James Sapara’s Personal Blog

Last week I headed to Regina to work on-site for one of our clients. The last time I was in Regina I booked myself into a hotel with no pool/hot tub. Since I’m half-fish that didn’t work out so well for me. This time around I got it right and booked myself into the the Ramada. This is where my story begins…

First things first: booking. I booked by phone as I had some questions about the various types of rooms available and the laundry service. My call was answered promptly with, “Can you hold? *click*”. A local radio station came on the line before I had a chance to say a word. This is unfortunately very common these days, as most people will just say yes anyways; but, kinda rude to not even let me speak. Moving on…

I booked myself into a business class suite. These suckers have nice big chairs and high speed internet (every room has high speed and wifi btw). That was $10 more a night, but it was also on a secure floor, which I was assured was never “loud”. I also confirmed the existence of self serve laundry.

Two days later I arrive after a long day of driving and working on-site. Check-in was nearly painless, except for the standing around part. It took 5 minutes for someone to show up to front desk… not exactly presenting yourself as a leader in hospitality here.

Get to my room, which was adequate in size and features. I proceed to setup my laptop so I can continue working on my clients project. I left my spare cat5 cable on-site, so I had to room service myself one. No big deal, but it took 30 minutes. After getting a cable, I discover the internet does not work. I call front desk who tells me to call the wireless support number for the wired internet support.

I call Sasktel’s special hot line and we go through some real basic stuff like: Is the light on? Which just so happens to be whats wrong with the magical box. So they advise me to get the hotel to swap the box for another box.  So another call to front desk and 30 minutes later a new modem (which honestly did not look very new… but they assured me it was “new”).

It took about all of 2 minutes to discover that modem didn’t work either; so, I called Sasktel back and they told me they would send someone to fix it… in 4 days. I briefly pressed the issue, but understood that it just wasn’t in the cards to get them out here any faster. I called front desk again.

This time they send the “manager” up to try to work some magic on my computer. This amused me, but sadly I had packed my laptop up in anticipation of being moved to a room that had working internet access. After explaining the problem was not with my computer, but with the modem and/or the line, he conceded I should be moved to a new room.

After 30 minutes of him trying to find the cheapest available room for more than an evening in the hotel, he took me to the “spa” suite. We tried the internet there and it didn’t work either. Well, most perplexing, but he suggested that he could reset the Sasktel stuff and give it a try. So he does that while I stand in the spa room turning the modem on and off every so often. At some point it started to work and I checked my email. He came back and was happy it worked, but not wanted to try it back in the room we just came from.

So… back to the old room. Internet still didn’t work on there, so he once again stood there and haggled with front desk for the cheapest possible room. Which apparently was the room we were just in. So, a free upgrade he says! Off to the “spa” room.

“Spa” room is a room with a bathrobe and microwave. It’s also slightly larger and appears to contain a hide-a-bed with no sheets or blanket. It’s also double the cost of my business room and did not have a comfy chair. Of course, it was the same price as the business room for me… so score !?!

Not much exciting happened between that Thursday and Sunday. Room service seemed to take a disturbingly long time to come. House keeping ignored my DnD sign twice… On Sunday I needed to use the free laundry facilities.

Threw my load in at 5pm and came back 45 minutes later. Still washing my clothes apparently, so I took a swim. Came back 30 minutes later and it was obvious the washing machine was stuck on the finial spin and rinse cycle. I caught it before another rinse and then had to leave while I waited for the dry to free up. Came back an hour later and the dry was still in use, the timer put back to 80 minutes. Came back 80 minute later and met the guy who had his laundry in the drier.

As this point, it was obvious the dry was not working. This poor guy had a small load of socks and underwear in there since 4pm. It was now 9:30. He stuff was still more than damp to the touch and barely warm. The dry was obviously broken. Which left me with a pile of soaking wet clothes (two sweaters to boot!). I called the front desk and asked if they had any capacity to help me. She was less than helpful with “umm… aahhhh… errr…” and “gee, that’s not good”. I inquired about getting access to house keeping to use their driers, but she assured me that was impossible since she didn’t have keys.

Apparently Sunday night, the hotel has no staff except for this one girl at front desk. I guess that’s plausible, but I decided to test it. I called front desk from my room (previously called from the pool) and asked if I could get a set of cutlery and a plate. “Sure”, she says. 30 minute later (I swear they time it to 30 minutes on purpose…) I get myself a plate and cutlery. Well, proves she was at the very least lieing about any other staff… and I still have my doubts no one on staff could of granted me access to the driers. Oh well… moving on.

I managed to tell my story to Dean who picked up my clothes and run it threw the drier for a while. Brought it back and I let it hang dry the rest of the night. So, in the end it worked out I guess; but, no thanks to the hotel.

Checkout was possibly the saddest part of the experience. I was checking out a day early, but past checkout time. Understandably there is an “early” checkout fee. I’m fine with that, but I wanted something for the laundry fiasco I had to endure. Front desk staff themselves couldn’t help me and all the management were in a meeting behind in the room behind front desk.

Now, if I was in the customer service industry, I’d feel it would be okay to knock and ask a manager to help with a client. I dunno, maybe I’m crazy or something; but, it seems so simple… Anyways, they made me wait 12 minutes (I stood there staring at the clock…) until the meeting was done. The manager came out, looked the situation over and said there was nothing they could do. They already upgraded my room for free. I was understanding that the room was upgraded for “free”; but, also explained my position that it was for the lack of working internet and not the laundry fiasco. She insisted there was nothing she could do and started to turn away.

At this point I was tired and about to let go; but I instead said, “How about you waive the early checkout fee?”. Which, to my surprise she said, “Fine”. She turned away without another word and left. Kinda rude… but victory I guess?