Wendy's Spoutings

What is it with hotel staff being the dumbest people ever?? Why, may I ask, would a hotel manager hire someone who has absolutely no knowledge of the town they are working in... what is the point? Maybe I am getting burned out (ok, I have been for a while), or maybe it is just because I am sick and drove for 5 and a half hours to get to Keokuk, IA, but this hotel has already pissed me off. I am willing to look past the fact that there are no automatically opening doors when I have to drag in my backpack, giant suitcase, golf clubs, and canvas bag and that I have to drink my diet caffeine free coke out of a styrofoam cup, but I think it is unacceptable not to have any knowledge whatsoever of the town you are in. So, when I checked in, I first ask (as any health conscious traveler would), if there is a fitness room. She informs me that there is a "very small one". So, I then ask, is there a gym nearby? She has no idea... was going to look it up in the phone book. So, I say, nevermind, I will look myself. Then as I am walking to the elevator I take a glance at the "very small" fitness room and there is one treadmill (being used), a bike, and a stairclimber - I decided to look for other options. Naturally, when I get to my room I look in the hotel information book... do you think they have any info? Hell no. They can't even tell me where the ice machines are (it says, call the front desk for locations of ice machines), and next to high speed internet access the book says, "high speed internet is available". Gee thanks. No other instructions or a cable or anything. So, I check the phone book. There are two gyms in town, I call both, neither answer. I assume since it is 6pm on Sunday evening, that they are both closed, but an answering machine with the hours would have been nice. So, I decide I will just have to find a place to run. This town is right on the river, there should be someplace nice. So, I head back down to ask the front desk lady for a network cable and to see if there is a fee for this internet access. When I get there she is helping someone else, so I peruse the information rack (again, looking for some kind of help with my exercise needs). They have a lovely color brochure talking all about the town. All it says for bike/running trails is "numerous parks offer walking/jogging trails". This sounded encouraging, so I asked the front desk lady again. She stared at me like I was a big green bug. She had no clue that there were any parks in the town. She said she thinks there is one park, but doesn't have any idea on how to get there. She takes out a map of the town that is absolutely impossible to read and points to where she thinks it is, but she is not sure. I then out of curiosity ask if she knows where the library is (thinking ahead for tomorrow) and she again has no clue! She cannot give me any other ideas on a place where I could run. Well, with my network calbe in hand, I go back to my room and look up the town on-line. They have a lovely website that talks about all ELEVEN of their parks. Can you imagine? They have 11 parks and she doesn't have a clue. So... I found a couple that looked semi-promising for places to run and headed out. I did find the biggest park that had some paths, but I wouldn't call them trails. It did have a full 18-hole frisbee golf course, too bad I don't have a frisbee. Anyway, the park is right on the river and there are very wide streets all around with gigantic houses on them, so I didn't have a problem finding a place to run through the park and the surrounding neighborhood. Other than the fact that I have not left my hotel room (well, pretty much my bed) for the past 4 days because I have been so sick therefore I wasn't really in running shape, it was a pleasant run. The river was lovely as it was very near sunset.

I have finally figured out what I can do after this job... consult with hotels and tell them all the stupid things about their hotels and their stupid hotel staff members and how they can really "cater to the business traveller's needs" as they promise to do but don't.