Our family frequents the La Quinta Inn when we travel. They are the most dog friendly chain that we have come across. There is no additional fee for our pup and no deposit required.
La Quinta serves a free breakfast for guests. Generous seating is always available, but it has been our experience that finding a high chair is like striking gold; it just doesn't happen often at all. Why on earth would a hotel exclude a high chair from the seating options? It is not an expensive purchase. I wouldn't think it would impact any insurance policy since the hotel allows children. The lack of highchairs seems to be a ridiculous oversight across the chain.
But don't think that La Quinta is the only commercial enterprise offender. Dear Starbucks has a similar problem. Though Starbucks is even odder in practice. Our recent trip to a Bloomfield, NJ location revealed that the entire store only offered one highchair for patrons. One highchair? Do you offer one seat for adults to share? Of course not. Adults have generous seating options from the wooden wipe clean seats to the comfy cushioned chairs. But our small children get to wiggle on our laps as we look enviously on at the one parent that snagged the only available highchair. I'd like to say that this experience was unique to this specific location but that is not the case. Many starbucks only offer only the one highchair.
~Special Follow Up~
Before we were able to post this entry, we got a call from Morgan, Manager of La Quinta in Fairfield. It seems that the email I sent through the www.lq.com site complaining about the lack of highchairs reached an actual human being with common sense! Morgan apologized profusely and said that a few highchairs were being purchased today!!! He attempted to explain bizarre policy that doesn't make the various individual La Quinta Hotels account for high chairs on site. I won't even bore you with the bizarreness of the further explanation. Since I won't be back to the Fairfield La Quinta anytime soon, I will have to trust in Morgan and his dedication to righting the wrong. But high fives all around to what appears to be excellent customer service follow up for La Quinta Inns & Suites!
We also received an email from Starbucks in regard to the follow up to our experience that we sent via email on the corporate site. They claim that they are looking into the highchair issue. They also stated that free drink coupons were on route to our address as a way to welcome us back to their stores.
It was a day of good customer service follow up!
And this is what we look for. We know that not everyday is a company's best day, and that mistakes happen. We don't demand perfection. Our question is: What does a company do about a problem when we bring it to their attention?
Both Starbucks and La Quinta made an effort to fix the problem. Kudos to both!!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wrapped up in books
Our home is overflowing with books new and old. But that doesn't stop us from enjoying a book sale. And our absolute favorite type of sale is the set price per bag of books. This usually doesn't happen until the final day of a sale but we've never been disappointed by the leftovers. And our children love being handed a large bag that they can fill with absolutely any book they want.
Good old Keene Public Library offers a $5 per bag day on the final day of their Fall and Spring book sale. They even give you a bonus bag for free! The workers of Keene Public Library practice common sense and realize that all of the remaining books will have to be put into storage~ and who wants to do that work? And ultimately, a book in someone's hand is worth more than a book languishing on a shelf. We happily left the last Keene sale with 4 enormous bags of books and a giant box of a children's collection of 10 volumes with just $15 given out of pocket. Kudos to you, Keene Public Library!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
A second Scoop of Friendlys
Our journeys recently offered us another chance to test out the Friendly's Menu.
The last time we visited them, it didn't work out very well. Friendly's uses a splashy, complicated, multi-tiered menu for kids, that appears to be deliberately designed to trick parents into spending more than they might have originally thought when heading out for lunch. So after our last visit, we called them, and told them so. The customer service operator apologized for our poor experience, and sent us a small gift card to make up for our troubles. She said they change the menus often, and she'd send our comments to the design team, so maybe our next visit would be a happier one.
Well, the follow up visit was better. Not fabulous, but more along the lines of what you'd expect. They had, indeed, changed the children's menu and it was slightly easier to follow along. We still don't understand why you need to give kids a choice to sort of "super size" their meals with different desserts. It is just plain confusing. But I suppose we should throw out some sort of kudos to Friendly's for attempting to simplify their previously horrendous menu with a less messy update.
As always, the offerings at Friendly's for vegetarians are abysmal.
The last time we visited them, it didn't work out very well. Friendly's uses a splashy, complicated, multi-tiered menu for kids, that appears to be deliberately designed to trick parents into spending more than they might have originally thought when heading out for lunch. So after our last visit, we called them, and told them so. The customer service operator apologized for our poor experience, and sent us a small gift card to make up for our troubles. She said they change the menus often, and she'd send our comments to the design team, so maybe our next visit would be a happier one.
Well, the follow up visit was better. Not fabulous, but more along the lines of what you'd expect. They had, indeed, changed the children's menu and it was slightly easier to follow along. We still don't understand why you need to give kids a choice to sort of "super size" their meals with different desserts. It is just plain confusing. But I suppose we should throw out some sort of kudos to Friendly's for attempting to simplify their previously horrendous menu with a less messy update.
As always, the offerings at Friendly's for vegetarians are abysmal.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
can't touch this
www.springfieldmuseums.org
Our family decided to explore the Springfield museum quadrangle this past weekend. We took the two hour car ride down; excited to run around in the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden and peruse the different museums. As parents, we new that the sculpture garden would be a necessary accent to the museum experience. As interested in art and exploration as our children are at a young age, they still want to run & play for the bulk of the day. Just heading to a quiet and reserved art museum wouldn't be the best outing.
