I'm as irritated as most here about the Century Square parking situation. I don't mind paying. What irritates me is the loss of convenience. Pouring rain -- have to find one of the few pay stations, then run back to the car because I forgot the license plate, then run back to the pay station, then guess how long I'll be there, then run back to the car to put the slip on the dash, etc.
So, Saturday we had some guests in town and thought we'd try using the valet and suggested it to them too as they were driving separately. One of them has a bad knee so the shorter a walk, and the more convenience the better. The money isn't the issue, convenience is, and what is more convenient than a valet? $8 for 3 hours, no biggie, better than running back and forth to the car.
Except, despite all the reserved spots for valet, and signs pointing to a valet, no valet was in sight. I stayed with the car while one of our party went to the hotel looking for the valet. Finally they found a guy who looked a bit confused but did come take our car keys.
Oh, and our guests arrived before we did, and having the bad knee, didn't try to get out to hunt down a valet and ended up just giving up, finding a handicapped spot, and then walking. Of course the handicapped spots aren't as close as the valet spots. Our guests weren't sure if they needed to pay at a pay station as there were no signs near the handicapped spots, so they just chanced it to avoid the long walk to a pay station and back. Luckily they weren't towed.
It gets better. When it was time to pick up the car, there was no valet in sight. We ended up having to go into the hotel where the girls up front said something like "Oh, the valet left a little while ago" and managed to dig up our keys. They assured us that the valet charge would be added to our hotel room. They seemed confused at the idea that we just used the valet without actually staying in the hotel room. They then tried to figure out how to ring it up. I ended up just leaving $8 cash with them, explaining that was the rate for up to 3 hours of valet parking, and suggested they could figure out what to do with that after I left.
If Century Square is going to offer valet parking, then they should actually have a valet available. They shouldn't have reserved valet spots without a valet available to park cars in them. And, while cars are in the care of the valet, the valet should remain on premises! This was the middle of the day, by the way, not like we were out until 2am and so the valet had to go home or some such.
So, Saturday we had some guests in town and thought we'd try using the valet and suggested it to them too as they were driving separately. One of them has a bad knee so the shorter a walk, and the more convenience the better. The money isn't the issue, convenience is, and what is more convenient than a valet? $8 for 3 hours, no biggie, better than running back and forth to the car.
Except, despite all the reserved spots for valet, and signs pointing to a valet, no valet was in sight. I stayed with the car while one of our party went to the hotel looking for the valet. Finally they found a guy who looked a bit confused but did come take our car keys.
Oh, and our guests arrived before we did, and having the bad knee, didn't try to get out to hunt down a valet and ended up just giving up, finding a handicapped spot, and then walking. Of course the handicapped spots aren't as close as the valet spots. Our guests weren't sure if they needed to pay at a pay station as there were no signs near the handicapped spots, so they just chanced it to avoid the long walk to a pay station and back. Luckily they weren't towed.
It gets better. When it was time to pick up the car, there was no valet in sight. We ended up having to go into the hotel where the girls up front said something like "Oh, the valet left a little while ago" and managed to dig up our keys. They assured us that the valet charge would be added to our hotel room. They seemed confused at the idea that we just used the valet without actually staying in the hotel room. They then tried to figure out how to ring it up. I ended up just leaving $8 cash with them, explaining that was the rate for up to 3 hours of valet parking, and suggested they could figure out what to do with that after I left.
If Century Square is going to offer valet parking, then they should actually have a valet available. They shouldn't have reserved valet spots without a valet available to park cars in them. And, while cars are in the care of the valet, the valet should remain on premises! This was the middle of the day, by the way, not like we were out until 2am and so the valet had to go home or some such.
