When we checked into our hotel on Monday, I was afraid it was in the midst of quiet quitting. That is the latest term for people who show up at work but give it their minimum effort. We used to call it being lazy--or a government employee. Lazy is also the housekeeping plan they encouraged us to choose--Decline service. No way! I can decline housekeeping at home. I would love to quiet quit that entirely. Since we are staying here for two weeks, they waived the $10 per day parking fee. Which they never had before. (And we have only seen at Marriotts in much swankier locations.) The airport Residence is hardly an in demand area. As platinum members of Marriott rewards, they are supposed to give us free bottles of water at check in. They did not, until we specifically asked. And our plutonium status also entitles us to either extra points or an item from their snack shop, I planned to do the latter, but she warned me to check it out first. I did. It was only one quarter full. The market pantry was definitely quiet quitting.
I was looking forward to a cup of coffee from the urn in the lobby, but theirs is only available at breakfast. When we got to our room, it did not have an alarm clock or the USB ports which even flea bag hotels now have. I have so many good memories of sitting on the bench in front of this hotel, reading, knitting, praying, and just enjoying the afternoon sun. The bench is gone. Tuesday I was going to print statements from our bank and credit card companies on the secure internet in the business center. They had two nice printers. No computers. The desk agent told me where to go (to have documents printed). He said they haven't had computers since Covid. I was unaware computers could die of Covid and none of the other hotels where we have stayed are that paranoid about computer Covid cooties anymore. A business center without computers is definitely quiet quitting.
Before we left for dinner Monday, I actually asked the front desk gal if the hotel was going out of business. She said no. The next day's breakfast, however, said yes. Both at 7:30 when Reed ate breakfast, and at 8:30 when I did, there was a only spoonful (hopefully not the same spoonful) of eggs in the breakfast bar that was supposed to be open until 9:30. Not a fan of eggs anyway, I decided to have oatmeal, but it had congealed into a hard mass that would not come out of the pot. My memories of their former assortment of fruit, cheese and pastries began to congeal too.
I'm happy to report that things have improved. They managed to track down an alarm clock for our room and Reed had enough adapters for our USB needs. Breakfast the rest of the week has been pretty good, although they were offering bananas so brown I would only have used them to bake with. There are no flavored creamers for the coffee, but that is more than made up for by the pumpkin spice Torani coffee syrup the last two days. They even have cold brew coffee, which I have never seen in a hotel before. And for three evenings in a row, in the lobby spot where coffee used to be, there have been cookies instead. And as of Sunday, there is coffee in the lobby. Reed told a reservations gal at West Star what seemed to be missing from the hotel and she knew the manager, so that is probably what brought about the change. Sometimes it pays to be the squeaky wheel. There are even a few more items in the snack shop now.
It helps a lot that it has been sunny and warm the past two days, so I am making new memories sitting in their courtyard until the sun quietly quits behind the neighboring hotel. So maybe the hotel is not quiet quitting, maybe it is just some of the employees. . . and whoever buys computers . . . and orders alarm clocks . . . and breakfast items . . . and snacks. And with that, I'll quit.
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