Three things I look for in a hotel are clean, quiet, and convenient. The Best Western Plus Palm Desert (California) fulfilled those requirements for me however they blew it in another way. It goes without saying that I expect whatever room amenities are included actually work. In this case the TV problems were pathetic.

The in-room TV channel listing showed dozens of available choices but only a few actually worked. I called the front desk to complain and they literally told me that our set must be one of the older models that does not receive all the channels so they would bring us a new one.

After half an hour of watching cartoons I called the front desk again to inquire about our replacement TV. The phone just rang and rang for several minutes with no answer. Eventually the ringing sound changed to a dial tone. So I hit the "O" button once more and once again the phone just rang and rang for several more minutes. Finally the front desk clerk picked up and told me he had been busy. Obviously he knew the phone had been ringing for a long time and he was ignoring me. He said he would have the replacement TV to us in a half hour.

Sure enough, a full hour after my initial complaint he knocks on our door and takes our defective TV to another room nearby where he intended to swap it for the better one in that room. It seems that he not only knew our TV was bad before he rented the room to us but he knew exactly where a better one could be found. I have to wonder why he didn't just check us into that room in the first place.

While he is exchanging the TV's we went out to dinner. When we returned hours later we discovered that the remote control had disappeared. I called the front desk again. He said he would bring us another remote. Half an hour later I walked up to the front office and found the desk clerk lounging in the breakfast room watching TV with his feet up on a table. He was on his break I suppose while he makes us wait for a new remote control. I spotted another employee in the back office fiddling with a bunch of remotes swapping batteries. Apparently he was trying to find one that works.

Finally he handed me one and said he would check on us in a few minutes to make sure everything was OK. He never did show up at our room but fortunately the new remote and the replacement TV worked fine - and it only took four hours to get to that point.

This is an old hotel with peeling paint in our room and 1950's era yellow plastic tub-shower. I don't know how they justify calling this property a "resort." We had booked this place in advance at a discounted price using "Hotels.com." I have to wonder if this Best Western Plus actually has better rooms, but reserves their steerage class rooms for customers like us who use discounter web sites.