I was handed a letter from management at check-in, detailing the progress of the room renovations. The letter promised no noise before noon on weekends. Saturday morning, we were shaken out of bed before nine by deafening drills and hammers. When I called the front desk, they said they would make them stop. Fifteen minutes of noise later, I called again, and the front desk worker who answered said the noise wouldn't be stopping, and she was unaware of any letter. I asked for the manager, who was also unaware of the letter, but would move us to a higher floor. An hour of noise later, they called to say they had another room available, and asked if we required bell service to move our luggage. I said we did, and five minutes later, a front desk worker arrived at our door with new keys, but no cart or bellhop. I asked where they were, and she seemed surprised and said if we were willing to wait, she might be able to find one. I declined, and my daughter and I dragged all our luggage down the corridors and up the elevator four floors.
When we entered our new room, there was another letter, slid under the door, that informed us that the water would be turned off for no more than an hour and a half on February 17, 2007. This date was stated three times in the letter. Since it was MARCH, I assumed the room had not been entered in a while. I had a short business function to attend at 2:00PM. At 11:30AM, before I could jump in the shower, the water was shut off, and stayed off for FIVE hours. If the letter had been accurate, we could have planned around this inconvenience. I had to attend the meeting without a shower, and my 17 year old daughter was trapped in the room, unable to get a drink of water or use the toilet. Bottled water delivered to the room or an offer to suspend the $5.00 charge on the 79 cent bottles of water in the room would have been appreciated.
While on the subject of exorbitant charges, we have stayed in the Denver Tech Center many times on weekends, lured by the low rates on three and four star hotels in an office park that is deserted on the weekends. We have stayed at the Wyndham, the Sheraton and the Hilton, among others, and have had excellent experiences at all of them. All offered free self-parking, free WiFi, and continental breakfast among the amenities. The Hyatt charged $18.00 per day for valet service (high, but not unexpected), but charged $10.00 per day for self-parking that was a 15 minute walk from our room. The charge for WiFi was $10.00 per day, in a market where even Super 8 and Days Inn offers free WiFi to their guests. In addition, the charges were well hidden. The guest informant in the room listed the charges as being "at prevailing rates", like a lobster tail in a restaurant. We were afraid to move without calling the front desk to see what the charge would be.
We spent the remainder of our stay gazing over at the Wyndham, where the rooms and common areas were more luxurious, the rates were lower, and the services were included in the rate. All in all, a horrible experience that relieved us of over $200. I've had better service and accommodations for less than half of that. When I emailed the manager outlining our complaints following our stay, I received a badly written response that basically agreed with all that went wrong. However, no compensation was offered, and he concluded the letter with "I hope things go better the next time you stay with us". Delusional.