So we recently went to the Hamilton area to visit with family, and to be able to enjoy the stay and not feel rushed to get back to the park and the three hour drive at night we decided to spend an evening at one of the local hotels. Now we don’t think lightly the expenditure a room for the night with all the taxes was very close to $150, this is a reasonably new hotel six floors, a couple of chain restaurants, close to a Walmart and shopping plaza.

We were treated to a sixth floor room with a view of Lake Ontario and the sky line of Toronto, which the desk clerk was very proud of, having lived and worked in the area for years, while nice was not as big of deal as he had probably hoped. And because after checking in we experienced multiple rolling thunder heads at times so we barely able to see the major highway that also was just outside of the window … funny how that wasn’t mentioned.

While this area on the border of Hamilton and Stoney Creek, and used to be a heavily Italian influenced area, now as Trontonians are being forced to look outside of metropolitan Toronto area to find more affordable housing, it has became a more heavily East Indian influenced area with most of the local stores as well as the Hotel being staffed by many local East Indians. Why I mention this is because in the couple of decades or so since we lived and worked in this area, it was truly amazing how the area has changed. But I’m obviously getting off topic with this observation, as it was the condition of this reasonably new hotel with multiple missing and broken items that was the trigger this blog. None of the issues would have taken more that ten minutes to repair all of them, so why doesn’t happen, that’s why I called it no pride either at the management level or the staff either housekeeping or maintenance just didn’t seem to care enough.

So a soap dish in the shower – missing, the door stopper – missing, the window lock – broken and just hanging there, and of course one of the two elevators was not working, the repair truck was there the day we arrived and was back when we checked out and the second elevator seemed to at least be lit up at checkout.

None of the issues were earth shattering, but the soap dish which is a poor design anyway, it is the only place in the shower to put your soap or shampoo other than the floor. The door stopper only protects the wall from the door knob when the door is opened too far, and the window lock not a real issue on the sixth floor, more a cosmetic issue just left hanging there. The most annoying was the elevator, with social distancing and Hamilton’s new mask rules, the elevator was a one family at a time or a single person at a time, so at check out time there were people waiting on almost every floor to escape the hotel. Like I said nothing earth shattering, just some what annoying, but we look at everything with a critical eye because it’s those little thing that turn people away from a revisit, and in a climate of recovery after the pandemic why would you give anyone a reason to not return?

One of the most disheartening things, this is a Canadian based hotel chain, and at a time when we are trying to support local and Canadian it is a truly difficult pill to swallow.

This is an actual post from their website: Sandman Hotel Group is Canada’s fastest-growing, privately-owned hospitality company. A Canadian success story, we are continually refining our guest experience, finding new cities to call home, and we’re always on the move! By choosing Sandman Hotels, Resorts, Inns, Suites, or one of our premium Signature locations, you are guaranteed the extra measure of quality, comfort, and personal convenience you are looking for. Sandman Hotel Group proudly owns and operates 56 hotels in 4 countries with 51 locations across Canada, 3 in the UK, 1 in Ireland, and our first US location in Plano, Texas.

We will contact the company to forward our concerns, as minor as they are because that the proper thing to do, because I’m pretty sure someone will not be pleased at the head office, and as a previous business owner we had to rely on staff to do the little thing to make us great, and if they missed the mark it was always our customers that were the final quality control … and usually let us know about our short comings in great detail … just saying

Monday August 17th 2020

As I mentioned recently we have just passed the three month mark from our opening date, which means there are only two months and a few days left of the camping season. Which bring on a whole bag of mixed emotions for us, on one hand in less than three months we are on vacation till next spring, while on the other hand there is the sadness of saying goodbye to so many of our seasonal friends. And with the future holding so many unknowns it has been impossible to plan our winter season at all yet, we are still just kicking ideas around. The only thing we are sure of is that we will winter some where warm … just saying.

As usual by this point into the season because we are asked to enforce the park policies, it’s most likely we have annoyed a few people, who of course have send an emails to Rich and Bonnie to express their displeasure with how we handled some situation. And we get labeled with some interesting terms, and of course this year is no different, so far this year here are a few that have been thrown our way. One of the seasonal campers, told me my self life was about up, I have to assume that he means that my expiry date is close at hand, I hope he was just talking about my career life … not my actual life (as I would hate to thing I had wasted some of it on him). And then some unnamed person giving a review called me a grumpy, dangerous, old man, because they were too cowardly to use their real name we don’t know who, but because of the comments, it’s obvious someone who had to be told to be quiet at some point and took offence to being asked to abide by the park rules. Again obviously someone from the timeout generation as opposed to the ass whoopen generation … just saying.

The irony is not lost on us that it’s always someone who is breaking the rules always thinks that we are picking on them, well yes we are if you call trying to enforce the rules that they agreed to in your contract as picking on them. And of course then they don’t like our attitude, well guess what we don’t like your attitude either, what would make you think that we want to be verbally abused by some rule breaker that has to lash out when brought to task. Like seriously we would like people just to be respectful, not try to sneak guests onto their site to save a couple dollars, like if your friends aren’t worth five dollars you need a better class of friend … just saying.

So you might ask why we do what we do, why would we put up with the verbal diarrhea that is sometimes spewed our way … well there is a simple reason … it’s the other 95% of the park that appreciate what we do to keep everyone safe and comfortable. It’s all the good people that bring so much joy and satisfaction to our job and our lives, that make up for a few with bad attitudes. It just takes a smile, a thank you, any sign of appreciation, that keeps us coming back for more, Laurie and I both have worked in the service industry for years because we like to help people, the note below is an example of why we do what we do, not the long hours or the complainers.

There are a far more great guests here at LHR, than bad ones, the problem is that the bad ones are very time consuming and needy, asking the same question, multiple ways looking for the answer they want to hear. They are people that bad mouth everything and everyone, you know the ones that don’t appreciate, what they have, and as I have said before that’s why there are wheels under your unit, just step up, drag it out of here, and try it somewhere else, see if they put up with your old baggage and BS. But they don’t go because they are the ones that are taking advantage of the park every chance they get, and the ones that let their children run around like hodlums, and expect us to keep them safe from speeders and the like. They are the ones that steal the bag of wood late at night after the office is closed, the funny thing is they don’t think we see or know who is trying to cheat the system by having guests come in after the office closes. No actually we see most that goes on, and know where to look for most problems, as they occur in the same areas every time.

So for better or worse The Buchanan’s have committed to another year at LHR, some will be glad while some others will be sad, but either way I guess my “shelf life” has been extended for at least one more year.