Ribeirao Preto Hotel

OK, the photos of this hotel's pools may make this look like a terrific place to stay, but we were discussing its drawbacks last night and had a good laugh.

1. Two of my colleagues have been "spit" on with ice from the air conditioner! One actually called the repairman and found a solid block of ice within the components! Both also complained that the A/C wasn't keeping their room cool. I was lucky because my A/C worked great and could get the room down to 70.

2. Two of them also report that the TV or cable box isn't working. One could only get 2 stations (one showed Brazilian Big Brother in the evenings, which she wasn't enjoying). The other was stuck with one (he called the repair guy a number of times and is now on a first-name basis with him!). Although I didn't watch TV, mine seemed to be operational and offered a number of stations.

3. The beds are really firm. One wasn't able to get a good night's sleep since he arrived 3 weeks ago. I' ve actually slept on worse (in one hotel I slept on the comforter to add some cushion to the bed). This same guy also said the pillows were terrible because they were so high. He failed to notice that there was a Pillow Menu on the desk with 6 differerent types of pillows available (from "Sleep and Health" to "Firm Support" to "Goose Feathers" and " Baby") until we brought it up last night.

4. The desk chair is all wood with no cushion. It's probably the most uncomfortable chair I've ever sat in (no indentation for your butt). I don't think they really want us to work at night because the ethernet cable isn't long enough to work on the bed.

5. Every day Housekeeping would remove the comforter from the bed, fold it up nicely and store it on a shelf in the closet. Every night two of us would put the comforter back on the bed. I prefer having the weight of a comforter on me when I sleep. Housekeeping must think Americans are nuts because we can't sleep with just a sheet and a cotton blanket.

The positives were 2 heated pools and apparently one had a bartender that made the best caipirinhas and it was easy to get onto the highway to drive to work (which then meant we needed a driver to go out and eat each night). That's about it. We had a hysterical discussion about the hotel last night while driving home from dinner. Had everyone's complaints surfaced earlier, we probably would've changed hotels. I give my colleagues bonus points for making it through 3 weeks in this hotel. We saw our option, located across the street from last night's restaurant, and regretted not changing hotels earlier. Oh well, at least we could laugh about it!