Arrived at 5:30PM, prime check-in time. There was nobody at the front desk, only a card informing that the front desk person would be back in 5 to 10 minutes. After standing around for seven or eight minutes it turned out that the front desk clerk was standing only10 feet away, chatting with guests in the lounge, and he finally looked over to discover that there were guests waiting to check in.
The hotel contacted us the day before arrival to inquire whether we had a pet or not; we replied that we did not. The front desk clerk asked the same question again at check-in, with the same answer. He then gave us a room that had obviously had dogs in it recently; the smell of dog was very strong. While we were trying to decide whether we could live with the bad smell, we discovered that there was no heat in the room, with freezing temperatures and snow forecast that night. A helpful young man came to the room and changed the batteries in the thermostat, but still no heat. Shortly after that, the power failed, and we were left in the dark.
Went to the front desk, again, nobody there. We called the phone number on the card on the desk but nobody answered. We called back a few minutes later, still no answer so we left a voicemail; no callback. Fortunately, the young man who replaced the batteries in the thermostat, had left his number in case of further problems, so we contacted him, and he gave us another room. The new room didn’t smell so bad, but still had no heat.