I'm usually not a person that leaves poor reviews, but whereas this affected by family, I feel obligated to share by true feelings. Recently, for a family vacation, we stayed at the Sleep Inn. We've previously had great experiences with this chain, but this one stay has caused us to not choose them again. Not only was the stay terrible, but the response from the staff and management was canned, form letter'ed, and unconcerned about our experience with the hotel.
I realize that things can go bad with hotel stays...but the following list highlights the "adventures" that this particular Sleep Inn provided for us that week in a three day stay.
1. The adjoining bathroom facilities (toilet and shower) were separated from the sleeping area via a pocket door. However, when we used said door, it would lock on its own, and could not be unlocked from the toilet/shower side of the door. Therefore the user would need to call out to the others in the room to be able to leave the toilet area. When we told the front desk about this, the attendant simply said "that is strange...I've not heard of that happening". No attempt to fix the problem or to make arrangements to correct it were offered. I even said we'd move to a different room if necessary and we were turned down.
2. The shower door did not retain water from leaking into the toilet area. We discovered this when clean clothes of the person in the shower were discovered to be soaked. They could be, and were, dried of course...but the inconvenience of this put us behind schedule for that day. Again, no attempt to correct the problem was offered by the front desk.
3. When we returned from our outings on our first day, we found that housekeeping had come into make our beds, but didn't remove/replace our towels. We'd put them on the floor as instructed, but when we returned they were still there and we had no fresh towels. We had to go down to the front desk for replacements, which wasn't a problem except that we shouldn't have to do so. The front desk was glad to give us some, but my wife had to go down to pick them up.
4. On our second day of the stay, a water valve was replaced in the plumbing for the entire building. I can understand this and apparently it was scheduled in advance. The issue is that we were not notified that the change would require a shutting off of the building water. It just happened to occur when I was in the shower and my kids and wife were returning from the pool. Therefore, the water simply stopped. I was covered in soap/shampoo and my family had to wait about 45 minutes to shower and rinse off the chlorine from the pool. Again, I understand that maintenance needs to happen, but some notice would have been appreciated. When I contacted the front desk about the lack of water, I was told, "I am sorry for the inconvenience, but we forgot you were here today". I'm not blaming anyone, but to tell a guest that they were forgotten is not a prime method to encourage return visits.
5. The breakfast was good, I do have to admit. However, on our second day there, we didn't get down to breakfast until about 9:45...15 minutes prior to its ending time. However, the attendant began putting away the food at 10 minutes til ten. We know we were there near the end, but if the hotel advertises breakfast until 10, food shouldn't be cleared away and put away until 10. If nothing else, she could have apologized or something rather than just saying it had to be cleaned up by ten.
6. Perhaps the most upsetting is that on our third day at the hotel, my three children were returning from the pool and happened to pass a housekeeper on their way to our room. The housekeeper addressed my children, and in a very chastising voice, telling them how they'd upset her routine. My son told me she stated "you guys are ridiculous how messy you are..." and "how can you just throw trash on the floor all the time".
I wrote the manager about the issues and all I received was a form letter stating that our feedback was important. Apparently, he or she was not interested in correcting the issue or concerned about future guests. I am sharing this to help others not have to go through what my family did. As I said, other Sleep Inns have been great, and when issues arise, the staff and management have been great (after all, things happen). But to have these issues and to not even attempt to correct them, but just to send a form letter that says they appreciate our feedback...that is simply unacceptable and really paints a picture as to what this particular hotel's management really thinks of their guests.
I am sharing this to all via many modes of media so that people know not to stay at this hotel. As I said, they didn't even try to correct the issues at hand, either when we were there or once we gave feedback.
Were these things we could get through, yes...should we have to, no. Then when brushed off by the manager's letter really told the story read more