I Hear Back from Best Western with Regards to Our Hotel In Sudbury

Do you remember our hotel in Sudbury?  I am still trying to forget!

If you did not read about it or you want a refresher here is a link to our horrific experience there.

Many of you wrote that I needed to reach out to Best Western to let them know what we experienced.

So I did.

Their Social Media department reached out and got someone from customer service to contact me.  Note though it took me letting them know a second time that I had not heard from anyone 10 days after they said someone would get in touch with me.  I then got an email and a voice mail message from customer service.

They stated in the email they were sorry about our issue with the air conditioning.  

Hmmm obviously there has been a lack of sharing of information as it was a lot more than that.  So I responded to the email with a link to my blog that outlined all the issues.

I called them back yesterday and spoke to a lovely lady from customer service.  She did take the time to read through my blog and was aware of our issues.

They offered to bump us up another loyalty level with Best Western and to give me 6,000 points.  

Fine I said - it is not like I had much of a choice, plus my biggest issue is that they need to fix this problem hotel.  They did say they were investigating into all the issues with this hotel.  

Today I logged into my account with Best Western to see that yes the points have been added. Also I have been bumped up from a blue card to a gold card.  Which really means nothing (similar from blue card with princess to gold card).  

I then went to look to see how many points I needed for a stay and well I can tell you that I don't even have near enough for even a $100 gift card.  So pretty much the points are useless.

At first I thought I would maybe stay at one of their hotels again with what they were offering but with what they actually provided it really is not worth it and I will not be staying there any time soon unless there are no other options in the area.

Sadly Best Western has let us down again.  

Day 25 - Ottawa Bound after a Horrible Hotel Stay

Bright Skies Ahead

I am usually a very positive person.  Those who have followed my page on facebook or read this blog regularly know I do not complain often.  Sure things are not always perfect but why dwell on the negative.  

But sometimes things do not go perfectly for us and I know that I need to respond to the crappy things too and a lot of crappy things happened yesterday at our hotel.

We had booked the Best Western Downtown Sudbury.  The reason we booked it was that we had a $50 gift card for Best Western and we had stayed at this brand before and it is usually quite nice.  

When we arrived we were fortunate that they had a parking spot for us in back as the other parking spots are across the street.  

Christine the woman who checked us in (got to know her quite well later) allocated us a room on the 5th floor.  It was not huge but it would do.  I should also state that this room cost was the highest we had since we started this voyage at a cost of $145 a night and this is Sudbury!  And this is a 2 star hotel!  

We were experiencing issues with the AC unit, it just kept shutting down and not turning back on even though the temperature was set low.  I later find out from the reviews that this is an ongoing issue.

Also when I turned on the AC right away you could smell dust and mold and I knew the filter needed to be cleaned.  Trust me I do this often in hotels - it just does not seem to get cleaned often.  Look at the pictures I took of the filters and the sink water!

that is the dirt that has shown up when I start washing the filter

This is the disgusting dirty water after I was the filter

We called to the front desk and spoke with Christine about our AC unit.  She gave us some tips and we did them and the AC unit kicked in.  So we went out for dinner.

Dinner was a miss too - but no need to dwell on that, it was a miss and we have had so many hits, we will let this meal pass.

Back at the hotel as soon as we walk in the room it is warm and stuffy.  Of course no windows open.  It is an older hotel that needs a lot of updates.  We do the trick that Christine told us and it started again.

Around 9 pm we are in bed in our pjs and watching tv when again the AC unit kicks out!  I call down to Christine, who not once apologized.  We told her to move us or give us a discount (but she would only credit us $20 credit for the AC) not good enough for us.  We told her to move us, she said the hotel was full!  Okay we are leaving and we want a refund.  She came to the door and said she would move us next door.  Fine!

In my housecoat and slippers we packed up and moved next door.  A bigger room with a king bed that was a nice treat but that is where it ended.

We unpacked and I pull off the foot of the bed cover and WHAT it looks like wine or who knows what is sprayed all over the cover.  

Blood stains on the duvet

I pull the duvet cover off and WHAT! There is blood spots on the duvet!

I call down to Christine (you can see why I know her name now).  Asked for a new duvet - her response "oh we don't have anymore".  I lost it!  I hung up on her.  I went back to our old room and got the duvet from the queen bed and used that and put the dirty one in the other room.

We then crawled into bed and damn the AC unit shuts down again!  I give up.  Bernie and I end up just turning to each other and say lets get thru tonight and it will get better.  

In the morning we quickly shower (oh and check out the mold on the shower curtain)!  I just did not want to touch anything!

We grudgingly had breakfast downstairs and I checked out.  Christine was back at the front desk and she said nothing about the mess we encountered yesterday.  No apology, no offer of compensation, no sympathy, nothing!  

Obviously the lack of caring from the front desk manager shows thru all the staff.  It flows down and this hotel is a mess.  Even Bernie showed me the coffee table in the lobby that had a layer of dust on the shelf below that someone had written in.  Obviously cleaning here is not a priority.

It comes down to people caring about their product or service and they don't here.

Note I will be contacting the Best Western Head Office to let them know of what we experienced.  I can not imagine they want their brand on this hotel.

So we are back on the road and we can laugh about it, but boy I need to warn others about this place.

You know sometimes people warn me about possible bad experiences with Airbnb.  Well I have now stayed at 8 Airbnb places and all have been good, 7 were excellent, one was so so.  So it can happen at any type of accommodation.

We drive East towards Ottawa with a stop in Pembroke for lunch.  The restaurant even had a live bad playing at lunch.  I like this!  Things are looking up.

We arrive in Ottawa and we easily find out Airbnb.  Our Airbnb is lovely.  Here is the link to place we are staying.  It is beautiful and so many lovely touches.

Tonight we are staying in and making a meal at home.  I reserved some tours to do in the next few days and we will just stay in tonight. 

Ontario is having their Provincial election today so we are interested in the results - again the political junkie in me is coming out.

Thanks for listening to my venting.  Today was a much better day.

Here is our scavenger hunt list today:

• Moose
• Deer
• Hitchhiker
• Eagle/Hawk
• Licence plates from every Province in Canada - but you can not count the province you are in.  So if we see an Alberta plate in BC then it counts, but not if we are in Alberta. British Columbia  Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Yukon, and North West Territory
• Skunk - saw a dead one
• Sheep
• Beaver
• Goslings
• Buffalo
• Goat
• Owl
• Bear
• Loon
• Crane
• Prairie Dog
• Fisherman fishing
• Canoe
• Hummingbird
• Antique car on the road
• Old VW Bug
• Car broken down on the side of the road
• Helicopter on the ground
• Airplane on the ground
• Speeding ticket- hopefully not our own
• Ambulance with sirens on
• Dump truck
• Line painting crew at work
• Mail delivery person walking their route
• Cruise Ship 
• Coyote 
• RCMP officer
• Hop on Hop off Bus
• Sea Glass
• Lobster

If you have any items you think we should add to our scavenger hunt list, let us know.

So Today's Stats 
Driving distance today 500 k
Total distance 7160 km