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| - It's with some regret that I rank the Shadyside Inn Suites so low. We were there for just one night, and overall the accommodations appear quite pleasant.
For starters, we arrived at the office to check in and the gentleman in the office was on the phone. Although we stood there for at least five minutes while he finished, he never made any attempt to look at us, or indicate that he would be with us as soon as possible. As we waited, several other staff people passed us in the office, and never acknowledged our presence. When he finally got off the phone, he was very pleasant, but never even acknowledged the fact that we had been standing there waiting.
Even though it was almost 1p, we were told that our room was not yet ready, and that it might not be available until 4p, which was the "guaranteed check in time." I indicated that we had been on the road for hours and we had an important function that evening, before which we really had hoped to catch a short nap. I asked if he could please get us a clean room as soon as possible, and he said that he could call us when the room was ready. To their credit, they did call us within about 90 minutes.
Our room was essentially a small studio apartment, with a bedroom/sitting room, kitchenette and bathroom. When we entered we were practically assaulted by an overwhelmingly strong smell of some sort of floor or room cleaner - perhaps an artificial lavender scent - so strong it was like walking into a Bath & Body Works. Almost immediately my partner developed a bad head ache and we had to leave the door open for about 20 minutes to air it out. Though the scent diminished a little, it remained strong for the duration of our stay.
The furniture was modern and the room well laid out. It included an open wifi network, a rather large flat-screen tv connected to basic cable, a queen sized bed, a large arm chair, and a dining table with chairs. There were a few tacky prints on the walls that appeared to have been designed by some Thomas Kinkaide wannabe.
As it was January, it was rather cold out, and so we sought to turn up the heat, which was provided via an old radiated steam heat system in the bedroom/sitting area. There was no wall thermostat, so we had to fiddle around with the knob at the base of the radiator, but as anyone who is familiar with those older steam systems, they're touchy and hard to control. There was also a radiator unit in the bathroom, but it didn't work, which meant it was rather chilly when you stepped out of the shower. The entire evening we found ourselves trying to adjust the heat in the main room, and often opening the window just a crack, to compensate for excess heat, or closing it to allow the heat to build up again. It was bad enough that neither of us got a good night's sleep, because we found ourselves either sweating or shivering, and the temperature never evened out.
I had some work to do while we were there, so after dinner, I sat down to use my computer and the wireless network, but at about 10P, the network shut down, and didn't come back. I called the main office, only to get a voicemail saying that they were closed; there was an emergency number, but I didn't feel that I wanted to go to that trouble. I kept checking periodically, but the wifi didn't come back that night. In fact it wasn't on the next morning when I woke at about 7A. I called the office again, but the same voicemail was still on, and still again at 7:30A and at 8A. Finally after I got out of the shower at about 8:30A, the wifi was back.
The final straw occurred as we were leaving. There was no elevator in the old building, so we had to use the stairwell. Apparently someone had mopped the stairs, but good, shortly before we left our room, and they were slippery and wet, but we were not aware of this, as there was not "Caution Wet Floor" sign, and the stairwell was not illuminated enough to be able to see quite how wet the floor was. As a result, on the very first step down, my foot slid out from under me, and I landed hard on my backside. Fortunately I wasn't hurt, though I did spend several days with soreness afterward. When I stood up, I realized that the floor had been so wet that in the 2 seconds I was on the floor, my jeans were soaked through to my undies.
When we got to the office to check out, the same gentleman who checked us in was attending the desk. He asked how our stay was, and I limited my comments to my recent fall. He apologized perfunctorily and made a note, but said nothing else.
As I said in the beginning, I am sorry to give this low rating, because the place looks like it could be darling. In fact, when we were checking in, we saw they had received an award in 2009 for being Piuttsburgh's "Most Romantic Getaway" spot from the local independent rag. Nevertheless we experienced too many frustration, and we will not go back if we find ourselves in the Steel City, nor are we comfortable recommending it to anyone else.
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