[EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a perfect inaugural post for the Inn Credible New England section of Unreal TV 2.0. The experience at the Exeter Inn reflects the benefits of unique hotels that these articles share. Vintage posts of this type from Unreal TV 1.0 will make their way here by the end of August 2018.]
Returning to the Exeter Inn in Exeter, New Hampshire for a birthday celebration a month after a (reviewed) spectacular stay shows that you can go home again if the homies treat you like visiting dignitaries. A related takeaway is that the benefits of boutique hotels over cookie-cutter monstrosities greatly improves the odds that the staff will exceed expectations regarding putting right what once went wrong.
An amusing aspect of this is that it evokes thoughts of hotels beginning responses to negative Trip Advisor reviews with the phrase "This does not reflect our usual level of service" as frequently as letters published in a particular magazine start with "I never thought that this would happen to me." In the case of the Exeter Inn,, this statement is very credible regarding the "hiccups" that occur even in the best of places.
Readers are requested to please refer to the prior post on the Exeter Inn to learn more specifics regarding the awesome accommodations.
The overall vibe of staying in this 1932 Georgian mansion on the edge of the campus of Philips Exeter Academy is of a weekend stay at Downton Abbey absent valet service and any drama or trauma.
The emotional rescue that led to wonderful satisfaction commenced with the failure of an ill-advised last-minute effort to book a night in Bush country in coastal Maine prompting the wildly successful Plan B of staying at the Exeter Inn. Although the greatly loved Jacuzzi Suite from the prior stay was booked, the "downgrade" to the Queen Suite did not diminish the enjoyment of the visit beyond lacking a tub in which to remove Yeti-caliber stench. (The shower was a great substitute.)
The tradition continued with watching Disney Channel fare despite checking in hours before Trump was scheduled to announce his choice to take over for Tony Kennedy. The benefits of Disney while travelling are that you can watch amusing tweencoms and only be subject to advertising in the form of promos for the fare on that network. The watched shows this time were "Jessie" and the "Jessie" spin-off "Bunk'd."
The exasperation to which the title of this post refers begins with arriving at 1:30 despite a known 3:00 check-in time; arriving early always creates a possibility of not getting in the room. That alone being the case was not bothersome.
Learning that the guest from the night before had told (rather than asked) the front desk that they were leaving at 2:00 p.m. (despite 11:00 being the check-out time) was annoying mostly because it created the possibility that they would prolong their stay beyond that.
Director of Rooms extraordinaire Julie St. Pierre was staffing the front desk and had the good grace to smile when asked "is there some point that you tell them to get the Hell out of there?" Her response was "We won't phrase it that way, but yeah." She also offered us vouchers for drinks at the bar.
There was really neither harm nor foul because I and my highly significant other merely put our luggage in the back office and leisurely walked the 1/2 mile to the business district. Julie had my cell number and promised to text as soon as the room was ready.
Although the 11th hour had passed with the squatters still occupying the suite, we got to check in at the allotted time. The added insult to this injury was that the room hogs now COMPLETELY commandeered the lobby area by bringing over relatives staying at other properties.
The suite had been cleaned well but several details that otherwise would have been caught were overlooked. These included finding a clothes hanger on a curtain rod, only having one wash cloth in the bathroom, and not everything being replenished. The self-help portion of the solution included raiding the hotel linen closet. The rest consisted of asking very responsive evening desk clerk Cindy to please have the fabulous turndown service (including tasty evening treats) include the items that needed attention.
An amusing aspect of this was returning from a tasty dinner in nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire to find a pile of towels and a comic amount of amenities. The funniest part of this was that a couple of items still were missing. Cindy was unduly apologetic and equally responsive on learning of this,
Before moving on to the "ecstasy" portion of this article, it is CRUCIAL to remember that the inn has ABSOLUTELY no fault regarding the unfortunate aspects of an overall wonderful stay at a place that will be the destination of many future trips, Very few circumstances allow for booting paying guests from a room, Further, the housekeepers were being forced to stay late after several hours cleaning on a 90+ degree day. This was on top of knowing that guests were waiting for the suite.
I further learned that the housekeeping supervisor (who had started her day early that morning) was the only person doing turndown service that night. The bigger picture is that not having drinking glasses in a hotel room falls well within the category of (insert your own adjective here) people problems.
The ecstasy began with the aforementioned post-dinner return to a room well stocked with towels and small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel. This led to "Big City Greens" on the Disney Channel and a restful night that would not have occurred but for the grand hospitality.
The real kicker came the next morning on stopping by the desk to share plans of checking out at 9:30. The response was an invitation to have breakfast courtesy of the hotel. The reply to that was a smile and a revised announcement of a 10:30 departure.
Further ecstasy came on enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice and a very tasty $8 Belgian waffle with REAL maple syrup and a side of crispy bacon at the Epoch restaurant that otherwise would have been missed out on. Better amusement came on playing "I Love Lucy" while sitting in the banquette in the classic style dining room. Commenting that "I hear that William Holden always come here" was especially fun.
The bigger picture this time is the truth of two cliches that hold true for any business. Being nice before a challenging situation arises prevents tears and recriminations that include words that you never heard in the Bible. The related principle is that the trademark of a good company is not so much that nothing ever goes wrong but that they quickly go above-and-beyond in response to an unhappy customer. Experiences both with a large chain operated by a self-declared saint and with other small hotels in northern New England show that they could learn a great deal from the Exeter Inn.
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