I sent the following letter to Best Western after a terrible stay at the clipper club.
December 18, 2006
Gentlemen;
A month ago it was our misfortune to spend time at your Cancun Clipper Club while on a business trip to Cancun. My two office colleagues and myself could not believe this is a Best Western hotel. Our company almost always chooses Best Western not only because of the amenities that the vacation traveler might enjoy, or expect, but for the considerations that the business traveler both expects and demands in a hotel.
Before we booked our rooms at the Cancun Clipper Club we were assured that we had twenty-four hour internet access, fax capabilities, copy machines, a meeting room, etc., etc. After we checked into the hotel we scheduled meetings for that day with our Cancun, and Merida customers. At our Cancun clients’ request, our meeting place was to be at his office in downtown Cancun instead of the Clipper Club – thank God. As it was later learned, the meeting room at the Clipper Club was being used as a storage room, filled with tables, chairs, old televisions, a pool table, etc.
At the end of a very long, but productive meeting my colleagues and I darted back to the Clipper Club to put our notes in order and sign onto our company’s WEB site to upload notes, meeting minutes, proposals, and recommendations to our company’s mainframe in New York. We finally got back to the hotel, and none of our laptops could pickup the hotels’ WIFI signal. After asking the desk people what the problem was we were told that only half of the hotel could pickup the signal (obviously the half we weren’t staying in.) The desk clerk went on to say that we could use the computers in what was laughingly called the “business center.” The business center is a small room off the lobby with two desktop computers in it. The business center was filled with cackling young girls waiting their turn to Email boyfriends and girlfriends at home. There are no desks to spread out your paperwork, no fax machines, and no copy machines. Even if the computers in the business center were not in use we would not use those computers because of security reasons. We were told that because of the late hour (11:30 PM) we would have to wait till morning to use the fax and the copy machines. I was livid to say the least.
The following day had us at another meeting at 7:00 AM. At the end of the second day our notes were bulging out of our attaché cases, and we were starting to get impatient phone calls from our corporate office wondering why we hadn’t uploaded our business strategies. At the hotel we tried to get rooms that could pickup WIFI signals, but the night clerk said there were not enough rooms available on the WIFI side of the hotel.
On the morning of the third day I cancelled our scheduled meetings and called the Cancun Holliday Inn to see if they had any rooms for us, along with the business amenities we required – they did, and we moved. We stayed at the Holiday Inn another five days with no problems at all. After leaving Cancun we went on to Costa Rica, and then to China. We haven’t stayed at a Best Western yet, nor has anyone else at my company.
This type of treatment was unexpected, and totally caught us off guard. As stated above, our company uses Best Western more often than not, but this experience has made us gun shy, and will cause us to take a second look as to where we stay on future business trips. I hope this does not signal the end of a long, and satisfying relationship.
Sincerely,
Mary Chiazzese
I received an Email response from someone in management at the Clipper Club. In his response he said the reason we could not get a WIFI signal in our rooms is because "the walls of the building are too thick." Can you believe that? Evidentally they're not too thick on the other side of the hotel.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
