The Candlewood Suites in Linthicum, Maryland: Great Customer Service

Maybe you've read hotel reviews by the average customer--the one who stops in for a night and doesn't have complicated demands. But if you really want to test drive a hotel, you should hear from someone who booked a conference there. When a hotel staff has to coordinate reservations, juggle roommates, and find ways to accommodate customers with special needs, you can tell what they're really made of. I know, because after booking a last minute conference at the Candlewood Suites Hotel in Linthicum Maryland, we really put this hotel through its paces.

When it comes to the basics, the Candlewood Suites has it all. It's clean, conveniently located, and the rooms are more spacious than any conventional hotel or motel in the area. The elevators are quick, the stairwells are well-tended, and the cleaning staff does its best to impersonate invisible elves who clean your room when you're not looking. The Candlewood's suites all come with a dishwasher, a refrigerator, and closet room aplenty. With all these amenities for the same price as a normal hotel room, it's a mystery that they aren't booked full every night.

Luckily for us, when we held our convention at the Candlewood Suites, they had room for us.

For years, our conference had been held at the nearby Ramada Inn BWI. But this year, the hotel hired new staff and they decided not to honor our agreement with them. That sent us scurrying for a new hotel with only six weeks before our convention was scheduled to kick off. We were sure that no hotel could possibly accommodate us and we were so frazzled we considered canceling our plans altogether.

One call to the Candlewood Suites Hotel in Linthicum and we were immediately reassured. The manager at the Candlewood Suites Hotel was not only appalled at the way that we'd been treated by the other hotel, but quoted us a reasonable price. We could have been gouged, booking at the last minute like that, but the Candlewood Suites not only treated us fairly, but went above and beyond the call of duty to meet our special needs.

Because the Candlewood Suites are an extended stay hotel, they had no rooms with double beds. This presented a problem for our convention, because so many of our guests intended on rooming with others. To solve this problem, the Candlewood Suites actually arranged to rent additional roll-away beds for our guests, and gave us reduced pricing options on the larger suites with fold out couches. Additionally, though the hotel was unable to accommodate our request to put all guests on the same floor, the manager did her best to group our rooms together.

One of the best features of the Candlewood Suites is the outdoor grill, where our convention members were able to have an impromptu cook out. Conventions are noisy, awkward affairs and ours was no different. We wouldn't have been surprised if the hotel never wanted us back again, but in the end, they were friendly, supportive, and asked to see us again next year.

Now that's good customer service.