How long have you been kept waiting for a room before?

[mirror wall]

I have been sitting in the lobby of the Iberotel Lido in Sharm el Sheikh for the last 7 hours. My flight got in at 3am, I have a horrid headcold and I haven't slept more than an hour in the last 24. When I reserved the room, I got them to assure me several times that I would have a room waiting for me since I knew the flight would kick my ass. They did. There wasn't!

I travel a LOT. Like a metric shit ton. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. I have arrived all over Africa and Europe at stupid early times of day and have never been kept waiting for longer than a few hours.

I always assumed it was normal practice to not book your hotel out totally in any case and to certainly reserve a damn room for someone who's REPEATEDLY asked you to. Guess I was wrong! This sucks.

Does anyone have good suggestions for cheap, direct flights from Sharm to somewhere not in Egypt? I am really sick of this place, frankly. I might just change my ticket, go back to Morocco early and hug everyone I see. Bagh.

[jberryhill]

1. Three hours - Ask for free drinks at the bar in exchange for waiting /nt

[47of74]

2. Depends

From time to time I have to stay in a hotel for work. Especially during the winter if the weather gets bad and I'm in the Quad Cities for work. The one La Quinta there wouldn't check a person in early. A couple times I asked if I could just get checked in and get my key so when I came back later that night I could just go right to my room, and the answer each time was no. There's a new Comfort Inn in town where I've arrived an hour or two before their official check in time and they've been very accommodating. I prefer to stay with them as a result.