So I had a frustrating experience at a hotel a month ago and the parking ticket ended up costing me $100. So I'm going full Karen on this... I mean realistically the average Tweet has better SEO than my posts so nobody's going to see this, but I'm a small and petty man and this is what I've got.
tl;dr: The "Ottawa West" (Algonquin College Building R) Residence and Conference Centre is a crappy place to stay for reasons that have nothing to do with it being a college residence and are mostly about it being poorly-run.
Pain points:
- Parking-ticket bureaucracy nightmare from check-in,
- False-alarm bedbug scare,
- Incorrect info from desk staff and phones.
Tolstoy
We stayed at the "Ottawa West" Algonquin Building R Residence and Conference Centre for a weekend competition. I was realistic that this was a dorm and not a hotel, but it failed at even that. When I arrived, the drop-off zone in front of the building was full so I used a drop-off zone around the side. It was signed as "stay with your vehicle", but the drop-off zone in front of the building said same and everybody was leaving their car there to check in (that's why it was full).
I went in and explained the situation to staff and they said that parking there would be fine for half an hour. I checked in and went to my room and found a bed with bed bug interceptor traps under the legs. So I spoke with the front desk about getting an alternate room and they said no, but that the rooms had been cleared of bugs and the interceptor traps were left by accident. I'd been driving for 6 hours and didn't want to fight, so we took the room. Fortunately, no bed bugs happened, just the stress of seeing bed bug traps.
Of course, in this 20 minute period, my car got a $100 parking ticket. So I went in and asked about it. They said it would be fine and to call Algonquin's parking coordinator, as they have a number for parking appeals. I left messages with them, but didn't get an answer for days. Eventually I got through to somebody and said they don't do parking appeals at all.
So far
- The signage is wrong (the rules aren't the same for front vs side).
- The cleaning staff was wrong (oops we left the traps).
- The desk was wrong (yes you can park there for half an hour no you can't).
- The phone system of Algonquin's parking is wrong (yes you can appeal your ticket here no you can't).
So I called the City of Ottawa, who actually enforces the parking tickets. They said to file appeal online. So I filed appeal online. In doing so I give up the $20 early-payer discount, but the desk staff said it would get sorted out.
City of Ottawa replied 4 weeks later, requesting that I get a letter from the Algonquin Parking Administration that says that it was okay to park there at that time. They gave me 5 days to get that letter (they get 4 weeks, I get 5 days, see how that works?).
So I called the parking admin to request a letter. They said to send an email. So I sent an email to request a letter. They said no, you can't park there. Another thing the desk staff was wrong about.
I'm going to keep hassling people, but at this point I accept I'm out $100. So I call Algonquin College Building D to ask to speak to the manager to let them know how bad things went, just to log a complaint. The man on the phone seems quite annoyed that I'm discussing an incident that happened over a month ago, as if I'm the reason it took over a month to get to this point.
I was not allowed to leave a complaint with the manager.
Conclusion
I didn't even mind the beat-up looking rooms, the rowdy students (and at least once the campus security having to babysit a student in distress in the lobby). All I expected was a pair of clean beds for my kid and I and a place to park my car.
Well, the beds were clean, they got that going for them.