Embassy Suites - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

N424RM

I had a marvelous experience with my son recently. He purchased a larger private plane and invited me to fly cross-country with him. I was so excited, and a bit apprehensive since the longest flight I had ever had in a private plane was 1.5 hours! This flight would take approximately 12 hours and would be divided in to two legs with an overnight.

I'll write more about my wonderful experience later, but for now, I have to heed my good friend's warning about hide-a-beds in nice hotels... they aren't so nice!

Both of us needed sleep both before and mid-way through the cross-country flight. Since my son was the pilot, I knew his sleep was most important. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Salt Lake City and then, again, in Kansas City. My son took the bedroom with the king size bed and I took the living room area with the dreaded hide-a-bed.

The first night, in Salt Lake City, I did pretty well. It was quiet outside the door and the bed was... well, ok. I had to ask housekeeping for an extra blanket due to the A/C blasting into the living room. They brought up one of those flimsy synthetic blankets. (I'll bet they use the same kind in homeless shelters).  You can't wrap yourself up in something so synthetic and feel warm and cuddly. Oh well, I was tired after touring Salt Lake City and knew morning, and our much anticipated flight, would come mighty early.

The flight from SLC to Kansas City went beautifully. I just loved the mountain views as we climbed over the Wasatch Mountains. It was a great day and we avoided some thunderstorms as we landed at Kansas City's downtown Wheeler Airport.

We were off to the next Embassy Suites Hotel. This one was equally as nice as the one in Salt Lake. I headed for the hide-a-bed to open it and see how much bedding I needed to request. The sheets were thrown into the folded bed. I called Housekeeping and requested two more blankets. After two requests, they were delivered to the room. The same synthetic blankets.... and one had a hole in it. I decided that this night would be a repeat of the previous night.... a bit of discomfort but a decent sleep anyway. But Nooooooo! I was wrong. This Embassy Suites had windows overlooking the atrium and the hallway. Through the windows passed more noise than anyone needed in a night. Young people enjoying themselves at 4am, kids running down the hall and, the best of all.... elevator bells ringing almost constantly as the doors opened and closed on the 6th floor. With no one in them, I thought, why did these elevators open and close on a regular basis all night? Were there ghosts on the 6th floor pushing buttons?

Well, my buttons were pushed, for sure.... enough to write this little rant. So between you and me, the sitting area of an Embassy Suites hotel is definitely not for sleeping. It's for sitting and having a cocktail before dinner. Or, sitting and using the computer.

Rant over.....