Hotele niedaleko Expéditions Wakefield, Wakefield

reservation for 3 nights, had to change room 3 times; AC did not work in 1st room, was offered a fan (which would just move the hot air around) not really a solution when its 31 degrees outside; had to insist to get room with working AC; was assigned another room for the rest of my stay; to my surprise the next morning was told I had to move again because the room had been rented last night for the next 2 days to someone else; had to get my things out before heading out for the day. Noticed a big chain wrapped around the handles of the front door, only access is through the back door. Thought I would give this place a chance, since I travel through Ottawa/Gatineau every few months; low price is not sufficient to entice me to go back. Good: room and bedding clean / mattress confortable / good water pressure and hot water Bad: Reception staff is confused and disorganized, the woman manning the desk on the 2nd day was curt, very unpleasant to deal with / very minimum breakfast option (i.e. only one type of tea offered, if you don't like Earl Grey, you are out of luck)

• The Motel Adam Report (G-town, QC @ Feb. 2022) Cons: icy parking lot; not a kitchenette w/ stovetop for that price ($3,200/month); 2nd door lock sticks a lot, which is obvs dangerous re 🇨🇦 terrorism; washroom cabinet design flaw —＞ no handles + slams shut; handicap bar taking space @ an already too-small shower makes it exceptionally difficult for someone severely disabled to shower @ that too-small washroom; incl. brekky incl. *untoasted* bagels directly from the pkg (w/out even toasters @ the rooms) (!); hotel necessities not accessible for the guests, which should be common Covid practice @ 2022—guests should NOT have to ask; TV remote often didn’t even work (ex. try to adjust volume & the cartoon network appears, repeatedly); temp gauges fluctuate a lot, require frequent adjustment; someone STOLE our DND sign; hotel staff shovelled front walkway loudly @ 8am @ a Sat.; wifi sign-in requested repeatedly & then didn’t work AT ALL 1 day; a different day, all the water was orange (sink, tub, ‘n’ toilet); snowplow beeping loudly & repeatedly @ our parking lot @ 5am @ a Sat.; water @ entire hotel (or city?) went kaput morning day checking out (when we were rushing anyways—disability); key expired day we were checking out before that, when we were rushed, esp b/c of water issue The insisted-upon-by-the-motel-owner-visiting-our-room-w/out-warning-&-even-coming-inside-(!) “cleaning” EVERY DAY W/OUT EXCEPTIONS: put 2 dirty towels there + NO soap (took ours w/out stocking) + ignored our simple safety/disability request re *not* uncovering the window (but crumpled the note it was on); then it was done inappropriately differently each day, often taking our soap w/out replacing it + putting both toilet seats UP; had to go no matter what—even day experiencing intense disability flareups; stole at least both soap & Kleenex instead of stocking those; tossed our note once; evidence of our stuff being touched for NO reason; our DND sign was stuck to the wall using our post-its once, suggesting a more personal B&E; evidence of our stuff being stolen, including from the fridge—so we stuck a “do not open” sign there & then the motel cleaning staff put a long, curly hair in there… Pros: motels are preferable re not requiring a mask (‘cept @ lobby of course) + less crowding; windows easy enough to cover sufficiently & door easy enough to wedge closed; microwave; decent shower water pressure; toilet doesn’t break (til day before we relocated); dressing area

I stayed in the cheapest single cell, where the bed just barely fits between the walls.. The mattress was very comfortable. The best place to store your luggage is under the bed. If you have a lot of luggage, shoving it far back under the bed can make it hard to retrieve. You could tie a rope to the bag so you can pull it out. When people are around, there's lots of noise in the cells. My trick for fealing with this is to use a phone with small, comfortable earbuds and an app that makes loud soothing noise -- like a rainstorm. (Many newer phones don't have a socket for earbuds. I bring along an old phone for this; it doesn't need cell service, though you'll need Wi-Fi to download/update a sleep app. I haven't tried iPhones; I use Android, which can be much cheaper.) I'dbbe cautious about wireless earbuds here... if they come out of your ears while you sleep, they could fall off the sides of the bed. (Getting under the bed near the head is not easy!) Wired earbuds are cheap to buy, especially on a site like Amazon with lots of choice (and reviews to help you choose). Maybe it was the size of this large hostel, and the empty halls, that made it feel less welcoming. I like hostels full of life, so I'm not sure I'll be back.

The hotel is simply bad on all counts - cleanliness, sleep quality, unexplainable bill charges. But the main thing for me was that the cleaning staff came into our room when there was a “Privacy Please” sign on our door while we were out. I have been traveling for work since 2005, weekly, and the DND sign was always something that ensures your privacy in any hotel, any country I have been to. The funniest thing is that the hotel declared they would not be cleaning the room for the duration of my stay in the pre-arrival email, which made me happy, and then they still came in to clean it, despite the sign. I called the front desk immediately when I saw it, created a big issue, and they told me that the clean-up was requested and SHEDULED by me. I explained it was impossible and how upset I was, and guess what - NOTHING happened to make things better for us, absolutely nothing. The manager did not call to apologize, there was absolutely no reaction to this, pretty big in my opinion, issue. So yes, hotel folks, if you are reading this – I did bring it to the attention of the staff. Compared to that, the rest was not as outrageous, but still quite bad and generally important to the quality of the stay: - Cleanliness: When we arrived, the toilet seat was dirty, there was pubic hair in the shower and the shower gel dispenser was empty. I did not want anyone in my room, so I sanitized all impacted surfaces, decided to use the little soaps for the showers instead of the gel and moved on. Ironically, when they broke in to clean my room, they still did not fill up the shower gel! That made me laugh when I stopped crying. - Beds: As another review here mentioned, beds are terrible. It is like sleeping on a water bed, you can feel every little movement, and between that and the old pillows, you are lucky if you get any sleep at all. - Room charges: Unlike any other hotel, this one did not send the email with the bill on the morning of the departure. Naturally, after what I have been through there, I decided to check the bill before I leave instead of just leaving like we do. I had booked using points, so my bill was supposed to only have parking charges + tax. However, when I got the print out, there was an additional $38 CAD per night charge just called “Room”, which the front desk could not explain. The further the conversation went, the more defensive the front desk representative got, until eventually they angrily removed the charges. Not even an apology or any sign of regret that there was a mistake, but a whole lot of attitude and pushback on the paying customer who happens to also be a platinum elite at this chain. Still remains to be seen what ends up being on the credit card – I am seeing some strange charges in the ‘pending’ status. As I was coming down to get the bill, check it and leave, I was squirming as I was expecting to be asked ‘how was your stay’ as usual, and I would not have known what to say. “I told you how it was la