Our Board exams are administered in Charlotte, and the National Board struck a deal with several hotels in Charlotte, but the closer ones were booked on my test date, so I decided to give \""Crowne Plaza\"" a shot.\n\nFirst off, when I called to book, they had a bit of trouble locating the code for the corporate rate I was requesting. They also are not able to send a confirmation email until M-F business hours, so I had to call back to get it. However, booking and checking-in went smoothly, despite my flight delay and late arrival around 1am.\n\nThat sort of ends the good stuff.\n\nI went up to my room and immediately got ready for bed. There was a dark black (make-up?) stain on the side of the bedsheet. No biggie, sheets probably were bleached and washed, some oil-based make-up is just hard to get out, and at least I'm not sleeping on it. The rest of the bedding looked clean. However, I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn off the vent (I had turned off the heater, AC, and fan settings), but was too tired to fumble with it more. I figured the white noise could help me sleep. Good thing too, because as soon as I turned off the lights, I could see the 1 cm gap between the bottom of the door and the doorframe's threshold. Not good for hallway noise. However, this was not what awoken me 1 hour before my alarm set off. You see, each room is connected to its neighbor by a thin not-sound-proofed door, and I woke up to a man's coughing and television playing before my alarm went off.\n\nGroggily, I got out of bed and started washing up. Some aspects of the bathroom may be renovated (countertop), but amenities are a bit lacking. First, the towels definitely seen better days. Two of the four large ones had pink and neon orange stains on them, likely also make-up that hadn't come out with washing. But still, a bit thinned and worn, the towels should have been replaced by now. Second, there was no shower mat in the bathroom (I'm always leary of foot fungus in hotel showers), but I didn't want to wait for housekeeping to bring one over. Finally, there was a single bar of soap to be shared between tub and sink, and only a \""conditioning shampoo\"", a bit below standards for a Crowne. That being said, water pressure was great, but temperature could not get very hot.\n\nFinally, when I went downstairs to check out, the receptionist didn't even get off the phone to address me when I turned in my key. She just printed a receipt and turned her back around. I understand if she was dealing with a difficult patron, but at least have the courtesy to smile and acknowledge me. I waited for her to get off the phone to ask about the shuttle to take to my exam site, and she snappily told me it's not here yet. I asked for the restroom while I waited, and she hastily pointed down the hallway. Not what I was expecting for \""southern hospitality\"".\n\nHopefully, renovations will address some of the issues, and perhaps management will also address the room amenities and service insufficiencies.\n\ntl;dr Hotel lacks in amenities and service, but the real downside is the noise for those that need a good night's rest. Hope for improvements with renovation.