We recently stayed at the Ramada Inn of Kearney, Nebraska. When we arrived, the clerk told me they'd overbooked the hotel and had already sold our room (which we'd guaranteed with a credit card) to someone else. In retrospect, I should have just left and gone elsewhere.
The place was dirty. As in filthy. As in we were afraid to touch stuff. After a while, it was like being in a third world country. I mean, you stop taking the filth as a personal affront and begin seeing it as an adventure. What's around the corner? Who knows, but we'll take a picture of it!
By the way, if you're thinking of staying there, do not believe their advertised amenities. I admit that I didn't scour the hotel. Hey, if they're not going to then I'm not going to. Still, nowhere did I see a minigolf course, pool tables, or a game room. If there's anything you're specifically looking forward to, call them and verify that it actually exists before including it in your plans. Or better yet, find someplace else to stay.
There's a hole in the toilet, dear Liza, dear Liza.
Yes, a hole. The little foot under the toilet lid was burrowing its way out, probably in a vain attempt to escape the squalor.
The previous tenants were kind enough to leave us presents. Who couldn't use more beer bottlecaps?
This window was almost opaque in parts. Jake still managed to walk into it, though, so maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought.
I would have liked to have thought that this is the part of the hotel they were remodeling. It isn't. We never actually found that part.
The dog poop in the stairwell perfectly summed up my feelings on the whole experience.
Update
On Monday, February 11, I got a letter from the front desk manager who generically apologized for the problems and refunded 10% of our bill. I'm not going to pursue it any further because I really don't want any more dealings with them. It's over, they made their money off of us, and we never have to go there again. That's good enough for me.
Doesn't Look Like Much has Changed
A few years ago I had to go to Orlando for a week of training. Unfortunately I picked a Ramada in Altamonte Springs to try to save my employer some money. I booked for 5 days; I left after 2. I had to! The roaches were terrible: crawling on me while sleeping, fighting me for my food. A Ramada representative called me a couple of months later to ask how my stay was. When I told her I had to move out because the roaches were so bad, she said "that's not one of ours." I said, well then why did you call me if it isn't one of yours? Silence...silence. Hello? "click". It's bad enough to have these problems but to deny them when someone catches their spokeswoman in a lie is even worse.
Long way down
That's too bad. Ramada used to have a pretty good reputation, I think, but the ones I've had contact with lately have been pretty bad. Within a couple of days I should hear something back from the motel, and if not, then corporate is supposed to step in. We'll see what happens.
Other stuff
I forgot to mention:
The pool in indoors. The smoking lounge is right next to the pool. Therefore, you and your kids will be swimming in a cloud of smoke.
Breakfast consisted of little single-serving boxes of cold cereal and old donuts. You can't take a picture of a donut that shows exactly how stale it is, although I suppose I could have tried to get an action shot of one bouncing off the concrete.
You get charged $1 a day for the privilege of having a safe in your room, even if you don't use it and don't even have the keys to it.
For geeks only: the wireless Internet access doesn't work automatically unless you're using Windows. Linux folk: get a DHCP lease, then manually set your netmask to 255.255.255.0. Otherwise your default route will be unreachable. Everyone: be sure to have Adblock or similar installed, because their crappy ISP puts banner ads on every page you view. I just ran everything through a VPN.
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