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Clarion Hotel
3 reviews for Clarion Hotel
Me, my mom, and the dog needed a hotel to spend the night in. It needed to be reasonably priced, be near the race start, and have free breakfast. My search pointed me to the Clarion.
Since my mom is la vieja (old woman and I say this with utmost respect) the Clarion offers a discounted rate for what they called "Mature Travelers" of 55 and up. This is the second time we've stayed at the Clarion but the first for having the dog in tow. For a one time charge of $25 you can bring your dog, regardless of size. I was floored upon hearing that news. I must not fail to mention the free parking.
The exterior does look a bit shabby but renovations are under way. The rooms are cozy with tall beds, a safe, a microwave, and a mini-refrigerator, and flat screen tvs. Free wi-fi is offered and if you don't have your own laptop don't dismay. There are computers which you can use free of charge. There is a sauna, workout room and a pool that is currently closed due to renovations on that end.
We arrived and are greeted by the front desk girl. We tell her we've made reservations and she said we are on the computer but there isn't a note that we'd be bringing the dog. My mom had specifically mentioned our four legged friend would be with us. The front desk girl, a bit exasperated, explained the other front desk girl fails to note when customers have dogs. Our check in continues and our room is downstairs. As we walk down the hall we hear high pitched barking coming from one room. This must be the pet floor. We get to the room, open the door, and I can't breathe. The stench of cigarette smoke makes it hard to get air in my lungs. Didn't we request a non-smoking room? Apparently we were in one says the sign on the bedside table. The room this time around was a little smaller than the one before but I had no issues with that. I did spy some brown spots on the ceiling.
My mom informed the front desk girl about our stinky room and she then told her it wasn't supposed to smell that way. Hopefully she made a note for some heavy duty cleaning to be done. We decided to stay in the room afterall. With the help of the air conditioner the smell diminished somewhat.
After the run I went to indulge in the continental breakfast. There were plenty of choices. You could choose from bagels, toast, english muffins, muffins, yogurt, eggs, sausage, waffles, and cereal. There was a toaster and the waffles were do it yourself but from the looks of it a bit difficult to form a whole one. I ate and replenished myself.
We like the Clarion and as long as we need a place to rest our heads in Olympia, this will be it.
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I think things have gone downhill since that last review. It was so bad, that my husband and I can't talk about it without laughing. This is going to be a long one!
- The room had a very strange odour. It wasn't something obvious, like poop or rotting food. It was like a plasticy-rubbery-earthy smell. It was so bad that my husband and I had a hard time sleeping. We'd arrived quite late at night, so we didn't want to bother switching rooms. We probably should have...read on!
- Our showerhead was held together with electrical tape. It fell on me three times during my shower. I took pictures of it because it was so bizarre.
- The shelf in the bathroom was so busted, it slanted to the point that I couldn't put anything on it. The poor tissue box clung to the edge. I took a picture of my glasses teetering on the edge. (luckily, it stayed and didn't fall in the toilet)
- There was a near-empty juice bottle on the floor next to the bed that had been left behind by a previous patron. How can you miss a brightly coloured juice bottle!?! It makes you wonder what else has been missed....ew.
- The hot water was brown. When I called front desk to ask if a) this was normal, and b) if they knew whether or not it was okay to shower in (yeah, I'll shower in brown water as long as I know my skin won't burn off -- I'm a Vancouverite, we're used to that sort of thing). Here's how the conversation went:
"Good morning, front desk."
"Hi, our hot water is coming out brown. Have there been other complaints about this?"
"No, I've never heard about that type of problem before."
"Oh, um...well, our water is brown, and I don't really care as long as it's safe to shower in. Do you know if it is?"
"Uh....I really don't know."
"Oh, okay...."
"Um, but normally when no one's been in a room for a long time, and the water is brown, customers just run the tap for a while and it's okay. Did you try that?"
(Didn't he just said he'd never heard of this problem before....?")
"Yes, I did last night."
"Well, I guess I might be able to try to switch you to another room" (not sounding very willing to help)
"Well, I'll try running the water again for longer this time. If it doesn't clear up, I might take you up on the room switch because we're leaving this morning, and need to shower."
"Um, sure."
"Thanks for your help."
"Okay."
(Later on, my husband and I saw this guy running around with a cordless phone in the breakfast room - so his flakiness was probably because he was doing a million things at once, to be fair.)
Eeesh. So, I did run the water in the tub -- for FIVE minutes! I turned it on before I started to brush my teeth, and checked on it intermittently. Eventually, it cleared up. Based on the fact that he'd said "when customers aren't in a room for a while, it turns brown" that leads me to believe that no one had been in this room for a VERY long time. Mr. Juice Bottle's contents had probably fermented at this point.
Last, but not least, our sliding glass door led straight out to the parking lot, which was great for loading up our car (we had our dog with us). However, right outside of our door was a service door that had this awesome nugget of wisdom scribbled on it - "The tiger will kill you in your sleep." I couldn't stop laughing. My husband took a picture of me next to it giving the thumbs up.
If you're staying at the Clarion in Olympia, please request Room 112 - I want to see what else they can come up with.
Oh, and for the record - we didn't get mouthwash in our room. All we got were greasy bottles of shampoo and conditioner (ew!), and a dried out bar of soap.
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The staff are so nice! There' also a sushi bar, and the breakfast room is always ready! The colours a bit weird. But they gave mouth wash! There are rarely any hotels that give out mouthwash! The computers are a bit slow, but it's worth it!