Traveling Along.....Staying with La Quinta

Traveling with your family will for sure always bring some type of difficulty. Then in our world you have to add the traveling difficulties Chaz has. Unfortunately we'll never be able to just hit the road again and stop wherever. No instead all of our travel plans have to be thought out way in advance.

I'll be honest, I do not trust anyone to arrange our rooms for us. Perhaps it's only my OCD, but it seems everyone's opinion of what is ADA compliant varies drastically. We have experienced this again and again. When we have traveled on group trips, I have even verified that they requested ADA rooms only to arrive and find out it's just a regular room. Most of the trips it always works out, but occasionally Chaz has to deal with something that makes his life even more difficult. Every family with a family member with special needs knows exactly what I am talking about.

Last year we were awarded four free nights at La Quints for being the top fundraisers for Team Fisher House for the Army Ten Miler. (This is where I thank you all for supporting our fundraising efforts and helped us pay our thankfulness forward to the Fisher House Foundation). We have used all four nights at different locations and I wanted to tell you about our adventures.

We used two nights in Macon, Georgia on our way to and from our niece's graduation in Florida. Then we used the last two last week in Smyrna when we realized they were going to expire soon. One thing is for sure La Quinta knows the meaning of customer service. We had a few difficulties with the rooms the 1-800 number, but the location's staff happily helped us.

We had to call and book the rooms through the number on the listed on the vouchers. When I called I asked for an ADA rooms with the roll-in shower. Well the ADA part was heard for sure, but not the shower part. When we arrived in Macon, the front desk informed me that our room was not ready. She was horrified. It was three hours past check-in. She asked for just a minute and then reappeared rather quickly. She informed me that the only room ready was the ADA suite with the roll-in shower and happily gave us that room. Then she informed me that the 1800 number booked the ADA room for that night, but not on the night when we were driving back. She told me that she'd take care of that for us and she did.

When we came back through a few days later, we check into our ADA room to discover that their version of ADA and our version of ADA were two different things. Our room had a bathtub and Chaz could barely get around it. I went back down to a different front desk person who listened and helped me fixed the problem. Once again the clerk disappeared then reappeared and we got the suite we had before. (Yes we were very happy). Turns out once again their suite was the only room available that could suit Chaz's needs.

We enjoyed both nights at the La Quinta in Macon. Chaz had no problems getting around the hotel or the room. The shower's roll-in feature was great. And the bench provided actually supported him. Chaz is a big guy and sometimes those benches are not made for guys his size. And trust me it's not fun to find out the hard way that the bench was not strong enough for him.

Now to the LaQuinta in Smyrna. Once again I called ahead and reserved the ADA roll-in shower room for Chaz. We had made arrangements to chat with someone from La Quinta when we got there. They wanted to chat with us about the Hotels for Heroes program and being military and using their hotels. They took it upon themselves to call and double check our reservation to discover the roll-in shower room we had requested had been double booked. (She was way more worried than we were. Seriously we have dealt with way bigger problems.) I just tossed our portable shower bench in the van and we took off. When I arrived the nice young man at the front desk escorted me to roll-in room and then we looked at the other ADA room. I decided that since we had the bench we would take the ADA room with the tub and we'd make it work. He was the cutest thing and thanked me several times for making their double-booking so easy to resolve.

Now for my full honesty, the ADA room with the tub in the Smyrna location was bigger than the room with the roll-in. I wanted the extra space for the cuties to roll around. In addition the more room we have available, the less likely Chaz is to smush our toes. Yup, I've dealt with the spacing issue a few times. The important part is they happily accommodated our needs and rather quickly I'd like to add.

Did you know La Quinta allows pets? Did you know that we did not know pets were allowed until we saw the pets in Macon? I am a OCD cleaner. I am telling you that you could not tell pets were residing in either hotel that we stayed in. Ginger could tell in Smyrna, but we all know her nose is way better than mine. Our oldest cutie is allergic to dogs and cats and we did not have one skin nor breathing problem there. I was prepared for it too. Inhaler, benedryl and all could be found in our bags.

Now to make a long story short.....Would we recommend La Quinta? Definitely yes! Their customer service is excellent. Their rooms and hotels were clean. And their free breakfast was super yummy. Both locations had different food options, but both were great.

Now onto to some cool facts. They have a rewards club. Just visit www.lq.com and learn more about their rewards program. Please check into their rewards program and please consider donating those points to Hotels for Heroes. Go here to learn more about this awesome program. http://fisherhouse.org/programs/hotels-for-heroes/how-to-donate-points/

Now to add to the coolness, they have a military rewards program. Military service members (including veterans and spouses) get 12% off the rate, as well as several other perks. La Quinta makes your PCS moves cheaper and you can bring your pets!

And for those with service dogs, just think about how much easier La Quinta makes traveling for you. We are all aware of the law, but we are also aware of those persons who don't read the laws. Do yourself a favor and stay at La Quinta. We highly recommend it.