In 2004 I brought my 1st convertible (1 of 3) and the very 1st solo trip I took was to Norfolk Va. After dropping “the kid” at her dads for the weekend, I loaded up my sleek gold baby & rolled out!
I found the hotel thru AAA, which described it as a “refurbished back to it’s original grandeur older hotel”. The hotel was beautiful, the red carpet extended to the curb. The bell hop & valet parking guy did their thing while I sashayed up the red carpet to the reservations desk. But 1/2 way up the steps I had a weird feeling, like something was wrong. At the desk was a impeccable dressed older couple checking out, the woman turn to wards me, looked me up & down and turned away without even speaking. Now it’s true I wasn’t dressed in a suit, but It was Friday night, I had just drivin several hours with the top down, I was wearing a black mini skirt (I had GREAT legs back then…lol) white linen tunic & black high heel sandals and I looked like just what I was, “A casually but well dressed Beautiful Independent Black Women” And my skirt was not short enough to warrant that type of snub. So again I am thinking something is wrong here.
I look around the hotel lobby a bit while waiting to check in and as I said before it was Beautiful but seemed a little “faded” to me, even though everything was brand new, it still seemed a little musty without the smell. I ask about the restaurant that the guide book mentioned and was told they no longer had a restaurant. Now you tell me what kind of ****star hotel DOESN’T have a restaurant? After getting my suite assignment, I am waiting at the elevators & a group of “flawless” women wearing evening attire & gorgeous hair get off, and I think don’t they look nice, must be some party. I go up to my suite & again it’s beautiful but without the “shine” if that makes sense.
At this point I am hungry so I leave the hotel to find a restaurant (which is not hard to do as the hotel is in the middle of the revitalized downtown area) I go up one side of the street & back down the other, I finally decide on one that offers steak & seafood right across from the hotel. The owner (who happen to be a black man) flirts with me from the moment I walk in, personally seats me himself & brings me a complementary glass of wine. So I ask him to join me and start asking him questions about the hotel across the street. He asked me if that was where I was staying and started laughing. That’s when I KNEW something was really wrong.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the hotel had a history & reputation!!! It used to be a GRAND HOTEL in the early 1900’s, then it fell into disrepair and was used as a home for the elderly, then used as emergency shelter for the homeless, eventually being brought by private enterprise to be made back into a GRAND HOTEL, only there was not enough bookings so the restaurant left and now IT’S A HIGH CLASS HOOKER HOTEL!!! AND THE WOMEN CHARGE $300 -$500 A HR (heck no wonder they have such great hair!). Of all the hotels in Norfolk I pick a hooker hotel!!! Now I know why that women looked at me so funny, she thought I was one of the hookers, (Iam sure she and her husband had no more idea when they booked then I did, probably Thur AAA as well),
So I go back to the hotel & tell the desk clerk what I was told, and that I would be checking out (now I had not even unpacked yet, much less hurt the room) and they still wanted to charge me for the night, while denying the hooker thing. So I said fine, I will find another hotel But if my money is not back on my card by Tues morning I am calling AAA. The way I saw it was, if you are Innocent then you have nothing to worry about, but if you are guilty, the last thing you need is another complaint to AAA about the hotel. Tues morning my money was credited back to my card! When I told my sister about all of this that night from the new hotel, she had the nerve to say “at least you had the wardrobe for it, you could have made a little extra money”!!
I informed her that:
1. I was on vacation
2. No one & I mean NO ONE even so much as looked my way, much less offered me any money
Now how insulting is that!!!
