Best Western Plus The Normandy Inn & Suites — Hotel in Minneapolis

We booked this hotel in the city with high hopes. We’ve stayed in Minneapolis countless times, and wanted to try a new hotel with the hopes that it would be our “go to.” At first it was! The pool and hot tub area is gorgeous! The room was clean and quiet, but a little outdated. Which is fine, because it was clean and we were fully accommodated. Coffee maker, fridge, wine opener, beer opener, water, etc. All the things you would expect from an excellent hotel. I even commented to my husband that we would definitely return with family and friends in the future. And then Ron. We returned from our event around midnight on a Lime scooter that was rented. We parked it at a reasonable distance from the door (we even took pictures) and proceeded to go into the hotel’s vestibule as usual expecting to walk through and continue to our room happily. NOPE. The door wouldn’t open. We looked to the man standing at the front desk, waived our room keys, and he quickly shook his head (NO eye contact) and YELLED “REPARK THE SCOOTER.” Ok. My husband moved it another 15 feet away from the door to the right while I stood in the vestibule. The man at the front desk angrily paced back and forth and again SCREAMED at us “REPARK THE SCOOTER. IT’S TOO CLOSE TO THE GLASS!!!” Again, no eye contact. Just angry pacing. At this point, the scooter was almost 40 feet from the front door and way to the right of it. I continued to stand on the street and in the vestibule while my husband AGAIN re-parked the scooter to the near next block while this person angrily paced behind the desk. When we were finally admitted to enter the lobby (to a hotel we PAID for and did not pay a small amount for), this man, RON, continued to offend us. While we were struggling to enter a premises that we paid $200 to stay at for one night, he was working on paperwork all over the countertops that are used for guest services. When I tried to look at one of those papers, he aggressively grabbed it away from me and yelled “DON’T TOUCH MY PAPERS.” When my husband tried to reason with RON, that if he had just let us in (because, again, we had showed our keys so he knew we were paying hotel GUESTS), and explained that we needed to move the scooter and where would be acceptable, we would have gladly done it with no issue, RON told him that he could kick us out and would easily. At this point I was frustrated and called RON and a-hole. His response? As a customer service representative for Best Western? He looked me straight in the eyes and said “YOU’RE AN A-HOLE.” Aggressively. Minutes after that we witnessed RON treat a family with several children trying to re-enter the hotel at the same front door the same way. He was aggressive and rude to them as well. They had children. To say that I did not sleep well is an understatement. To have a man like RON working your front desk at night, who is clearly so unhinged and unstable, is an EXTREME liability. He will cause something tragic to happen. DO NOT STAY HERE. There are plenty of other hotels in the area where you are not treated like garbage, and where you feel safe sleeping through the night. This hotel is NOT one of them! Our entire night and stay was...

To start, I am a diamond select member with the best western rewards program. I try to stay in a best western plus everywhere I go, and I travel a lot for work, and do multiple night stays. In my experience Best western plus is always a nice, updated hotel with great amenities for a great price. This was not the case here. Pros: Location is absolutely beautiful downtown. Close to everything. The pool was very nice. There was a whirlpool and sauna as well. Its situated in the middle of the hotel with rooms on all sides, some with poolside entry. Its a nice space, plenty of seating and a decent size pool as deep as 8ft. The hotel has a unique look and feel and is clean. The rooms are updated, the beds are the nice soft beds i have come to enjoy at best western plus. We had a suite, and it had a kitchenette that was equipt nicely. Fridge, microwave, toaster a few plates, bowls, cups & silverware. It even had a sharp knife & cuttingboard, and dish soap. There is a shutle- it doesn't go a lot of places and it seems hard to get it when you need it, but i was able to use it once and it was clean and the driver was nice. Although he complimented every one of the 5 girls in the van on how cute their toes were. Take that however you want.

Cons: The hotel staff was not that friendly. As a Diamon Select member with the best western rewards program, i am used to being greeted nicely and I usually have a complimentary bottle of water and "goodie bag" when I arrive. The man who checked us in argued with me about how many nights I was staying. Did not tell me there was a fee for parking ($15 a day) until after he charged me, and didn't tell me anything about shuttles, pools, breakfast or any other amenities I might want to use. I requested housekeeping daily when inchecked in- told him no need to change sheets, but please take out trash, make bed, and provide clean towels if needed. He said i needed to request it daily. So i requested it for that day. Both overnight guys i met were more pleasant and helpful. There were 2 day shift girls who did their job and everything... But just didn't seem to want to be there or smile or help. The hotel is a maze. Its hard to find your way around for sure. The sineage is a little hard to see and find and read as well. No free breakfast. Parking is $15 a day The rooms are set at a default temperature of 78 degrees. In july. My ac did not work, and i changed rooms, to another room the ac did not work. As a result i did not sleep well the first 2 nights because the rooms were 80+ degrees. Housekeeping may not actually exist in this hotel. I never saw them. They never came to my room in my 4 night stay. There were always bags of trash in the halls. While I love every other best western plus i have stayed at, and this one has some pros, I can't recommend this one because sleeping and showering were the 2 things made difficult, and the 2 most i.portant things when...

We scheduled our trip to Minneapolis for spring break to visit the city and friends there and to give our kids (ages 8 and 4) a chance to go swimming in a pool. When we initially got there, we were put in a room right by the elevator with a view of another wall of the hotel. They kindly moved us to a better room which had a view of the street and away from the elevator. The room was fine and suited our needs for this trip, but the issues came up with the pool being closed for 2 and a half days straight during spring break. The first pool closure (Sunday) was because someone dueced in the pool, so it had to be closed or 24 hours. I get that you need to close it to clean it. However, the hotel then put up a sign that the pool would be closed the whole day on Monday as well due to scheduled maintenance. When I went to the front desk to ask about this, they said, "Well, it must have been scheduled after you booked your room otherwise we would have told you." Well, they could have told us when we checked in 2 days earlier so that we didn't unload our stuff and get settled in. When we book a hotel room with our kids, we look at if it has two rooms and how the pool is so that the kids can use it. This pool looked great and we were able to use it the first night, but having it shut down for most of our trip defeated the purpose of us staying there. Our only compensation initially was "Well, we won't charge you if you need to cancel your reservation and go to another hotel." We had already unpacked and had plans...we're not going to waste our time doing that. Finally on our last day (Tuesday), the pool still was not open in the morning, so the front desk offered a free breakfast and a late checkout. By the time we finished breakfast the pool was opened up. We had it to ourselves, but the chlorine levels were so high that we ruined two swim suits and we all got chemical burns from being the first ones in the pool. Kids still had fun, but we would have liked to have more pool time. In hindsight, I wish we had stayed at the Embassy Suites due to the pool issue and the location of that hotel. We had to walk about a half hour to get to Pizza Luce the first night and on the way back our kids got some experience in being drug deals and ladies of the night. There isn't much to eat in the vicinity of the hotel, so be ready to walk to get there.

4/4/19 Update: Received an email apologizing for the inconvenience and they comped me a night's stay...