Complain about a product or service

Choice Hotels - Econolodge

Deena of Raleigh, NC October 19, 2009

We held our first Annual WVU 1980's College Reunion and 9 of us paid for rooms at this motel...from October 16th until October 18th. Here are the illegal and dishonest actions taken by the day manager, Michael. We were all shocked by the following unexceptable situation which was downright deceiptful and extremely unlawful, here are the FACTS:

1) I reserved the rooms last fall and kept waiting to receive confirmation in the mail. I finally just gave him my visa CREDIT card to hold 20 rooms, with a promise that I wouldn't be charged for any rooms if I canceled any unbooked rooms 2 weeks before.

2) I called in advance of 2 weeks before (Sept 20th @7 PM) and asked your manager on duty how many rooms were booked under my name and how many needed to be canceled. He told me 9 had called in to book the rooms under my reservation and read me off a few familiar names. I told him to cancel the remaining 11 that were unbooked.

3) Upon arrival to Morgantown on the 16th, my husband gave his new debit card to pay for my room. When we checked out I received a stack of 8 rooms that were charged on my husbands debit card. Over 1200.00 was taken out of our checking account the day before without permission or informing us (it was not even the card used to reserve the rooms!!).

4) At first Michael swore that I had never canceled any of my rooms. When Michael finally called the night manager to confirm that we had, Michael was furious and started saying that not one of my people had give my name when they made their reservations. A direct conflict with his earlier acknowlegement that he remembered Scott asking for a room under my name in May.

5) ALL 9 people that booked their rooms had specifically asked for the "rooms under Deena" 2 of them told him so in the lobby as we checked out. He was very defensive and accused them of calling him a LIAR. I can get emails from all 9 people that were in the rooms verifying that they asked for my name...otherwise they wouldn't have known it was even the correct EconoLodge. HOW COULD THE NIGHT MANAGER HAVE GIVEN ME SPECIFIC NAMES AND THE NUMBER OF ROOMS (9), IF NOONE CALLED IN WITH MY NAME. This defies logic.

6) The women at the desk the day we were checking in gave me several visa numbers that had been given to reserve the rooms under my name and they were the names of my friends and their credit card numbers. (later all the numbers were changed to my husbands new debit card) The 8 others were charged for their rooms and my husband's new Debit card was also charged for 7 rooms and my discover for 2 rooms. Neither was even the card that was originally on the reservation.

My theory is that Michael had incorrectly taken the reservations and reserved all 9 rooms under my people's names, yet still kept 9 reservations under my name and wants me to pay for his mistake.

Rena of Julian, NC August 18, 2009

Please do not make your reservations at the Econo Lodge on Rainbow Boulevard (in Niagara Falls). We had reservations for June 30 & July 1, 2009. When we arrived on June 30th, we found cigarette ashes in the commode, dirt in the bathtub and dried substance on the blanket (it resembled dried semen) that was hard and crusty. The beds were not very comfortable. When we laid down on the mattresses, you sank down in them and they smelled very musty. The door did not secure—there was a huge gap between the door and the facing that could easily been opened from the outside. The entire hotel had a very bad unclean smell. Their continental breakfast consisted of three varieties of boxed cereal and spoiled milk.

Roger of Carol Stream, IL May 23, 2009

In the past several years we had noticed a marked improvement of Choice Hotel properties even above what had been very acceptable in the past. In fact in March we had stayed in C.H.'s in Manning,SC, Palm Coast, FL, and Cordele, GA in April, all of which were fine motels. So we made reservation and used reward points to stayed at the Econ Lodge in Paducha Kentucy a few weeks ago-bad mistake- as it is the poorest quality of all the Choice Hotels we've ever stayed at. We have also been a Rewards Member for a long time.

The motel is in the middle of a truckers parking lot and as we drove up a foot high weeded front lawn to the motel was locatecd near the middle of gravel eroded street. Poor impression and we should not have stayed but we had been on the road all day and were tired. We found a cold windy hall way as exit doors were stopped open, not too secure. The bath was not clean, the air conditoner somewhat noisy, the TV reception so poor we turned if off. The warm breakfast featured COLD gravy with bisquits,and apple juice which was 95% water. We also had freinds who we recommended your motels to follow us in that same afternoon, needless to say we were embarassed. We used 8000 points thinking the motel with the good name of CHOICE HOTELS would be your or your usual fine quality. We wrote a letter to customer service who responed, as I recall, without a persons name saying we'd have a response from the hotel manager as corporate was not responsible. My letter to you had asked to have our points restored.

