Everything is going to be alright

January 29th, 2011

It was my first time to London and I completely fell in love with every aspect of it; the people, the history, the way everyone dresses, just the general essence of the place.  I felt right at home, and considering how our first day in Florence unfolded, London was dearly missed.  

So far so good as we grabbed a cab from the airport to take us back to our hotel in Florence.  I had booked us a room in what appeared to be a decent hotel, per hotels.com.  Unfortunately, that was hardly the case.  Our cab driver dropped us off at the supposed address of our nights accommodation, unloaded our bags and left.  We turned around and looked in an dark window with a sign that read: "Due to renovations, we have moved your booking to the Hotel Diplomat".  To say the least, we were livid.  No courtesy call or email or anything giving us a heads up!  Luckily, Katie had her phone so we dialed the number they had left on the sign.  They told us to walk around the corner and the other hotel would be there.  Hardly around the corner.  We walked three blocks down with our 7 pieces of luggage that probably weighed 300 pounds in total.  To make matters worse, one of the wheels on my huge suitcase fell off.  So there we were, two girls lugging around way too much luggage in a... not so nice area of town.  When we finally arrived at our hotel, the service was different than almost any experience I have had.  In America, customers always come first, they're always right and more often than not are accommodated if they are unhappy.  Not the case here.  The man at the front desk didn't even get off the telephone when he was checking us in, and the room we were put in was not what we were expecting!  We missed London and the fluffy pillows and bed in our studio suite at the Sheraton!

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After we checked in we immediately walked to the Michaelangelo (the hotel we were going to stay in the next night with AIFS).  Along the way we passed an illuminated sign that read "Everything is going to be okay".  That was just what we needed to see and it gave us a sense of relief.  At the Michaelangelo they were very accommodating and booked us a room there, and while it was no Sheraton, we were happy.  In retrospect, I realize we were probably overreacting and we should have been more understanding of the differences in our cultures.  But as most Americans, I'm used to being right when I'm a customer.