After hearing all that went on in the Jerusalem Crowne Plaza, I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive. In America you can go to nearly any brand name hotel and expect to be treated like... well at least a human being. But as most of us know, in Israel "Customer Service" is would probably be a dirty word, if anyone actually knew what it meant. Such were my expectations as I walked toward the check-in counter in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Ashkelon. (Just a thought. Sometimes the best way to have a good time, is to expect nothing)
Those expectations were shattered by a friendly hello from mitlamed Devora, accompanied with the mythical "greeting smile", which until that point, I hadn't known to exist in these parts.
After producing my US ID, she stopped and apologized for not talking to me in English up to that point. This was just getting weird...
As any respectable DDer would, the standard "Are there any upgrades available" question came. I didn't know how to say upgrade in Hebrew, and she didn't understand the word "upgrade" (Insert appropriate joke here). Her boss, Alisia, didn't know either, so after explaining that I wanted a better room (incidentally it's "Shidrug" or something like that in Hebrew) they said no problem, you got a "Deluxe Room", which apparently is approximately 1.5x the size of a regular room, and includes a couch and a bigger porch. It was also located on the "Executive Floor". This concept of a free upgrade in Israel is something that has baffled everyone I've told this to. Incidentally on the way out I asked what I would have gotten if I was PC Platinum, and they said "best available suite". Which is a shame, because had I known, I would've status matched my Hyatt Diamond.


Views from the Hallway on the "Executive Floor"The hallways were humid, and I don't think it was a temporary condition, as it smelled slightly musty, but this was in the hallways only. The rooms smelled fine, and the AC worked well. I was a little surprised at the flat screen (only 26") in the room, but I've been told that this is becoming more standard in Israeli hotels. Besides it wasn't that big. I brought along a VGA cable, so I was able to connect my laptop to it, which was convenient.

Laptop connected to TVThere was also an ashtray on the coffee table by the couch, but the room didn't even smell remotely of smoke. The bathroom was nice, but smallish. There was an amazing view from the porch.


Room
Bathroom




Views from the porchIncidentally there was a mezuza on every room door, don't know if that's common in Israel.
Wifi wasn’t free. It was about $4.50 for a half hour, and $23 for 24 hours (yes that's USD, not sure what’s up with that) with other amounts in between.
We then headed down to the beach. From the pictures on their website, it really seemed like the Hotel was practically on the beach. Not so. To get to the beach, you have to walk out through the front door, walk all the way around the hotel, through the parking lot (BTW free parking, I think) down the "Boardwalk" type of path then down some steps. It's at least a 5 minute walk, and more like 10 at a leisurely vacation pace. We found a quite spot by walking back up the beach toward the hotel, but there was no way I was going into the water, there were Jelly fish all over the place. It was sick.

Beach

Peanut butter, anyone?When we came back there was a complimentary bottle of water, and Bada"tz Ha'eida chocolate chips cookies. I assumed that they mistranslated the word complimentary, but a quick call to the front desk confirmed that they had translated the word correctly. Pretty clutch, as my request for Mehadrin restaurants
had gone unanswered. As someone else complained about a different hotel in Israel, the lights AC and
fridge are controlled with a motion sensor. I find this a bit ludicrous, as a fridge is a FRIDGE if you know what I mean, but whaddyagonnado. It was also a bit annoying that we woke up in middle of the night and because it was hot in the room, as the AC had turned off due to lack of motion.
For Shabbos guests there is a card hanging on the door with a list of instructions. Including:
You can request the motion sensor shut off for Shabbos. There is some ambiguous wording as far as the fridge is concerned.
There are metal "Shabbos" keys available upon request.
Coupons for Shabbos meals can be purchased. I am clueless with regards to Hashgacha.

I have a higher res pic where the words are readable. PM me if you want itThe one big complaint was that are door stopped working, and we were stuck waiting for security for about a half hour, in the humid hallway. (after going down the 3rd time, the girl at the desk was on the phone with security and said in Hebrew something along the lines of "he is getting impatient and is making me crazy" and then, "no, no he doesn't even understand a word of Hebrew, he is talking to me in English" as soon as she hung up I continued in perfect Hebrew. The look on her face was priceless).