CJKatl

I gave this property a second chance. The hotel is clean and as good as any SHS, the front desk staff is very nice, but my experience with the shuttle went from very bad the last time to inexcusable and scary this time. Do not stay at this hotel if you need to take the shuttle.

This time, I called ahead of time and was told the shuttle would be running and airport pickups were the priority. When I arrived, I called and gave them my gate number. The hotel instructed me to walk to the Continental pick-up point, rather than the Delta pick-up. Number-wise, it seems like the closer gate, but it is quite a hike as Gates 16 and 17 are actually in different buildings. While walking there, the shuttle passed me. I tried to wave him down, but he pulled ahead. I ran to the shuttle to make sure he wouldn't leave.

Once my luggage and I were in the shuttle, I asked why they sent me to the Continental pick-up, rather than the Delta. This had happened both this time and last time. My thought was that they didn't realize the Delta flights were all in a different terminal and/or had it written down incorrectly somewhere. I thought I was being nice in pointing this out. Every other hotel shuttle picks up Delta passengers at Gate 10, in the Delta area.

It turned out this was the same shuttle driver from last time. He EXPLODED on me. He leaned over the seat, spit flying, and yelled "I am only a driver. I'm not a terrorist. I am in this country legally. I am a citizen. I have two children." I don't know where this came from. None of these were topics I brought up. I only brought up the pick-up point.

At this point, I got scared, so I hit redial on my phone and just turned it towards the driver so the desk clerk could hear. After about five seconds - she later told me she was confused but wondered why she was listening to a man going viral - I quietly said to her that this is how the shuttle driver was yelling at me and I needed to get off the shuttle. She stayed on the phone with me as I told the driver that I needed to get off the shuttle. I opened the door, started to get out of the van, AND HE STARTED TO DRIVE AWAY. I leaned back into the van and again told him I did not feel comfortable and needed to get out of the van. This time he got out of his side of the van, went to the back, took out my suitcase, dumped it on the ground and drove off.

The front desk clerk stayed with me on the phone while she called the manager to pick me up.

The manager came and picked me up. I'm calm now, but this man should not be driving a van. As long as there is any chance that he would be picking guests up from the airport, I would avoid staying here if you need to take the shuttle from the airport.

I have played this over in my head several times and cannot figure out where he could have possibly interpreted anything I said to have brought up terrorism, immigration status, citizenship, his children or to have enraged this man.

Possibly it had to do with the last time, when the driver chose to drive people across town to a far away restaurant knowing that I was at the airport. I complained and the hotel assured me that the driver now understood that the airport runs were priority. Perhaps this cut off lucrative tips for him. Whatever the cause, there is never a good reason for the shuttle driver to yell to the point of spit flying or to drive off when a passenger says he is getting off the shuttle.