I flew in to Greenville SC today, where a double mix up ultimately got
me a free dinner.
You see, I was checking in to the "La Quinta". However, there are two
La Quintas in town, and I ended up taking a taxi to the wrong one
without realizing it. So the first mix up was my fault.
Once I got to the wrong hotel, I gave my name to the front desk. They
checked me in, gave me my roomkey, and put it all on the credit card
that had been used to make the reservation. But it wasn't my reservation.
So the second mix up was their fault. The only strange thing was that
the reservation they had was for 4 days when I was supposed to be there
for 2 weeks, but I assumed it was just a minor misunderstanding that my
boss (who handles booking the hotels) would clear up once I let her
know.
In my room I made a few calls to people letting them know I had arrived
safely, and this was where I began to suspect the mistake. When they
tried to call me back at the number used with the original reservation,
the front desk at that location insisted that I had not checked in.
After several more phone calls, and the appearance of the person whose
reservation I had apparently been using, we determined that I was at
the wrong hotel, and so I made the arrangements to switch over to the
correct hotel.
While I was waiting for my ride to the other hotel, a couple of
friendly hotel employees offered to share their dinner with me. This
made the whole ordeal worth it, as I got to hang out with a couple of
cool people and enjoy some good food.