Upon arrival we discover that the motel has a faceless and remote checkin. You enter the unmanned reception area to come face to face with a person in another country on a video screen, looking surprised at our arrival. No hotel staff to be seen. An immediate worry. She assumed that a text message sent whilst we were driving (at this point unopened as it resembled spam) was enough explanation to get us settled into our room. She kindly spat out of a copier (luckily it had paper) the information we required for our stay. As we made our way up the stairs to our room, there was an occupational health and safety issue that required immediate attention. I went back into robot land to report the issue. She explained that there will not be anyone on site until the next day and that nothing could be done! I remedied the situation myself to save the owners from a possible lawsuit. Once we navigated our way inside the unit, it was small and functional but unclean, with former dispensers still installed but since abolished, and dirty soft furnishings. To their credit there was adequate supply of extras in the fridge and kitchen and bathroom, and a lovely new floating floorboard in the main room. We had had a huge day driving and a nine hour drive the next day. Our night was a disaster - the neighbouring customer of our room played loud music and then tv, interspersed with loud bouts of prolonged coughing throughout the entire evening. The motel is on a noisy main road as well. Other accomodation we have stayed in gives one an opportunity to voice a complaint that will be quickly addressed because the owners ARE ON SITE! In this location, we had no one to discuss issues with, give local advice/directions/info. Just a cold wooden person with no interest in your well being, on the other side of the world. I guess this is what budget motel is - pay peanuts, get monkeys.
44 Ulasan