The closest hotel to the venue where my daughter's wedding was held was the "Gregory" Best Western Hotel. It was just a few blocks away. Due to the convenience and proximity, my daughter reserved a suite of rooms for us and out of town guests. When we saw it last year it was being "renovated." I use the term loosely because after our stay there I can only imagine what it looked like before remodeling. The pictures online are deceiving. Over the years we have stayed at many different hotels and I have to say this was by far the worst. I would rather pitch a tent on an New York City street than to ever book a room at this hotel (and anyone who knows me knows that I hate camping).
Here's the story. When my daughter sent out her "Save the Dates" about four moths ago, I called and booked two rooms immediately for her and for us, making sure they were in close proximity since my two daughters and I needed to have out hair and makeup done first thing in the morning. No problem they said. The week of the wedding I called to reconfirm the rooms and make sure they noted we wanted our rooms together. No problem, it was noted. They told us they had valet parking available for a nominal fee. That was great because it's a very congested area.
On July 8th we arrive after 3 PM check in time and our rooms are not ready. They are scrambling around trying to figure out how to get us the two rooms we requested that were next to one another. Already I am pissed off. I need to unload all our clothes for the weekend and organize everything before we went to the "Welcome Dinner" that the parents of the groom graciously hosted for out of town guests. We finally get our rooms, but there is a nice big sign on the front desk saying their parking lot is full, sorry for the inconvenience. Seriously? So my husband brings the car to a municipal lot while we try to figure out what to do. Long story short, he ended up taking it out and finding a spot on the street.
We go up to our rooms and I should have taken pictures because I could have spared you 1,000 words. I have never been to a hotel room that does not have bedspreads on the beds. No bedspreads and really no blankets either for that matter. Instead that had two thick "sheets" and a piece of material about 2 feet wide and 6 feet long laying across the bottom of the bed. What the hell that is good for I don't know. One of the beds was about 12 inches away from he closet, blocking me from putting all our garment bags in there. The bathroom had little space to maneuver around or to place your toiletries. The dresser was dusty. There were three lousy pillows on each bed instead of four. The pillows left a lot to be desired, just like everything else. So now we are off to a great start.
The next morning we are busy getting ready for the wedding as best we can. We had no choice but to make due. The maid caught us going back and forth out of the room around 10 AM and she wanted to clean the room. I told her it can't be now because the bride is getting ready. By 1 PM we all leave to take the limousine to the photoshoot destination. On our way out my husband spots the maid and tells her the room will be free now if she wants to clean it. I couldn't understand every word she said, but it was clear to all of us that she didn't want to or intend to clean our room. She was very annoyed. (Can you believe it? I still can't, but this blog is going to their corporate headquarters as soon as I post it.) So, I politely tell her it's fine, she doesn't have to clean the room, but would she please leave us three clean towels. She calmed down and agreed to do that. And she did.
Sunday morning we prepare to check out and believe me I could not wait to get out of there. My brother in law left the wedding early so we left a couple of favors for him at the desk with his name and room number on them. He was out sight-seeing that morning and told us he was staying an extra night. When my husband hands over the favors the desk person tells him his brother checked out. My husband told them no, he was out this morning but was coming back for another night. Then he called my brother in law to tell him he should call and straighten this out. My brother in law came back to find he had been checked out. You can imagine he was disgusted so he told them he was leaving and made sure they weren't going to charge him for two nights. They said no. Well guess what? They charged him for two nights and, when he called, they told him it would take 24 hours to get the extra charge removed. Nice.
I am going to make sure everyone I know hears about my experience. I would never stay at this hotel again or any other Best Western for that matter. I do not have one good thing to say about it except it was close to my daughter's venue.
P.S. If you think I'm exaggerating here are some other reviews and by the way one star is being generous.
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