For the rate I paid, I’ve never stayed in a hotel room so impersonal, so lacking in warmth, comfort, convenience or aesthetic touches as the one I booked at Crystal Inn. When I first entered my very large room, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing and what I was not seeing. The details: four dark walls, a white ceiling, a vinyl laminate floor; no table lamps for area lighting, not for the desk, not for the two bedside tables; no towel rack in the bathroom, no hook for towels or my toiletry kit; one electrical outlet next to the light switch, not over or near the sink. (I had to place my electric toothbrush base on the toilet seat lid. I folded and laid my used bath towel over the sink, lacking any other option.) The only way for me to read after dinner out was to sit in bed and turn on the overhead light. “Breakfast,” offered in the front office, consisted of box cereal dispensed from a container, two files of sliced bread, white and wheat, coffee to be had from a machine. I stayed for all of thirty seconds and left for a real breakfast at a diner. The owner and/or manager have clearly thought of everything a guest might want and decided what he or she could do without.
My stay at Crystal was based on reviews on Expedia. I had booked a room at Crystal Inn for two days for a mid-week mini-vacation to spend a day or two at Bradley beach. After my first night there and my breakfast out, I packed it in and returned home.