I had a rather interesting experience last week. We stayed at the Lodge at Eagle Creek, a HI Resort, near Bend, Oregon.

We checked in early, and went on a day of hiking. When we returned around 10pm, there was no hot water. We called the front desk, and were told, "it's a planned outage" which lasts all night. Planned perhaps, but not communicated to guests in any way.

The next morning, we awoke at 7.15am to construction noise (sawing/drilling) right above our room. I called the front desk, and was told, "yes, we're remodeling the 3rd floor." "At 7.30am?", I asked in disbelief, and the agent cheerfully told me, "they start at 7."

There was no warning on the website, nor were we advised at check-in or via a note in our room. I find this highly unusual, even though I admit that I normally stay in hotels of higher category, and mostly in Asia and Europe.

I did talk to the GM about this, and I'm not sure he even understood what I was talking about. We gotta remodel those rooms, and 7am is when the contractors start. Apparently we're the only ones who complained about the noise and lack of hot water.

I'm not fishing for points -- in fact, this place is a grotesquely good deal at 10k points (vs paid rates of $200) and they upgraded us to a suite, so I'd feel shabby arguing about getting my 10k points back. I am interested, however, if IHG has standards for construction notification, noise hours, etc.