Hotel room fiasco

Disclaimer: long post. . . and very first world problem.

We have left the tranquility of the villa which was located just outside of Chiang Mai. While we were bummed to leave the fabulous set up, we were excited to head into the old city (there is a moat around the old city, I mean how cool is that?!) and explore.

So getting here was no problem. Our fabulous driver, Sunny, picked us up at 10:30am and drove us into the main city of Chiang Mai where we had booked a hotel for 3 nights. We knew we wouldn’t be able to check into our room, but could at least check bags and I could explore with the kids while Bill went to his work meeting. There are TONS of ex-pats in Chiang Mai and many worldschooling families so we both had plans to meet up with people during our stay.

Upon arrival things were a bit chaotic so we decided to stay at the hotel until our room was ready. Bill headed off to his meeting, and the kids and I headed to the rooftop pool. Gone were the days of having our private pool : ) but we did find a lounge chair and an umbrella, and met people instantly due to the compact rooftop deck. One mother was so friendly and full of information that Zach described her the rest of the trip as “such a mom” (one with a lot of thoughts to share).

About an hour later, the woman from the front desk came up with room keys for us. Thank goodness as it was now over 90 degrees and we wanted to dump our stuff, get some lunch and explore. Off to the room we went, and this is when our first real “uh oh” of the trip occurred.

We walked in and looked around. One bed. Were we missing another part of the room? Nope. Ok, no problem, let’s call the front desk and let them know we booked a room for 2 adults, 2 children, 2 beds. Side note: I had emailed the hotel before booking to confirm that we could all fit in one room with their bed arrangements because the website and room descriptions were a bit confusing. Very common here as it seems in SEA there is a need to book multiple rooms so I wanted to be sure. The hotel had assured me no problem, one room with 2 beds was fine. Ok, just an error, so I called front desk and we were told to sit tight, housekeeping would come and separate the 1 bed into 2. What?! Zach was fascinated by this and started to check out how the bed was configured. No, no that was not going to work. We waited about 15 minutes and then I sent Zach off to find housekeeping. A lovely woman came and said no, no, can’t do that with this room. Bellman arrived with bags, sent him back downstairs.

We went back downstairs where the lovely front desk agent apologized and gave us a new room. Great, all set. Back upstairs and while it was a different room, it was the exact same set-up! Called back down to the front desk, the bellman arrived again with out luggage and I sent him back, again. Front desk told us to wait, they would come to us this time. Perhaps we were not clear in the 2 beds? Who knows. It is now way past lunchtime, jolted out of the tranquility of our past stay and did I mention it is like 90 degrees?! We waited and waited and finally went back downstairs where they now profusely apologized and asked us to wait a moment while they gave us a room with 2 beds. At this point our luggage was just sitting in the lobby—-the bellman was over it and so were we.

Assured they have found us a new room, the front desk agent took us up herself to the room and let us in. Ahh, 2 beds and she leaves. We go in and yes, there are 2 beds. 2 twin beds and the room smells of cigarette smoke. At this point we are about 2 hours into the room fiasco and I am done. We can’t get on the wifi but do have cellular data so now I am looking up other hotels in the area and thinking it is best to just cut out losses (we pre-paid for the room) and go somewhere else. This all becomes too complicated with the snail speed internet so back downstairs we go.

At this point it is comical at the front desk. I tell her that there is no way we can sleep in that room that reeks of cigarette smoke, we need a non-smoking room. She tells me the entire hotel is non-smoking. Um, apparently not. Then says, yes, she smelled it too, so strange. Not so strange I say, someone smoked in the room, I am sure it happens all the time here as there are a lot of smokers. We’d just like another room please and this time could we have one that sleeps 2 adults and 2 children per our reservation. And this is where the real break down happens. What do you mean she asks? That is a room that sleeps 4 people. What?! What size people? I mean you couldn’t even fit 2 toddlers in that bed together without them rolling onto each other. Have you met my children? Omg, I am feeling very stereotypical American at that moment and finally ask directly—-that room is designed for 4 people? When I booked 2 adults and 2 children, that is the standard sized room that four people share? The 2 twin beds? Yes, she says, obviously confused by my question. Or there is another option she says. Great! What is it? One bed. You have got to be kidding me. All 4 of us in one bed? Ok, I must say, I was quite impressed by myself keeping it together so well—at least on the outside. Zach came up and whispered, good thing daddy is not here right now. So true Z, so true. I looked at her and said, we are going to need 2 rooms, do you have another room? Two other rooms actually because we do not want the smoke smelling room. Perhaps you should sit she says. Great.

The kids and I sit and play a couple of rounds of headbandz with the go fish card deck. They are wilting from lack of food but thankfully we are in the lobby with AC. Finally the woman comes up and says she has 2 rooms but on different floors or we can go have some lunch and then she will get us 2 rooms on the same floor—not adjoining, there are no adjoining rooms. Ok, we’ll eat and wait for the same floor. How much? Same price as you paid for your other room—-we can match it. Ok, so much for our cost savings of staying in SEA so long to save money—-it has now just doubled.

Off we go to eat and I have to say the hotel is lovely. I am not one to eat at the hotels we stay at (beyond breakfast or drinks) as I like to explore but this was a unique situation. We ate, we chilled, we played games, the staff was incredibly accommodating. And, I got on wifi and booked another room for us at a cheaper rate which yes, did throw her all off when we finally got our rooms. Anyway, 2 hour lunch and we got our rooms—each one of us our very own twin bed : ) The kids wanted to be by themselves so they took one room and Bill and I took the other and one of their keys. Sort of weird but we got over it in like 3 minutes.

Our now new friend, the bellman, brought our stuff up, dropped off the kids stuff then came down the corridor to deliver ours. Finally! Quick rest and then off to explore. And to think, Bill missed all this excitement.

As my mom and I like to say (and something we reminded ourselves often when I was going through chemo) while money can’t buy happiness it certainly can help make things easier. And fortunately, this was one of those instances where this problem could be solved with money. Not happy about the cost of our hotel stay doubling but so very thankful that 1) the hotel had room, and 2) we were in a position to financially afford to do it. Could we have crammed into the twin room and had 2 in a bed and walk on top of our stuff? Sure, we could have and would have if we needed to, but fortunately this time, we didn’t have to.

Fruit delivery to the room. Funny, it went to the kids room. . .Bill and I got nothing.

Z looks so much like my mom in this picture : )

Twin beds for all : )

Off to lunch

Lunch at the hotel. . .Zach went for the burger

Cooling off in the rooftop pool

Oh how I miss the private villa already!