Jun 09 2009
How long does it take to check-in?
As I approached the Travelodge my phone rang – it was 18.19 as the call came through. I turned off the road and into the Travelodge car park…
Well strictly speaking it isn’t the Travelodge car park, it’s the car park that they rent and have access to along with that American-Italian restaurant and the gym. I could tell there’d be trouble. Cars were slowly rolling to the exit. The car park was full, every vaguely safe but illegal space had also been filled, the rest of us were like vultures waiting for our opportunity – we were hungry to park and followed the sight of anyone looking as if they were returning to a vehicle to liberate that most valued prize, a parking space. The question is always “What’s the best strategy?”. Do you park and wait or slowly circle? Well four laps later I claimed my prize and graduated to the next level of this challenge, the check-in queue.
As I arrived at the check-in desk the man ahead of me was having problems – “Are you sure you booked under your own name? … Can you just confirm how you spell that? … Let me just check on this terminal… The system is really slow today. Do you have your confirmation number?” Eventually the struggle to find his booking passed a certain threshold and another member of staff arrived from the back room to begin to process me… and it sounded so familiar… “Are you sure you booked under your own name? … Can you just confirm how you spell that? … The system is really slow today… Do you have your confirmation number?”
Eventually I was issued with a keycard… only to discover that the room had already been issued to another guest so I returned to Reception, a second keycard… that didn’t open the door… a third key card…
It was 18.58 when I walked into my room.
That is 39 minutes between entering the car park and getting into my room.
Is that a record to be proud of?
