I wish to inform you of the problems encountered with the booking at the River Park Hotel & Suites.

After booking on line on January 19, 2008 I phoned to confirm that the rate would be $79:00 per night and because of being allergic to cigarette smoke we would require an non-smoking room and also a room in a quieter area of the hotel. These special requests at this hotel were confirmed by the agent of the online booking company on January 22, 2008.

My husband and I checked in at 3:30 P.M. but prior to signing the room agreement I noticed the invoice was for $89:00 per night. Despite seeing the print out of our confirmation from the booking agent,she refused to honour the $79:00 confirmed rate. I insisted that this rate had been posted online and also I had verbal confirmation from the booking agent Joanna, that this would be the rate we would be paying. The receptionist then went to contact the online booking agent's office. After waiting 30 minutes, she returned with a revised invoice with the $79:00 rate, but we did not realize that they had made a change and had moved us from the 6th floor to the 4th floor.

When we entered room 410 there was a very strong smell of cigarette smoke. The front room and all the furniture was saturated with cigarette smoke. We quickly closed the connecting door and entered into the bed room. The smell of cigarette smoke was not as overpowering, so we opened the three windows to help air the smoke smell out of the room. After having encountered so much difficulty with the front desk, we decided to accept the room, rather than ask them to move us.

In the evening we went to close the curtains, but there were no drapes to block out the bright light from the street and the two flood lights mounted on the lower roof of the hotel just below our windows. The room had only a sheer see through curtain and it was as bright as daylight in the room at 10:00 P.M.

I phoned the Front Desk and they sent the maintenance man up. He looked at the sheer curtain and how bright and glaring the light was in the room. He attempted to pull the decorative side panel across to cover the sheer curtain covering the large center window but it was impossible. He agreed that this room needed a proper curtain. He would tell the Front Desk and they would move us to another room. Unfortunately there were no other rooms available. We could be moved the next day.

In desperation I went down to the Front Desk and requested they lend us two large sheets and I pinned them onto the top of the header of the valance to block out the light. We noticed they did switch off one of the flood lights that was aimed towards our window.

The next morning we decided not to request a transfer, because we were afraid we would be placed into another room that was not suitable. We had encountered other problems on the first day, the guest elevator was not working, we had to use the service elevator to get to our floor. The next day maintenance came to fix the guest elevator and then it stopped working again, also the second elevator available to guests also broke down. All the guests in this fully booked hotel had to share the service elevator with housekeeping and the cleaning staff. There was a lot of congestion as guests tried to maneuver their luggage between carts loaded with linen in very narrow passage ways.

I am very concerned that the River Park Hotel and Suites does not honour special request of their guests to ensure their health, safety and comfort. I would definitely not recommend this hotel to any of my friends. The Front Desk staff's lack of respect for their guests does not make for an enjoyable stay at this hotel. This hotel should not be recommended by any hotel booking agency because the River Park Hotel and Suites did not comply with the requests of their guests

I have attached photographs of the bed sheet we had to adapt to the curtain rod in order to be able to sleep during our two night stay.