Review of the Sheraton Roanoke and Other Notes from a Long Trip

I drove my car full of dogs home to the Northeast for the holidays. On our way back to the South we stayed at two different dog friendly hotels. The first hotel was the Best Western Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem, PA. I love this hotel. In fact, on my summer cross country with dogs trip I stayed at this hotel. On this trip I sought it out because I enjoyed my previous experience. The Best Western of Bethlehem is only two floors and both times they were able to give me a room on the first floor. I prefer the first floor in the doggy road trip scenarios for ease of packing/unpacking the car and dog walking. The hotel has a courtyard in the middle and plenty of dog walking spots. It is nicely restored and cheap. Our stay was restful and the next day we continued our trek south.

We were off to a good start...

Our next stop was to be Roanoke Virginia. I picked the Sheraton Roanoke because it looked half way decent, was reasonably priced and dog friendly. I was able to find a parking spot close enough to the door and found ample grounds for dog walking. My room was nice but lacked two essentials of this road trip: HGTV (the home and garden television station) and a microwave for popcorn. Major bummer. I called the front desk and found out that microwaves were available for an extra charge of $15. I asked them to waive the charge and they obliged. Shortly after a woman arrived with a petite microwave. I let her in as the dogs swarmed around her to bark. I took the microwave and set it on the bed and told her I could take it from here. I could tell my oldest dog was ready to remove a chunk of her leg. Oblivious to the barking and impending dog bites she tried to pick out an apt spot for the microwave as though we were decorating my first apartment. I repeated my claim that I could handle the microwave placement and thanked her profusely as me and my dog swarm herded her back towards the door. As we all settled back down, I found it odd that while I do not have a microwave in my own home I had gone to extreme lengths to have one placed in my hotel room for one night. HGTV is also an amenity I do not enjoy at home, but that is exactly why I expect it when I travel. Watching HGTV is my travel treat.

After finding the perfect spot for the microwave, I took the dogs out for a quick pee. Bill Scrapps, my tallest dog peed right onto Anna, my shortest dog. It was a good thing he managed to do this because I needed a new project after driving cross country all day and negotiating microwaves into my hotel room. Back in the hotel room, Anna and I took a shower. Afterwards it was my turn to pee. I accomplished the task without urinating on anybody else, however when I attempted to flush the toilet the handle fell off. I took the lid off the toilet and did my best toilet doctoring but the handle would not reattach. I called the front desk to report my problem. I had two options: wait for the maintenance man or change rooms.  I opted for the room change because my dog posse would not be likely to warmly receive any more visitors and at some point in the evening I was hoping to relax. In addition, I did not forecast a quick and easy toilet fix. I'm not a toilet novice. Despite how the night was beginning to feel, this was NOT my first apartment.

I ran to the front desk to retrieve a new key for a new hotel room. I ran because I knew the dogs would bark the whole time I was gone. Per my dogs, I'm not allowed to leave hotel rooms when we travel. I ran back to the old room to start the moving process. My old key no longer worked. I went to the new hotel room to report the key problem, but the phone in the new hotel room did not work. This was becoming a nightmare. I ran back to the front desk and asked to just have my old key reactivated, I was no longer up to a move. The front desk girl felt bad for me and gave me a free breakfast coupon and said that she was going to have the maintenance guy come by anyway. I ran back to my room to alleviate the dogs barking and wait for the maintenance man. I didn't want to get into bed and relax because I knew I would be interrupted shortly. After 1/2 an hour I called the front desk and asked her to cancel the maintenance man (that I didn't want in the first place) so that I could go to bed. She obliged.

As we lay down to sleep, the realization that we were on an all dog floor set in. Every time a dog walked by our door, my dogs flipped out. They are not used to parades of dogs walking past their bedroom door at all hours. While the barking was unpleasant, the need to jump off the bed and attack the door was hazardous for my eldest weiner dog who has back problems. It was not going to be a relaxing night.

Here is my advice to people with ill behaved dogs looking for hotels. Ask when you book if the dogs are all kept next to each other. If they are, find another hotel. For every time you walk down the hall it will be like walking through a pound, igniting the bark behind each door you pass.


After writing this post I called Expedia to dispute the charges of the hotel room. I offered to pay for 25% of the room. I'm awaiting a judgement.

On a positive note, later the next morning, Bill Scrapps and I hiked to Mcafee's Knob on the Appalachian Trail. The rationale behind staying in Roanoke was to do this specific hike. We were glad we did it. Afterwards we drove home. I recommend an industrious hike before a long road trip. The exercise wore us out enough to make keeping still only moderately annoying.

The Knob