University Place Conference Center Hotel Hotel - Page 2

The hotel was great for everything.

This hotel made me feel relaxed: The room was nice. It was easy to find things to do. I felt like I was at home.

My two best friends and I checked into the University Place Hotel and Conference Center this past Friday. We arrived shortly after midnight as we drove from Chicago to Indianapolis for the weekend. We were impressed with the contemporary design of the interiors and really liked the carpeting used throughout the hotel. Unfortunately, we did not know that we would become very familiar with it during our entire hotel stay.

After a few attempts to gain entry into our room, the electronic door system finally allowed us into our room. We were in a hurry as our commute to Indianapolis began a little later then we had anticipated. Thusly, we were scrambling to get situated and ready to go out for the evening. The room was fine with interior design and architecture paralleling the design in the lobby. We especially liked the LCD television and mini-fridge in the rooms, which is very rare, but very much appreciated. The room was rather warm, so we adjusted the automatic climate control system in the room. We set up our laptops and tried to log on to the hotels wireless high speed internet service. My laptop found the available wireless network, but we could not gain access. I then called the front desk to inquire about a guest log-in and password. I was told I would have to come downstairs and pick one up. I ran down to the front desk and the gentleman handed me a sheet of paper with the instructions to gain access to the network.

We then scrambled to get dressed and on our way. One of my friends commented on the room still being warm, even though the climate control was set to the lowest temperature with the fan speed on high. There was barely any movement of air from the A/C and it was just blowing out room temperature air. We called the front desk and made them aware of this, but there was no follow-up or engineer sent up. It was never looked at and we were made to suffer until check-out.

Several hours later, we returned to the hotel approximately around 4:00 am. Our keys would not work and we called the front desk who told us we would have to come back down to have them reactivated. We made the trek back to the lobby and handed them over to the attendant who rescanned them. We tried them again, but the keys were still not working. After a few minutes of sitting on the floor and my friends swiping the card repeatedly while puling and pushing the door, it finally scanned. Since we were exhausted we didn’t bother calling the front desk or going down there a second time.

When we woke up around noon, the A/C was still not working. We began preparing for the new day and left two hours later. After some shopping we made our way back to the hotel at 9:30 pm. We arrived at the hotel at 9:50 pm and made our way to our room. We then began to fumble with the inoperative door lock system again. After being out all day we were exhausted and I really did not feel like having to go down to the front desk. We called the front desk from the hall phone near the elevators. They told us we would have to come downstairs to have the keys reactivated again. I gathered all of our bags and we made our way back down to the front desk. They rescanned the keys and sent us back upstairs. We tried the keys again and they were still not working. The usual red light that flashes on the key reader was not flashing and neither was the green light. We called the front desk and the young man said he would send an engineer up to our room. After waiting for 15 minutes, a man shows up and asks for my ID. Annoyed, I show him my state ID and he then swipes his card through the key reader. There was no response and he continues to fumble with it. He then says he will have to send an engineer to take a look at it. I replied “I thought you were engineering because the front desk attendant said he would send an engineer.” He then said he was security. After mumbling something into his handheld radio he left us sitting on the floors outside our room surrounded by a days worth of shopping bags and melting ice cream that we had purchased to eat upon our arrival.

After having sat on the floor for an hour, I said I had enough and told my best friends that I would be waiting in the lobby until this is taken care of, as I don’t sit on public floors and walkways. After 20 minutes, my best friend called me on my mobile and said engineering drilled through the door locks and they were now in the room. I went up to the room and stepped over the shards of metal and wood chips into my room. The engineer took the locks and knobs apart and reassembled it after 45 more minutes. Since he was using the bathroom as his work station, we could not get ready to go out for the evening and had to sit in the room until he was done. We were running behind now and this whole ordeal wasted two hours of our time. He tested the lock with our keys and the lock would not work. He then tried it with his key and it worked. He advised us to have the key cards reactivated again for the 20th time at the front desk. We rushed to shower and prepare to go out and were finally able to get out of the room at 12:30am, which was in record time. We stopped at the front desk on our way to the parking garage and had them reactivate the keys.

We returned five hours later and again made our way to the room. We swiped our cards and still no response. We were again locked out of our rooms. We called down to the front desk who told us to come back down to have our cards reactivated. We complained and she said that the engineers were gone and if she couldn’t get us into our room, she would put us into a suite and have them gain entry to our room in the morning when the engineer returned, which really doesn’t help us since our stuff was in the room locked up. She said the security person would meet us at our door. We waited for a few minutes at our door and he arrived to swipe his key into the reader. The door unlocked and we went into our still warm room.

In the morning, after being harassed by the front desk staff and housekeeping about checking out, we went to the front desk to check-out and to speak with the hotel manager. He apologized and said he would check on the lock and have engineering take a look at the lock. I told him that the engineer had already looked at the lock and the mess from his work was still on the floor to prove it. He offered to give us free breakfasts if we returned and to handle our reservations personally when we wanted to make them. I told him I would never be returning to the hotel. I then asked him and the other front desk attendant why I would ever consider staying at this hotel when I can’t even get into my hotel room. If I wanted to spend most of my time on the floor, I could do it outside for free.

