This is part 1 of 2 of my review.
I've never experienced such terrible customer service then what I went through with this hotel. This was a 2 day ordeal with 2 employees: Angela Hausteau (Front Desk) & Anup Patel (General Manager). My stay was booked for 8/3 -8/5. This was a family trip (myself, wife & 10yr old). My reservation was for a king suite w/ 1 double pull out sofa.
8/3 , 4:30pm :
The check in process with Angela started out well. She was polite & friendly. As I had to wait while she finished up with another guest. After finding my reservation, she said she needed my credit card to process the room fees. She explained that the system was moving slow, so she wrote down my entire card information on my reservation print out. I found it odd since I've never had a hotel do that before. Then she asked for my entire billing address. Again, I found it odd, but I had no idea what's going with the system. Im not sure as to why an ID was never requested to make sure the card and/or reservation actually belonged to me. This would have normally been a huge red flag, but every hotel in the area is sold out. So the pickings are slim. And I know I have excellent credit/fraud protection if there's any funny business. After obtaining all the information, Angela gave me the reservation to initial & sign. While she prepped the keys, I told her I'd need an extra set of towels & an extra set of sheets for the pull out.
Angela asked how many people would be sleeping on it. I let her know that it would only be my 10yr old sleeping on it. She then told me it was broken (sinking in the middle) & wouldn't be comfortable. I asked to be moved to a different room since one of the beds could not me used. Angela let me know that the hotel was sold out & there weren't any rooms to swap around. In disbelief that they were knowingly offering rooms that weren't the up to normal standards, I asked where was my child supposed to sleep. Angela looked at me coldly & said "There's a window seat, he can sleep there." To make sure I had heard this response correctly, I asked the question again. "There's a window seat he could sleep on. I'm sorry there's no other room available." At this point I immediately asked to speak with a manager. "There will be no manager here until Monday." That seemed a bit unusual, so I asked for information to contact them. She fumbled around a bit, & said it's on the website. So I did just what Angela suggested & called the customer service line.
(While waiting to be connected, Angela was trying to correct another one of her mistakes. She managed to send the previous guest into an occupied room. Even after they told her 2x that it was occupied. They were moved to a new room in the "sold out" hotel).
After a few minutes, I was connected with Albert (Choice hotel Customer Service). After explaining the situation & the comments made by Angela, he expressed his concern & apologized. He looked up my reservation & explained that we should be moved into another room. I told him that the hotel was sold out. With concern, Albert informed me that I should have been offered accommodations at a different hotel & Choice Hotels would pay the difference. But before he moved forward with this process, Albert asked that I go view the bed to see what condition it was in. While he remained on the phone, I checked the sofabed only to find out, the problem is that it's a regular sofa!!! No bed at all. Albert couldn't believe it nor could I! He instructed me to go back to the front desk & tell Angela that he was getting ready to call the hotel. Albert placed me on hold while he attempted to call the hotel. Angela was on a call, so it took some time for Albert to get through. Once he did, he had her go check out the room & couch so she could confirm that indeed there was no sofabed in the room. Needless to say, she wasn't happy upon returning to the desk. Albert reconnected with me & apologized again. He told me this should have never happened & he would put in a request for this hotel to remove the false advertising from their website. But in the meantime, he was unable to find us new accommodations. Instead he would give us a night free as an apology. I accepted the free night & told him that I am still dissatisfied with the customer service Angela delivered & would be filing a more formal complaint with the manager & corporate office. After expressing his concern & a final apology, I was given a case number to use if anything else happened. And told to try to enjoy the rest of my stay. Albert & I disconnected the call.
After 40 minutes of dealing with this inconvenience, I decided to share my experience on Quality Inn's Facebook & Yelp. I have 1 Star along with my description of the ordeal. I made a quick trip to the local Walmart to purchase an air mattress. For me, the issue was done. read more