s/o Never Shopping - I'm never STAYING there again!!

[GSNW]

The whole chain is dead to me.

DH and I flew into San Juan last week and just needed to stay overnight before our morning flight to a smaller island.  I found what I thought was a great deal for a semi-fancy hotel with the main draw being that the hotel was halfway between SJU and SIG, the smaller airport we needed to be at the next morning. 

The room was much smaller and not as nice as I expected for the price, but it was just to crash, so... fine.  We ate dinner at the hotel and it was OK.  I found it overpriced, $16 for four tomato/mozzarella slices?

The toilet in our room was running.  I called and they said they'd send someone up.  No one ever showed up. 

I had work to do so after seeing that the free wifi was garbage, paid $20 for the "upgraded" wifi that was supposed to be faster.  It dropped me every 30 seconds, it's a miracle I could submit my work at all.  During this time, I called the front desk and explained the issue.  She transferred me to someone she said could help, but the phone rang over and over with no answer.  I called her back, she transferred me again, same thing.  I gave up.

The next morning I called room service for breakfast... no answer... I called the front desk directly and they had to radio room service and have them call ME.  Then some of the stuff we wanted to order (which was on the menu) was not available. 

Called the concierge to get a car at a specific time.  No... answer... ring ring ring...

When I went to check out the guy asked me how our stay was.  I very politely explained that I was disappointed with the difficulties in reaching anyone, fixing things, and the internet.  He just said, "Okay, your total owed is X."  I said, "Are you really going to charge me for the internet that didn't work?" to which he replied, "I can't refund you if you didn't tell anyone about the problem."  Since I had JUST described to him the attempts I made to reach someone, I said, "What else do you feel I could have done, when the people I called transferred me twice to an extension no one answered?  How could I solve that problem?"  His response was, "Fine, I'll take it off the bill, but you did not tell anyone about the problem."

 

I paid and signed the receipt without another word, literally.  I emailed the hotel itself and their corporate office but have not heard back.  Super not impressed!

[VorFemme]

And the name of the chain is?

Or do we need to go to Yelp! to see your review?

[GSNW]

Oops, dur.  It was an InterContinental hotel.

[VorFemme]

Did you post that on their website for that location?

Because anyone going to the island would want to know to ask if the repairs have been done yet - like walk in, check for working whatever, then go back to the desk, report the issue in person, and check out very quickly.

I've done that one time (small hotel in Alabama in 1996 - probably under new management by now) - my ankles still itched for days - I have no idea why they itched as I don't remember seeing a rash, but they still itched constantly for days.

No known plumbing issues, I didn't go far enough into the room to check the bathroom - the room smelled too bad to sleep in, even though it was almost midnight.  Mom, DD, VorSon, the cat, and I kept going another thirty minutes down the highway to the next town to find a hotel that smelled less like the carpet cleaner had used a strong ammonia & spices solution to clean with. 

I've never smelled a hotel room or a kitchen that smelled quite like that before or since - not even when the movers managed to break a few bottles from my spice rack and I was using ammonia in warm water to clean the footprints from the movers' boots...

[Slartibartfast]

Does it count if we never actually stayed there the first time? 

When I was in high school, my family went to visit relatives in New Zealand and we did some touring around.  Mostly we stayed in places that were somewhere between a hotel and a hostel - bed-and-breakfast-minus-the-breakfast places, tiny cabins, etc.  It was a really neat experience.

Except for one.  We pulled up at this little seaside hotel, which was MUCH shabbier than mom thought when she booked it.  The front porch was filled with shirtless college-age guys and the whole building had a distinct herbal odor . . .

I don't think I've ever seen my mother so happy as when she realized we had the wrong address 

[cicero]

sorry you had such a bad experience.

I once had a rotten experience in a hotel in london (also a chain but for the life of me i can't remember the name right now). It was a short overnight - i had arrived late at night and was leaving early the next morning. they had a card on the desk claiming that if a problem is not solved within X minutes, then the stay is 50% or free or something (I really don't remember the details; this was at least 15 years ago). anyway, i had a problem with the tv - i called the front desk, no answer. i called again and again, no answer. i went down, there was nobody there.

next morning when i checked out, i had the discussion with the front desk - i claimed that i had an unsolved problem so they needed to reimburse me. they claimed that i never told them about the problem, therefore they didn't need to reimburse me. the fact that there was nobody to tell the problem to escaped their line of thinking. I asked for a manager, and we met halfway.

