Where to start? One of the worst hotel experiences I've had...I can't tell you enough to stay away from this place!
First off, my fiancé and I are doing our final DITY move from WA state to Washington D.C. as I write this, and I've made the trip myself twice already this year; so, I'm no stranger to cross-country travel. At around 1 p.m., shortly leaving the Days Inn in Missoula, MT I made a reservation at the Days Inn in Sheridan, WY. I made said reservation using the Wyndam Rewards website (the official corporate site) and using the UHaul/Military promo-code (20% off). Instead of getting a regular room, my fiancé and I knew it would be a long leg of the trip so we decided to splurge and get the whirlpool suite to relax since I'm over 7 mos. pregnant, my feet were swelling bad, my back hurt, and he was sore from driving so much. After reviewing the site to make sure the hotel was pet-friendly and there weren't any exclusions about having a pet in a suite, I made a note on the reservation stating we had a pet and would be a late arrival. I got a confirmation email at 1:12 p.m. that included all the information about the reservation.
After driving for 10 hours we finally reached the hotel at 11 p.m. I sent my fiancé inside to check-in and he went to the front desk to be "greeted" by a man named Arpit who did not speak English very well. He wasn't friendly, he simply gave him a receipt to sign and provided him the keys to a room. After going to the room to check it out, he realized it was the wrong room, came to get me, and went back to speak with Arpit. Arpit argued with him that we had not reserved the suite, so I had to step in. I had all the receipts saved in my iPhone and was prepared to show them to him, but he refused to look at them. He argued that we were wrong and then began contradicting himself. First, he stated they had no suites available and that we did not reserve one. Then he said he had a suite available, but pets were not allowed in jacuzzi suites, which was an acceptable reasoning to me...however we were still being charged for a suite and no one had called us to inform us of this before we arrived. Then he said there was nothing he could do, shortly followed by the statement that he could "discount" the room by $10...off the price of the suite they were charging us for... which still would have been more than the rate for the room we were given if I had ordered that one online instead (about a $25 difference). I said that was unacceptable and asked for the manager. He said that the manager was on vacation for at least another week and couldn't be reached. So, then we asked for a district manager and he said only his manager had that information. I asked for the manager's number so that I could attempt to contact him, so he handed me a business card.
After giving up at the front counter after arguing with Arpit for about an hour (it was almost midnight at this point), we went to the room we were given. I immediately tried to call the number on the business card I was given for the General Manager - Jay Patel. Low and behold, the number on the card was actually just the hotel number and I was connected to the front desk. I told Arpit the number he gave me was useless and demanded a cell phone number to contact the manager. He then stated he had JUST spoken to the manager 5 minutes ago and he would resolve it. (You know, the manager that was unreachable and on vacation for a week).
I called the cell phone number I was given and was connected to Jay Patel. He answered with a thickly accented "Hello?" and I told him my name and that I was the customer with the issue he had just been told about by his front desk attendant. His response was "Okay." then silence. After an awkward wait I asked him what he was going to do about the room issue, he then stated that we were in the wrong and that nothing was his fault. I was having a tough time understanding him so I put him on speaker phone to get help from my fiancé. The manager accused me of booking the room through a 3rd party site, but when I tried explaining the situation and that I actually booked through their official site, he kept cutting me off saying that he was at the hotel until 4 p.m. and no reservations for the suites had been made. I told him I had all the paperwork showing that we indeed did make the reservation for the suite and were still being charged that rate. He again cut me off stating that the price for the suite was $109 so we weren't being charged for the suite...again, I tried telling him we booked using the official site with the UHaul discount and the amount we were being charged WAS the exact amount we were quoted online for the suite (+$10 more for the pet fee) when we made the reservation and the cost of the room they put us in was substantially less. He argued in the middle of me speaking that their "system was down" so it wasn't his fault. This went on for 8 minutes before I said it was obvious he wasn't going to help me and asked for the district manager's number. He said there was no other manager and that he didn't have a boss. So then I asked for corporate's number...he said 1-800-DAYSINN. I tried calling the corporate number but was told I needed to talk to the customer service department which was closed. The gentleman I spoke to said they would be open at 7 a.m. and told me to call back in the morning.
At this point I was so upset and stressed that I could barely sleep. My stomach was in knots, but I couldn't even go to the bathroom without waking my fiancé and our dog up since the light/fan sounded like a banshee when turned on and the constant clicking sound coming from one of walls in the room was obnoxious. It wasn't until we were rudely woken up with drills and hammers shortly after 8 a.m. that we opened the curtain to see a plastic covering and people working on the window and wall of the room we were in. After waiting a bit to see if it would stop I gave up and called the customer service number. The lady informed me that she could easily see that the hotel staff had changed our reservation right after we made it (at 1 p.m. the previous day). Also, she said that since we reserved the suite that they HAD to have it available for us. Ultimately, she filed a complaint on our behalf to the manager (even though we informed her that he was a major part of the problem) and said it was the manager's responsibility to correct the situation within 3 business days or else they would take it over.
It wasn't until a bit later that I noticed the receipts that Arpit gave my fiancé when he checked in did not match up with the time stamps. They charged the credit card at 8:21:27 p.m. for $88.87 as a transaction type: "CHECK-IN" then the card charge was amended at 10:08:32 p.m. for $98.87 for transaction type: "CHECK-OUT". The receipt he actually signed was printed at 11:08:28 p.m. since we arrived right at 11 p.m. As stated on my reservation confirmation: "We require a valid credit card to confirm your reservation and guarantee your room. Any required deposit or pre-payment will be charged to this card in advance of your arrival. Otherwise, your card will not be charged until you check-out." I made sure to take plenty of pictures of the room just prior to our departure since I suspect they will attempt to add fraudulent charges to our card.
This whole situation makes me very upset and sad that there is rarely anyone that cares about the customer anymore. Especially a tired, pregnant, and unfortunately for them VERY financially organized person like myself. I can't wait until Thurs. when I hopefully have an opportunity to resolve this on a corporate level (since I'm sure the manager will not do his job and attempt to resolve it). I intend to get at least a refund of the inaccurate room charges, but even if I get a complete refund, it won't be enough. I hope that none of you have to stay here and experience what we did, and I hope corporate takes some action to remove the negligent manager and his incompetent staff.