Hello everyone:
Have you ever stayed in a hotel that wasn’t what you expected? Many years ago, I went to London with someone who didn’t believe in making hotel reservations. The person felt that making a reservation would cramp our style.
Off we went, driving on the other side of the road, having a stick shift that was in the same place as he was used to, but with him sitting on the other side of the car. That makes a huge difference, for the record. I lost count of how many times I said, “Keep your wife off of the sidewalk and out of the ditch.” But I digress. We were talking about hotel reservations, weren’t we?
As it happened, a hurricane had hit London the day before we arrived; they never got hurricanes, we were told numerous times. As a result of the weather that preceded our visit, emergency crews had descended onto London, taking every available hotel room for miles around.
Since we spent most of our time out and about in the countryside, hotel rooms weren’t a problem. Until they were. Our last night in the country, we were back in London, roomless. I’m not sure if that’s even a word, but there was no room in the inns. Any of them.
Fortunately, one hotel manager took pity on us and said that one of his regular full-time residents was off visiting his mother for the weekend, so we could have his room for one night. Hooray, right? Not so fast.
Let’s call the regular resident ‘Bob’ because I forget his real name. Bob had a room with a single twin bed. The room, to protect Bob’s privacy, had not been cleaned in years. Bob, bless his overworked heart, was a heavy smoker. Everything in the room stank. His bathtub (there was no shower) was filthy. Don’t even ask me about the rest of the bathroom. I kept my shoes on.
My now-ex-husband slept (or tried to) on the floor. I got the bed with its stinky sheets. Neither of us got much sleep. The good news is that we also did not get lung cancer. I can’t answer for Bob. I can’t imagine that he survived his habit.
So, the lesson learned here is to make hotel reservations. When you make them, make sure you get the hotel rating you are hoping for (in foreign countries, a five-star rating there is like a four-star or three-star rating in the States). But that’s a story for another time.
Best,
Dr. Sheri