Which brings me to my advice which i learned at that time - when you are staying at a hotel and there is a problem, the time to bring it up is *during* yoru stay, not when you're checking out. the front desk people are used to people arguing about the bill at check out time, so they lump the "justified" complainers with the *habitual* complainers. You need to complain at the time that things happen and make sure they take the wifi (or whatever) off your bill - if necessary go up the chain.

[Katana_Geldar]

My ex once stayed in a hotel I thought was nice where the room was right by the check in desk, so we heard people walking up and down all night, and the room service was lean cuisine. No exaggeration, it actually was lean cuisine.

I'd actually prefer no room service to that.

[AmethystAnne]

The Budget Inn in Beaufort, SC, near Parris Island Marine Corp Recruit Base

In 2002, my son completed Boot Camp. DH, YoungestDD, OldestDD, SonIL(former Marine), DGSon, and I were driving the 14-16 hours to be there for Graduation and for Family Day the day before. I had called the week before to make reservations for 2 rooms.

We are very tired by the time we arrive at the motel. [at this point, I am, frankly, sick of all this togetherness!]  I check in, get the keys, and we enter our rooms. YDD, DH, & I in one room, and ODD & her family in the other.

ODD comes to the room and tells us that they don't have a microwave oven.....It's a big thing because the room contract listed all the ammenities available in each room. If any item was missing after we checked out, my credit card would be charged.

I walk to the office and tell the person that the microwave is missing. The response? "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure it's missing"  "we'll take care of it"   I watched the man go into another motel room for a microwave. He carried it to ODD's room.

We stayed there 2 nights. The first night we were too tired to do anything but to fall asleep. The next night, as I was drifting off, I heard the distinct sound of cellophane crackling. I got up and discovered that some wrapped crackers had been ripped and had chew marks on it. I took the food out to the car.
And went back to bed, after leaving some lights on.

The next morning I checked us out, and we went to Parris Island for the graduation. So proud of DSon!

[whiterose]

- Hollywood Celebrity Hotel in LA. I dubbed it "Hotel California" due to all the creepy things going on in there.

- A Motel 6 in Baton Rouge. The loud AC kept us up all night.

- Hotel de Paris. They would not replace the soap even if it was almost out.

- There was this hotel in Maryland near the U of M that gave me a room where the shower did not work. I let them know the first night- they did not fix it for the second one.

[BioformCassie]

The Clover Leaf hotel in Birmingham AL

When I was a kid we were heading home from visiting our grandparents for Christmas when the car broke down. Apparently there was something going on in town because all of the hotels were booked. When the tow truck driver came to pick up the car he actually called the jail to see if there was room before sending us to this place. The first room we went into the beds were wet. Like sopping wet. Go back to the desk ask for another room the second room there were blood stains on the bed. The third room had no heat so they had to give us portable heaters and we slept on top of the beds. Thankfully our car was fixed the next day so we were able to finish going home.

[artk2002]

I've got a couple.

On a business trip to Washington DC, I stayed at an Extended Stay America.  Aside from being slightly shabby and the desk chair being broken, the room was ok. The problem came at checkout. I had an early flight and went to the front desk at about 6:30AM. At which time I discovered that they don't have anyone manning the desk until 7AM. I tried calling the hotel's number, hoping that there was someone "on call," but I could hear it ringing in the back and nobody picked up. There were a couple of long haul truck drivers with some important equipment to deliver who were also stuck, as well as another commercial traveler.

Someone finally opened the desk at about 7:20 and we all got out of there. As far as any of us could tell, there was absolutely no notice that you couldn't check out before 7AM (or so.)

Next: The Travelodge in San Diego, near the airport. Mrs.k2002 and I were singing with a choir in San Diego and the whole choir was booked into this hotel, although we had each made our own arrangements. After the concert we went to the hotel; I got our key and we went to the room. The room which reeked of cigarette smoke. Both Mrs.k2002 and I are non-smokers and have a hard time with that smell. I went to the desk and the desk clerk insisted that I had asked for a smoking room. Oh, and there were no other rooms, so we were stuck. He was quite snotty about it. I tossed the key on the desk and said that we'd find some other place -- in fact, we just drove back to Los Angeles that night. I heard later that the clerk told our contact person that I had thrown the key at him. I explained to her that had I thrown the key at him, it would have been sticking in his forehead like a ninja star.

[Peregrine]

I'm glad to hear that we aren't the only people who have had a bad experience with Extended Stay America.....

Several years ago my husband and I were sent to San Diego on our first TDY assignment, and our contracted housing wasn't ready for us....We pulled in after three 12 hour days of driving with two angry cats and many back and forth calls with the travel department who booked us into the Extended Stay place for a month until our apartment was going to be ready.

On checking in we found that;
The room was smaller than a budget Motel 6 that we stayed at on the road. 
The bed was harder than an ironing board, and we had slept on better at the local "no tell motel" during an emergency situation once.  Plus it was "short sheeted"
The shower pressure was barely better than a trickle.
You emptied your own garbage at the "garbage room" down the hall, stepped in there and the trash was piled up past my head (I'm 5'8")
When asking the front desk about the pool listed in the amenities....I was told that I could walk the three blocks to the Holiday Inn and use theirs 
The internet (hardwired only) only worked between 5 and 10 pm....and was slower than dial up (in 2008)

We had gotten in at 9 at night, so we spent the night.  But my husband had to report to work the next morning.  I spent the morning alternately bawling at the awful situation that I thought we were going to be stuck in for a month, and making phone calls to my parents to see if I could get help getting a plane reservations back home until we got assigned an apartment (we had given up our apartment back home and put stuff in storage).  I finally remembered a friend of ours back home who had done several TDY's and knew how the system worked and called him for advice.  I found out who to call for my husband and was able to arrange new accommodation on our own without going through the travel department (who was not returning our calls).  By the time my husband got home I had a new place for us to say, the cats packed up, and we got the heck out of that place.  Turned out to be a good thing, another of husbands co-workers was stuck there, and when her toilet broke, the maintenance guys brought her a bucket and told her it would be a 12 hours before it was fixed.   

[NyaChan]

What is TDY?

[Peregrine]

What is TDY?

Temporary Duty Assignment....my husband is a Federal govt. employee.  It is not typical that families accompany the employee, but the government gives a set amount of money to the person traveling per day to cover housing, food, rental car etc.  Since we budget it carefully, I generally accompany him on trips longer than a month (sometimes lasting 9 months or more).

If I remember correctly any off station assignment longer than a year would be PCS (permanent change of station) and the government must pay for your family's moving expenses.

[VorFemme]

Okay - other "not staying there hotels" or possibly "why did I stay there longer than twenty minutes?" nights.

Mobile, AL is a good place to break when driving from Houston (I-10) to Ambrosia Hino's house in Georgia.  It is where I switch from I-10 to I-65 and a bit over 2/3 of the way there - so an easy drive the second day on the road.  I quit staying at the places with the coupons in the travel magazines at the rest stops.  Why?  See below:

Emerald Palms is gone (I-65 access road) - not just out of business, but torn down.  No towels in first room & no clean ones in the housekeeping area that the front desk could bring me.  So they moved me to another room...with towels.  While packing to move from the one room to the other, I noticed a cigarette smoke smell & some scorch marks and holes on the bed spreads (two double beds). 

Second room had a king sized bed with lots more scorch marks on the sheets, a heavier odor of smoke, and small round holes burned in the bedspread & the chair in the room.  If it had been earlier than "after midnight", I might have gone looking elsewhere anyway...but decided that I would just never stay here again.

The 1950s era quarried rock motel on a side road wasn't bad...until I realized that there was a band with the bass turned up really high at a bar nearby.  You could barely hear the music, even outside on the street...but the ground was vibrating to the bass & the drums to the point that it was quite audible when you were in bed and getting the sound conducted from the ground to the cement slab to the bed frame to the mattress to the pillow to your inner ear...it was too long after I'd checked in to get my money refunded and they had tried noise complaints.  Since you had to be in bed to "hear" it, the police reluctantly couldn't make the noise statutes fit...although they agreed that it was terrible.

The bar closed around 2 am.  It is also on the list of places never, ever to stay again.  Sleeping from 2 am to 7 am before driving some six hours is not quite enough sleep.  It was easy to go to bed an hour earlier (time zone change) the first night at my relatives' house, though.