microwave and fridge, and we weren’t charged any additional money for the upgrade. Overall, the price isn’t bad for a downtown hotel, but other factors, like cleanliness will, and DID affect how we viewed the price. Read on!

Location: We couldn’t have asked for a better location. For those of you who don’t know Toronto, Yonge Street is considered to be the backbone of the city. Walk north on Yonge Street and you’ll hit shopping and Bloor Street. Walk south and you’ll come to Eaton Center and the Hockey Hall of Fame. Our hotel was on Carlton Street, just about 3 blocks off Yonge - it was a very do-able walk, and if we didn’t want to walk, there was a metro station at the intersection of Carlton and Yonge we could go to. The hotel was in the so called “gay district”, and had 2 gay clubs within a block away, but we’re not offended by alternative lifestyles. I only mention it in case some are. The neighborhood felt safe, and there was a park (Allen Gardens)across the street where my husband jogged and took the kids to play. The old Maple Leaf Gardens was across the street, too.

Cleanliness: This is an older hotel, and it shows. While the lobby has been renovated at some point, the guest rooms we stayed in on the 6th floor had not been. The carpet was older, but in good shape, the bedding was a typical polyester hotel spread, and the bathroom…well, the bathroom had seen better days. While our room was clean enough, the bathroom had some mold issues in the shower grout, and the tile and grout was cracked and bulging away from the walls in some places. It was an unattractive bathroom, to say the least, and mold grosses me out.

Staff: Some of the staff was extremely friendly, like the concierge who booked our tour for us. Others…well, they could take us or leave us, and vice versa. For instance, a parking spot wasn’t available when we checked in, so we were told to use one of the public pay lots in the area. That’s ok - it’s just the manner in which this information was conveyed to us could have been a bit warmer and friendlier. We never saw our maid, but the room was done each day when we returned, and that’s all that matters to me.

Amenities: Where to begin? The pool is located on the 3rd floor, and gives you a nice view of the city. While the pool was large, the area around it for seating was extremely small - perhaps 4 feet on all sides. It was older looking too, and there was no slide. The kids enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a place to hang out for hours on end catching the rays. (Fine for the purposes of our trip!) You can see from the picture below that the area around the pool is just big enough for chairs and for one person to pass by:

While there was a restaurant in the hotel, there wasn’t any type of free breakfast offered. Thankfully, there was also a Tim Horton’s attached to the hotel, so we were able to find cheap eats each morning. While I’m on the subject of amenities, the hotel DID offer free wireless internet. The issue for me however, was that there was no outlet at the desk in the room. The only extra outlet was behind the bed, which mean moving the laptop to the nightstand between the beds to be charged. A small pain in the rear, but the free internet was nice.

Comfort: What bothers me the most about this hotel is that on the hotel website, it states:

Our newly renovated rooms offer all the conveniences of a luxury hotel, coupled with the conveniences of home.

Obviously, neither of the rooms we had for our group had been renovated, ever.

I also found this tidbit on the website:

Duvets with a 250 thread count are the standard at the Best Western Primrose

The picture of the guest rooms on the main page of the hotel website shows this image:

Lovely, isn’t it? Too bad our room looked nothing like it. I would have been quite pleased if it had. There’s nothing like a comfy bed with cushy white sheets and a duvet! However, our room looked like this picture found a bit deeper in on the website:

Those bedspreads leave a lot to be desired. And while I’m on the subject of comfort, the beds were not. The sheets were ill fitting, the pillows were lumpy, and the blankets were older and wash worn. The towels in the bathroom had seen better days as well. We “borrowed” more towels from the pool area so that’d we would have extra, but didn’t ever need them. I didn’t complain about the bedding issue while we were there, simply because I never saw the areas of the website I’ve referenced above. I certainly would have loved to have the duvets they feature and the renovated rooms mentioned!

I’m not really sure where to put the elevators, but they’re worth mentioning. It’s funny that in a city that has the CN Tower, with elevators speeding upwards at the speed of car, we stayed in a hotel with the slowest elevators I’ve EVER experienced. It became the joke during our 3 day stay. It wasn’t uncommon to wait for 5 minutes for one of the 4 elevators to come to our floor, or to the lobby.

The hair dryer also broke in our room after the first day. I was lucky that I always pack my own, and didn’t need it, but it just drove home the age of the hotel and the real need for updated rooms.

