Memphis Travelodge Motel Blues
Jan 5, 2004, 7:43 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Austin
Programs: AA P4L, WN, BA, DL, UA, HHonors, IHG
Posts: 3,485
Memphis Travelodge Motel Blues
On December 30 I found myself in Memphis, TN, with no hotel reservations. I picked up a lodging discount book at McDonalds and saw a $35.95 coupon for the Travelodge Airport / Graceland. "What the heck," I thought, "how bad can it be?!"
Well, pretty bad, actually.
When I entered the motel's driveway I had to wait for a group of "street youth" to amble out of the way. They evidently like to hang in the parking lot of that motel, because they were still there half an hour later. When I entered the office there was a disheveled person talking with the clerk, requesting a room. Well, actually he was requesting to see a room. "What kind of room?" asked the clerk skeptically. "Any room," was the answer. The clerk took the man's ID and gave him a room key.
I was the next customer. The clerk agreed to honor the coupon price, so I rented a room for the night. The room was actually rather spacious, there was no cigarette odor and everything seemed to work, so I took it.
Later in the evening I discovered some disappointing facts about the room:
-- The heater thermostat had a wide deadband, so the room temperature would get very cool before the heater started, then would get very warm before it shut off.
-- The exhaust fan in the bath was one of those loud ones.
-- The color TV had a problem, so there was no red in the picture. The picture was composed only of blues and yellow-greens. I tried to adjust it, but there was no way to get normal colors.
-- The sound of 18-wheelers and of emergency vehicles with sirens blasting reminded me constantly of how close the interstate was.
-- A few aircraft could be heard taking off from the very-nearby airport.
These kinds of problems are rather common in inexpensive motels, and I generally expect some of them while traveling. But I didn't expect what happened later.
Shortly after going to bed I heard a large truck driving around in the parking lot. Suddenly there was a tremendous crashing sound, as if the truck had collided with something or its cargo had fallen off. I never learned what happened.
Sometime after midnight I was awakened from a deep sleep by the incredibly loud sound of an airplane passing very low overhead. "Pull up! Pull up!" I thought to myself while awaiting the impact. There was no crash and I drifted back to sleep.
At 4:25 AM planes started taking off in rapid succession. Memphis is the home of FedEx, so perhaps these were cargo aircraft. After a while all the planes had gone, then the mysterious door-knocker arrived. He banged on my door, yelled something and left. Was the motel on fire? I looked for emergency-vehicle lights outside, but there were none. A couple of minutes later a car started driving around in the parking lot honking its horn. It looked and sounded like a junker on its last legs (wheels), and eventually it left. Maybe it belonged to the knocker guy.
Nothing else happened until my alarm went off at 5:30, and motel check-out was uneventful.
In the future I think I will skip super-discount motels in urban areas.
Well, pretty bad, actually.
When I entered the motel's driveway I had to wait for a group of "street youth" to amble out of the way. They evidently like to hang in the parking lot of that motel, because they were still there half an hour later. When I entered the office there was a disheveled person talking with the clerk, requesting a room. Well, actually he was requesting to see a room. "What kind of room?" asked the clerk skeptically. "Any room," was the answer. The clerk took the man's ID and gave him a room key.
I was the next customer. The clerk agreed to honor the coupon price, so I rented a room for the night. The room was actually rather spacious, there was no cigarette odor and everything seemed to work, so I took it.
Later in the evening I discovered some disappointing facts about the room:
-- The heater thermostat had a wide deadband, so the room temperature would get very cool before the heater started, then would get very warm before it shut off.
-- The exhaust fan in the bath was one of those loud ones.
-- The color TV had a problem, so there was no red in the picture. The picture was composed only of blues and yellow-greens. I tried to adjust it, but there was no way to get normal colors.
-- The sound of 18-wheelers and of emergency vehicles with sirens blasting reminded me constantly of how close the interstate was.
-- A few aircraft could be heard taking off from the very-nearby airport.
These kinds of problems are rather common in inexpensive motels, and I generally expect some of them while traveling. But I didn't expect what happened later.
Shortly after going to bed I heard a large truck driving around in the parking lot. Suddenly there was a tremendous crashing sound, as if the truck had collided with something or its cargo had fallen off. I never learned what happened.
Sometime after midnight I was awakened from a deep sleep by the incredibly loud sound of an airplane passing very low overhead. "Pull up! Pull up!" I thought to myself while awaiting the impact. There was no crash and I drifted back to sleep.
At 4:25 AM planes started taking off in rapid succession. Memphis is the home of FedEx, so perhaps these were cargo aircraft. After a while all the planes had gone, then the mysterious door-knocker arrived. He banged on my door, yelled something and left. Was the motel on fire? I looked for emergency-vehicle lights outside, but there were none. A couple of minutes later a car started driving around in the parking lot honking its horn. It looked and sounded like a junker on its last legs (wheels), and eventually it left. Maybe it belonged to the knocker guy.
Nothing else happened until my alarm went off at 5:30, and motel check-out was uneventful.
In the future I think I will skip super-discount motels in urban areas.
Jan 10, 2004, 4:59 pm
#4
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Redondo Beach, CA USA
Programs: UA 1KMM, Bonvoy LTE+A, HH D, Nat'l EE, Hertz Plat, Avis PC
Posts: 3,711
God, I'm going to sound like such a snob, but when you pick a hotel out of a McDonald's discount book (and that hotel is a TRAVELODGE, of all things), what the heck did you expect?!