We arrived and quickly found the free parking lot that is steps from the central entrance where you purchase passes for ALL of the museums at one price. The entrance fee is a little steep, but they do offer an AAA discount and children under 2 are free. Since you buy your tickets in the Science Museum, we explored it first.
We started at the bottom level which is devoted to displays of aquatic life (real and fake) and to amphibians. Our kids loved this level! We had perfect timing and got to witness a Bearded Dragon being fed live crickets. One room had tons of drawers filled with fossils, skins, etc. that could be pulled out and examined. Jack would have happily stayed in this room all day just opening and shutting the drawers; nirvana for a 15 month old baby! The rest of the museum was devoted to old school stuffed animal exhibits and shiny gemstones that were enoyable to view. And before we left for our next spot, we picked up a few small items in the well stocked gift shop.
It was nearing an early lunch time at this point. Perfect timing to spill out into the sunshine and the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden. Or so we thought. The very first thing that caught our eye was a sign in the grass declaring "Please don't climb on the sculptures." Really? We didn't take this as a good omen. What sick mind creates a Dr. Seuss sculpture garden for families only to dictate that you can look but you can't touch? Since the grass was still damp, we sat on a rock patio that held The Lorax sculpture in the very middle. And as we snacked, we watched the crab-apple guard glaring at us to ensure we were keeping a good distance from the art. Sheesh!
After we snacked, we checked out the rest of the sculptures. All were quite lovely. The main piece had a wide bronze walkway down its middle. But were you allowed to walk upon it? Of course not. And do kids understand this rule? Of course not. The experience was absolutely muted by this ridiculous no climbing rule. Imagine if the much beloved Alice in Wonderland sculpture found within Central Park in NYC had such a rule! I have cherished memories of climbing all over that sculpture and having conversations with the various bronze characters as I touched the shiny metal.
"A favorite of children, the mushrooms and figures have become smooth and polished over the years as pint-sized feet have climbed over them to the top of this 11 foot structure while using their tiny fingers to grab hold of Alice’s hand or the Hare’s ears for support." - Central Park 2000 This is what we were looking forward to. This is the experience we drove down to have. It's not what we got.
Sculptures are inherently tactile, outdoor sculpture gardens even moreso. To set up a children's themed garden and then tell them not to touch it, made the trip very unsatisfying.
Our family decided to explore the Springfield museum quadrangle this past weekend. We took the two hour car ride down; excited to run around in the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden and peruse the different museums. As parents, we new that the sculpture garden would be a necessary accent to the museum experience. As interested in art and exploration as our children are at a young age, they still want to run & play for the bulk of the day. Just heading to a quiet and reserved art museum wouldn't be the best outing.
We arrived and quickly found the free parking lot that is steps from the central entrance where you purchase passes for ALL of the museums at one price. The entrance fee is a little steep, but they do offer an AAA discount and children under 2 are free. Since you buy your tickets in the Science Museum, we explored it first.
We started at the bottom level which is devoted to displays of aquatic life (real and fake) and to amphibians. Our kids loved this level! We had perfect timing and got to witness a Bearded Dragon being fed live crickets. One room had tons of drawers filled with fossils, skins, etc. that could be pulled out and examined. Jack would have happily stayed in this room all day just opening and shutting the drawers; nirvana for a 15 month old baby! The rest of the museum was devoted to old school stuffed animal exhibits and shiny gemstones that were enoyable to view. And before we left for our next spot, we picked up a few small items in the well stocked gift shop.
It was nearing an early lunch time at this point. Perfect timing to spill out into the sunshine and the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden. Or so we thought. The very first thing that caught our eye was a sign in the grass declaring "Please don't climb on the sculptures." Really? We didn't take this as a good omen. What sick mind creates a Dr. Seuss sculpture garden for families only to dictate that you can look but you can't touch? Since the grass was still damp, we sat on a rock patio that held The Lorax sculpture in the very middle. And as we snacked, we watched the crab-apple guard glaring at us to ensure we were keeping a good distance from the art. Sheesh!
After we snacked, we checked out the rest of the sculptures. All were quite lovely. The main piece had a wide bronze walkway down its middle. But were you allowed to walk upon it? Of course not. And do kids understand this rule? Of course not. The experience was absolutely muted by this ridiculous no climbing rule. Imagine if the much beloved Alice in Wonderland sculpture found within Central Park in NYC had such a rule! I have cherished memories of climbing all over that sculpture and having conversations with the various bronze characters as I touched the shiny metal.
"A favorite of children, the mushrooms and figures have become smooth and polished over the years as pint-sized feet have climbed over them to the top of this 11 foot structure while using their tiny fingers to grab hold of Alice’s hand or the Hare’s ears for support." - Central Park 2000 This is what we were looking forward to. This is the experience we drove down to have. It's not what we got.
Sculptures are inherently tactile, outdoor sculpture gardens even moreso. To set up a children's themed garden and then tell them not to touch it, made the trip very unsatisfying.
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