Ramada by Wyndham Ely — Hotel in Ely

We stayed at this Ramada twice, last Friday and last night.

Both times, we were traveling with a 6 year old and a toddler, the latter of whom needs to sleep in a crib which we requested for our reservations.

First, the positives: we had a good experience with the swing shift staff and the housekeeping staff.

The restaurant on the second floor, Evah’s, had good service and pretty good food. The bagged breakfasts were yummy.

The rooms were clean and comfortable.

Negatives: The casino on the ground floor allows smoking, which we knew. But it still doesn’t smell great (though the smell doesn’t get in the rooms).

Depending on who you ask, they only have one or two cribs available. For our stay last night, they didn’t have any cribs available. Which would not in and of itself had caused us to leave a negative review. When we checked in, the clerk let us know she saw our request for a crib and would get it to us soon; she was very apologetic when housekeeping came back saying no crib was available. It would have been nice to know that ahead of time so we could figure out an alternative.

When we tried to give feedback in the morning, we at first got a sympathetic ear (“I’ve suggested they have pack and plays available at the front desk”). But when we checked out, the supervisor was argumentative and dismissive. She tried to blame us for not requesting a crib in our reservation (which the clerk who checked us in had seen). Rather than taking our feedback, she tried to either gaslight us or simply pin the blame on us. We were not impressed.

We’ll definitely be staying...

We booked this hotel online, but through the hotel directly. The location was convenient and there was supposed to be an Italian Restaurant on the premises. It was quite late when we arrived so I was happy to have reservations. The hotel is divided into two buildings, one across the street from the other. The main building has the reservations desk, the casino machines, and the restaurant. It had a choice between upstairs and downstairs rooms. The other building is just sleeping quarters on two levels, and without an elevator. We were able to secure a ground floor room in the main building near the pool. As promised it was quiet and we were undisturbed. The restaurant was still advertised, but it had closed and was turned into a grab and go place. Fortunately, we had already eaten. Breakfast turned out to be a breakfast bag meal. The room was comfortable and quiet. Everything worked. Parking was onsite at both buildings, so we parked under a light in the back near our room and unloaded everything into the room. As far as I could tell the outside security doors were not locked, even at night. That morning, the housekeeper had not finished with the room, leaving pillows without pillowcases. This was not an issue, but one of the red accessory decorative bed pillows was missing from one bed. I made very sure to report this missing when we checked in, so it would not be charged against us under the security fee, when we checked out. We left and went elsewhere for a more...

The desk assigned us to a smoking room with the audacity to rudely argue (not just claim) that I had reserved it (I used Expedia and never request smoking rooms). After an amazing amount of discussion, they switched us to a non-smoking room. Then they surprised us with an extra but refundable $25 fee (apparently to cover pet damage) that wasn't covered by Expedia. I assured the desk that I didn't have pets and the charge has not appeared on my card. Then I twice trudged across the slush-covered street to discover that our key cards didn't work, and was rudely taught how to insert a card (I'm a world traveler;). Eventually one of the four desk clerks explained that the rooms across the street are not part of the Ramada --- our room was across and down the street in a different building. Following the most wretched check-in experience in any state, any country, anytime in the past 40 years, we found our mid-century room showing its age (though priced right) but clean with one exception... the linens smelled like they had been laundered with smoking room linens. All the plumbing worked. We...