I cannot speak to the hotel on this visit though I have stayed there several times and it is generally fine.
However, the conference center is a management disaster.
I have attended several Scrappetizer events at the conference center with over a hundred women participating. We bring a great number of supplies and have to lug them in ourselves. This is usually fine, but not this time. This was so hugely disastrous that I do not even know where to start.
First of all, this group should get the first floor for several reasons. One, most participants are older women, many of whom are mobility impaired. There are vendors with a large number of supplies to be brought in as well. Two, as we have a lot to carry in, we should not be the group assigned upper floors. The first floor was empty until students had some sort of conference there one morning. They should have been on the upper floor, not the women, especially as they had nothing to carry and they were in attendance for far less time than the crafters.
Secondly, we could have managed except only one of the two elevators was working and that one barely worked. In Saturday morning, my friend and I were on the third floor going down to the second. As I had just had a knee replacement, the stairs were not an option. The elevator seemed to stop moving. It took a couple of minutes for the door to open - on the first floor. We wanted the second floor. Soon thereafter, a staff member got stuck in the elevator and the entire system was shut down, forcing women just arriving to carry their belongs up the stairs. I had a friend arrive on crutches. What was she supposed to do?
By Sunday, the one elevator had been fixed, but only the one. So, 145 women were forced to use one elevator to transport their belongs to the first floor. We waited in line with carts and rolling bags. What should have taken me about thirty minutes, took me two hours. It was unconscionable and unbearable.
Speaking of unbearable, the conference rooms on the second floor were far too hot. The third floor was so unbearable that fans had to be brought in. And yet the dining room was freezing.
The food, however, and dining staff were amazing as always. Too bad their exceptional service does not translate to the rest of the building.
I am scheduled to attend another event next month. If Scrappetizer is not on the first floor, I will cancel this trip. We cannot go through this again. This business uses the conference center a lot, three to four times a year. It should be given every consideration. The attendees should not be treated like second-class citizens, but that is exactly what we felt like, unimportant and insignificant.