This has to have been the second most horrible hotel experience I have ever had. I will never consider this Hell-hole of a hotel again, and I will make sure this experience is well circulated amongst all the travel websites as well as with my corporate travel agents at work. No one should have to go through this as a guest with no amends being made afterwards, they didn’t even offer to comp the parking free breakfast on a return to the hotel? They must be out of their minds to even think that we would be insane enough to subject ourselves to these conditions and treatment a second time.

This hotel is really mainly for guests who are there for the hospital or are visiting the campus. So for this reason alone, I have to say this hotel is adequate as it is and should not be rated against such chains as Hilton or Marriott. It would not be a place to stay on vacation for an extended period of time.

I expected a lot worse than what I found when driving up to the hotel, based on reviews I have read.

It was not fancy, but it was nice. It is under renovation at this time and it should be done within the next few months.

I was NOT impressed with the level of service at check-in. I might as well have been at a Super 8. The staff at the front desk were passively rude and really made me feel unwelcome, even with such a high bid for this hotel. The gal who checked us in called to see if our room was ready and cleaned-this was at 4:00 pm! She told us our room would be ready in 10 mins. I said "No problem, we have to get our luggage anyway so it should be done by then I am sure". When we got back, 15 mins later with our luggage on the cart, the room was still not ready. I asked her if she could move us to a different room. She said NO they are all pre assigned. My husband and I stood and watched as couple after couple, guest after guest checked in and went to their rooms, while we stood in the lobby with our cart full of luggage. After about a half hour, I became a little upset, but yet was very nice about it. I just stood myself right in front of her at the desk and waited. The manager overheard me and my husband talking, and came over to check on our status. He was very upset when he found out we had been waiting for a room that long. He immediately checked us in to another room and gave us a junior suite! I was so thankful and impressed with this level of care and it immediately turned a bad review into a good start!

The room was more than I expected. But let me start with the trip to the room. Torn wallpaper, dirty windows and musty odors greeted us as we stepped off of the elevator. It is very dated, but they are remodeling and updating the hotel (not sure why they can't clean the outside of the windows, however, when they are only remodeling the inside). So, taking this in to consideration, I braced myself for the entrance to the room. I was pleasantly surprised by the room (again I expected much worse). This was a junior suite. The room was equipped with a fridge (didn't close all of the way), micro (old but worked), small sink, small table for eating, two chairs (dated and old but acceptable), King bed and nice TV/Armoire.

We immediately noted the archaic heating/air system controls that were located in the room. My husband said he might have to call Grandma to find out how to work them (I have NEVER seen controls like this before!) But the temperature was comfortable. The bathroom was large and came with Bath and Body Works Toiletries! WOW! That was it for me!

The bathroom also had peeling wall paper and was in need of many improvements. The shower..OMG.. The tub had mold in the corner where, to the credit of housekeeping over the years, the bath mat was rolled up and obviously not moved to clean every time a guest checked out. It was nice that they try to hide the mold and mildew, BUT OMG.. I was about sick at how thick and black it was. Nasty. That is totally a health hazard and uncalled for in any hotel.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a bath robe and slippers in the closet. Nice!

The room walls are paper thin. You can hear everything around you and across from you. Not sure why they made walls for these rooms.

We did visit a king room (actually the one they were going to put us in originally), it was still being cleaned after we had put our stuff in our room and were leaving. I can't imagine...we would have been waiting hours. The housekeeping staff were cleaning, all three of them, this one room. But SLOWLY, and one was hanging out on one of the chairs watching TV. Glad to know they were in such a hurry with a guest waiting in the lobby for the room! Thank goodness for that manager! Anyway, the room was not bad! However, I would never ever pay on priceline more than $30 for this room. HONESTLY.

NO POOL, NO FITNESS FACILITY and NO BAR. The sports bar is a TV set up on one side of the restaurant with a makeshift bar table. Totally hilarious. It is their temporary place though, until the Sports bar opens up (should be opened by now or end of Nov 2005). The restaurant was very good for breakfast. Buffet was $10 per person, and a good deal. However, if I didn't just like yogurt, cottage cheese and items like that for breakfast, I would have been disappointed. I tried the eggs, bacon and hot entrees they had and they were very disappointing. The tip is also included, even for two people, and listed under "service charge". However, they still leave a spot for you to add a tip (a little misleading, I think!).

For Fitness you can use IUPUI's facility at a cost of $2 a day for the basic area or $10 a day for the fitness center. We never visited either one so I can not rate. I felt this was a big rip off..the hotel claims that one of the "advantages" of staying there is the use of these facilities...of course, at a charge. Not much of an advantage to me (it is also a pretty fair hike over to the facilities from what I could see).

Parking per day is $10. Free shuttle to/from downtown.

The new facility is going to have a fitness area on the top floor.

We did see one of the new rooms, and to be honest..it is very nice, but NOT 3 star nice. The Plasma TV is awesome, and the furniture is nice. It has an ecclectic feel to it. The rooms though, are still small and are still the same size as a regular Motel 6 or Super 8 (set up the same too). I sure hope with all of this money they are spending they added some sound proofing to the rooms. They also had not added lighting to the closet area (in the entry way as you walk in), and they also took away the sliding glass mirror doors and put sliding wood doors in its place. A little more thought could have been put in to making the rooms not only more appealing visually, but also more functional and pleasing for the guest in the little ways that make you want to come back.

But it does appear that they are making things much nicer for guests, and that is a good thing!