A very tarnished Crowne

I've waited a while to write the blog on this hotel because I kept hoping I'd find the humor in my stay. I can almost always find something that makes be laugh even if it is after the fact.

But...

The Crowne Plaza Washington-Dulles Airport didn't make me laugh. In fact, if it hadn't been for the very nice bar and grill, Houlihan's, I would have little positive to report. OK, well I guess I have little positive say about the hotel at all. But, I liked Houlihan's. That's something positive.

Now about the hotel.

First off, the hotel is pricey. Now just to be fair, I'm told that everything near Washington DC is expensive. I'm one of those people that doesn't mind paying for quality, but I am also on record that it really ticks me off when I pay a lot for nothing.

The Crowne Plaza Washington-Dulles Airport was an older hotel, and in fact reminded me of the Holiday Inn Select Hotels from days gone by. I had assumed it would be up to Crowne Plaza standards, especially since it was $199 a night - and that was a discounted rate.

When I pay $199 a night for a hotel room, I expect it to be, well... $199 worth of hotel room. This room was worth about $21.50.

So, what happened? First of all I was really grateful for my GPS. Without it, I never would have found the hotel. It wasn't really at the airport, but I guess it was close enough to claim it.

I finally found the hotel and went to the desk to check in. I am usually given a room on the club floor no matter what room I book - a nice perk for Platinum Priority Club members. When I asked the nice kid at the desk, I was told I got an upgrade, but I didn't. I got exactly the room I booked. Since I wasn't given a club floor room I asked for club access anyway. Finally I convinced him to give me a key, but I could tell he was reluctant.

By the time I checked in I was starving, so I went up to the club lounge to see if they had anything to snack on before dinner. They had potato chips and sodas. Really. Why bother to call it a concierge?

But the real story here was the fact that I was given a room in a parking lot.

My room was next to a large parking lot on the back side of the hotel. I discovered this the first evening when I heard the really loud noise and looked outside to realize that just outside my room were 5 tour buses. My room windows were level with the top of a bus. The next morning around 5:30 AM, approximately 500 children loaded up for a day of sight-seeing in DC. The bus drivers get up earlier than that - sometime around 4:30 or so. They fired up the bus early, probably to cool it down. It didn't cool me down. In fact, I got a little fired up.

Usually, Platinum Priority Club members are given better rooms (and treatment!) than this. So, when I checked out the next morning I told the clerk I wasn't happy with my accommodations. I asked why I wasn't given a room on a higher floor, away from the noise. The clerk said those rooms were reserved for Priority Club members. I explained that I am a Priority Club member, a Platinum member in fact. Then the clerk asked me if I told him that when I checked in. I said I never tell anyone at the desk because the room is always reserved under my number, and the reservation screen displays my Priority Club status. But by then I was in no mood to argue and just checked out.

So now that I am writing this, I find myself thinking that the question was a little strange. Did I tell them I was a frequent traveler? Huh. I wonder where all that information entered in the reservation ended up?

Probably in the parking lot on the bus driver's clipboard.