Best Western Plus Keene Hotel — Hotel in Keene

I've stayed at this motel in years past when "Home" in Keene. It is conveniently located at the intersection of Highways 9 and 10, immediately south of the traffic circle, on Rt 10.||The staff are super friendly, warm and inviting ... but their organization/coordination skills need some work.||Making reservations (by phone) I could not understand the gentleman working the evening desk. The evening when I checked in, I called from the room and asked for a wake up call, he told me to set the alarm clock ... and I informed him there wasn't one in the room. He agreed to take the wake up call, but I never got it.||The next morning I mentioned it to the very nice young man working the desk and he apologized, and as long as he was working the desk, I got my wake-up calls. (I stayed for about 9-days.)||The room had a bit of a strange layout ... a too large foyer, such that you could not fully close the bathroom door ... it knocked against the toilet seat! Flushing the commode sounded like a shotgun going off next to your ear. Talk about loud!||No grab bars for the shower/tub combo in the room, plus the tub is made for someone less than 4-feet tall.||I never did figure out the heat-a/c system. The room was chilly, so I upped the temp to 72, then to 76, then to 80 ... and it kept blowing chilly air. Then I set it to heat, and left it at 80 ... No difference. Finally I just shut it off. That made the room a bit cooler than I would have liked while working on the computer at night, but great for sleeping.||Really small complaints ... overall the room was large and comfortable, with a nice, large desk for the computer, comfortable desk chair, as well as side chair. And while there was no overhead lighting, there were plenty of table lamps and a LOT of plugs ins for computer, hearing aids, Kindle, and all the other electronic "stuff" we seem to have to travel with these days. :-)||Other than a few minutes one night of inconsiderate guests too loud in the hallway, it was quiet for the rest of my nights.||The cleaning crew did a wonderful job, when they showed up. A few times, on the 3rd morning, I had to request room service ... which might show up hours later. One time I requested it when I left at Noon ... it wasn't done until after 7 p.m. When I went to the desk about 5:30 to check on it, the fella at the desk had no record of it! He asked if I'd called for it from the room: I told him, "No, I personally requested it from the woman at the desk when I was leaving and she assured me it would be done."||The breakfast room is good sized, with plenty of overflow if needed. Standard fare of scrambled or fried eggs ... although one morning there was a delicious quiche and another a bagel topper with eggs, cheese, etc. Again, delicious. Also offered daily were link and patty sausage, mild. Two morning there were potatoes, which unfortunately were made spicy. Heck, this is New England, not Texas!||There are cereals, pancakes, french toast, assorted pastries, yogurts, coffee, juices, etc. A very good breakfast, and the woman who oversees the breakfast area is wonderfully friendly and helpful and keeps the place spotless. ||She and the young man working the desk in the morning (weekdays) into early afternoon are "stars" in my book, wonderful folks. The others, while nice and friendly, need a few lessons in being organized enough to honor minor requests. No biggie, but a bit frustrating ... since wake up calls and room servicing are not unusual requests.||If you pull in after about 4 p.m. do not be put off by the nearly overflowing parking lot: It's for the restaurant (Tempesta's) located at the end of the motel ... there is more than adequate parking for the motel after you get through the restaurant area.||Locals love the restaurant for lunch and dinner. I only ate lunch there, but it was excellent and reasonably priced with good service.||If going into Keene, it is a bit tricky getting out of the motel onto the main street ... the motel entrance/exit drive is very close to the traffic circle to the north and there's a steady flow of traffic from the south ... so you might have to wait several minutes to get out ... and often only by "forcing" yourself into the traffic.||Again, I had minor issues, but overall this is a...

The Best Western Plus in Keene NH has a horrid lack of management, and has a fraudulent scheme that they employ through leveraging room blocks. The manager also a complete lack of customer. I made a reservation for a weekend in June 2024 for two nights over the phone as part of a wedding block. The front desk attendant obtained the incorrect contact information for my phone and email address, resulting in me not receiving a confirmation.

