The Super 8 is Great!

When we go back to Elma, Iowa we actually stay in a small town nearby called New Hampton. There isn't much there but they do have a very nice Super 8 hotel. Now normally I wouldn't stay in a Super 8 - I've become quite the snob when it comes to traveling - but this one is actually pretty nice.

On the Thursday night that we were all back for Grandma's funeral 12 of us cousins got together in the "party room" of the hotel and sat around drinking and swapping stories. My cousin Brenda purchased a bottle of Winneshiek Wildberry Winery's Picket Fence Peach wine (in honor of Grandma who liked to drink peach flavored alcohol). She paid $15 for it. I think we came to the conclusion that this wine had to have gone bad. There is no way that anyone could drink that stuff and actually like it - must less charge more than $1 for it. The smell alone was like an entire boys' locker room full of old gym socks.

I decided that even though the wine was terrible I really wanted the bottle. My dining room is decorated with all things Decorah and Decorah is the county seat of Winneshiek County plus the winery is in Decorah. (By the way, I'm using the term "winery" very loosely.) Anyway, I really wanted the bottle and when we all packed it in for the night I took the bottle back to my room and left it on the dresser. The next night, after the funeral, the cousins were once again all downstairs...this time in the lobby eating pizza...when it occurred to me that I hadn't noticed the bottle in my room when I got back from Elma. I went back up to my room and discovered that the bottle was in fact gone.

Now, at most hotels these days, this would be the end of the story. But not in Iowa. I called down to the front desk and explained that I had been saving that wine bottle and asked if they had a recycling bin that it might be in. The lady at the front desk rumaged through some glass recycling and told me that she hadn't found anything but that she would check with housekeeping when they came in at 9:30 the next morning. Once again, at most hotels this would have been the end of it.

The next morning we checked out of the hotel a little before 9:30 and I figured there was no point in asking about the bottle since housekeeping wasn't even in yet. I checked out and headed back to Boston thinking that the bottle was gone forever. When I got back to Boston that night there was a voice mail from the Super 8 from earlier in the day. They said they had found the bottle and were holding it for me and I should call them back. By the time I got the message it was Sunday...two days after the bottle was taken by housekeeping. I was so tired that day that I didn't even bother calling them back.

When I was driving to work on Monday morning I was thinking about the bottle and figured that if I really wanted the bottle for my dining room I could always buy another bottle of it when we were back there for a visit and just pour the turpentine...I mean wine...out of the bottle and save the bottle. But the more I got to thinking about it the more I really wanted that bottle. That bottle was the one we had passed around after Grandma's wake and it was more sentimental than anything. I figured I'd give the Super 8 a call but there was no way in hell that three days after they originally threw the bottle out, and two days after they called me to say they found it, would they actually still have the bottle. But they did! They were still waiting for me to call them back and when I explained that I was back in Boston they said they would mail it me. No discussion about postage cost. No discussion about shipping and handling fees. Nothing. They just said they'd be happy to do it and asked me where I wanted it sent.

I have to say I completely forgot about the bottle until today. I walked into the house and there was a box on the counter marked "fragile". I couldn't figure out what it could possible be until I looked at the return address stamp which read: Super 8 - New Hampton. I couldn't believe it! Inside, carefully wrapped in bubble wrap and newspaper, was my bottle.

This is what customer service should be like. The weekend before staying at the Super 8 in New Hampton, Iowa I was staying at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. The Super 8 put them to shame. Now, if the Super 8 just had the great room service macaroni and cheese as the Ritz for those late night, post-drinking munchies it would be just about perfect.