The Silly Suitcase: The Charleston Glitch

The famous Charleston Bridge!

We totally hit the the "lucky" jackpot while we were in Charleston this weekend. Now I don't mean the slot machine jackpot, I mean the stars were all aligned and everything kept falling perfectly into place. We literally just had plain "luck" on our side (and a computer glitch).

Now the luck actually started a few weeks ago at home when we purchased our hotel. As we were searching for a good deal for a room in Charleston, we found a hotel on Hotwire that was practically too good to be true. It said we had purchased a 4 star hotel in the city for $32 per night!! The retail price for these types of hotels in this area are between $200-$300. It appeared to be a mistake... so we booked it anyways and held our breath.

Okay lets fast forward to last Saturday when we checked into the lovely "French Quarter Inn". The lady at the front desk sort of chuckled and said "oh, you guys are one of the Glitches." We said yes and she handed us our keys with a joyful smirk.

Just like that. $32 for a 4 star hotel. Thank you Hotwire.

Since it was super early in the morning, our room wasn't ready, so we had to leave our bags with the bell desk. They said they would deliver them to the room once it was ready (I know it sounds like a dumb detail to share with you, but it is important to my story).

Moving on... the weekend gets even better.

So the front desk then pointed us to the free breakfast . Now this wasn't just any free breakfast. It was a complete spread filled with detox water, French pastries, and of course: unlimited champagne all morning. Oh Lord, at this point we knew we had really scored on this hotel!

The Breakfast Buffet

The lovely patio

Alright, after several rounds of the bubbly, we decided to see a few sites. Our first stop was a carriage ride through the city. We walked up to the barn and literally a carriage was ready to leave with no waiting! Guess what else? The clerk gave us a discount just because I told her I thought I had a coupon! As u can tell, I sort of get excited about the little things.

Our Carriage Ride

another carriage

After a fun filled afternoon in the city, we eventually we made our way back to the hotel where we noticed our luggage had not yet arrived in the room. No big deal-but I called the front desk and they said they would bring it promptly. They also casually mentioned there was a free wine reception in the lobby.

What ? More free stuff? Okay.

We practically raced down to the lobby for the wine reception which was basically another gourmet European style buffet. I mean, how much more could this hotel give us? It was getting ridiculous. We chuckled to each other as we toasted our wine on the patio and simply feeling overly privileged.

afternoon wine reception

lots of options

Eventually the wine reception was over. I checked back to the room.... NO LUGGAGE YET. Geeze, what did they do, sell them? Hmmm. Now it has been 10 hours since our original check-in. We arrived at 9 am and it is now 7 pm. I kinda wanted my suitcase. So I called again. I even offered to pick it up myself.

They apologized for the delay and informed us they were sending a complimentary bottle of champagne to the room and removing all valet parking charges.

freebies

Ridiculous just got more ridiculous. Lets break this down:

*We only paid $32 for one of the nicest hotels in the city
*Unlimited champagne and gourmet breakfast from 7-11 am
*Wine and cheese reception daily from 5-7 pm
*Free Valet parking
*Complimentary champagne sent to the room

WTF.

Deal of a lifetime. 'Nuff said.

the fountain view

Here is my moral of the story:

Whomever said "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" was a Jackass.

I'll take advantage of a good Glitch any day!!

Now don't be jealous... I have plenty of horror stories about our problems while traveling. Did I ever tell you about the time we sat in the Baltimore airport for 7 hours? How about the time our rental car got towed in Vegas? Well stay tuned cuz there are plenty of those stories as well!!

Here are few other pics of our weekend in Charleston: