kestrel

Happiness Is...

...a hotel room upgrade.

So today was my first full day of my November vacation. I rent out a room at an East Coast resort town and stay through the week of the USA Thanksgiving holiday. I did it last year (because 2018 was a year I wanted to see die in a fire, it was such a rotten experience for me), and it became a highlight. I resolved at the end of my vacation that I would do the same thing every year from now on, as long as I could financially manage it.

So here is November 2019. I reserve and pay for my hotel room at the same place I stayed last year. It's a "condo style" room on the beach (here, they call it "oceanside"), pretty much like a studio apartment, and it's right at the top of the town's Boardwalk: a broad, wooden walkway along the beach lined with more hotels, shops, and eateries. More about this later.

So I've settled in to my room Saturday night, everything is incredibly comfortable, and the only thing that's not right is that I'm unable to connect to their Internet access network. I figure it's not a big deal, I'll sort it out tomorrow. There are plenty of other things for me to do in the meantime. I spend the day doing beach things: eating, napping, reading, riding my bicycle along the boardwalk, eating some more, taking video footage of the ocean, skee-ball at one of the boardwalk arcades, and so on.

I make it back to my room, and decide to go back to the office and inquire about Internet access. But the building I'm staying in is not the hotel's main building. It's more like its second property. To check in to the hotel, I go to the first building, which is more of a traditional fancy hotel with a piano in the lobby, swanky bar just off the reception area, and so on. Much nicer amenities, for certain. The second building is like its scrappy younger step-sibling. The two main reasons I decided to go for the second building is that of course it was cheaper, but mainly because the rooms all have a kitchenette in them, which is what I wanted for my week-long stay.

At the receptionist's desk in the main building, I briefly explain my Internet access issues. She gives me a knowing nod, then explains that Internet access only comes from "one box, in one room on the bottom floor of the building, and if you are staying in the upper floors then you really have no reception."

I explain hey, I have a laptop and if there's a way I can just sit in the lobby here for a while and check my email, I'll be fine. I was offered to stay in this main building, but I wanted to remain in the second building because it has the kitchen and I wanted to use that.

"Well, we have one suite with a kitchen here in this building. Would you want to stay here instead?"

Maybe I blinked. I didn't want to announce, "Fuck yeah!" and I admit I'm proud that I maintained my composure. Instead, I was very gracious and appreciative. I used one of those bell carts to load everything from my room in the second building and haul it over to the first building.

This room is enormous. It has a kitchen, including an oven. And it has Internet access. So here I am. And I thought this vacation was pretty fantastic already. A free room upgrade makes it that much sweeter, says I.