The Extended Flunk

Apparently, we are in the slow season for my company right now, and, as the nomad of the sales force, this means there are not enough leads for me to travel.

I have no established territory. I go where the overflow is. No overflow, no go, no sales.

While I try not to let this cause me to panic, I am not particularly good at being idle. For a solid part of my career in education, I consistently held 3-4 jobs at any given time.

Therefore, I am trying to cope with this down time by focusing on the negative parts my last eight months on the road.

The best one, by far, was my first experience at an Extended stay in Orlando, Florida, during the month of August.

I know Extended Stays are not 5-star hotels, nor do they attempt to advertise themselves to be such.

I knew the realm of a hotel I booked, but these are not your typical hotel gripes about the complimentary breakfast or lack of fluffy pillows. These are low, even for “budget-minded” hotels.

Night 1

I successfully check-in and arrive to my room at about 10:00 p.m. I begin to unpack my clothes and see there are no hangers. I call the front desk and hangers arrive promptly - no big deal.

While I unpack, I decide to turn on the TV. When I pick up the remote, the batteries fall out immediately, as there is no back to the remote. Annoying, but not a shock for my hotel choice.

After unpacking all of my things, putting them in drawers, and hanging them in the closest where they will stay for the next two weeks, I decide to take a shower before retiring to bed.

It is roughly 11:00 p.m. when I enter the bathtub only to realize there is no shower head.

As terrible as this is, my first reaction was to laugh. Apparently, the previous guest must have truly needed one for their next destination and decided to take it with them - you know, like some of us take the leftover soaps and shampoos.

I quickly put aside my second thought of - How well could housekeeping have cleaned the shower if they did not notice a missing shower head? - and call the front desk.

The young man informs me there are no maintenance people on staff at this hour, but I can change rooms. I just spent 14 hours traveling and unpacked all of my things for my 13-night stay. I was about to go to sleep for an early morning. The thought of packing all my things, moving rooms, and unpacking was not appealing.

I let him know if he brought me a shower head, I could handle the installation on my own. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. I have the training down.

Unfortunately, this is not an option as the “concierge” does not have access to these items.

I decide to deal with the missing shower head tonight and tomorrow morning, as long as it is fixed tomorrow before I return from work. I am assured me it will be.

My two shower-head-less showers are definitely not environmentally sound. The water streams out from as if from a heated garden hose sticking out of the wall. One solid half-inch thick stream of hot water. I probably use ten times the amount of water a typical shower requires.

When I return the next night, I have a shower head. It is brand new and beautiful, but it is not the end of my troubles.

Night 5

The next three nights are normal, but Night 5 takes a turn for the worse in a big way.

Early August in Orlando is hot and sticky. When I return to my room at 8:00 p.m. after a long day of work, the A/C is not working very well.

I call the front desk, again.

Again, the maintenance team is already gone.

Again, the solution is to change my room. Hmm. Work 12 hours, pack all my things, move rooms, unpack; then, try to eat and bathe. No thanks.

Make sure they fix it tomorrow, please.

Yes, sir. It will be fixed.

I put temperature all the way down and leave it on full blast all night. I’m not paying the electric bill. They owe me this. It is a tough night, but I’m exhausted and sleep.

Night 6

I arrive back to the hotel room close to 9:00 p.m. The A/C maintenance man left a ticket on the table which says it was fixed, but the temperature in the room begs to differ.

Another warm night awaits.

Night 7

The next morning, I leave the hotel before the desk clerk’s shift starts. I call after 7:00 a.m. and speak with Ricky about my concerns. He tells me there is no maintenance employee working today, as it is the weekend, and the hotel is fully booked. He cannot switch my room.

I ask to speak to the manager because at this point I feel I am owed compensation for my inconveniences during my stay. He lets me know the manager does not work until tomorrow, and he will leave a note for her to contact me, but she gets very busy, so I may want to call her as opposed to her contacting me - the dissatisfied customer.

This is an amazing approach to customer service, even for a “budget-minded” hotel.

When I arrive back at the hotel, my room is unbearable. I contact the front desk and Chris gives me a room with a functional AC - which means Ricky lied about being sold out when I spoke with him.

Ricky, you seemed so trustworthy.

Ricky’s lie was distasteful and disappointing, but not as annoying as knowing I should have bit the bullet on Night 1 and switched rooms immediately.

In a more than obvious way, I have myself to blame for much of these discomforts.

My remaining nights at the Extended Stay were perfect. Through it all the staff was polite, even if Ricky was a liar - he lied about the manager’s next shift as well.

When I finally got in touch with the manager and explained the hardships of the first half of my stay, she quickly refunded those nights.

Revisiting The Extended Stay saga definitely makes sleeping in my own bed and waiting for leads to pick up a little more bearable...for a couple minutes.