A colleague of mine is on a business trip in the Dakotas, evidently experiencing a blizzard. Her rental car is Nissan Altima (bummer). I didn’t ask, but I would guess her travel wardrobe consists of skirts and possibly a nylon leisure suit or two (yeah).
I would imagine this could be extremely unpleasant; shoveling out a rental car without a shovel, in business clothes, and possibly without any more snow-removal equipment than the standard hand-held ice scraper. Does the hotel, in these cases, help their lodgers get unburied, or are folks on their own?
My assumption is, you’d be on your own. Anyone have experiences with this?
This weather system was predicted as far back as a week ago. If she doesn’t have the right clothes or a snow brush for her car, it’s because she wasn’t paying the slightest attention to preparedness.
That said, I should think they will have a snow shovel available for her to use, if not someone willing to do so for a tip/small service charge.
Her clothing is entirely on her, I doubt they can help on that front, though she may be able to buy what she need in town?
We have an Altima, live where there is a lot, LOT, of snow, and we somehow muddle through each winter successfully. So I’m not sure what you were referring to, in regards to the make of her rental car.
We spent a night last winter at a Holiday Inn Express in Meadville during a trip to VooDoo Brewery. There was an unexpected (to us) blizzard. I searched our luggage for something to use as an improvised snow scraper, but was surprised to see that the hotel had been working on cars all morning. We are staying there again anytime we repeat the trip!
ETA: my gf had no snow removal tools in her car. She drives each day from our integral garage to her company’s indoor parking facility. If it’s above 20 she sometimes doesn’t bother with a coat.
If you need a snow shovel to dig your rental car out to make it to a meeting in a strange city, I would suspect that they would forgive her for missing it.
If she was a local, not so much.
Weather prediction doesn’t really matter much as far as the car type and what she is allowed to rent for a business trip, or is capable of driving.
I have been to hotels where they will clean off your car for you.
Both of my employers in New England just change meetings to online/phone. No one bothers to go into the office if it’s snowy or sleeting – traffic around Boston just sucks too much to fight it during a storm. Better to start work at 8 in your jammies.
If you truly were in a Holiday Inn Express, you would have realized that you could have used one or two of the tourist attraction brochures to clean off your car, other guests cars, the parking lot, & the sidewalks.
Don’t you watch their commercials? Sheesh! :dubious:
A hotel in North Dakota ought to have a snow removal contract with someone who’ll clear the lot with a bobcat or something similar. At least, every commercial establishment here does, and they’re not that far south of us.
The locals in the Dakotas are usually friendly and will help your friend out if she’s friendly. The locals also know how to drive, and are prepared to drive, in snow and ice.
A quick trip to the Walmart to stock up on a small shovel, a knit hat, thick wool socks (which can also double as mittens), a pair of overshoes or totes, and a bottle of whiskey to make the whole thing tolerable.
