CALAIS STOPOVER WAS A NIGHTMARE!
We booked a room at the Calais City Centre location for the afternoon of September 9, 2018. Although we paid for the full night, we told them up front that we only intended to use it for a maximum of 4-5 hours. We were a large group (of 17) traveling between England and Normandy and needed a place to stop for our mother (with terminal cancer) to rest while we rented cars in Lille. We were very upfront when we reserved and said that we would like a room for a maximum of THREE people and our bags for the time we would be in town. Our intention was that we would store our bags and that my mother would rest. The children and other adults in our group not procuring our cars had plans to explore the parks, restaurants and street fairs occurring throughout the city. Not only was our room NOT ready when we arrived at 12:00 (check-in time) yet not a big deal, but I received a call while on a train to Lille to say that the front desk manager was kicking my family out of the hotel out and was threatening to call the police! Nine children, my elderly parents and my sister-in-law. She stormed into the room she had allowed my mother to inhabit briefly expecting to find I don't know what, and after having deactivated all keys, requiring all bags to be removed via stairs was quite rude as she yelled at my mother and accused her of hiding other people in the room. When my mother invited her to inspect and indeed discover that it was only her lying in bed, the woman withdrew and went downstairs. It was only then, with the help of some very saintly other hotel staff (cleaning and support women) that someone was able to finally talk some sense into this woman and she relented and allowed my family to stay. The manager then stormed out of the hotel. These sweet women proceeded to calm my crying children, nieces and nephews down, brought them food and drinks and pointed them in the way of a local park that had them forgetting the episode in the next hour that it took us to return with the cars. I can only imagine what would have happened if the manager had called the police! While I can sympathize with people taking advantage of lodging situations and trying to keep costs down (cheat the system) I was very upfront about our intentions from the beginning and had no intention of trying to do anything nefarious. We kept trying to explain this and from our previous experience in speaking with her, it wasn't a language barrier that was keeping up from being understood. She had made up her mind and was not going to listen to anything we said. It is unfortunate that this occurred. We travel quite extensively and I was initially impressed by the price/quality of this chain. I joined their reward program and was looking forward to trying them out. I would NEVER stay at another one of these again and will do everything in my power to persuade everyone within my reach to avoid any of their hotels. Their treatment of my group for many reasons was abhorrent and inexcusable. read more
