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I'd taken an overnight flight to Boston. As I said in my previous post, it was a rocky flight. Using air travel to get away from an historic atmospheric event means serious turbulence.
My connection to Portland was on a on smol plane. How smol?
Fortunately, it was not the smallest plane I've been on so I was pretty chill about it. I was just 'oh hey, two propellers instead of one!' Though the two little kids on the flight did not see it the same way. One kid was having a kicking, screaming meltdown behind the pilot's seat and at one point was kicking the pilot's chair. Also, it was raining pretty solidly and we were mostly in the cloud layer, so I didn't get to sneak in any flightseeing shots. Still, it was pretty cool to be on the plane.
As I found out later, most drivers decided to not return to work post-pandemic in Maine. Ditto wait staff and lots of other types of employees. I don't blame them one bit. But still, that and other pandemic stuff made for a colorful trip.
I waited 2 hours at the airport to get transport to my hotel.
At my hotel the problem with my booking meant I was just sitting in the lobby for 3 hours waiting for hotels.com customer service to get back to me. While I was waiting, they started selling the last few rooms in the place. They were down to 5, then 3, then 2 ... so I rebooked. I rebooked at a much higher price to secure the room. If they sold out before hotels.com fixed the problem I'd have had to stay at a $1k a night AB&B. That was all that was left. Hotels.com has assured me that I will be refunded, but me having a place to stay was entirely because I had room on my credit card to do that.
The hotel was very busy. Not only with lots of travelers, but with the residents. 2/3rds of the hotel was being used as a homeless shelter and they need to re-input them into the system weekly. The booking system wasn't liking all the exception codes and it was becoming a mess. There is a good chance the problem with my booking was their reg system having issues from said mess. I'd heard that a lot of cities used empty hotel/motel space to house people and also subsidize those businesses during Covid. I am assuming that's what was going on with this Motel 6. A nice lady from one of the church programs thought I was a resident and tried to feed me while I was in the lobby.
Anyway, that is why the check in lady didn't have time to even try to fix my booking problem for my pre-paid room. Obviously, people she's been dealing with for a year and a half and who are locals in need >>>>> random tourist with a Peak Design backpack. But, yeah it was a mess.
After all that I did a grocery run to supply myself for a weekend. Set up my little allergy-food pantry in my hotel room as I like to do. Then just stayed in and read.
My connection to Portland was on a on smol plane. How smol?
Fortunately, it was not the smallest plane I've been on so I was pretty chill about it. I was just 'oh hey, two propellers instead of one!' Though the two little kids on the flight did not see it the same way. One kid was having a kicking, screaming meltdown behind the pilot's seat and at one point was kicking the pilot's chair. Also, it was raining pretty solidly and we were mostly in the cloud layer, so I didn't get to sneak in any flightseeing shots. Still, it was pretty cool to be on the plane.
As I found out later, most drivers decided to not return to work post-pandemic in Maine. Ditto wait staff and lots of other types of employees. I don't blame them one bit. But still, that and other pandemic stuff made for a colorful trip.
I waited 2 hours at the airport to get transport to my hotel.
At my hotel the problem with my booking meant I was just sitting in the lobby for 3 hours waiting for hotels.com customer service to get back to me. While I was waiting, they started selling the last few rooms in the place. They were down to 5, then 3, then 2 ... so I rebooked. I rebooked at a much higher price to secure the room. If they sold out before hotels.com fixed the problem I'd have had to stay at a $1k a night AB&B. That was all that was left. Hotels.com has assured me that I will be refunded, but me having a place to stay was entirely because I had room on my credit card to do that.
The hotel was very busy. Not only with lots of travelers, but with the residents. 2/3rds of the hotel was being used as a homeless shelter and they need to re-input them into the system weekly. The booking system wasn't liking all the exception codes and it was becoming a mess. There is a good chance the problem with my booking was their reg system having issues from said mess. I'd heard that a lot of cities used empty hotel/motel space to house people and also subsidize those businesses during Covid. I am assuming that's what was going on with this Motel 6. A nice lady from one of the church programs thought I was a resident and tried to feed me while I was in the lobby.
Anyway, that is why the check in lady didn't have time to even try to fix my booking problem for my pre-paid room. Obviously, people she's been dealing with for a year and a half and who are locals in need >>>>> random tourist with a Peak Design backpack. But, yeah it was a mess.
After all that I did a grocery run to supply myself for a weekend. Set up my little allergy-food pantry in my hotel room as I like to do. Then just stayed in and read.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-02 04:43 am (UTC)From:That sounds like a huge headache with the motel. :/
no subject
Date: 2021-07-02 04:16 pm (UTC)From: