I always want this hotel to be the good one, but it routinely disappoints me in various ways. It's…read moredefinitely overpriced for the quality delivered and you should stay elsewhere if you don't need to be specifically in this area. I like that the Oxo bar across the street is open late, and that there's a Planet Fitness not far away. But that things outside the hotel are the main draw is pretty sad.
The main thing that keeps me from saying 3 stars are Tedi and Maria at the desk, and the people who do cleaning of the rooms. These people are gold in a hotel that is really going out of its way to not be useful in other ways.
It's often the case that I need to extend my stay, or I book the stay in multiple segments to get certain Wyndham pricing (because the website makes no way to say I want two days on partial points and one day on full points, for example). But inevitably I know in advance and I ask to get things set up so I don't have to stop at the desk on the transition. People other than Tedi always tell me that can't be done before the actual day, which is both untrue and unhelpful. Tedi seems to get it that being of service means the hotel doing something for me, not me doing something for the hotel. Papering over seams like this is one of the most important thing desk people can do, and it's sad how much the men at the desk (and it does always seem to be men) tell me that's just the way it is, as if that justifies a steep price tag in a hotel.
The manager at this hotel, I don't recall his name and did not talk to him on my most recent stay, though I have tried to engage him uselessly on these matters in the past, does not get it and I've given up trying to explain it to him because on past stays he is always ready with an excuse for why it's my fault. There is a lot I tolerate in the service industry, but I have a hard line on "it's my fault". Charge me what you will, and I'll decide whether I like the price, but don't tell me that you can't do a thing you obviously can and are just trying not to. He doesn't use the words "your fault", but it's what comes across when he says it's just a business decision. He talks like he's educating me, not like he actually thinks my opinion might matter or he owes any form of responsiveness. Basically, he's saying "those are the rules, if you don't like them go elsewhere". Increasingly, I do. There's a Super-8 over in Bolivar that's a bit of a drive but is a lot less expensive and very nice. I stayed there a couple of nights in preference to staying here.
1-ply toilet paper is another example. Sure, it saves you money, but telling me "just use two sheets" again makes it be my problem. 1-ply toilet paper does not say quality. It screams "we're cutting corners every chance we get".
And breakfast in the limited range of time that it is means it's really just "breakfast for business travelers" who have to be up. For people on vacation, it means not getting to sleep in. The manager can try to explain all he wants about the economics of things, but in the end, he's making a choice to not value me, and it's not a good one. Also, they are really sloppy about starting on time, often late getting food out, but very meticulous about closing up at the other end, as if "of course you should expect to wait on us, but no, we will not bend for you". Again, this is the very antithesis of service in a service industry. That I have to worry as the end of breakfast approaches and I try to go get something from my room next door or to drop off an item (food I want to finish later sometimes isn't carryable in a single trip) I'll find the door shut if I come back is just the kind of unpleasant thing that makes the entire breakfast experience, if I interrupt my sleep enough to get to it at all, a real unsatisfactory thing. Shame on them, honestly. I paid for this the same as anyone else, but no clearly it's of no concern to them to accommodate people trying to have a precious day of vacation. What business do they think they're in? Well, if they won't listen any other way, they can listen here in the open so fellow travelers know this is how they'll be treated.