Upon arrival on Friday, BWP was unable to find my reservation and insisted I made a reservation for only Saturday, which was incorrect. After elevating to the manager, I was told that they had “one” room left, offered at the price of $400. The manager refused to acknowledge their mistake in booking the reservation, and did not provide another option or suggest any discount for the room. I qualify for AAA or US Gov discount and was told that they “couldn’t apply those due to corporate policy.” What was NOT told to us at the time, is that 5 other room reservations for the room block had the same issue. All individuals called to make a reservation, and all were incorrect. Also, all of the reservations had incorrect contact information. The only other explanation I received from the manager was that they were a “budget hotel” and that “$400 was an excellent rate for the room.” I’d believe that if it were downtown Boston, or a Hilton, Marriott or basically any other more well known and elite brand than the Best Western Plus in Keene New Hampshire. But $400 was an incredibly unreasonable price to be given for a mistake that was not made by me. Great scheme on the part of the BWP management though – they made out with a minimum of $700 from last minute bookings from just our wedding party.

Once they overcharged us for Friday night’s room, they provided us a room key. Saturday at 11 am I received a call to my room from the front desk staff telling me that I will have to extend my reservation and be recharged - they did not have on file that I already checked in and was already charged. I went to the front desk, explained again how the hotel made a mistake in my booking, overcharged me on Friday evening, and the front desk attendant on Saturday advised they would be able to comp my room for Saturday night due to the mix up. They then told me I would have to move rooms to accommodate the hotel’s booking which I argued because that is ridiculous once we were already settled in. As part of our wedding party, this happened to another booking as well.

They did not comp my room, as I received a charge on my credit card for both nights. I don’t understand why they said they would and then didn’t. I also don’t understand why the Saturday attendant did not seem to think it was a big deal, but then the manager could not suggest or provide and suggestions on how to mitigate their mistake and their issue.

All in all, this seems like a great fraud scheme to capitalize on room blocks – also incredibly frustrating for all...

Background: I've stayed here three times on business trips. Pros: -Close to many common stores and restaurants (Walmart, Hannaford, Bull Moose, Aldi, Joann Fabric, Dollar Store, McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, but there are way more than that, those are the only ones I cared about) -Attached restaurant, Tempesta's (I've never eaten there) -Onsite Laundry facility (I've never used it) -Fitness Center (is open from 6am-10pm as of 5/2/21 and has a sign on the door saying only one person for one hour at a time and sign up at the front desk, but every time I call to sign up, she tells me I can just go whenever) -Mini fridge (the "freezer" section has no door and no separate temperature control knob so the one temperature is for the whole thing, even turned down, the refrigerator froze my food on the top shelf), microwave, tiny coffee maker (on the table/desk), TV with remote and channel guide, iron with a full ironing board, and hair dryer -Closet, 4 normal size drawers, a collapsible stand for a suitcase, table/desk with a lamp with an outlet, rolling chair (which I spent a lot of time in and was 7/10 comfortable), loveseat (not at all lined up to see the TV), coffee table, a stamding lamp, 2 bedside tables with lamps with outlets and drawers, a phone, and an alarm clock (make sure it's off before you go to bed) -Full tub/shower -Huge window with light blocking blind Cons: -Smelled of cleaned smoke -Popcorn under the couch, chip crumbs by the bed -Most of my check in experiences were slightly less than good. Between a language barrier, masks, and the plastic barrier, one was particularly frustrating. -I struggled with the wifi. My phone kept saying it was connected but not secure so things wouldn't load. It was like it wanted it to load the login page, but it couldn't because it wasn't logged in. (I don't claim to be tech savvy) -The hotel is large and has a sprawling layout, therefore there are several entrances with the external doors that you have to use your room key to get into. At least one of them doesn't latch at all. I told staff and I was told "yeah, that's a constant battle" with a shrug. (Hotel keys are the credit card swipe style). -COLD and slippery tile floor in the doorway and bathroom. -Warm but not hot showers -This sounds a little silly, but I found the toilet to be obnoxiously loud...