Arrived in Ohio

This is a tale of two greetings. Often when I'm asked to fill out a guest satisfaction form and must rate the greeting from 1 to 10, I have difficulty giving anything higher than an 8. I'm greeted, I'm checked in efficiently and I'm on my way.

But yesterday when I checked in to the Comfort Inn, I got a greeting that rated a 10. She made pleasant conversation, asked about my trip, the weather, told me her name, asked me if I needed help with my luggage, told me she was going off duty in an hour but told me the name of the person replacing her. All of this without sounding ridiculous -- I felt that she genuinely enjoyed catering to guests.

When I checked in here, also a Comfort Inn, I got this grunting unpleasant young man who made me feel as if I were bothering him. I told him I had a reservation and he sighed like "Sure you do" and looked at the computer screen as if he were anxious to prove me wrong. I told him my preference for the area of the hotel I wanted to be in, and he was clearly not interested -- like he wouldn't even discuss it. In the meantime I had handed him my American Express card, he didn't say anything, but later when it was time to swipe the card he said dully, "Is this the credit card you want to use?"

No, I'm just handing you random things out of my wallet.

He finally writes my room number on the little folder and I ask him directly, "Is this room down this hall?" and indicated with my hand. He says yes. So I get in my car and park in the place convenient for that hall. But of course, it wasn't in that hall at all. I was tempted to go back to him, but thought it would just annoy me.

So here I am until Saturday with a nice room, but the world's worst hotel room view. In case you can't tell, that's a stucco wall with old boards on the ground.



Typical drive here -- nice weather, lots of sun, no rain, lots of roadkill, lots of cops, a few hitchhikers which I hadnt seen in a while.