The manager of the motel wrote offering us 10% off our next stay. How could he assume we'd ever stay there again? This situation is similar to other customer complaints we have read on line. Your Customer Service office then called a week later after I had written back to you. Sort of like getting a bad food at a fast food restaurant. Can you imagine a famous fast food rest. in the world saying they were not responsible. Why does Choice Hotels, whose name we have always recognized as a quality motel chain, use their name if they do not want to accept responsibility? The customer service (misnomer) then called offering another "compromise" of half of our points back. Were can we stay for 4000 points? I told him that was not acceptable-we expected to stay at another Choice Hotel for the same amount of points as were wasted in Paducah.

I suggest other travelers be very careful before reserving rooms at CH's in the future as we were did not expect this experience knowing Choice Hotels are normallly a quality, responsible, corporation.

Catalina of Willingboro, NJ March 10, 2009

Catalina of Willingboro NJ (03/10/09)
Paid for 2 nights (2/28-3/1/09) but only stayed stayed 1 night. Was told by Trish at front desk that they did not have cash on hand to reimburse us but that the information would be given to Andy (the Manager) and he would give us a call. We were also given a receipt by Trish at front desk showing that we paid for 2 nights but only stayed one. My husband left his cell phone number for the return call. The Manager never called us back.

Sunday, March 1st: We stopped at the hotel inquiring about our reimbursement and the fact that the manager did not call us back. The front desk made a call to the manager at which time I spoke with Andy (manager) and he said he would cut a check for us and send it on Monday 3/2 since Sunday the post office is closed. Thursday, 3/5/09: Called Andy again because the check had not yet been received. He said he would send a check that day. He said he was in a meeting and would call me back with the amount of the check being sent. He never called back. Thursday, 3/10: Called the hotel to speak with Andy the Manager, but had to leave a message because he was not in yet. To date the check has not been received. Any assistance you can provide me in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

We are wrongfully being cheated out of 114.99 by this hotel, and want to be reimbursed.

Lorraine of Bristol, CT January 5, 2009

Lorraine of Bristol CT (01/05/09)
Stopped in at econo lodge. Me and fiance and 2 small children were tired and needed to take a break from driving back home to Connecticut. The room was absolutely horrible, smelled of bad perfume and mold and cigarettes. I almost threw up when I turned on the heater and thought I would develop a fungal pneumonia. We stayed because we were exhausted and was told there were no refunds. It was the worst hotel I ever stayed in.

The next day developed generalized spotted itchy body rash ? if it came from hotel mattress and 3 yr old son had diareah.

Dwight of Virginia Baech, VA October 19, 2008

Dwight of Virginia Baech VA (10/19/08)
 On 10/02/08 we checked in at 3:40 am for a two day stay. After checking in, the clerk gave us our key card for room #216. Before unloading our belongings we located our room and was appalled by the urine and moldy smell upon entering the room. We immediately returned to the clerk and expressed our dismay. He without apolozing gave us another card key saying '218'. We inspected that room which had the same smell. There was a sign in the reception area that stated there were no refunds. Unfortunately, we had no way of inspecting the hotel before paying since we paid in advance. The hotel on the website looked fairly decent.

In addition, we had to maneuver around the maids cleaning cart left in hallway the entire night. There was trash and soiled towels laying here and there in the hallways. The aircondition units were broken and the windows had no screens and were left open. The only security at the hotel was the clerk sitting behind a bullet proof glass in the reception area. The front and side entrances were left open at all times. The fire alarm had tape across the pull handle. We did not rest well. Especially with no door chain we usually see at most places we have stayed at. The smell was so bad it gave us headaches and we had to purchase scented candles to lessen the stanch.

In the past we have paid for many hotels in advance, but this experience has made us leery of taking the chance and not getting our monies worth. We paid 90 + tax per night for a very uncomfortable stay and can't get a refund because of a sign they had posted. It's very obvious that sign was put there because others in the past must have demanded their money back. We feel very ripped off and will never consider staying at another EconoLodge.

John of Lawtey, FL September 17, 2008

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