A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
Some further comments about my stay and the hotel's airport shuttle bus service:
Part of this might be soft opening issues and some due to the road construction mess at LGA airport. The hotel was also filled with tennis people during my stay as it was located very close to the tournament location, so perhaps the airport and subway station shuttle bus was diverted to accommodate those going to tennis events.
1. I was instructed to call the hotel for the shuttle (basically upon demand) upon arrival at the airport. I did so and the service was reasonably quick--based on one data point--but where one gets the shuttle is confusing. I arrived on DL and walked outside from the baggage claim area, but didn't see any signage for hotel shuttles, just airport shuttles, public buses, etc.
2. I asked several staff members about using the shuttle to return to the airport, not only in the evening when I arrived but also early the next morning. Everyone said to just contact the front desk, which suggested to me that the service was essentially "on demand" and did not need to be planned/scheduled far in advance.
3. However, when I called down to the desk as instructed to say that I would want to use the shuttle pretty soon, I was told that the shuttle only departed for the airport once per hour (which I consider to be ridiculously infrequent for an airport hotel that is so close to the airport), on the top of every hour. This caused panic as it was almost the top of the hour when I called, while waiting for an additional hour would be much tighter timing for my flight than I would like. [One of the staff members I asked in the evening was the assistant manager on duty, not just a front desk agent, but the front desk agents said the same thing.]
4. The problem was resolved by the hotel holding the "top of the hour" shuttle for me for about five minutes as I checked out. I was the only passenger so this didn't inconvenience anyone else, but it did cause me considerable panic and anxiety.
BOTTOM LINE: Ask, check, recheck, verify, and verify yet again the shuttle return schedule to the airport at least four times to make sure that wheat staff members communicate on this important issue is indeed the correct information and allow lots of extra time just in case there's a unexpected problem in this regard.