Rude, Red Tape, and just Ridiculous

Let me spell out the situation. Four of us are driving through half of Panama from Bocas del Toro to Panama city. Taking turns driving, the trip is still super long (11 hours) and as it is practically impossible to navigate through Panama city at night (signs? what signs?) we even had to take a bit of a detour… Our destination is Riande Aeropuerto Hotel & Resort where we had booked a room for the night. However, by the time we got there, it was around 3am, and our flights left around 8am, so it was more of a promise of a shower and a two hour nap. No matter what little bit of rest we were hoping for, it was going to be a great repose after such a long and stressful day of passing trucks on windy hills, getting stopped at least 3 or 4 times by panama police for their routine checks, even at 1am in the morning. I really don’t know what they’re looking for.. perhaps drug smugglers? Needless to say, all they found was 4 really tired people hiding their real feelings of “what, not again… really.. sigh” behind a fake smiling face just so they’d let us pass with the least amount of hassle.
So finally we get to the hotel, and when T tries to check in, they rudely say “no more than 3 people in the room”. “Hotel Policy”. Poor girl is trying to convince them that we aren’t even going to sleep, just want a shower, no other trouble. Instead of feeling a bit of sympathy for us travelers, they simply shake their heads, and say nope, oh.. and by the way, the 3rd person is extra $22.
WTF. For a shower? No, I don’t think so. Clearly we are all beyond ourselves, pissed off… etc.. All I can think about is how can I sabotage their room without causing extra costs to T’s credit card. Maybe pull all the sheets off and tie them in knots in the shower? or piss into their pool? really. from a distance, this probably seems funny now, but at the time, it was all but that.
So all these guys at the reception are all staring at us, watching vigilantly what we decide to do… as if they were some jail guards. C at this point has given up, and goes into the car completely angry, T is trying to hold back tears, and I am just trying to swallow it all and make a decision.. We’re all in it together, i think – they can’t possibly make half of us sleep in the car, even though there are 2 queen beds in the room… and who in their right mind came up with that 3 person in a room maximum?
Eventually, since T&T were flying out 1 hr after C and I, we decided that C and I would go upstairs and take a shower, change (by this time it was like 4:30am), and then come downstairs and give T&T the key so they could go up. We were hoping that by that time, the night shift would be exchanged by the day shift people so they wouldn’t notice.
Ok so we go upstairs, I pass out on the bed into a kind of half-awake state, and C is changing to get into the shower, we get a knock on the door. It is hotel security. C has only shorts on and no shirt at this point and is proceeded to be taken downstairs and forced to pay the extra $22 dollars for the “3rd person”. Wait.. what? there are only 2 of us in the room! Yeah, except that neither of us is the person whose name under which the reservation was made. !? !? on top of all the rudeness and red tape they already have shown us? F&@$!
Do not go to this hotel. Especially if you are traveling with more than 2 people. At least the porter helped me take up my bags, my attempt at befriending him so they would at least be a little nicer didn’t really work either.
When we switched with T&T, we told them about this, and of course they were equally as enraged. I’m pretty sure this night took 1 whole year off my number of years to live.
But it was a good test a friendship between the four of us. I think we survived it.. anyways it would be a pretty big shame if such a silly situation would ruin any relationship between us.

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