A room for the night !

18th December 2006 – 7pm.

The train finally arrived in Basel and we (JK - my colleague from the Comercial office) made our way to the Raddison hotel. A couple of mins in the line in the lobby and I was talking to the lovely receptionist (Sylvia) who was checking me in. Unfortunately, there were no rooms in the category of room that I had booked, so I had the choice of either a free upgrade or paying the “Business Rate”. I asked how much the business rate was and was told it was approx 100 Swiss Francs more than the rate which I was supposed to pay. I opted for the free upgrade !

I made my way up the lift to room 320. I opened the door and all I say was two leather sofa’s. I stuck my head out of the room door just to make sure I had the right room and sure enough, it said room 320, which was the room I was supposed to be in. I walked into the room, past a little kitchenette on my right and a toilet on my left towards the leather sofa’s. As I turned around I was pretty shocked at what I saw. They hadn’t given me just an upgrade – they had given me a whole apartment – on two floors ! Downstairs had a kitchen, toilet, sofa’s and a dining table and the upstairs had a bathroom, the bedroom, built in wardrobes and another telly !

Usually, it takes quite a lot to impress me, but this place was something else. I was completely gobsmacked ! Obviously, the thing that was going through my mind was “I need to have a party!”, but unfortunately, I was there only for one night and I don’t really know anyone in Zurich ! Typical !!!!!

I had a very comfortable night in this apartment and in the morning, as I checked out, the receptionist asked me if the room was comfortable – the most appropriate response to this was probably to jump up and down and burst into song, but I had to really stop myself from doing this. I explained to the receptionist that it wasn’t a room but more an entire apartment, which was probably bigger than the first apartment that I owned when I was at uni.

I am very grateful that I was able to enjoy the luxury of this room/apartment, but now, all I can think of is what the “business room” would have been like – it apparently had the added benefit of all the pay-per-view movies included, but somehow, I feel that I definitely got the better deal !

P.S. Some pics of this hotelroom/apartment will be added to this blog soon. Watch this space !