We always try to stay at Country Inns & Suites whenever we travel even though they can be a little pricey. Weekday rates run about $100 a day. But they always have clean comfortable rooms & beds, with mini fridges, microwaves, irons, free WiFi, ect. and seem to attract mostly a better class of adult and business travelers. We're not snobs, we just don't want try and sleep next door to drunken partying, screaming, rowdy kids, ect. Plus they usually have a great hot breakfast with waffles, biscuits & gravy, bacon, sausage, ect.
So when we decided to spend 5 days in Amish country around Shipshewana, In., we checked out the C I & S web site. We found 2 in the area. One right in Shipshewana for $130 a night and another in nearby Elkhart for $100 a night. Since many of the places we wanted to see and visit were scattered around Elkhart and east towards Shipshewana and didn't require much driving and gas. We decided to save the $30 a night and stay in Elkhart. This might have been a mistake, since this hotel didn't quite live up to the standards we have found at other C I & S.
The room was clean and comfortable as was the king size bed we had requested and the room contained all the perks we expected like the mini fridge, ect. But we encountered 2 problems with this room that we hadn't encountered in other C I & S. First the temp control on the heat/air conditioning unit was SUPER touchy and hard to keep at a comfortable temp. It was either too hot or too cold and over the next 5 days we were constantly adjusting the control knob. The second problem was a safety issue in the shower stall. They didn't provide a shower mat and the shower stall was VERY slick and dangerous. After I came close to taking a nasty fall we put a large bath towel down so we didn't slip and fall. We encountered another safety issue when we stepped off the elevator to go to our room on the 4th floor after going out for supper. Not all areas of the floors and elevator are covered with carpeting and this creates a problem when people leave the pool downstairs dripping water. As the wife stepped out of the elevator she slipped on the wet floor and fell, cutting her knee on a strip of metal running along the bottom edge of the elevator door. She didn't need stitches but still had to spend most of the week walking around sight-seeing with a sore banged up knee.
Another problem was the breakfast. Well maybe not so much the breakfast but the elderly lady they had supervising the breakfast area. She was a sweet older gal but just wasn't the best when it came to keeping the food restocked. Especially when an unexpected problem occurred as it did the 2nd morning we went down to breakfast. When someone wanted a hot waffle she would make it for them so it was done correctly. But this morning she was busy in back when a teenage boy decided to make his own waffle. He forgot to spray the waffle iron with cooking oil before pouring in the waffle mix. The waffle stuck to the iron and made a huge mess. This in turn caused the lady attendant to completely lose it. She went on and on about how the waffle iron would have to be shut down and cleaned. And she proceeded to do so while ignoring the rest of the breakfast foods. In the 20 min or so we were there she let everything in the hot food bins run out and finally even the coffee and juice was gone. We were able to get some before it ran out but had to settle for doughnuts and cold cereal. People were coming in, finding very little to eat, plus no coffee, and leaving in disgust, but not before the attendant told them all about the waffle iron disaster.
The next morning we went down for breakfast and found most of the hot stuff gone again so we went out for breakfast that morning and the rest of our stay. One of the main reasons we stay at C I &S is the hot breakfast. It saves us $10 to $15 a day. With the safety issues and then the breakfast problems this C I & S did not live up to the standards we have come to expect when staying at this hotel chain.
