The Holtonian

Ramadan Hotels Suck

Well the weekend of insanity has ended. After leaving last tuesday night for Nashville the wife and I have returned home to our beds and our dog. We went to nashville tuesday night and stayed at the Ramadan Hotel: the whole reason behind this was to get a free ride to and from the airport. We would have bummed rides from folks but both flights were early and the return flight landed around church time on sunday and we didn't want to put anyone out.

Funny story, well wasn't funny at the time, the whole reason we stayed at the Ramadan Hotel was for the free shuttle to and from the airport, it certainly wasn't for the seventies decor. Well we pull up and go to the front desk and my wife goes to situate everything with the desk clerk, he tells her the price is 55 my wife explains she was told 50. He explains that there's taxes added to the 50, my wife rubuts with "We were told 50, if its not 50 we'll leave." So we got 50.

We then are told that it would be an extra $20 to leave our car at the hotel for a week. Something they had told us over the phone was free for 7 days. My wife springs into action again and belittles the guy back into the prearranged deal. Meanwhile this whole time I'm calmly sitting down smiling as my wife devours any sort of backbone this desk clerk once had, and rightfully so.

So we get picked up in the morning by a strange little african man (Think Romeo or David Yleah accent) that takes us in his van to the airport. The drop off was fine though the African immigrant was short on manners and was a bit abrubt. Skip ahead to sunday when we fly in. As soon as we land, I pull out the cell phone and inform the hotel we're ready to be picked up, knowing full well it would take them a good bit to get to the airport. We pick our bags and proceed to the hotel pick up waiting area.

45 minutes later Mr. African guy pulls up in his van (the hotel mind you is 5 minute drive away). He puts the bags in the car and asks for 10 dollars. We have a short enterchange where I explain to him that we had agreed with the hotel it was taken care of, he explains he doesn't drive people back to the hotel only from the hotel. I pull out the cell phone, call the hotel, and explain the situation to the hotel. They side with me and I hand the phone over to the African guy. He begins to yell at the hotel clerk and saying, "this is not in my contract" in a voice reminiscent of Romeo Yleah (a liberian student from Covenant College). Long story short, we're kicked out of his van he drives off, and we wait for another 45 minutes to be picked up by the hotel manager. A man who did not apologize or offer any sort of reimbursement for our time or annoyance.

We thought about asking for a voucher but we were so sick with the Ramadan that we figured why bother. That and I figured that a hotel as shabby as it was would not be willing to fork out a free night to anyone. So that was the biggest annoyance of the trip.