Michelle and I had a pretty but long and trafficy drive through the Sonoma/Napa valley area to get to Sacramento. The Sheraton Grand Sacramento is a nice hotel in downtown Sacramento. Although I do not enjoy the traffic in downtown Sacramento. Definitly a part of town where you will get there faster if you walk.
We had a great event today. I love devoted banquet captains. Also, for all people out there who are worried about checking out after the hotel check out time. Do not worry! I check out late alllll the time. When the hotel tells me we can't check out late I do anyway, and they never do anything. They have a lot of rooms and not a lot of housekeepers and it takes them a long time to clean them all, so I figure if it really comes down to it they can clean mine last. I have never been over charged for staying a few hours past check out time. Even if they tell you they are sold out, not everyone of their guests will be arriving exactly at check in time - they have the time to clean the room.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Santa Rosa, CA
After our original flight was canceled we got into Oakland two hours late, but I didn't mind because it let me sleep in longer. We then drove about an hour from Oakland to Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is in Northern California wine country, so I was hoping for a pretty resort hotel. Unfortunately that is not what we got. Our hotel is called the Flamingo Resort and Conference Center and the word "resort" is used quite losely but "flamingo" is accurate because that's about what it smells like. The hotel is located in the parking lot of a Longs drugstore and looks like a nursing home. You get two keys, one to your room, and one to open the glass security door to your hallway. There are no elevators so you have to haul your bags up the stairs yourself. I think from now on when I source hotels I'm going to ask if there are elevators, because in my experience a lack of elevators is directly corrleated to a crappy hotel, and as my team knows website hotel pictures often are very misleading. (I have actually heard of hotels bringing in furniture just for the day the photographer comes to take pictures for the website). I think this hotel may be the reason our registration for this event was so low; if I was a local I would probably avoid it if I could.
My poor coworker was originally given a room that was under construction and did not have a door, and then when she got another room, they gave her the wrong key. So about a half hour later, after she finally got another room, we went to go set up. I was surprised because our ballroom was already ready for us and our equipment was already there waiting for us. Needless to say that was not what I had expected based on my initial impressions of the hotel. They did however have much of the set up that I ordered incorrect; skirts on the tables, wrong size tables, too many tables, etc. And the banquet staff is dressed like they just woke up. Our banquet captain was a very large woman whose shirt stopped just under her boobs and literally had half of her stomach hanging out. This blatant lack of professionalism and the fact that when I asked when our AV person would be here in the morning and I got a weird look really makes me nervous for what kind of event I am going to be able to pull off in this facility. I hate when I get people giving me weird looks when I ask for things that are normal. I can always tell when I'm in a hick city when I ask a hotel for a latte and they don't know what it is. Tonight I got a weird look from this "resort" staff at the front desk when I asked if the gym was complimentary. They told me it was 12 dollars, but apparently I didn't ask the right person because Rob got a free pass from someone else who worked there.
We had dinner at the hotel. The service was really great and the food was pretty good too. Our banquet captain bought us dessert, so that was nice. Also, tonight there was karaoke in the restaurant and apparently last night was salsa dancing. We figured out that this place was probably the really hot place to be like 40 years ago. Michelle has a hair dryer in room that we're also pretty sure hasn't been updated in 40 years.
My poor coworker was originally given a room that was under construction and did not have a door, and then when she got another room, they gave her the wrong key. So about a half hour later, after she finally got another room, we went to go set up. I was surprised because our ballroom was already ready for us and our equipment was already there waiting for us. Needless to say that was not what I had expected based on my initial impressions of the hotel. They did however have much of the set up that I ordered incorrect; skirts on the tables, wrong size tables, too many tables, etc. And the banquet staff is dressed like they just woke up. Our banquet captain was a very large woman whose shirt stopped just under her boobs and literally had half of her stomach hanging out. This blatant lack of professionalism and the fact that when I asked when our AV person would be here in the morning and I got a weird look really makes me nervous for what kind of event I am going to be able to pull off in this facility. I hate when I get people giving me weird looks when I ask for things that are normal. I can always tell when I'm in a hick city when I ask a hotel for a latte and they don't know what it is. Tonight I got a weird look from this "resort" staff at the front desk when I asked if the gym was complimentary. They told me it was 12 dollars, but apparently I didn't ask the right person because Rob got a free pass from someone else who worked there.
We had dinner at the hotel. The service was really great and the food was pretty good too. Our banquet captain bought us dessert, so that was nice. Also, tonight there was karaoke in the restaurant and apparently last night was salsa dancing. We figured out that this place was probably the really hot place to be like 40 years ago. Michelle has a hair dryer in room that we're also pretty sure hasn't been updated in 40 years.
My trek.
I decided I'm going to keep a log of my travels. My coworker does it when she goes on vacation and it is very interesting to read. Even if it's only for business travel, I still get to see a lot of places and we always have crazy stories to tell, so it will be nice to be able to remember them.
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