I stayed in Yellowstone from August 18 to August 24 this year, 5 days
at Canyon Lodge,
and then 2 at Old Faithful Lodge with my mother and sister. As
always, the trip to
Yellowstone was for the most part wonderful, but there were some shortcomings
in your
services that need addressing, some fairly serious.
OK, I know the cabins at many locations are very old, and the company
doesn't actually
own the buildings, has to work with the park service on these things,
but holes in the
carpet right in the middle of the floor really should result in a new
carpet. (No, I don't
remember the cabin number, other than C something at Canyon, the one
with the loose
numbers on the door, the burned out porch light, leftmost as you face
the group of 8, a
step on the right hand side of the cluster was replaced maybe our second
day there
because the room attendants broke one with their cart, lucky it wasn't
a guest, the cabin
was probably charged to a Jennifer Johnson). Have you even asked
for them? But hey, I
know Yellowstone, so I said nothing. I also wasn't too worried
about bottom sheets not
tucked in the sides, a little dust, crumbs in the drawers, chemical
residue not rinsed out of
the sink, I have seen a lot worse there. I did notice some sharp
nails sticking out of the
window frames that could have easily cut people. They nearly
cut me. You would think
that you guys would occasionally find such things while dusting, or
that whoever put
them in there would realize that it was a safety hazard.
So anyway, I cornered an inspector (or I guess it is maybe team leader
or some such
corporate-speak thing now) as she was going into a neighboring cabin
the next morning
and told her about the sharp nails. I also asked for extra towels,
and said just to leave the
beds the way they were, as mom and sis had pushed them together.
I was being a nice
guy, it would have been possible but a little difficult to make them.
She seemed kind of
distracted (depressed? hung over? just having a lousy day?) but
indicated she understood
and it would be taken care of. She was not foreign, she was from
all indications a native
English speaker. When we got back that night we had the towels
thrown onto the bed,
but nothing else, no bathroom cleaned, no vacuuming. Also, the
sharp nails were still
there. I walked to the housekeeping office down by the beginning
of B and C loops for
something (I think it was hand towels and washcloths, or maybe a bath
mat, I don't
remember, or maybe they just replaced the two sets and didn't leave
the extra, I
remember I got some kind of linen or another pillow though) and let
them know, said not
to bother with cleaning the room now (although they didn't offer to),
but made clear I
never said “only towels”, just more towels and leave the beds the way
they are. I forgot
to mention the nails.
I thought it was a little curious that it was late in the day, there
were two employees
sitting in the office, dressed in lighter or different colored shirts
than the room attendants
(supervisor types?) and one was on the phone calling someone,
warning them that they
wouldn't be done by 4:30 today because someone had not been at work
that day. As I
walked away I thought to myself that maybe at least one of them just
maybe could be out
helping the stragglers hurry up one way or another so that guests wouldn't
have to wait
on rooms.
Keep reading, we haven't gotten to the good stuff.
Our last night at Canyon I was getting ready for bed, used the toilet
and it overflowed. I
took the car to the front desk, and told them. A maintenance
guy was there at the time
and he came out right away and plunged the toilet for us. Really
nice old guy, kind of
crabby, liked to complain a lot about things were run in a good natured
way (he had
reason to!), but very helpful. I showed him the sharp nails,
and he went to his truck and
got a hammer and smashed them down, took maybe all of 30 seconds for
him to do.
Earlier that night I had noticed my mother wasn't using her reading
lamp. When I asked
her why she said it was because it had been shocking her when she turned
it on. When I
looked at it , it didn't shock me, but flashed on and off like a strobe
light. I told the
maintenance guy about it and he said he would fix it the next morning.
He also called
the porter several times on the radio to get him to come and clean
the nasty toilet water
off the bathroom floor.
The porter (big fat guy, mustache, name tag said he was from North Carolina
I think) was
a different story. When he finally got there he was polite and
all, but proceeded to take
good bath towels from his truck (not cleaning rags) and mop up the
water from the floor.
I wonder if your guests know that their bath towels are used for this.
He also didn't
bother to use gloves. I never saw him touch the toilet itself
either. Then he asked if there
was anything else we needed. I asked him if he was going to use
any chemicals to
actually clean and disinfect the floor, which basically had been flooded
with raw sewage.
