Let me tell you all about the horrors of last night, and continuing on through the rest of the nights this week. So we normally stay at the Courtyard by Marriott here in Erie. Well a couple of weeks ago one of the ladies who works behind the desk, comes up to me and Matt (one of my co-workers) and asks if someone has talked to us about the week 2 weeks from now.
We were both unaware, so she proceeds to tell us that they hotel was overbooked on Wednesday and Thursday nights because a 'tree hugger's' convention was coming through town. So she would take care of re-booking us for that week over at the Fairfield, and give us 4000 bonus Marriott Rewards points for our trouble. We figured coolio, extra points, a little lesser quality of a hotel, but only for a week.
So yesterday we arrive at work and work through the day, but got to leave early, when they had to shut down the system for a couple of hours at 8pm. So we made our way to the Fairfield to check in, guess what no reservations, neither Matt nor I had reservations, the kid behind the desk was like are you sure it was this hotel, and he called the Residence Inn to see if we had reservations there instead... but to no avail. So we walked next door to the Homewood Suites to see if they had rooms for us. Turns out everyone had rooms for Monday, but no one in the whold god damn city of Erie has any rooms open for Wednesday or Thursday.
So we figure we'll go over to the Courtyard and let them figure out where the hell we are going to stay since it was their fuck up which ended us up homeless to begin with. We get there, and they've already had more than one person come through with the same story (side note there are about 100 people from our firm on this project, i'm sure what percentage stays in hotels vs. apartments but it's significant). So the girl behind the desk apologizes and says, the only place in town that has any rooms open in the, are you ready for this, the Econolodge. Yes that's correct the Econolodge. I've been reduced to staying at the Econolodge for the week. I work for a $12billion company, with over 100 offices in 47 countries, and I'm staying at the Econolodge.
Wait it gets worse. They only have smoking rooms available. What The Fuck! I'm afraid of catching something from walking accross the floor with out my socks on, the room is a "suite" though. I'm a bit confused about the definition of suite I guess, since it's at least 1/3 smaller than our room at the coutrtyard, which isn't considered a suite, but it does have a "whirlpool" and a hida-bed.
On the up side of things its only 3 more nights, and then back to the Courtyard. I've decided that I'm making reservations through November when I get back. And the other bonus is that the courtyard is giving us 10000 bonus points for fucking up our reservations. And I intend to contend next monday that that should be 10000 in addition to the 4000 we were supposed to get for the inconvience of moving to the Fairfield. Especially since I miss out on my regular points for the week by staying at the Econolodge.
At our weekly meeting this morning my manager was shocked when we told him where we were staying, he did a double take. The best part is that one of the clients who is working on our team, Karen, was very concerned for us. Later in the day when I was talking to her, she was telling me just how bad she felt that we had to stay in this dirty hotel. It was so sweet!
Well I'm off to a roll-off party for someone on the project who I've never met, but hey its an excuse to havea cocktail or 2 after work =)
"And now the 'other guys brake pads' Kids screamning in the back! Shut up Damnit! Truck tire! OH MY GOD I CAN'T STOP!! And there's a cliff, your family's burning alive. Here comes the meat wagon -Eee Ohh Eee Ohh. The Medic gets out OH MY GAWD, new guy's in the corner puking his guts out! All because you wanted to save a couple of bucks. To me it just doesn't make sense!"
That one's for you Scott!!
Addendum - Karen is a wonderful co-worker, but married and about the age of my parents =)