Overall rank: On a scale of 1 to 10, the Best Western Primrose in Toronto receives a 6. Had we stayed in a renovated room, I could see that rating going up, but sadly, we did not. The location was excellent, but I wouldn’t chose those hotel again if I were to go to Toronto, because there are simply so many other choices in the area. The bedding and bathroom were a big turn off for me, and the location and free internet access can’t make up for the run down feeling that our room had. As one traveler stated on Travelocity, if you’re looking for pampering and a high class feeling, this is not the hotel for you.

I hate it when you enter a non smoking hotel room, in a NON smoking hotel, and some idiot who stayed in the room before you decided to smoke in it. Not cool. On top of that, the hotel is fully booked, and they couldn’t switch us to another room. (Seriously - at 5pm in the afternoon? You have not a SINGLE room that you haven’t given out yet? Right.)

We’ve had the maid up to Febreze the room, but I just came in from the pool and it stinks.

Looks can be deceiving.

I say that, having typed on my other blog this afternoon that our hotel here in Montreal was stunning. And it is, visually. As far as the amenities and staff - I’m unimpressed.

For starters, when we were looking online, weeks ago, for a hotel in Montreal, we specifically chose THIS hotel because it had several things we not only needed, but wanted. In the needs columns:

• Free breakfast (eating out gets to be expensive each morning)
• Coin laundry in the hotel (we knew bringing enough clothing to last the whole 9 days would be too much, so we packed enough to get us halfway through)

In the wants columns:

• Close to downtown, or in downtown
• A pool for the kids

When we checked in, my husband asked the front desk about the coin laundry, and was told there wasn’t one, but that we could walk 5 blocks to one. He was also told there was a breakfast, but it wasn’t free. Hmm…that didn’t sound right, but we needed to eat and laundry and food for the morning wasn’t the priority right then and there. We set the a/c in our room to frigid and left to find some grub. When we returned, the a/c wasn’t really blowing, and it was downright warm in our room. It was almost 11pm, so I called the front desk and asked about 3 things - the a/c, the laundry, and the breakfast.

The front desk clerk told me he would send someone up within 10 minutes to check the a/c, and that our ‘package’ didn’t include breakfast, and that the coin laundry was on either floor 2, or floor 3. The problem with that is that the website says, “FREE BREAKFAST” without a mention of a package. The other problem? I searched floors 2 and 3 and found no laundry. I went to the front desk and complained in person. I was told that we could get free breakfast after all (squeaky wheel?) and that the laundry was on the 4th floor. (How does the hotel staff NOT know where the coin laundry is?

So I go BACK upstairs to my room, get the laundry, the soap, and go to the 4th floor. Dump in the soap, clothing, and put in the money - nothing. Wait, do a dance, sing a song - still nothing. Go back down to 1st floor, and now I am irritated, as you can only imagine. Their solution? Check into it tomorrow and reimburse me the $2.

Again, I’m not impressed with that.

So I go back to the 4th floor, stuff clothes back into bags, and head to my room, where I rinse soap off my jeans. You can BET that the hotel chain is getting a letter from me once our stay is over. Not only were both of the machines for laundry not working, but one wasn’t marked, so I’m stuck with soapy clothes and a trip to a coin laundry five blocks away.

Oh, and that a/c issue? Our thermostat is set on 10 degrees C. I should have icicles coming off my nose at that temp. Instead, it’s barely cool, and the hotel’s solution was to give us a fan to make it through the night. A freaking fan?! I’m way hot, and I don’t mean just from the broken a/c, either.

I absolutely hate issues like this, and it’s inexcusable when you’re paying close to $150 a night for your room. The fact that the staff had an apathetic “oh well” attitude about everything makes me even more upset.

We’ve booked the rest of our hotels for our trip to Canada this month, and it’s a relief to have that over and done with. Because we’re going with my mother and the kids, and booking 2 rooms everywhere, and we’re going to be gone for over a week…well, it wasn’t as easy as it normally is when I book a hotel room. Instead of me being in charge, we had to get the approval of 3 adults on each hotel, and it had to have laundry facilities so we don’t need to bring 2 weeks worth of clothing, and a pool for the kids.

Luckily, we found something that would fit our needs in each of the cities we’ll be staying in - Toronto, Montreal, and Niagara Falls, and online, all of the hotels looked just perfect. I’m hoping they’re as good in person!

I stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort in Walt Disney World for the 3rd time last weekend, and the third time was really the charm. We didn’t have a loud and clunky a/c unit, or a slow maid. The only issue we had was entirely our fault. My oldest daughter dropped an earring into the sink, so we had to call maintenance to remove it for us. We ate our fill of beignets, we enjoyed Star Wars Weekend at MGM, and had a very relaxing (and somewhat rainy) weekend.