Perhaps this place has new owners or management, but this was not the place we were expecting after reading many of the reviews here. My husband and I had the worst possible experience anyone could have at a hotel. Also, know that the hotel staff and management here is inclined to argue with you if you have a complaint.
On arrival, the first room they tried to give us smelled like cigarettes, so we immediately requested another room. The second room was clean but had a problem with a leak in the fireplace, and when raining- the dripping sound reverberated throughout the entire two story apt... disturbing our sleep for the first two nights.
On the third day, we moved to another room; however, this room had a problem with the heater not working. A maintenance worker finally arrived at night to fix the problem (the pilot light needed relighting) in the evening after we frooze in the room for most of the day. Please note: that's three rooms that had problems!
Just when we thought matters couldn't get worse: on the third night we ran into a problem with one of the the hotel desk staff in the dining room that took it upon herself to rudely interrupt our dinner... and misinterpret the alcohol and beverage laws in the state of CT.
To explain in more detail: the hotel has no liquor license. Also, do know that according to CT state alcohol law, a customer of a place with no liquor license can bring their own alcohol into the place as long as the establishment/hotel allows it. This is perfectly legal.
My husband and I happened to think it would be okay to BYOB into the dining area of hotel, given the CT laws... and we'd also seen other people drinking their own boos there... Lastly, one of the hotel employees also told us it should be okay, that they'd seen other people bring their own wine into the dining room.
However, on our third night, our dinner was rudely interrupted in an unprofessional manner by a hotel worker who approached us in public (when she saw a Margarita mix bottle on our table ) to tell us they had "no liquor" license... Please know the mix actually had no alcohol in it, however, she assumed it did. We were planning on mixing it with some shots of tequila.
When I tried to explain to the worker that "no liquor license" means they are not allowed to serve it, but it was legal for their customers to bring our own in, however, she insisted we could not drink there. At that point we politely told her we would not drink any more and we did abide by her request.
Now we thought the matter was resolved, until she returned 10 minutes later and continued to harass us because she thought the non-alcoholic beverage mix bottle, which was still sitting on our table had alcohol in it... and she wanted us to remove it from the table. We explained to her there was no alcohol in the bottle and we even offered to let her read the label and examine the contents....
At this point, instead of apologizing, she threw her arms up on the air and stormed off in the other direction... as though to question our explanation. Her behavior was quite upsetting to us..., especially after all the problems we'd already experienced at the hotel and we'd already agreed we would not drink there.
Mind you, my husband and I are in our mid 50s. We were not partying or being loud or obnoxious in any manner.... we were quietly eating our dinner and minding our own business. I was going to forget about this whole incident, but another worker at the hotel there told us they'd had a lot of problems with the particular worker... and he suggested that we report her to the management.
However, when we reported the workers' rude behavior to the hotel manager, instead of offering us an apology, the manager argued with us... defending this person's unprofessional behavior.... stating that perhaps it was her "perception that there was alcohol in the bottle". I was thinking for goodness sake in this country aren't we suppose to be "innocent until proven guilty"! The hotel manager had the nerve to defend of their workers' rude behavior based on her false "perception" and not any actual "facts" of the matter. I could not believe the unprofessional manner of the staff much less the managment!
At this point, my husband and I were totally irate and knew we couldn't stay at this hotel any longer. So we cut our stay short by one day.... and booked a hotel room over at the Marriott Courtyard.
In closing I want to point out that I do understand a hotel or establisment has the right to not allow liquor on their premises if they don't want it there, however, no where in their hotel contract or other published "policies" posted in their lobby.... do they state that their hotel guests cannot bring their own liquor onto the premises. And it's unreasonable for them to assume their customer should know what their policies are without informing them.
The only saving grace to our stay was that the management discounted our rooms because of all the problems we'd had with the leaking fireplace and broken heater... but even at that we would never stay there again. Given our experience, it was not even worth the discounted price.
One last thing: do know that they will book your entire stay in advance, instead of waiting for the day you check out. This tells me they're used to people leaving early. So to get our discount they had to refund the credit to our credit card.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
