My Mom taught me if I didn’t have something good to say, not to say anything at all. Sorry Mom, but I’m breaking that rule today. I promise to go back to keeping it tomorrow……

Linda and I were in Tucson recently and decided to stay the night. We’ve stayed at some fantastic resorts there, most notably the Westin La Paloma and my favorite Lowes Ventana Canyon. However, based on proximity to the shoot, and in the spirit of trying something new, we picked the Doubletree Hotel. That’s a good chain, right? Their webpage indicated that they had a spa, pool, steakhouse, shuttle service, and a good reputation. Those are all good signs. How bad can it be? Right? Wrong. Let me recount for you.

(1) Tried to check in a little early and was denied. So much for great customer service.

(2) Instead, took a tour of the facility and discovered the Steakhouse also serves as breakfast and lunch buffet. We did later find out from an overeager staff member that the steaks come free soup, salad, and rice! So much for their nice steakhouse.

(3) Went looking for the hotel’s Mexican restaurant and the hallways smell like a frat house basement a la stale beer. So much for the hotel being clean.

(4) Order Chicken Mole and it tastes like it was seasoned with a bucket of salt. Oh, and this joint was so old and in need of upgrades they still had tube television sets over the bar. So much for other nice hotel food options.

(5) Spent some time at the pool and overheard some nice conversations about the following: prison, drinking liters of vodka a day, and comparing notes on consuming massive amounts of pain pills for recreation. At least one of our fellow guests was considerate enough to share their music… loud. So much for relaxing pool time.

(6) Asked the concierge about the free shuttle and if they had a list of nice restaurants in the area.  She handed us a letter size list three columns deep with choices, but since the shuttle only goes three miles, we can’t get to any of them in the free shuttle. So much for the free shuttle.

Talk about an experience not living up to expectations. I have more, but listing everything would just be overkill. I think we’ve finally answered the question, “how bad can it be?”, for ourselves. Yeah, it could have been worse. At least the company was fantastic (Linda). Yet, I’m thinking the next time we are in Tucson we’ll not be staying at the Doubletree. Just a hunch.

Happy Thursday!