He looked puzzled by this, so I asked him if he had any Sano or anything
to spray on the
floor. He replied “I don't normally do that, but I can if you
want”. I replied that I
wanted, so he disappeared for 5 or 10 minutes, came back, and sprayed
Sano on the floor.
Didn't bother to wipe it up or anything, just sprayed a bit and left
the slippery stuff on the
floor. I figured he was hopeless, so I let him go. I wiped
it down myself. Good thing the
toilet water didn't soak the carpet. Fortunately our bag containing
our dirty laundry
absorbed most of it. It would have been a nice touch to arrange
for free use of the
laundry if not actually offer to clean the soiled laundry .
We just stuffed it in a large
plastic bag the next day that I got from a room attendant, nice guy,
Russian, didn't speak
much English, but with sign language and pantomime we communicated
enough.
I really wanted to complain after the toilet incident myself when we
left Canyon, but
mom said she would when she dropped off the keys, but she didn't.
Said the line at the
front desk was too long, but I think it is just that mom doesn't like
to complain.
The room at Old faithful was actually fairly clean. There was
a long (3 to 4 inch) drywall
screw sticking out of the side of the cabin near the front door, I
guess it was from when
they installed the ground fault outlets by the sink, it really should
be cut and or capped
before someone impales themselves. I didn't report it, if you
get a lawsuit too bad. The
adjoining cabin had a torn window screen, but I figured that was their
problem. The
showers in the Lodge were another story. Even after they had
evidently just been cleaned
(they smelled like it, shower curtains left folded over the bars for
some reason, to
encourage mildew I guess, floor mats up over the chairs) there were
big gobs of hair in
the bottom of the showers. I did ask for two extra pillows and
got only one, but that was
no biggie - I just got two more from a room attendant so I had three
extra.
I suggested we eat at the Lodge one night. It used to have edible
food for a not too
outrageous price. I was sorry about that choice. I wanted
lasagna, but was informed by
the nice lady at the counter after waiting in line for say 15 minutes
that they were out and
it would be 15 minutes (my sister said she thought the lady said 50)
till they had more, so
I went with the “chicken parmigana”. I got a truly enormous amount
of noodles (the
cover wouldn't even fit on the plate) which were cold in spite of being
right out of the
kitchen. A piece of chicken was put on the side of the noodle
mountain. I got my choice
of enough all purpose red or all purpose white sauce to cover just
the chicken (I chose
red) and maybe a tablespoon or so of parmesan cheese. I took
maybe 8 packets of
parmesan from the salad bar to put on the chicken, and didn't eat the
cold noodles. I also
got a salad, and put oil and vinegar on it. After eating several
bites I noticed not one but
two flies swimming in the vinegar bottle I was using. I went
to the registers and noticed
a manager sitting at one of the registers doing some sort of paperwork
with the cashier,
but mostly talking. I had trouble getting her attention, the
gossip was too good I guess, so
I went to one of the ladies cleaning the tables. She was Chinese
and it took a while to get
my point across, but eventually she realized that there were flies
in the vinegar bottle.
She carried it off and returned to cleaning the tables. No one
ever bothered to check the
other vinegar bottles while I was there, which seemed like a prudent
thing to do.
The Old Faithful Inn dining room of course was wonderful. It is
also extremely
expensive, so I guess it better be. Canyon Lodge Dining Room
was adequate. Ham Store
was the usual, so we ate lots of burgers and fries.
You guys are doing a really shameful job. This is the best and
oldest of all the worlds
national parks, the crown jewel of them all, world famous, a natural
showcase, and the
lodging is lower quality than a rundown, backwater Motel 6. It
is a national disgrace. I
say give the concession to whoever runs Jackson Lake Lodge or something.
Or farm out
the different locations to different groups.
I noticed that there weren't any of the comment forms in the rooms.
I wonder why. I got
one from the Old Faithful Lodge front desk and got the web address
from it.
peace and love
- Chris
********@bellsouth.net
http://j.charles.tripod.com/index.html
*******
Quote from Spock:
Pain is a thing of the mind. The mind can be controlled.
"Operation -- Annihilate!" stardate 3287.2.