The Mess That Is My Life: London...again

At the end of August, I asked my boss what the schedule was going to be like for the next few months...it looked pretty slow, and that I would be in Ottawa all of September, minus maybe a day trip to Montreal. A nice, relaxed pace. Two days later, I get an email asking if I could go to London for a week on short notice for a show and customer visit. While Jenn wasn't too excited at the prospect, it was that many more Aeroplan miles that we could use for the honeymoon, and she relented.

It started out pretty badly...we were attending a major show (DSEI), and as a result, almost all the hotels (well, certainly all the decent motels) on the east and south side of London were booked. We did manage to find some nice rooms close to the exhibition hall, but at $6000 for the week, it was a bit much for the company. A few hours more searching, and we were in the area and the budget.

Like normal, I booked my own tickets, and the sales guy (Peter) had my itinerary to do the same. The plan was for the Pete and I to meet at the airport, and I assumed that he was on the same flight. After kicking around the Ottawa airport for a few hours, I realized that he wasn't on the same flight. Hmmm...maybe we'll meet up in Toronto then. I check the terminal in Toronto, and still no Peter. He doesn't carry a cell phone, so by this point I'm really unsure what the heck is going on, but I have all the directions and reservation information, so I'm good.

A long ass flight later (first class thanks to some upgrade coupons), and I'm in London. $250 in cab fare later, and I'm checking into the hotel...I should have known it was a bad sign when there were 3 rooms reserved for "K Kunka" and another for "Kevin Kunka". I tried to cancel some, but the hotel staff thought that there might actually be another one out there. I mean, what are the chances that two are staying in the same hotel at the same time? At this point I still haven't heard from Peter either, so I'm a bit nervous. I log onto the net, check my email, and waiting for me is a "where are you" message from Pete. "I'm at the hotel...where are you?" "At the hotel". We finally talked to each other around 2pm, and made plans for dinner. One mess straightened out.

At 7, I met Peter in the lobby and talked to the guy at the desk to cancel the other (mistaken) room reservations. I was then informed that I would have to pay one night for all of the rooms as you can't cancel after 4pm. Astonished that the guy would argue with me (the customer is always right after all), we asked for the manager. And she preceded to say the exact same thing...we'd need to pay 1 night * 3 extra rooms. Finally I asked her to show me the reservation sheet that was emailed to her by the website I booked through, and low and behold, there should have been 2 rooms...one for Pete, one for me. I thought it was straightened out finally, only to hear the first guy argue with the manager that we should be paying for the room. Uh, shouldn't you just shut up and listen to the boss?

Dinner that night was pretty good, we were in a nice local restaurant (the only one within 3 miles, it turns out), and figured out a game plan for the next day. I was to meet the other Peter (our reseller in the UK) at 8am to head out to Jaguar for a meeting. Talk about a rude way to get over jet lag...I needed to be on the tube by 7am to get across town to meet UK Pete. Another 2 1/2 hours in the car to get to Jaguar, and I'm toast before the meeting begins. Thankfully the guys were really interested in our stuff, and they're continuing on with the evaluation. Think we'll get a car to test the GUI on later?

The show itself was pretty cool...lots of guns and tanks and rockets and such in the halls, a bunch of naval ships in the river outside, and not a single prospect to stop by the booth. It was pretty much a waste of time, and that's about all I have to say about it. If it hadn't been a last minute decision to go, I think we would have set up a bunch of meetings with customers to make it worth while, but it was just too late to organize anything. At least we know not to go back in the future. And even though there were hundreds of protesters, and a bunch of arrests, I didn't even see one. What a shame. I'll post some pictures later in the post.

Back to the incompetence of the hotel staff, though. It started with the reservation problem, then kept getting worse. Tuesday we asked where the closest pub is..."Just a bit up the road, no more than 15 minutes walking, 20 if you stroll". We head off looking for this pub, and after 30 minutes and no luck, we ask a guy on the street. "Oh, it's about a mile and a half up the road, you're about half way there." Good job, hotel staff, good job. We finally made it there about 20 minutes later, and the food was worth the exercise, but had we known the distance up front, I think we would have grabbed cab. We asked the cabbie for the mileage on the way back, and it turned out to be 3 1/2 miles from the hotel. I'd like to see anyone cover that in 15 minutes.

Wednesday and the problems continue...I get up, all ready to meet Peter downstairs at 8:15 to head out to the show. 8:30 rolls around and no Peter...I call up to the room, and he confirms that it was 8:15, and asks what time it is. "8:45". Apparently asking for a wake up call was just a bit too much for the staff.

It can't get any worse, right? Wrong...Thursday we call down and ask for a cab to the pub (no more walking for us). Peter even double checked that they called the cab. We wait for 10 minutes outside, then head back up to the desk to ask "Cab? What cab?". Honestly, they couldn't get a single thing right the entire week. If you're ever in London, never even think about staying at the Holiday Inn, Newbury Park. Out of all the places I've stayed in my life, it ranks right behind the Ranger Motel in Calgary (the single worst experience of my life, complete with body hair and blood on the sheets) as the second worst place in the world. Nice facilities, yes, but zombies would be an improvement over the staff.

Enough ranting...here's some pictures: