Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Horrible Akron Hotel!
I will start with the condition of the hotel. Upon entering our room we noticed immediately the carpets were moist and our kids refused to take off their shoes. There were marks all over the walls where I believe decorations once were, but nothing is there but what appeared to be glue. There were paint blotches all along the window that looked like an attempt at painting a circus border that was abandoned half way through then cleaned off one, realized how hard it was, then walked away. There were cigarette burns in the blankets of our non-smoking room. When we walked to the pool we were greeted with trash and beer cans along the path leading to the non-maintained pool. Which leads me to the next part - the staff.
We were in our room for 15 minutes when we decided we did not want to let our kids stay in this hotel. As we went to our car we passed several cleaning staff who were partially wearing their uniforms, cussing, and smoking as we walked out the door to our van. When we got to the main office I tried to cancel my stay. The kid at the desk told me he could cancel me out but I couldn't get a refund since it was a prepaid reservation. Our card was not charged until we left, so I am not sure how it was prepaid. He said I would have to speak with the manager via the phone, although I know his office was right behind the front desk. I went to the phone at the end of the desk and dialed the number he gave me; the number did not work and the kid told me I would have to call from the room. So off I went in my van around the complex with the room card again to call from the room. The manager answered the phone and explained to me I could not be given a refund and he would be happy to move me to a new room. We were so appalled at the overall hotel that this would not work. He explained there is no way for us to be refunded our money. I went back and handed the room card to the desk worker. I went out to my car and immediately called the Choice Hotels 800 number. It is 1.800.300.8800; if you stay here you will need it. The took my complaint and told me to give the hotel 72 hours to respond, then contact the 800 number if we are not satisfied. Three days passed and a refund of $44 showed up on our credit card, leaving us still out $105. I called the 800 number and they directed me to contact the same hotel manager who said he could not refund my money, then refunded 1/3 of my money. Sorry, don't trust him. Part of his reasoning for only refunding 1/3 is because he claims we were there for an hour before we decided to leave. We only found out they did not actually check us out of the hotel when we were on the phone with the 800 number after we left. The 800 number informed us that we had to go back and ask to be formally checked out. At this point I waited patiently behind 2 couples as they checked in. The couple in front of me actually stepped aside and told the counter to go ahead and help me out as she was waiting for her husband to return. We had all been standing in silence for 5 minutes before the lady said anything. So even though we went to the front desk immediately after seeing the condition of the hotel and our room (which was a two minute drive, five minutes when getting kids into the car and secured) it still took us about an hour to ACTUALLY GET the hotel to OFFICIALLY check us out. Plus he knowingly put me in a room that had paint on the windows to which he acknowledged. Sad to say this is still going on, now with the Better Business Bureau.
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