Geez Bil, thats awful.

Sounds like the promises made by the Sheraton Tech Center hotel are a lot like the promises made by Democrats. Just another ripoff.

Wow... they raised the room rate by about $100 for the convention. A friend of mine at Denver said the Sheraton-DTC needed urban renewal, he wouldn't recommend it to his worst enemy.... have a great stay, Bil!!

I know of Denver motels for the touristas that appear to be more thoughtful about their rooms than the DTC. I wonder what the Holiday Inn downtown in charging for rooms this week; it was a fine hotel. When I last stayed there... oh, some 23 years ago..... oh! It's now the Crowne Plaza Denver City Center Hotel! Probably not the $80 it was in 1985.

Bil, you have good reason to complain, but at least you don't have bed bugs(yet).

When so many things go wrong, I have to wonder if they are deliberate. Is the hotel manager donating to the McCain campaign? :/

Put a piece of cheese in the bathroom and when the rat comes to eat it, close the door trapping the rat. Then call the Denver health department in charge of rodent prevention. Demand that the hotel upgrade you up to a suite.

Bill, complain to Starwood (Sheraton's parent company)

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/index.html

Contact
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/corporate/contact_us.html

Personally I would contact the main corporate office as well as their customer Service team as you are more likely to get attention. These 2two are a good place to start (I believe in starting at the top and working down as it usually gets big results... fast)

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
1111 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, NY 10604
Phone (914) 640-8100

Hoyt H. Harper, II
Senior Vice President, Brand Management - The Sheraton Group

Frits van Paasschen
President and Chief Executive Officer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

It is likely that the hotel is owned and run by a franchisee rather than being corporate but Starwood can make their lives miserable. Then hotels in Denver have known about the convention for years and there is no excuse for a major brand hotel to be in the shape that you describe. If nothing else, you are due a refund or a gift certificate for a future stay at another Starwood property. Good luck. A call to the local Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce is in order as well.

Here is a link to the Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association; get in touch with them too. If the local Sheraton is going to screw you without giving you at least a kiss, you can give them something to remember you.

http://www.coloradolodging.com/

Enjoy the convention and thanks for all the updates.

It's fascinating to me how the hotels that are well-run are consistently well-run, and the hotels that have problems consistently have problems. I think management sets a culture of "caring/pride in our facility" or "not caring/don't give a sh*t."

Starwood should be very concerned: Stuff like this damages the Sheraton brand. (I stayed in an expensive Sheraton in Omaha, Nebraska a couple years ago where I was shocked at the consistent unfriendly/put-upon attitude of the employees. I've gone to much cheaper places where the employees are much happier and friendlier.)

I hope you seek and receive a full refund.

Bil, print out a copy of your article, along with stats on Bilerico's readership, and put them in an envelope with the manager's name on it. (Using his/her name, as opposed as just "manager" will probably improve the chance of it being successfully delivered)

Add a page of cc's from John's list of corporate types, BBB, and the Denver Post.

Normally I'd say find another place, but I know that's simply not possible under your current circumstances.

Sorry that you have to put up with that crap. The good news (looking for the silver lining) is that I know that you're going to be spending precious little time in your room. The black lining is that you want to enjoy the little time that you have there. Oh, well.

That's total bonkers!

Same thing happens in Louisville during Kentucky Derby time, and probably in Indy during 500 weekend: hoteliers pull out the nasty trashed rooms that they avoid renting otherwise (or are awaiting renovation), double the rates, then if you complain, tell you you're lucky to have found a room.

The person who recommended that you complain to Starwood Resorts was correct. There are Sheratons that are very well run; Southern Comfort was held at a couple different Sheratons in Atlanta for years. They were most accommodating, and the rooms were always in good shape.

As for Ed Meese, stop at your local Walgreens today, and get a pack of sticky traps - about $3. Put 2 at the front door after you get in for the night, and 1 in the bathroom. If they trap Meese, deposit the trap with Meese on it, on the hotel's check in/checkout desk, preferably when other guests are checking in or out. You may find yourself in a nice suite.

