I get behind. I took a vacation so I could feel caught up, feel relaxed and energized, but all it got me was further behind. Because now it’s been days again and I’m just now writing about my vacation.
So I went to Austin. He and I decided to take a few days, get outta town, see if someone else had better fireworks that The Woodands. Sadly, we were disappointed. State capitol and all, and the fireworks sucked. Small. Insignificant. Boring. But the people-watching was good. I just have to say – I’m no super-model, but good LORD there are some ugly people in this state!
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Austin. Here’s where knowing what to biotch about and who to biotch to and how to biotch correctly can get you some serious perks. Take notes, kiddies. So we made the reservation online a few days before we left. Knowing we wanted certain accommodations and it being a holiday weekend and all, we thought, well, we’d better call the actual hotel, make sure they could accommodate. So I did. Talked with some kid at the front desk – not reservations, not the concierge, not the housekeeper – the FRONT DESK AT THE ACTUAL HOTEL. We were assured that yes, the notes we’d made about the room type requested were in the reservation and there would be no problem accommodating our request upon arrival. Sure as Austin is the State capitol, they did NOT have the room type we requested booked for us when we arrived at 10:30 Thursday night.
So we ask the girl at the front desk to find us the right room. She can’t, she’s swamped, ten people checking in, bla, bla, she’ll call us back in 15 minutes. 20 goes by, the boyfriend calls her back. Someone is calling maintenance to find out where the rooms are in the hotel that are what we asked for. Yes, they have to physically walk the hotel floors to find what we wanted, I $hit you not. So we finally go back downstairs at 11:30 PM. They found us a room similar to what we want, but not exactly – it has two full size beds.
Ever try to put two full size adults in a full size bed?
So they give us another room, with a king, but not what we wanted. But it’s on the “executive” floor, so the room will be larger. Yay. I didn’t want larger. I wanted what I asked for.
Next day, we go back downstairs, eat our free breakfast (yes, they comped us, for all three days), and stop in at the front desk. This being daylight and a weekday, the manager was there. We told him our tale, he apologized, again. Offered us the free breakfasts (which the night manager already gave us) again. But then, since he couldn’t do what we wanted, he did the best he felt he could. He escorted us personally from floor to floor, room to room, and let us choose where we wanted to stay. Offering us a full blown, king size, suite. For no more, incidentally, than we paid for the original room. Needless to say, we took it.
And needless to say, we won’t be staying again at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Austin. There’s just no satisfying some people. Ha.
Austin