Best Western Plus Omaha Airport Inn — Hotel in Carter Lake

Really surprised by all the good reviews of this hotel, I just had one of the worst customer service experiences ever with the front desk person while trying to check in. I’m not the type to complain usually but the rudeness of the staff person in this interaction was bafflingly off the mark and uncalled for.

Just a bit of backstory: my wife and kid and I are in the process of moving to Omaha for a new job. I arrived in town early to secure housing, but since the house won’t be move in ready for a few days, a hotel in the interim was necessary.

I got to the hotel at around 1:20pm today and asked the front desk person if an early checkin was possible. This is something I occasionally ask at hotels & airbnbs, knowing full well not to expect the room to be ready, but often times it is and they are able to accommodate. Never hurts to ask… I thought.

She cut me off to say they have been busy and the room won’t be ready until the 3pm checkin time listed on the reservation. Ok no worries I say. I leave for a couple hours and come back at 3:25pm.

The woman that I had spoken with earlier was present at the front desk, but I interacted with another employee this time. She pretty coldly asked how she could help me. I said I was checking in, and she flatly delivered a line like “not if the room isn’t ready”. Seriously all I said in response to this was something to the effect of “oh ok I thought checkin time was 3…”

At that point she went into this mega condescending, totally rude and off the mark spiel about how she doesn’t need to take my “sarcastic” tone and doesn’t need to honor my room reservation. I was totally taken aback and tried to explain that I was not in any way trying to be sarcastic or difficult, I was merely trying to confirm the checkin time. She pretty much gave me no options to keep my reservation unless I maybe pleaded or apologized for something I wasn’t doing.

Honestly, if she would have just said something like “Yes sorry, our checkin time is 3pm but we have been very busy and our room cleaners are behind schedule. We will do our best to get you checked in as soon as possible” I would have been completely fine with it!

As my wife can attest, I’m overly friendly when interacting with everyone to a fault, especially customer service workers. I avoid confrontation to the extreme even when there are issues with services or products, which I will usually dismiss as too petty to bring up…

But what the hell? This was just such a stupid and absurd misunderstanding on the staff person’s part and ended with a canceled reservation and me having to book a way more expensive last minute hotel room at Holiday Inn. Very friendly and helpful agents over here at least! I dunno what did I do to offend y’all at Best Western? If you’re reading this BW front desk ladies, please explain why you treated me like that in the replies, I really wanna know.

Zero stars, do...

When we arrived there was no one at the front desk. Two young women were cuddling on the lobby couch eating a bucket of KFC chicken watching TV. One dressed in a black hoodie, stocking cap, and jeans stood up and asked of we were checking in. No badge or any sign she actually worked there. When we said yes, she went behind the desk and asked for our reservation names.... we got checked in and I asked to have my room billed to a different card number than the one I had reserved with. She took the card and appeared to make the changes. After checkout I see that it was billed to the wrong card still. Upon entering the room it smelled heavily of air freshener and I wondered if it was covering something up. The bedsheets were a pristine white but other than that the cleanliness of the room was mediocre. As I went out to smoke throughout the evening and to get dinner and come back in, the same two girls continued to snuggle on the couch and watch TV not manning the desk or acknowledging guests at all. Later in the evening after 10pm, there were what appeared to be 2 employees, one male, one female, arguing loudly in the parking lot about one throwing cigarette butts into the bushes and the other having to clean them up. This lasted a good 15 minutes. As the evening went on the air freshener in the room dissipated and the smell of mold/mildew/must became prominent. I slept alright in the firm bed but my allergies were not happy. In the morning at checkout there was no one around at the front desk. Finally i loudly called "hello?!" And someone emerged from the back office with a bowl full of food she was eating. We're traveling for business, so need receipts to expense. We asked for printed receipts and after reviewing them upon arriving at our next destination, they show no billing information or charges associated with our stay. Not usable for an expense report. I just called and someone said they would email one right away but still haven't seen it. All in all not a great stay and would not recommend this hotel nor will book there again. The only plus was the location to the airport and the subway...

The staff here was friendly and helpful. The beds were very comfortable and the room was clean. The breakfast was minimal and poorly done. On one morning the gravy was scorched so badly I would say it was not fit for human consumption. The other two mornings were just OK.

Because of changes in our health, I’ve started requesting rooms for the physically challenged and that’s really the point of this review. We stayed in room 222. I don’t feel it was very well suited for a physically challenged person. Room 222 is at the back of the hotel. From any direction it is a long walk and I have trouble walking. The room has not been remodeled in many years and it’s getting old and dingy. I think physically challenged people deserve a nice room as much as anyone else. The refrigerator is so cheap and light I had to hold it with both hands to open the door - there was no temperature adjustment that I could find and everything froze solid. The microwave is also light enough you have to hold it with both hands to open the door. I only mention this because someone with arthritis or dexterity problems (me) would struggle to open both refrigerator and microwave.

Being at the back of the hotel means the room is next to the heating cooling unit for the building, which is noisy. The room is constructed well enough that sounds from the airport are barely audible, but there is a constant undercurrent of noise coming from the heating and air conditioning unit. After a while it became annoying. To be fair I want to add the room was very clean, and the shower is set up great with five grab bars, two different shower heads and a bench to sit on.

Best Western is our favorite hotel chain. And this one receives good reviews from most people. But I would like to suggest room 222 is not well suited for physically challenged people. If we have a reason to stay here again I will...