I am writing in regards to our recent stay at Days Inn located in Mobile, AL at 180 W. Interstate 65 Service Rd. S, Mobile, Al 36608 from August 5-August 7, 2011. Upon our review of the room we were horrified. To start, the bathroom walls and shelves in the shower were completely mold infested. The grout was covered with mold as well as all the corners of the bathtub, also, the shower curtain was ripped in two separate spots, the toilet had not been cleaned as there was dirt and film along the toilet seat where you sit, the floor was dirty and there was hair and dirt on the bathroom floor and in the corners of the bathroom. In the room itself, the floor had not been vacuumed as it was filthy dirty with what can only be assumed was paper, lint and trash left by the prior tenant. The bed did not have a dust ruffle so the dirty mattress was completely visible and the mattress was crooked and hanging off of one side of the bed. The sheets on the bed had two cigarette burn holes in the sheets. None of the fixtures in this room were clean. I.E. the lamps were filthy with dust, dirt and fingerprints and the alarm clock did not work, it did not even show the time on the screen. Every time the air-conditioning unit turned on a pungent, strong smell of some type of (cleaning solution) perhaps would come spewing out of the vents, which lead to my husband and I getting severe headaches and to the point that between the mold, and filth and smell I was concerned for our healthy along with that of our 19 month old daughter.
I immediately advised the woman at the front desk of the state of our room. I requested an immediate refund so that we could go to a cleaner, safer hotel, but was advised that because I booked through Expedia I had to deal with them directly. I can’t imagine Expedia would link themselves or their loyal customers with hotels such as this, which were in this much of an unclean and health wise unsafe environment. I was then advised that the owner /Manager was out of town for the weekend and there was nothing that could be done for us at this time. I was then advised that there is “In house” housekeeping and that while the clerk had never inspected any of the rooms herself she advised me that the owner of this facility was a dirty person so “She could only imagine what the rooms would look like”. She proceeded to tell me how all the American companies are selling their businesses to foreign owners and they don’t care “If the place is clean and/or up to standards, they just take the money”.
Because we are involved with a nonprofit Veterans Organization, which is the reason for our visit, we had no further funds to just let go of the $115.98 that we had paid to rent the room and were forced to stay at the hotel since there was no manager to speak to, no other clean and/or cleaner rooms available and we are on a strict budget when we travel for our non profit.
The service during our stay was no better than the state of our unsanitary and unhealthy room. Days Inn states that there is a Continental breakfast and while I have stayed in at least 3 or more hotels a month for the last year this was by far the worse. The only given options were pieces of bread, sweet roll, and English muffin. There was milk in a bowl of ice that I can’t imagine by anyone’s standards would be safe since there is no way to monitor the temperature. There was no juice, water or anything else offered for beverage and there was no fruit at all. On our second night in the hotel there was a huge party at the pool, I was on the 3rd floor and at 11P.M. there was yelling screaming. I went down to the front desk, since the phone is our room DID NOT WORK. The desk clerk somewhat blew it off and said “Oh yeah they are for a boxing tournament”. I advised her that I didn’t care who they were and that I was on the 3rd floor and they were keeping me and my daughter up with the screaming. I also advised her that I had seen two trucks full of kids pull up earlier and everyone jumped out no shirts, no shoes and towels in hand, so I let her know I had concerns whether or not they were guests in the hotel. It took almost an additional 45 minutes for the noise to end, and I was correct with my thinking they were not guests because the two trucks that had pulled up went screeching out of the parking lot, leaving a mess of trash, pizza crust etc, in the pool area. I mention all of this because on the following day I noticed the same two trucks pull up and the same people, no hotel keys just swimsuits pulled up and ran to the pool. There is no lock on the pool and no way to check to make sure those utilizing the pool are guests and by this day I noticed that there is no security what so ever at this hotel. I advised the front desk that the people were back using their pool that by this time I knew was not guests. The man at the desk literally laughed and said “OK”. And for the record after the swimming party that had so many people there that I found it unsafe to take my little girl down the two trucks just as the night before left, NOT STAYING IN THE HOTEL. And at no time was there ever a lock on the pool which I found dangerously unsafe but obviously the reason why it was so inviting to non guests, such a disappointment because it was such a hot weekend I would like to have taken my daughter to the pool but there was 20-30 boys, alcohol and diving and cannon balls to the point where I knew it would not be a safe environment for my family.
On my second day I ran into a cleaning person with a cart outside of my room and I requested 3 additional towels for showers as we were given two the night before and as a family of 3 we take two showers a day. It was a huge argument, she kept asking why? Then when I asked for 3 she gave me two, I again asked her for three she said “NO, NO, Two in your room already” I said “I understand that but I need 3 additional towels please” She started yelling to whomever was in another room helping her clean, she was yelling in Farsi or another language and I was very uncomfortable and couldn’t believe I was going through this huge argument over a few towels, I felt disrespected by her shouting in an alternate language other than one I could respond to and didn’t understand what I had done to deserve such poor treatment as a guest at the Days Inn.
During my stay I also encountered a man with his two children checking in, a few minutes later I encountered them coming down the stairs with their luggage and said there were “getting out of this hotel, the room with filthy and it was stinky”. They must have been fortunate enough to not have been stuck there by a loophole from booking with Expedia.