Bil.. wow.. I agree about putting a fire under the management there--hell, I've stayed at Knight's Inn's for $65 a night, and had better rooms than the one you're describing! Yikes!

Wait, it's called the "Tech Center" and wireless isn't included? Under what definition of "tech" does that fall?

"Wait, it's called the 'Tech Center' and wireless isn't included? Under what definition of 'tech' does that fall?"

'Technical difficulty,' obviously :)

In June I went to New York to do some dissertation research. Not NYC, but western New York. There were hotels/motels immediately adjacent to where I was researching, but they were all roughly $100/nite. I opted for a $35/nite motel I was able to find in the next - much smaller - town over.

It was an *old* motel, apparently undergoing some renovation but still in pretty crappy shape after what looked to be a long period of neglect. Were you to wake up from a coma in this place and be told you were anywhere in the state of NY, you would not believe it. However, even this place had wi-fi - and it was free. (And, though I'm not trying to rub it in, it also had a fridge.)

If that place can have free wi-fi, there's no reason for anyplace not having net access.

The last time I was in Denver (about a year ago) I found a rather nice place south of downtown for $30/night. I think it was Extended Stay America or something like that; not just a fridge but a kitchenette as well. (Not to plug, but Priceline is a good thing - imperfect sometimes, but good.)

Maybe the rat doing the polka was a GOP rodent like "Bill Perdue"?

Bil, in my three decades of road travel I had to frequently explain to friends at home that business travel is never glamorous. It is sickening that you are being gouged, but not surprising to this road warrior. It is not forever.

Wilson, naughty naughty, you shouldn't speak that way about Bill Perdue.

There's a better chance of me stepping off a surgery table looking like Tyra Banks than Bill Perdue saying anything about Democrats that doesn't come stariaght from the Right-Wing Noise Machine.

The Democratic Party is a right centrist party that broke its promise to end the war. That’s why will vote Democratic: they’re pro-war. Ganshorn says he admires the sacrifice the troops make when in truth they’re being sacrificed for Big Oil. They’re pro-war and shamelessly drape themselves in flags to disguise their support for using the troops who are killing and being killed to generate profits for Halliburton and Texaco.

People who vote Democratic do so knowing that the Democrats have a record just as bad as the Republicans on the GLBT agenda. The DP wrote and overwhelmingly supported DADT; they campaigned for DOMA and ran ads boasting about it; they gutted ENDA (to please the bigoted Chamber of Commerce), trashed the hate crimes bill, and refuse to repeal DOMA and DADT. They erased us from their platform. In fact if you look at their track record they’re as bigoted as the Republicans. That probably explains why Ganshorn, Roberts and Wilson46201 admire them so much.

The owners and leaders of the DP don’t have any principles, which is why we call them Democrats (sic). Apparently, neither do Ganshorn, Roberts or Wilson46201. Rather than admit the truth about their rightwing politics, they habitually lie about people to their left. Their juvenile lies and right wing politics are actually a good thing because there are huge numbers of rightwingers like Ganshorn, Roberts and Wilson46201 in the DP, including its leaders and owners and they just make naive ‘progressives’ wonder what in hell they doing in the same party with them.

Some naïve people are going to vote DP on November 4th. Electing Democrats and Republicans is a step backwards and a step away from activism. Luckily for our struggle, there are plenty of activists who won’t fall for the Democrats BS and are ready and able to correct the mistakes of those who vote for them. That’s why Obama, if he wins, will have the same political fate as LBJ and Nixon. The DP and their not overly bright apologists are burying themselves under their own Bandini Mountain.

You had me at the word "rat". Deplorable conditions.

Demand a full refund plus the keys to the city. If you can, take a picture of the vermin and send it to corporate.

Siouxsie, it is hard to make a vermin smile for a picture when he is contemplating utopian socialism.