I really had high hopes for Homewood Suites when I stayed there on a week-long business trip last month. After all, considering their prices (it's technically a Hilton), you would expect something above and beyond a typical cut-rate bargain motel. I'll start with the good stuff about the hotel: it's in downtown. Now for the bad stuff: first, everyone is rude. I'm not sure if management intentionally hires rude people or if the poisonous culture inside the hotel grinds otherwise decent people into cynical pulp. The bellboy scowled at me in the lobby, was rough with my luggage, and then scowled at me again when I tipped him $5. Likewise, the receptionist seemed flustered and in over her head. She had to call her supervisor over *twice* just to check me in, and I had a reservation! Apparently she was new, and didn't have much experience using the computer, but that's no excuse: it turned what would have been a two-minute process at a decent hotel into 15 minutes of tedium. Sadly, the room was no better than the service. The hot water in the sink did not work, the shower was only lukewarm, and one of the bulbs was dead in the light fixture above the sink. Complimentary mood lighting, I guess. The TV was a bust; sure it was an LCD, but the ESPN logo at the bottom right corner of the screen was burned in and stayed there on every channel. And to top it all off, the bed smelled funny. I called the front desk (at least the phone worked), and asked for fresh sheets. The person I talked to said they'd be right up, but never came. Eventually, I gave up. I woke up the next morning to back pain (the bed was about as firm as a marshmallow). I left the room, and made my way through the chilly hallways to the "complimentary buffet." Literally all the food was bad. Even the cereal tasted stale. Looking around, everyone in the dinning room appeared to be having a similar experience. The sight of two-dozen disappointed people sipping weak coffee and prodding watered-down scrambled eggs with plastic forks was a sight more becoming of a refugee camp than an expensive hotel. Just plain sad. Worst part was, it was the same thing for the next four days, too.
