We often stay at the Red Roof in Framingham, MA without any issue. The rooms have been clean and the staff has been courteous. So, I wasn't feeling all that concerned booking the Red Roof in Foxboro.
I called about an hour earlier to our arrival to make sure I had put in for a late check-in and was told yes. We were staying here for an early morning half marathon about 20 minutes away the next day. After running a half marathon earlier that day, we got to the hotel and just wanted to sleep.
First of all, the hotel is hidden back in what feels like the middle of nowhere and was hard to find. It's literally in the middle of nowhere Foxboro. When we walked into the hotel, there was a staff member (Kevin) behind the counter on a cell phone. I waited a good 5 minutes, standing away from the counter, not even being acknowledged by the hotel staff. Finally, he looked up and goes "What do you need?" in an agitated tone. I looked at my sister and friend who were staying in the room with me and looked back at this guy and said "What I NEED is to check into my room, please, so we can go to bed since we have to be up at 5AM for a race." The response back is "Oh, well, give me a minute," finishes on the phone, hands it back to the one of the three guys in the lobby (evidently one was having issues with a credit card not working for payment) and the moves onto my reservation. We were asked to pay up front - I wish I had waited to the next morning but knew we had to be out the door by 7AM. Upon inspecting the bill, I asked to have the safe removed. Once we got the final bill the next morning - it was still on there even though I denied wanting it since we were not using it.
We were up on the third floor. The elevator is scary. Not going to lie - S-C-A-R-Y. It's old, it smells like wet dog and and thought at any minute, it was going to just crash to the ground. Our room was musty, cool and smelled awful - as if there had been a flood in the room. There were holes in the sheets (cigarette holes), no comforter (only one of those half BS bed decorations they put at the end of the bed). The rug felt damp. Something about this room was just off. The room itself was dingy and old - the decor was outdated. There were barely any outlets to plug in accessories like phones or iPods. The bathroom was dirty. There were no tissues, only two hand towels, a half used shampoo ... this room was a hot mess, not going to lie, I had to check the bed four times to make sure there were no bed bugs. The mattress was hard as a rock and I just couldn't wait to get dressed and out the door.
I received a survey to take following my stay and told them about the interaction at the beginning of my stay. I received back an apology from the Manager with the following: "Please accept our sincerest apologies for the way your were treated at the front desk by Kevin. He and I spoke and he is very sorry for the way he completely mishandled your check-in, He apologizes. Just to let you know, he was on the phone with the plumber because we were having a serious issue in one of the rooms that had to be dealt with immediately, and our phones were down, so he was not having a good day, but still should of treated you in a professional manner. Both he and I are very sorry. I can assure you that corrective measures will be taken to ensure a similar situation does not occur in the future. At Red Roof, it is our intention to have your confidence in our abilities to prevent similar problems in the future. Please know that we value you as our guest and appreciate your business." See - the problem is myself and two witnesses know the above isn't true. Their phones worked fine as I called ahead of time to confirm my late check-in (at 7:30 - we checked in at 8:20) and the staff was on the phone with a credit card company, NOT a plumber. Though I appreciate the apology, please be honest and have a plausible true story especially when two other people were there and witnessed the interaction/exchange. Wouldn't recommend. read more